V identifies some other random things

Veronica identifying Grandpa Todd in picture.

Let the Healing Begin

I reinjured my arm while wakeboarding last week! Like Phil Mickelson after blowing the US Open “I don’t know what I was thinking, I’m such an idiot.”  Despite injuring myself I was under a lot more control than last time and I was even jumping wake!

My elbow now has these two bruised dots the size of nickel’s, they look like my forearm bones wanted to “pop,” right out the back of my elbow. Amanda is a bit worried so I have to humor her by taking it easy.

I’m going to take serious rest and hope that my arm heals right. I had a wrestling coach in junior high with arms shaped like John Wayne Bobbit’s enlarged, post-op penis. Rumor was that he had “taped it up,” and gone back in one too many times.  I don’t want that happening to me.

Being of the board is killing me!  Not blogging hurts too, but not boarding is the worst!  It gives me some time to really concentrate on my “daddying,” skills. Amanda’s mom, Sue, is in town, so today I’m taking the family to the shores of beautiful Lake Arcadia.  Amanda’s yelling at me to burn some Zeppelin to listen to at the lake so I better go. It’s a beautiful day, can’t wait to hit the lake! Maybe I’ll blog about that.

Insulting Injury…to its face!

                      

I believe my injury is severe bruising of the UCL. 

This weekend included multiple sessions and I would have normally blogged about each. However, Friday nights session included two falls which left my wrist and hip badly scraped and bruised. The committed boardrider that I am, these discomforts didn’t keep me from heading back to the garage Sunday afternoon for a couple hours of solo skating. Session in the books, heading to my car, I hit a stupid yellow pole with my front-left-wheel and was violently thrown to the ground.  

I’m getting ahead of myself, let me rewind to Friday night and go through all the events that have left me in this sad state.  

Rod called to say that he and his dad, Troy, were heading to the garage Friday night to skate.  I was really wanting to go with them because Troy is a salty old skater from the 70’s who was an early influence originally pushing Rod, myself and the rest of our crew to begin to skate.  I had seen Troy a few weeks ago and he mentioned that he wanted to check out the garage and get back into skating himself-Troy’s a great guy, I can imagine him back in the day skating some G&S toothpick pretending to be Tony Alva.  

I called Bill who also said he would be there Friday night and my mind was made up, I had to figure out a way to get there.  The problem was that I worked until after 9pm and was supposed to pick up Veronica at mom’s afterward.  Mom would normally have no problem watching her a couple extra hours, however getting over the “hand, foot, mouth,” virus, Veronica has been more of a handful than usual. Still I decided to ask mom if she could watch her a bit.  ”Oh Matt she’s been soooo fussy tonight, and then I have her in the morning.  I don’t know if I can do it.”  ”She could just stay the night,” I replied. “So you can skateboard?” Mom is still figuring out how serious I am about skating, can you imagine that she doesn’t always think it’s a good reason for her to watch extend Veronica’s visit!  Still she relented and I had a couple of hours to go to the garage.

Racing from work, Tool screeching from the speakers, my pre-skate ritual had begun.  Jumping around, singing into mirrors or banging my head to the loudest music I can find, my ritual is very informal. Once complete, I feel juiced as a bucking bull ready to bust from the shoot complete with back sweat and spray coming out of my nose.  Nothing, at that point, can keep me from getting on my board.  

Exiting from Broadway, Bill called with unsettling news.  ”Rod fell and busted his head open. Him and Troy are gone, and its kinda killed the vibe,”  Bill was ready to leave too!  ”That’s why you and I wear helmet’s and I’m practically here, wait for me.”  Bill relented, turns out he was a little dehydrated and a promise to bring water kept him around for a few more runs.

Stepping off the elevator, Bill was waiting for water.  He gave me a brief synopsis of Rod’s fall and I made a silent promise to myself to not let the pavement ruin my night.  Only one thing left to do…RIDE! 

I was really owning it Friday.  I had a breakthrough Wednesday in the neighborhood and some old surfing techniques were coming back to me.  I finally remembered that you have to steer with your rear foot and to push my legs forward when turning backside.  I had also read a great quote from Laird Hamilton about lessons learned from surfing that I was able to apply to my longboarding.  

