Progress Skateboarding

A fresh curb for my local 🙏 Time to get back to it 🛹👊
✔ drop in
✔ rock to fakie
✔ rock and roll
✔ half cab rock to fakie
✔ bs axle stall

day 30
(Ledge/Rail – Trick out)
Backside nose stall shove it out

It’s no secret that ledge/rail has exposed me this month. I’m considering renaming the channel to Regression Skateboarding – but I guess that I’d have to have been any good in the first place for that to make sense 🤣!

I did try and shove it out of a nose stall (I can’t really call it a noseslide) earlier in the month but failed. So, in fact I’m super pleased to have come back and got it on the final day. Maybe I am progressing after all?

Thanks for taking the time to watch, read and support me during . It means a lot and I really appreciate all of you skate champions out there!

day 29
(Transition – 360)
Fakie body varial, rock and roll out

The fakie body varial is a 180-degree rotation, and the rock and roll is another 180-degree rotation… Therefore, this inspired mini ramp combo is my mind tingling 360-degree trick for day 29.

Honestly, leaping from fakie stance into the body varial was the s*x and drugs of this trick. The rest was just rock n roll.

day 28
(Flatground – 360)
Fakie big spin

Put together a fakie 360 shove it and a 180 body varial and you’ll find yourself with a fakie big spin.

This trick isn’t new for me. But the number of attempts it took to get this mighty close toe drag version would make you think otherwise lol

That’s what is all about though, right? Trying a trick once a year so you can neglect it for another twelve months... I’m sure there’s a lesson here for me.

*I knew I didn't toe drag, I just wanted an excuse to show of my off my skateboarding battle wounds. aka my scabby knee 🛹🩹

day 27
(Ledge/Rail – trick in)
Frontside 180 ollie to fakie 5050

To give myself any chance with a trick into a grind, I had to default to my most comfortable flatground trick – the frontside 180 ollie. It paid dividends with this one where I was able to lock my rear truck into the ledge and shimmy my front truck on shortly after. All that was needed for the rollaway was that pivot – executed with as much finesse as a giraffe with its shoelaces tied together.

*Australian giraffes wear laced up shoes to trek the harsh outback between the months of November and February. **There are no giraffes in the Australian outback. ***But if there were, they'd definitely wear converse high tops. ****I wonder if anyone reads this far down?

day 26
(Transition – 180)
Fakie shove it disaster

I’m running a bit behind on my uploads and have some family commitments towards the end of , so I went out and smashed all remaining tricks today. It was hectic!

This fakie shove is a fun option when approaching the transition in your unnatural stance. It takes minimum effort and requires little to no pop, and you get to come back in regular. I’m pretty stoked with this one because I snuck it in just before the rain.

day 25
(Flatground – 180)
Varial kickflip

Skateboarding is a lot like life sometimes; you can throw everything you have at reaching a goal, but occasionally things don’t go your way. It’s times like this that you just need to take the loss, shake it off, and come back another day with your learning and renewed determination.

While I couldn’t demonstrate this one today, the varial kickflip is a neat trick that combines the backside pop shove it and the kickflip. For some reason it isn’t overly well regarded in the skateboarding community, but I’m a bit of a fan… well, when I land it!

day 25
(Ledge/Rail – Slide)
Backside boardslide

I love skating with friends. Especially when they get as hyped as my bro, Micheil 👍

I landed a boardslide like this a few years ago but have not tried it since! Luckily, this refurbished round flatbar is the perfect height to relearn on. It’s days like today that I’m really glad I introduced the ledge/rail section to .

day 23
(Transition – Slide)
Boardslide to fakie

Get down low and go, go, go! While fun, I still have some more work to do with this one. It’s a natural progression trick after the rock to fakie (one of my favourite tricks), but I still struggle to get a good amount of distance on the slide.

day 22
(Flatground – Revert)
Backside pop shove it, frontside revert

I’ve been falling back in love with my pop shove it, so I was looking forward to trying this one. It was a great exercise in board control to focus on where my feet landed on the board so that I could revert out.

Still plenty of improvement to speed this up and get the land and revert a little smoother, but very pleased with this new trick today.

day 21
(Ledge/Rail – Grind)
Backside feeble grind

There’s nothing quite like struggling to get a trick and accidentally getting another. This isn’t the first time the old feeble has slipped, uninvitedly into my trick bag - first was on transition. So, I’m not surprised it snuck into this ledge day while I was working on backside 5050s.

I did get a backside 5050, but it was pretty sloppy, and honestly, I’m not sure I’ll fluke another feeble on a ledge. Consider Instagram to be my pool room, and this footage to be murky proof that once, back in my heyday, I rolled away unscathed from a back feeble.

day 20
(Transition – Grind)
Frontside 50-50 grind to tail stall

So, this trick is a work in progress… progress skateboarding if you will. Blink and you’ll miss the world's shortest fs 5050 followed by an unstable pivot to tail stall. Considering I only started to learn these today, I’m pretty damn stoked!

