Slient Night?

Well it seems that this blog is pretty much dead. Thanks to all of you who read it, maybe one of us will post something every once in a while. But as for now, we are all taking a break from the blogsphere, so on behalf of everyone at Well Spent, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

Fresh Pow

Well, it's not exactly fresh powder, but it snowed last night! This is the first snow of the season for us here. The only bad part, it was only like 4 inches according to the news. Major let down. The good news, it's supposed to snow again tonight.

Living in a college town, that means one thing. Sledding! No doubt some serious sledding will go down tonight. Last year was pretty crazy out at the hill. Even with all of the "no sledding" signs posted, everybody does it anyway. At times, the paramedics had to be called because of the carnage. That didn't stop anyone. In fact, the paramedics were having to dodge sledders on the hill as they tried to get to the injured. Pretty wicked.

I have no doubt that it will continue to snow. This should lead to some excellent street riding. Hopefully the weather cooperates and doesn't warm up again.

Wings for Freedom

Day 3 of the Virginia vacation and things got busy today. Unfortunately it looks like no amount of snowboarding will be covered this trip or this post. Bummer. Instead I’m going to talk about my time spent visiting my brother. This has been well-spent time because I really haven’t seen him much in the last few years.

He graduated from Purdue in 2005 in the Navy’s officer training corp. He was sent to Pensacola, Florida for his primary flight training, which lasted about a year. During this time I saw him all of about a week and a half at Christmas. After completing this, he was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia to train to become an NFO (Naval Flight Officer) in the E-2 Hawkeye, like the one pictured above. After eight months of intense training, he has been winged and assigned to a squadron. This is the reason we visited him.

We left school after my last class on Wednesday afternoon and drove deep into West Virginia before stopping for the night. We left early Thursday morning and arrived in Norfolk around 12:30. This was perfect timing for us to catch a boat tour of the harbor. We hopped onboard at 2 and circled the bay. We got to see a lot of amazing ships, including an attack submarine, and 3 aircraft carriers. They really are an awesome fleet. With those guys supporting us in a war, I believe we are quite a force to be reckoned with. After the tour, we met up with my brother and ate some dinner at a fancy restaurant downtown. Not much else happened last night, as today was an early morning.

We met back up with my brother around 7 this morning in order to get on base for the ceremonies and such that were going on today for him. After a rather boring presentation on the E-2, we were allowed to go into the 2 different simulators they had on base. Pretty high tech stuff. Basically, three NFO’s sit in the back of this E-2 and monitor about 350 miles worth of air, land and sea. They can tell where everybody is! It’s unbelievable.

But the simulators weren’t the end of the tour. We actually got to get into an E-2 to see what the real thing looks like. I’m about 6’5” and I was bending over at the waist to get through the plane. It was a tight squeeze! By now, it was time for lunch. We stopped by an Applebee’s. We had some time to kill, so my brother drove us around the base and gave us a little tour. At 2 his formal ceremony began where he was presented with his wings and officially became an NFO!

All this was fun and good but the real party wasn’t until later in the night. We had time to grab dinner over at a Logan’s before heading to the party. The party was at a bar called Baxter's. Pretty much all the NFO’s came as my brother’s class was paying the tab. It was a pretty entertaining time.

All in all, I have seen my brother more these few days than I have in the last year. It was definitely time well spent. I just hope I can make it back out here again soon. Oh, and my next post will be about snowboarding. Don’t worry about that.

The Park Project

As mentioned in my last post, I'm on a trip this weekend to Virginia. My parents decided to save some money and we drove out here. That means something like 15 hours in the car. This has given me plenty of time to catch up on some snowboarding reading. Last week’s TWSnow had an article called "DIY or Die." It looks into a new project off of I-80 East in California. The name: Kingvale. The mission: terrain park.