“You can’t kind of catch a wave. You either catch it or you don’t. It’s a commitment.  That’s just like anything else-you either go or you don’t. He who hesitates is lost in the end.”  USA Weekend, July 4-6, 2008  

That advice is great for anyone trying to get better on a board.  You have to go for it!  If you’re worried about getting hurt you will hesitate and hold something back.  Unlike surfing, holding back may not instantly cause you to eat shit, but it will keep you from breaking through to new heights.  When I ride, I push the limit and go for broke, I try to commit and leave it all on the, figurative, pavement. 

Eventually Amanda called saying she was off work and I invited her to head to the garage to see what I’m always off doing.  Upon her arrival she utters “I’m only watching one run and heading home.”  After a long shift, Amanda bordering on starvation, she was more interested in eating than watching me skate.  Finally I knew her priorities! 

After enjoying herself more than expected Amanda stayed for several runs.  On about the 5th or 6th that she watched I tried a particularly hard slide and went headfirst into the ground, my helmet and wrist guards breaking my fall.  Unfazed I continued to skate several more runs.  On about run 9, I was carving and tail-sliding particularly hard, showing off basically.  For the second time in 5 minutes I again fly headfirst over my board, sliding on my wrist guards right at Amanda and Bill (he had stopped for a breather near where Amanda sat).  I popped up and relatively unscathed I hollered “Now that’s what pads are for!”   And it was! Having fallen twice, my wrist was a little bruised and my hip skinned, but other than flesh wounds was completely fine.  I left the garage thoroughly satisfied with my session and quite proud of my skating.  I even enjoyed the falls!

Fast forward to Sunday.

Sitting at the house, trying to bug John into taking out the boat; I decided screw it, I’m heading by myself to the garage to get some exercise. I had resolved to get on my board at least 5 days a week, and having nothing else to do, why not go by myself?  I would stay within my limits to assure I didn’t fall again on my heavily bruised palm and wrist.  

Skating for almost two hours, I was thoroughly exercised and felt I had continued to improve on my Friday night session.  Turning towards my car I tried to skate out a very narrow space between a pole and a curb, and dammit if I didn’t clip that curb with my wheel!  The board creeping like molasses, it was still enough that I went flying to the pavement.  Immediately, feeling faint and lightheaded,  I knew I had hurt myself. Sweat pouring out, my entire arm numb, I struggled to remove my pads and get into the car.

Arriving home, Amanda and I assessed the damage.  I had shooting pains down from my elbow, my lower arm had a spot of black and blue, and my elbow was a mess- a swollen piece of meat and bone.  I could already hear the “I told you so’s,” and resolved early to avoid the doctor. However, after consulting my old friend Michael, now a NYC-ER doctor, we decided to head to OU Med Center to be assessed.  

I waited like 4 hours in serious pain!  Finally I told Amanda that if the triage nurses didn’t think it was an emergency, why did I!  ”Let’s avoid the co-pay and call it a night.  See how it is tomorrow. If they tell me to go home and ice it I’ll be really pissed.”  And with that we left.  

It’s now Tuesday night and my arm continues to improve.  I think I badly bruised my UCL and jammed my arm from wrist to shoulder. No more shooting pain, but it does continue to ache.  No matter,  I fully plan on boarding this weekend! 

My conclusion…injuries are temporary.  So is adrenaline, but the rush keeps you high for a lifetime.  When boardriding or doing anything else, commit to it, go for it and don’t be defeated by a little pain or fear. Life is short, live it to the fullest!

McNellie’s Public House

     

Mayor Cornett and friends opening McNellie’s

Before and after sessions, the crew and I have taken to a new Midtown OKC hotspot, McNellie’s. 

Imported from Tulsa, McNellie’s features many import and domestic beers.  I highly recommend Anchor Steam, however for in-depth beer descriptions visit http://theviceblog.wordpress.com.

