I’ve reached the halfway mark here. It’s day 15 and the last day I worked on them was day 13. That’s bit of a gap from the previous day, which was five. I’m only getting about one session in a week and I need to step it up. The most common advice I got after day 5 was essentially get off the mini ramp as soon as possible. I had planned on politely ignoring that advice, but I just wasn’t able to get a mini ramp session to work out. I ended up at Newberg on Saturday, and what do you know, there’s some vert there. That didn’t stop me from knocking the wind out of myself during warmups on the smaller stuff. I moved it to vert with some encouragement heckling from MC. Joining in the fun were Rich, Mac, and Conahan, who decided to work on eggplants while we were tackling garden variety inverts. Grover put a sticker on the tranny to provide a spot to focus on. We shut down that section of the park, which I’m sure was annoying to the rest of the people there, but hey, it’s all about ME anyway, right? I made a few (below coping of course), surprising myself and maybe even the onlookers. When you land them they feel really nice and effortless. When you don’t… Well, I experienced the dreaded over-rotation, which definitely has more impact associated with it the higher up you are. I also landed on my ass hard enough to need a colon transplant. Good times! Inverts are a different animal once you approach vert. We had a discussion about “inverts” vs. “handplants” and determined there is no real distinction. The shot above is probably the highest I ever got. Looks like my board is still maxing out about one boards’ width below the coping. My goal is to have my hand on or near the coping by 30 days. I’ve made pretty good progress considering I’ve really only had four sessions, and one of them was on the curb in front of my house. However, I think I’m gong to need to step up the frequency of sessions to make it.
12 comments
backwardsbernie
hey we need a progress report!
kvon
ouch! I slammed many times learning plants but the ol wood ramp has some give to it. Still hurt like a mutha. Learning on concrete… gnar! You’ll land it! Don’t despair if ya can’t ride everyday, I found that sometimes a few days off actually helped.
skaterdave
I haven’t skated since I said I’ll work on Andrechts… being an adult is sooooo lame sometimes.
B Mechtly
Once you get it, & you will it’s a GREAT feeling!!!
I Love Big Air & Handplants!!!
Rich
That was fun. Glenhaven might be a good place for the next stop on the rickety old man invert tour.
krasauskas
dont extend the arm so much until you get them on the coping. it will helpout with over rotating and shit ..good work
Kilwag
That same Nobody must have taught Mark Conahan his manners.
mc
Nobody taught Mark Conahan how to do an invert.
Kilwag
Benny B
Option B when you are doing them low. Option C as you go higher. I think. When I start lower i know I am planting my hand early. As you get higher I think you plant your hand later. Backside airs are not a necessity. I don’t have backside airs.
Chompy
You know it. The pics above are frame grabs actually. The finished video won’t be awesome, my cameramen seem to have a hard time keeping their interest level up and staying focused while filming me bailing a lot. I wonder why. Still, there should be some amusing stuff when all is said and done.
chompy
I hope you are taking video of all of this too. Good progress so far man! Pure inspiration.
benny b bones
Nice. I am inspired by your quest for inverts and I, too would much like to learn them…I just don’t know where to start. I tried the whole play on your curb thing. I must have done that 100 times. I took it to the ramp and realized that I can’t do backside airs for shit. So I worked on my backside airs and now have them down, still the feeling is so ailen when I try to lean forward and put a hand down. How is this accomplished.
I guess my real question is do you
A)grab board, pop air then plant hand(my 1st instinct)
B)grab board, plant hand, pop air
C)”one fluid motion”(seems inmpossible)
Larry
its weird how skating properly feels effortless, much like a golf swing. when it seems like you’re “not trying too hard” it is easy, but when you try your damndest, you cant hit a ball or make an invert. way to go wag, next time i actually skate im going to try those.