The story goes like this. Some guys get fed up working for resorts. They can't do what they really want there. These guys want to push riding to the next level, and they can't progress at these resorts. So 5 guys team up and decide to build a hill entirely for park riding. Don't worry though, they aren't just some loonies trying to break free. As Snowboard Magazine puts it, between them, they have more then 20 years experience building parks all over the world. Not to mention, one of them runs Railbuilder.com, the primary builder for park features throughout the world.

So how as it worked so far? Last season could be labeled a soft opening. Although it wasn’t open to the public yet, they saw something like 40 pros roll through. Kingvale is planned to open this winter to the public. With a handle-tow taking boarders to 25-30 features, this park has plenty of potential. The dream is to have a lift with five parks from the top to the bottom.

But seriously, these guys have to be having a blast. They can go out to the mountain and just build whatever they feel like. Well…maybe more like whatever they could afford. For now, they are “paying the bills” by running a small tubing hill during the weekends. Other than money, there aren’t really any restrictions to what can be done. They have everything from natural features, rocks and plenty of trees, to man made stuff, rails, scrapped cares, propane tanks, and any other junk they feel is rideable.

These guys are just looking to have some fun. And isn’t that really the point of snowboarding? I don’t know anyone who started snowboarding because they wanted to be an icon or get sponsored. You snowboard to have fun. And that is the mission of Kingvale. To have fun.

Virginia is For Lovers

So my brother is in the Navy and stationed in Virginia for training. This weekend, he is getting his wings. If you didn’t know, this is a pretty big deal. For the occasion, my family and I are driving out to visit him. We are leaving after I get out of class today, and basically I miss half a week of classes. In high school that’d be no big deal, but this is college. I figure as long as I’m out there, might as well check out what kind of snowboarding they have going on.

In order to be prepared for the trip, I googled “snowboarding Virginia” and came up with about 1.5 million results. A bit overwhelming, except for the fact the first result was incredibly helpful. Basically, a map of Virginia with spots marking snow shops and slopes.

Because I will be traveling with my family, I have to narrow down where I can check out. For starters, anything not on I-64 or Highway 33 on the way into Norfolk is ruled out. This cuts the field from 35 to 8 or 9. Only 2 had websites linked from skisite.

The first site I looked into was Freestyle, “ your source for adrenaline sports.” At first glance, their website seems to cover 3 sports: snow, skateboarding, and wake. Closer investigation reveals one skateboard on site and few snowboards. However, this could just be a bad representation of their website. Hopefully I can check out the store in person.

The next site I looked at was Galyan’s now known as Dick’s. Not a specialty store, but an overall sporting goods store, Galyan’s had a huge selection of gear. But this is typical of an online superstore. The reality I’m sure to face is, in person there will be a much smaller selection. I can always hope otherwise.

Other than those two stores, I was pretty unsuccessful on find much about any other store. I did find out there are 3 “Play It Again Sports” in Richmond.

As the trip grows closer I really hope to stop at a couple of these snowboarding shops and find out about some Virginia snowboarding.

Bundle Up! It's cold outside...

Midwest skateboarders, not to exclude Canadians, have so much cold weather endurance, Sir Edmund Hillary would be jealous. America’s heartland has been known to have some of the most inconsistent and erroneous weather patterns. One aspect of this weather seems to be the most consistent of all, and that is the stagnate, windy, and frigid winters the Midwest always seems to enjoy or rather suffer through. But the dedicated skateboarders here have learned to adapt to anything the western sky cares to send our way. Being a Midwest-bred skateboarding barbarian myself, I know a few things when it comes to skating during the winter months. So I’d like to take the opportunity to encourage you, the skateboarder who things it’s too cold to skate, to suck it up and go skateboarding.

