Life has been super hectic, only managing to get one skate in a week at the moment, but still that’s enough for me.

The push race the other week was fantastic; the weather was shocking but 18 people turned up to skate 10km through the wind and rain. It was really good to hook up with Nick from Ultimate Boards and alsomeet Troy the man behind skateventure. He was riding a Pulse distance prototype which looked intersting but might need some work to make it viable. Carbon needs wood in my opinion. I got all the videos from the push race the other night and sat down to try to do some kind of edit for a video, only to find that Alex had beaten me to it.

The winter here in NZ has been pretty hard here and the light at the weekends is limited. Getting out for a skate of any kind has been rare and so I have been trying to fit as much downhill in while I am learning new stuff. The distance went on back burner.

A few weeks ago when we were down at the beach it looked perfect for push races and my mind went back to the amazing times I’ve had at different distance races around the Globe.

The 1st ever push race in NZ; The Tauranga Outlaw. Good times with great people.

Rum and Stoke in Ottawa, Canada. 12km drinking race. Messy.

Rip and Dip in Wakefield Qebec, 12km on the roughest road ever.

Lush’s Bath to Bristol which I had the pleasure to lead out 2 years in a row.

Not to forget the Goodwood Roller marathon,

24 hour Ultraskates and numerous others.

So I decided it was about time for another push race, here in NZ. ‘Push’. A full write up is to come.

]]> http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/push-races/feed/ http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/sideways/ http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/sideways/#comments Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:13:56 +0000 wafflesole http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/?p=145 Going sideways is fun. Wearing wheels down is fun. I’m in love with Fireballs.

So much so that I imported 10 sets so others could skate them.

The easy part is over! We now face the hardest climb yet, from sea level to summit of a 14,000ft mountain. Inch by inch, we skate into the mouth of the Andes and become drenched as we ascend into the rain-clouds. At high-altitude we battle tougher terrain with half the amount of oxygen. Sleeping for 15 hours in their tents, so as to outlive the rain and rest from the oxygen-deficient altitudes, proves to be costly and depletes our water and food supply, but we must push onward, striving to make it to the next town.

Episode 5 - Summit #1

Skateboarding uphill for 3 days proves an actual possibility—now time for some Downhilling!
This episode includes bad pavement, diarrhea, scrapes and bruises, and the first showers taken in 4 days (Electric shower. Whoo hoo!)—Aaron falls in love and quits the trip.

This episode was the TURNING POINT FOR ME.  At the end of this Episode when we are sitting on the ledge after going up and down our first huge pass that was 79 miles of uphill with the highest elevation being 14,400 ft pass, I felt we could do and accomplish anything.  Bring it on!

Leading up to that though, when we got to the restaurant, it was only noon or so. We stayed there the whole day. Hahaha! We were all just so beat and tired and could not get ourselves to go back outside into the rain and cold.  Aaron and I both had bad diarrhea, and that sucked.  We bonded with the family that owned the restaurant and we ate a lot of food—just kept on eating and eating.  And by “food” I mean cookies, French fries and egg sandwiches—that is all they had. We were thankful nonetheless. That night the family let us sleep in a small hut they weren’t using.  Paul and Aaron shared a lopsided bed and I took the floor.

We are so lucky here in Christchurch. All the city is full up and houses are moving higher into the hills. However, the money for building ran out with the credit crunch and all that is left are empty, freshly paved, smooth, windy roads.

]]> http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/banks/feed/ http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/matt-hensley-legend/ http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/matt-hensley-legend/#comments Sat, 26 Jun 2010 23:25:58 +0000 wafflesole http://wafflesole.skatefurther.net/?p=141 Stolen fron Black Label’s blog. Matt Hensley gets the TWS Legend Award. So many of theses clips I have studied over and over again. H-Street was my favourite team and Hocus Pocus was, and still is I reckon, the best skate video of that time. I used to get pissed off when my brother would walk in and talk when I was holding a tape played up to the T.V. trying to record the soundtrack, imagining the tricks in my head.

