Introduce Yourself

[Bobby]

If you are new to the forums please feel free to introduce and write a little about yourself, such as age, if you blade skate or bike, where you live, if you have or are building a ramp, and whatever else you want.

I'll give a little background on myself...

My name is Bobby, i'm a student at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles majoring in math and computer science. I grew up in Minnesota on a hobby farm with a couple of barns. When I was in 7th grade I was into aggressive skating and one of the skate parks I skated closed down and asked if they could store the wood in one of my barns. Long story short I waited a couple of months then built up an 8 foot high 16 foot wide half pipe in my barn (see http://www.xtremeskater.com/verthalfpipeplans), after a while they told me I could just keep the wood.

I skated on and off for the next six years, junior year of high school I started taking it a little more seriously and started to learn flips on the halfpipe. Unfortunately shortly after learning flips on skates I broke my leg is a weak skateboarding fall (360 pivot on the half pipe gone wrong ), since getting my cast off I haven't taken skating too seriously, just doing tricks I know for fun. I knew that I would be getting out of Minnesota soon and going to a college near the ocean so I could surf, which is what I do now, spending as much time as I can find at El Porto and Sunset Beach. I was also "studying abroad" in New Zealand last semester (feb - june 07), which was pretty much an extended surf vacation.

While I am more into surfing than skating these days, I still enjoy skating and building ramps, then making websites is pretty much the profession I'm going for so I enjoy working on this site and helping people out.

[coolguy]

hey my name is angel i just started inlining i would like help with grinds like over coming fears and techniques and tricks to try i can only jump over stairs and gaps pretty high but im not satisfied can anyone one help??? plz

[Bobby]

Welcome to the forums angel.

Aqquire a small grind rail, something that is only a few inches off the ground.

If you have never grinded before: First stand on the rail and slide your feet back and forth and note now smooth the rail slides. Almost everyone falls backwards on their first frontside attempt because they underestimate the smoothness.

You should be able to get pretty comfortable doing front sides on a low grind rail without exerting much courage, you will also want to learn a soul grind and get that down well. Then you are ready to move on to bigger and harder rails. Crash pads are one thing that will help you overcome fear, they pad your ass so it doesn't hurt as much when you fall (then obviously knee and wrist pads, helmet). The more you practice on smaller rails the easier it will be to attempt grinds on bigger rails, it is a balance between how slowly you progress your skills and how risky of tricks you will try, however there is no harm in getting the basics down really well.

It might be a while before I have a lot of inline grind tutorials up since I have a lot of other stuff to work on, I do have a few mini halfpipe tricks up now though.

Get that rail and give grinding a try for a while and I will probably be able to answer more specific questions you may have.

You can also read about social interference and implicit vs explicit learning if you want to get a better understanding of how you will progress into a skater.

[coolguy]

thanks bobby im getiing a rail soon whats a soul grind? sry im not god with terms i just started. any way i practiced on a curb with wax is tht good? im trying to learn all the trick names and their description can u give me a list and where i can see the tricks like a pic would help plz. ok i only the names mizou, royale, soyale, pornstar, and acid but dont know how they look? hmm any suggestions???

[esponjarider]

Whats up everyone, my name is DOM and I am a 36year old Skateboard dad from Hawthorne, Ca. I never really skated that much besides cruising around when I was a kid. I think the last time I owned a board was when I was 12 years old. This year my 7yr old son told me he wanted to start skating. So like any good dad I bought my son a skateboard. I couldn't just get him a board so I got one also. I remember the DOGTOWN days and the Vans demo team coming to my school in the late 70's. Skating has always intrigued me but I never put anytime into it. Well now is my opportunity.

After a couple of months of skating my son decided he wanted a skate ramp. We'll I barely know how to skate let alone build a skate ramp.

Then during my research I came across this marvelous site with wonderful information.

But up to this point in my life I still hadn't built anything before. So I looked at the instructions and looked and looked and looked. Finally I thought that I could do it. The only problem that I thought I would have is with drawing the transition.

So I set out to build a half pipe for my son. I got the materials list. I went to construction demo sites and asked if I could recycle used full length pieces of 2x4's, 2x6's and 4x4's, I even came across a few sheets of plywood and two old sturdy home made bookshelfs that were made out of 3/4 inch plywood. I then had to take all of the nails out of the wood to clean them up (very labor intensive but worth it).

After a month and with all of my materials in hand I was ready.

It took me, my brother and brother in law five hours to build. but following your instructions this is what came out.

I didn't have a pipe to make the coping at time but hoping to add it later.

DOM

[DCKID]

Hi im Ryan and i would like to help out with this site by being either a mointer or something else. Im in to skateboarding and on my way to build 2 quater pipes. BOBBY ROCKS

[Bobby]

coolguy - curb practice is good, personally i prefer rails because it is easier to grind between the wheels, a soul grind is like a porn star except right foot in front, fyi I might move your second post to a new thread to keep this thread for intros... once i have time to figure out how to move posts.


DOM - That quarterpipe looks sweet, its cool you were able to build it so cheap. I'm pretty sure I drive near you on my way to surf at El Porto? I just made a Project Pages section for visitors to submit some ramp pictures and notes, its linked to from the left if you'd be willing to test it out.


DCKID - at the moment the site is pretty manageable but I could use some help in the future, i'll send you an email.

[darkstar645]

hey im justin, a couple years ago my friends got interested in skatboarding and i tried but i couldnt even ollie, so i got my inlines out and skated some quarter pipes but i was too scared too really do much and i didnt have the money to buy a pair of aggressive skates, so now two years later i buy a skateboard and ive been skateboarding for two months and im learning really fast, i can pop shuvit, 50-50 and axle drop and some basic things like that

[coolguy]

thanx bobby ok im getting new inline skats this weekend at blades ive been seeing some on their website i like the razors cult le and the aragons but i dont kno which brand and skate to get what is your advice?

[inline sk8ter]

hey my name is win i am thirteen and am a inliner skateboarder and bmxer. i am planing on building one of the quarter pipes.
any one need any info on inlining just ask me.