06.20.06
Posted in Activities, Life, Skateboard at 11:09 am by Jamie
iolarah and I went to an empty parking lot last night so I can brush up on my skateboarding techniques (ie: Not falling over, turning, etc.) It went quite satisfactorily, as I didn’t land on my ass once! The only issue seems to be that either a) my deck is warped or b) my trucks are wonky. The board had a definite list to the left, and we have no explanation for that. I have to go get longer screws to secure my trucks properly, so while I’m at the store (either Hogtown or So Hip It Hurts) I’ll see if they know why my board is being weird.
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04.12.06
Posted in Activities, Life, Skateboard at 11:42 am by Jamie
So last year iolarah and I were talking about how cool it would be if I could find a cheap skateboard so we could go ride together. I think it was the next day that we were walking down Queen Street through Parkdale when we came across a sidewalk garage sale. Lo and behold, a skateboard was there. It was sort of crappy (there was no grip tape on the top… it had been spray painted silver) but the $10 asking price was fine. I don’t have a picture of the board as it was when we bought it, but it looked like this only in blue.
So we bought it and brought it home, and found out that it rode like crap (bearings) and the trucks were designed for 90lb children. Off to So Hip It Hurts (warning: Site is 2000% flash and has no *real* information). I picked up a pair of Royal Evolution Trucks (in the no-longer manufactured “Rasta” colourings) and had the top of the deck grip taped. It rode a bit better, but the wheels were worn in a very odd manner, and the bearings were still crap. Cut to the weekend before last. iolarah needed some new bearings, and I needed new bearings and wheels, so we headed off to So Hip It Hurts again. We grabbed ATM ABEC 5 Skateboard bearings for both of our boards, and I also nabbed some size 54 wheels.
As the guy put the new bearings on our boards, iolarah suggested that I get “Splatter Guy” (Mike Parsons) to paint my board. This was the best idea ever, as far as I was concerned. I *love* Mike’s work, and having him paint my skateboard would be awesome! I managed to find Mike that day (He usually is found on Queen St. past Spadina, in front of the 360) and asked him if he would be interested in me commissioning him to paint my board. He thought this was an awesome idea! It turns out that he used to paint his boards back when he used to skate. Fast-forward to this weekend, I got to watch Mike paint the board up (he was really busy during the week.) He enjoyed doing it so much, he said he was thinking about buying up some boards and painting them up as a regular thing!
Yesterday I stopped by Hogtown Extreme Sports to pick up some Lucky Riser Pads to take the strain off the wood on the bottom of the board. Then I assembled the beast 
Pictures after the jump!
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