McNellie’s opens up as does any classy-yet-dressed-down pub, with a borderline-hippie host leading you into a cavernous, yet cozy three-story bar.  The scene is set with wall sized windows viewing the far west side of downtown OKC;  we can actually take a shot and visualize the next run at the parking garage.  The first and third floors are bars with a restaurant sandwiched on the second.  Upstairs is the smoking bar, downstairs non.  The view upstairs is pretty spectacular, midtown is quite the vantage point.

I love Midtown, I predict it will become the new place to see and be seen; coffee shops, trendy retail stores and overpriced restaurants are bound to spring up, especially with the Sonics coming to town!  There can never be too much to do or too many places to hangout near downtown.

I give McNellie’s a rousing 4 out of 5 boards!  I have eaten and had drinks and can certainly attest to its “merriness!”

Life These Days…

Veronica at 7 months!

I suppose it’s time to address my feelings about my new hobby and how they relate to my life today…boyfriend, father, son, among many other distinctions.

I’ve been rejuvenated by my new pursuit. Out skating with my friends, whether in the parking garage or anywhere else, feels appropriate at this time and place. My duties as a father always come first, but when I’m able to schedule some free time for myself, it seems to revolve around meeting up with Bill and the fellas to go to the garage.

There’s been many good by-products of my skating other than the obvious pleasure it brings me. Case in point…would anyone really think I’d even know what power-cleans are? Well not only do I know, but I directly relate their severity and frequency to the harder carving-faster skating I’m now able to do. I regularly find myself on the elliptical, swimming or doing some sort of sweat- inducing activity. I guess what I’m saying is that my skating has lead me to strive to be a better person, physically and mentally than I felt like being beforehand.

Having a hobby makes everyone easier to tolerate. I firmly believe that many relationship problems, whether peer, parental or any other kind, can be prevented by both parties engaging in personally fulfilling pursuits. Whew, try saying that 5 times fast! People with hobbies get more out of life…I’m not afraid to say it. It’s redundant.

I do understand the thought that this is some sort of early-midlife-crisis. Possible…I did just turn 30. However, I think that this whole aspect of my life, and by that I mean longboarding, has been a long time coming. This may seem childish in many respects, but I haven’t felt so alive in a long time! I guess we all accept growing older differently. It’s a choice to become stagnant and out-of-touch. That’s not what life is about in the time we live in. Life’s about impact…whether to yourself or others. Do something that stands out from the crowd and screams everything that you are about! For some it’s shopping, golf, or many other activities that get our blood pumping and help us forget about our troubles. For me, right now-at this point in my life, it’s longboarding.

Calling All Boardriders!

One of my buddies and I have recently rekindled one of our favorite old hobbies, skateboarding! However, older and wiser, our boards are now longer, wider and faster. Of course we both were skaters as kids, ollie’ing down stairs, grinding handrails and the like (some of us better than others, me being the worst) but somewhere along the way we grew up and left skating behind.

Well, I personally moved to San Diego with some buddies in 1998 at 19-years-old to learn to surf, specifically, and basically transform myself into some sort of extreme-west-coaster that used cool words like “gnarly,” and “sick.” Move accomplished, transformation complete, I was broke as hell and had no ride to get my butt down to the beach to surf! Being the “outside the box,” thinker that I was, I decided to pick up one of these “long-ass skateboards,” that I’d been seeing people ride. Seemed like the next best way to get around besides a car.
(For all my Oklahoma brethren, I would have chosen a bicycle but around North San Diego county, a young person riding a bike or rollerblades is risking serious bodily harm!)
Anyway, I shelled out about a bill-fifty and picked up a 3 1/2′ Sector Nine and set about learning not to kill myself!

Long story short, I ended up enjoying my new transportation about as much as surfing (who am I kidding, notice the “about”), and in time became pretty adept at handling speed, carving down steep hills, and riding about 2 miles to work and back everyday. Looking back I really felt free, if I was going far I could take the bus, whenever I hopped off I was instantly mobile and looking for “pavement waves.” Anyway, I loaned that board to a buddy once and never saw it again. A few months later I was back in Oklahoma to finish college, my longboard an ever-increasing distant memory.