I also landed a few other firsts, so check out my days 15 to 20 YouTube video when it lands shortly.

day 19
(Flatground – Step off)
1. Running tail grab caveman
2. No comply shove it
3. Nollie no comply impossible… thing

I’ve had a few wines 🍷 at time of publishing and I’m feeling pretty insta-generous, so here’s a 3 trick special! 🛹🛹🛹

The running caveman is a bit of a favourite. The shove it is a first for me. And the nollie impossible thing is something my brain has been cooking up for a little while - I’d love to see someone with a bunch more style and grace than myself give it a go.

day 18
(Ledge/Rail - Tail)
Fakie tail stall backside shove it out

I took a bit of a slam yesterday, and I’m starting to reach my limit of ledge/rail trick capacity – so today was always going to be a little lightweight.

Was pleased to get my first fakie tail slide, albeit short, but this tail stall shove it out was too good an opportunity to no try again. Feels good, looks pretty good, and soothes my skateboarding soul.

day 17
(Transition - Nose)
Nose pick backside disaster

I first saw the nose pick performed by . Granted, his trick was delightfully executed on a 4ft mini will precision and completed by rolling back in regular. I’ve tried the regular roll in many times without success, but I did find that the nose pick back disaster an achievable and rewarding middle ground.

It looks and feels cool - and I’ve been planning to try it on this larger side of my local horseshoe for some time. Happy to say I rolled away with it, despite eating some humble pie 10 minutes earlier with a useless nose stall tail grab. That fail will be ready for viewing on my next YouTube edit.

day 16
(Flatground - Frontside)
Frontside pop shove it

This trick has haunted me from the very beginning. There are only two pathways – both lead to failure. 1. Rotate a perfect fs180 and only ever land with my front foot. And 2. Under rotate fs160 and toe drag one or both feet. Very frustrating because I make it way harder for myself every time!

With that said, I landed two today. The first was lost to a malfunctioning camera, but this second was captured just before the same camera ran out of space. Was the first land a clean, all bolts fs pop shove with style and grace? … I guess we’ll never know.

day 15
(Ledge/Rail - Nose)
Slappy backside nose slide

Go fast. Fail. Repeat.
Those are the key ingredients for the slappy nose slide. I’m sure there are other important factors, but that was my take-away. Now that I think about it, I probably went too slow and that’s why I failed repeatedly lol

Also, we’ve hit the halfway mark for the month. Well done to all of you legends out there getting involved, progressing, and sharing the hashtag.

day 14
(Transition - Tail)
Riverdance

Part tail stall, part theatrical Irish dance – the Riverdance is one of those skateboard tricks that requires a huge leap of faith to survive.

I actually learnt some other tail tricks today, but nothing really trumps this bad boy for Instagram goodness. 🤙

day 13
(Flatground - Backside)
Backside pop shove it

I wore my flashy popsicle shirt for this birthday backside pop shove it! This trick must be one of my most rewarding tricks to land - very little effort with so much benefit.

It didn’t always be this way. It took a lot of early courage to get past committing to the launch and land. Plus, I lost it almost a year ago. Today was a really good day because not only do I have this trick back, but I landed a bunch of them and was able to really concentrate on the technique to get it a bit higher and land smoother.

Damn I love !

day 12
(Ledge/Rail - Backside)
Backside boardslide

I approached today with the idea that backside ledge/rail tricks would be more difficult than frontside, so attempted my tricks on this forgiving low ledge. I was right regarding the backside 5050 (way harder than expected), but the backside boardslide proved to be a delight.

This little trick was simple enough to execute but difficult to control. With time, I hope to increase slide distance, and depart in the same direction I entered lol

day 11
(Transition - Frontside)
Frontside revert disaster, frontside revert out

There are several names for the first half of this trick; poor persons disaster, frontside revert disaster, g-turn disaster, nollie pivot disaster, switch half cab rock… whatever it’s called, it feels bloody great!

I was hyped to have a new set-up and to be back to my comfortable local transition, so I went for a new challenge where I revert out of this trick with so many names. I’d seen a few locals perform it in recent weeks, and am happy to have joined such company 😊

day 10
(Flatground - Switch)
Switch frontside 180

Just in case you find skateboarding easy, you should try skating switch! It’s like starting all over again. For obvious reasons (age, skill, time) I haven’t gone near switch tricks, and this super slow reverted switch frontside 180 is a great demonstration of that. I did attempt some switch backside shove its, but fell agonisingly short of landing one.

Will I return soon to improve these switch tricks? Probably not.
Will I leave it till next skatember to try and fail again. Most definitely.

day 9
(Ledge/Rail - Frontside)
Frontside 5050 grind

Check direction, calculate wind speed, then go land one of your first decent frontside 5050 grinds on a ledge. Pretty stoked with this one!

Crazy to think how simple this trick is – just a high enough ollie and a little bit of forward momentum - yet I made it so hard for myself. I find this trick to be the perfect example of mind over matter; where physically it is technically simple, but mentally, it takes a bunch of effort to get prepared to land and grind the ledge.

This is a big skatember win for me!

day 8
(Transition - Backside)
Backside rock and roll

The backside rock and roll is one of those early transition tricks you learn so that you can enter the transition regular and leave regular - none of this fakie business. With that said, the difficulty of this trick increases exponentially as you move to larger ramps.

This quarter is larger, steeper, and generally more gnarly than my local. So, it proved to be the ideal steppingstone for me to progress with the backside rock and roll. I’m guilty of not rocking the board before rotating, so I was on a mission to get a proper rock today. This nonchalant 5 second clip doesn’t tell the real story of the struggle, pain and physics defying frustration I went through to roll away. Happy, though.