Before you even leave your place of dwelling or hibernation, I’d suggest dressing in layers. If it’s really cold outside, wear a pair of sweatpants underneath your jeans. This not only keeps you warm, but it also gives you a bit of extra padding when your body slams to the frozen tundra of concrete you call your skatepark. As for your upper body, consider wearing a long sleeved t-shirt or two beneath two or more hooded sweatshirts. A few layers go a long way and you can always take them off if you get toasty. A beanie is a must; I’ve been told that 80% or more of your body heat escapes from your head. Therefore, it’s not a bad idea to cover it up.

The next step regards your selection of spots. Try to look for places that are either in the direct sunlight or have a total windbreak (like an old warehouse). Be careful with that warehouse though, breaking in and entering is a felony. Places in direct sunlight tend to be warmer because the concrete absorbs a lot of heat. However, with no guarantee of a windless skate session, it can be a gamble. Another tip I have is to avoid spots with rough ground. It sucks enough to fall when the ground is cold and frozen, but it makes it that much worse when the ground is rough too.

The final tip I have for you is to store your shoes and skateboard indoors. This will make it easier to do tricks and prolong the life of your equipment, particularly that board. If your Mom throws your stuff into the garage, yell and scream like a five year old. She’ll get the idea.

It is possible to skate during the harsh Midwest winter. Believe me; I’ve been doing it for 6 years now. Just wear a few layers, choose your spots wisely, and care for your equipment and you too can survive through spring. The good news is that winter only occupies one-fourth of the year, so there are another three-fourths to look forward to.

Fundamentals: The Kickflip

Photo courtesy of How2Skate.com

I get asked how to do this one all the time. Kids will approach me at the skatepark, which I give them props for because I can be somewhat intimidating, and ask me how they can do perfect kickflips. I generally ask to see how far they are along with learning it so that I can know whether I am wasting my time. If I decide that I would be wasting my time, I’ll just say go watch a video of Andrew Reynolds or someone with a really good kickflip and learn from them. Otherwise, I will legitimately try to help them out.

The first step is the foot position, if you don’t have this right, you’re not going anywhere. Make sure that you’re the ball and toes of your backfoot are the only part that touches your tail. This will give you the pressure you need to pop. Your front foot should be placed just below the front bolts of your skateboard at about a 30 degree angle. Make sure that only your toes, the ball of your foot, and part of your arch, touch the board. If you have any more foot on your board, the board will not flip. If you have less, your skateboard with probably go vertical when you try the trick.

The next step is the pop and flick. This is one, fluid motion with two steps. The first is to stomp the tail of your board down with your back foot. Be sure that you’re not a victim of lead foot syndrome and release pressure as soon as your tail hits the ground. Regarding the flick, you want to roll you front foot forward and to the side, to get your board rotating. Imagine your foot like it’s a curve ball. It will spin outward and then return inside.

The next step is sucking your legs up and catching the board. Sucking up your legs is pretty self explanatory. Do it like you would if you were trying to jump over a chair or a short fence. Catching the board can be kind of difficult and takes a lot of practice. You’ll need to time your kickflip so that once it is done flipping, you put your feet down to land the trick. This is harder than it sounds, so don’t give up if you can’t do it right away. Skateboarding is about fun and progression, not getting upset.

The final step is landing. After you’ve caught the board, you want to land with your weight evenly distributed between your two legs. You also want to land with your knees bent to avoid falling and looking like a robot.

As hard or as easy as a kickflip sounds to do, I’ve found that there are some easy ways to learn the trick faster, particularly in the sequence of steps I mentioned about.

The first thing I suggest with learning kickflips is to try them while standing in between two chairs and holding on to them to support your body and make yourself feel lighter. This will allow you to get a feel for how you are doing the trick and what you need to change. It will help you perfect your flick and time your catch.

The other tip I have is to try them rolling into the grass. Learning any trick means a lot of falling. Practicing your trick into the grass will help you last longer and sustain more falls.

The final tip I have is to just have fun. It took me well over a year to learn how to do the trick, so don’t expect yourself to learn it overnight. Just enjoy yourself while putting the time and effort into learning something new.