Fast forward 7-8 years.

Back in Oklahoma, I increasingly found myself missing surfing and boarding like I did back in San Diego. I’d seen kite-boarding and it looked cool. However, as a young, new father I’d had trouble justifying enough cash to get set-up, take a lesson or two, and go out and not get tangled lines and have to resort to fisticuffs!
(I remember being 21 and learning to surf, Extremers are territorial and not necessarily welcoming to newcomers,”watch your ass kook,” is not an uncommon thing to hear in the water and fighting on the beach just goes with the territory.)
Anyway, my buddy, let’s just call him “Bill,” who had never really gave up shortboard skateboarding, showed up at my house one day with something I had not seen in years…a long skateboard. Now his Sector 9 wasn’t near as yachtlike as the 4-footer I’d had back in my Cali heyday, but it was alot more like what I used to ride than anything I’d seen in awhile. “Didn’t you ride one of these when you lived in San Diego? Let’s look for some hills this weekend. ” Just like that I was in… I was “going to look for some hills to bomb this weekend.” Two months shy of 30-years-old, older, fatter, less tan but who cared, I was about to get back to being that 21-year-old kid, riding his board to and from work!

That was about two months ago. Since then I got my own board, (a sick 4′ Arbor that could have been cut from my old Sector 9 template!) from Chris at Flip’d Action Sports in Edmond. “Bill,” and I have been riding every weekend since! We started out at Lake Hefner, found it too flat and moved on; now we search every weekend for new places to skate. Mitch Park in Edmond has some hills and wide trails, its pretty good for crusing around, but other than that, OKC has few accessible hills that aren’t out in traffic! Like I said I’m 30 and a father, I can’t afford to fall down and get my head ran over like Phil Leotardo in Sopranos!

Luckily I’m in sales and spend my days driving around to appointments, so I ‘m able to basically be in constant search mode. I say “luckily,” but my search has brought me anything but, OKC is flat, flat, flat!

Over Memorial weekend I ripped a few biggies while in Tahlequah where I went to school (my buddy, we’ll just call him “Jiz,” took a nasty palm scraping spill; I don’t know how he didn’t crack open his head going 40 mph!) and I was more psyched than ever to find some new thrills to quench my longboarding thirst.

Saturday May 31, “Bill,” and I went out like we do every weekend looking for places to skate. Finding few options, we decided to head downtown and look for hills, maybe skate a few parking garages. Oh brother! Did we find the OKC longboarding mecca! We found an 8-story parking garage downtown that on the weekends is completely empty! 50 yards wide all the way down, 35 degree angle, basically perfect! Even better, we start on the 8th floor right by the elevators and end up in the basement directly 3 feet away from the same elevator! It’s like my own mountain right in my backyard complete with lift!

We took about 15 runs, each time getting braver and braver and trying to go faster and carve harder! We figured out that you can really carve hard and make it down in about 2.5 minutes or you can bomb the bitch and make it down in the exact length of “She,” by the Misfits (thank god for Ipods!) 1.2 minutes!

So, my intent for writing this blog is to find other OKC dudes that like to ride longboards. “Bill,” and I have recruited a couple buddies who are going out with us this weekend, but we’d like to find other like-minded skaters to go carve it up with, share favorite spots, tricks and the like. I’d tell you in this blog where to find my parking garage, but I’d rather save it for those I end up skating with!

We really think it would be fun to meet in groups, grab a couple of cases, and go find places to skate! We’ve dedicated our summer free-time to doing so. Last night I could barely sleep in anticipation of going back today and I am constantly wanting to go skate. Not just in the garage, but at the park, the lake, wherever; every day, every night, all the time!

If you too enjoy longboard skating and would like to join our “OK Skate Club,” please read and respond to my blog. I nominate myself (and “Bill,” seconds it, although he doesn’t know it yet) as honorary chairman and I will take care of getting word out to the group as to where we will be and so on and so forth.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope some people search for “OKC Longboard skateboarding,” and find my blog. If you do and you want to go skate, hit me up and I’ll get back to you.