Hensley has always had an obvious style and deserves this award, as the video below shows. Check out the pic above! Also the flat bar trick at 1:53. Still don’t know what actually happens. Even in slo-mo.

I skated it every day while the weather was good, but it was destroying my shoes. The skate back from work especially took it’s toll. A wonderfully smooth road past the store lead into a vicious left-hand hairpin followed by and even worse right-hand then a straight line down the the jetty, all on typical crappy NZ seal. Cars are a real issue on this single road so speed has to be kept in check.

I tried cycling, I really did. but I haven’t ridden a bike in years and the whole experience was pretty bad.

I needed something that had the same motion of skating, but with brakes. Which lead me onto Skatefurther Ben’s review of his Kickbike. A bit of digging about lead me to the NZ site, and after a few phonecalls (thanks here go to Bruce Cook from the Kickbike Australia Website) I managed to borrow a bike from Rob in Christchurch. So here are my views from a skater’s perspective.

Kickbikes really roll. The big wheel at the front means way more efficiency that a skateboard…Although it feels that getting up to speed is about equal in terms of effort, staying there is easy. The tyres mean that the surface becomes no issue and you find yourself taking lines over stuff that on a board you would need to avoid.

Although the bike I borrowed is bare bones, it has attachments for waterbottles and it would be very easy to attach panniers and baskets. A solo long-distance trip seems way more acceptable on a kickbike.

The footplate (standing area) is very small, basically one foot size so if you are just cruising you have to stand both feet at an angle right next to each other. As a skater this is very unnerving and you feel a little out of control, especially when you look down and see so little rubber touching the road!

Because you can’t take your hands off the handlebars, you are continuously hunched over. Even on a board you can stand up straight, move your arms about, fiddle with your ipod, alter your helmet and most importantly stretch. No chance on a kickbike. Once you are off and moving, you are on.

My board is low and scrapes, the Kickbike’s riding height is a little higher but it still scrapes. On a board this can be an issue but with the Kickbike you can do a little hop and lift it over the hang-up.

Pushing switch is a joy. I can push switch on my board, but it is much easier and with way more power and efficiency on the kickbike, the cross-over from one foot to the other takes a bit of practice, but once you have mastered the little jump/hop to swap it happens without thought or effort.

Physically the kickbike feels the same as skating, the big difference is in my legs. When I’m on the flat on a skateboard, I push with my left leg saving the right for hills. With the Kickbike I switch over every 5 pushes regardless and I can definitely feel it more in my right leg. 20+ odd years of pushing one way takes some changing.

Skateboarding is a ‘cool’ thing to do, and people notice the tall bloke with a flourescent green helmet skating down the hil to work. I get stopped in the street and asked if it is me. The same thing happens on a Kickbike. People are genuinely interested in it. They want to ask you about it - have a go. It’s a great conversation starter and people can see the benefits over a bike and a board.

The main advantages to a Kickbike over a skateboard are why I borrowed the thing in the first place. You can skate in all weather and you have control of your speed. Kickbiking to work is better than driving; better for me, my heart and the air. Yes, in an ideal world I would rather be skating, but I dont have enough pairs of shoes and I am not in control of the weather. Because of this the kickbike seems like a perfect wet-weather alternative to a board.

I have to return the Kickbike to Rob this week and I’ll be sorry to see it go. I’m really interested in the possibilities the Kickbike brings; marathons, 24 hour pushes and self-supported distance trips. A kickbike is definitely on my list of things to aquire - watch this space!

And to be honest they stock some shocking boards. Flexy-as-hell pintails with crappy wheels. The thing is S9 make some rad boards. They have an amazing team and make a real variety of decks. Their pool skaters are some of the best and the DH mob (including Louis Pelloni and Katie Neilson) rule.

Here’s a couple of vids to prove that. 1st up is Tyler who is the son of a mate from OMA followed by Katie. She writes a mean blog too.