Published on 12, July, 2020
I used fast cars, motorcycles, drinking beer, fighting, chasing women, and having bad relationships to try to fit into society but the real issue was I was on the spectrum.
It took me a long time to work out what the real issue was. Have you had a similar experience ?
did you up the adrenalin in your life to try and fit in ? like climbing ice mountains at night with a torch on your head !
did you drink far too much to overcome your lacking social skills ? Funny stories are most welcome as well of course we do need a laugh.
Have you made a complete tit of yourself ? lets us know please.
Did you join the army or the navy by mistake ? lets us know please.
does driving cars and/or motorcycles help calm your autism related anxiety or make it worse (eg road rage) ? lets us know
did autism cause you to be so aggressive you got arrested a lot,,,, how did you deal with it, how did your parents deal with it ?
telling jokes about your autism and autistic mistakes is most welcome
what no skateboarders ?
aidie said:what no skateboarders ?
Retired now mostly but here is my equipment manifest over the years ~ but not in the following colors other than the Duane Peters deck.
My first full spec deck was a Santa Cruz Jeff Kendal with eventually Tracker 6 Track Ultralight trucks and Santa Cruz (factory seconds) Hosoi Rocket wheels (61mm and 97a):
My second deck was the Snata Cruz Corey O'Brian, with Independent trucks (as I ground the Tracker magnesiums to and through the the axle within a few months:
Third deck was a Vision Johnny Kop with indies and (factory seconds) TtrackerOllies (64mm 97a):
Fourth Chris Robinson LSD deck with Gordon and Smith 4130 trucks (with the hanger cylinder containing the axle snapping off regularly when hard skating ~ thankfully I was sponsored and had my Indies spare anyway):
Fifth a Black Label John Lucero Deck ~ with Indy trucks and factory second Tracker Ollie wheels (64mm and 97a):
Sixth then loads of cheap blanks and second hand pro model donations ~ with Indies and factory second wheels (64mm 97a):
Then after years of narrow gauge easy snap decks came again big long lasting boards such as like the Duane Peters:
Then finally another Black Label John Lucero deck, with indies and factory second wheels (64mm and 97a) or Zorlac Zombu wheels (65mm and 98a) :
Which in the last case of deck, truck, mountings, wheels and bearing I still have.
I retired from street skating ~ in the sense of handrails, steps, banks, walls, gaps and all that in the late nineties and stuck to midi ramps what with curved wooden transitions being way more forgiving than flat merciless concrete, and I retired from ramp skating around about 2010 I think, along with downhill and free-ride mountain-biking.
One of my favorite front-side airs was though a 'Madonna~Lein-To-Tail' where after the leg extension down whilst going up ~ the leg is then brought back to the nose coming back down, and the tail is then slapped well hard and loud (as a crowd-pleaser) on the coping on the way back into the transition ~ rather than landing on the tail less loudly and then going in:
And one of my favorite backside airs was a 'Tuck-Knee-Method' (as in the first image) where the board is pulled back and tucked in rather than a standard 'Method (as in the second image) with the board extended out:
aidie said:this is awesome stuff. I cantI believe you were so good ! I was never that good.
I have never thought about being as good as or better or worse than someone else ~ when in this instance the awesome thing is the shared interest in skateboarding sort of thing.
aidie said:I had to make my own decks, I couldnt actually buy one, and then attach the trucks and wheels both imported.
I made my first freestyle deck using a plank and two blocks of wood for the wheels and trucks, but I did not do much with it as it got mistaken for scrap wood and burnt.
My very first skateboard was a cheap-jack one ~ that I upgraded bearings first, wheels second, trucks third and board last ~ which I trimmed down to become my second freestyle deck, with wooden blocks again for the trucks and wheels.
All of the board upgrades involved mail order to begin with, being that there were no local skateboard shops, but then one opened in the nearest city with all the appeal of the skateable architecture and a ramp park too! There was an up to vert 16 foot wide eight foot transition ramp ~ long deceased (about 1990 I think) with its decaying skeleton photographed as follows:
Then there was the twenty four foot wide one with ten foot transitions, which looked like this from up top ~ with Steve Cabellero in 1988.
www.facebook.com/.../
And a side view of both ramps as they were around 1989 perhaps:
The big vert one was the first ramp I ever dropped in on and my body was seriously seriously frightened by the prospect, but I really wanted to go for it so I did and the transmutation of fear into drive and purpose took over and I did my first backside fifty-fifty grind on a ramp too ~ which overwhelmed me as I had not thought at all about what I was going to do once I got up to or out of the other side!!!
Basically I did a backside rail grab during the fifty-fifty, and then once I ran out of momentum ~ I pulled in and knee-slid (fully padded of course) back down the transition, and me and my body were just so avidly excited thereafter to do more on both sides of the ramp, as many times as possible!
Getting backside fifty-fifties was really really easy though as I just had to ride the transition and feel for the grind and stay in the ramp sort of thing, but working out how to get into frontside fifty-fifties was really really difficult at first ~ as I wanted to stay in the the ramp more horizontally but needed to get upright vertically on top of the platform.
I actually had to learn to do a rear five-0 pivot to tail before I could get the gist of actual frontside fifty-fifty grind, which really motivated me as learning to do things by doing additional things in the mean time was such a bonus.
aidie said: I just love looking at skateboard wheels I have no idea why ? :)
The shape, colour and graphics of the wheels as being collectable sets of organized function ~ along with their direct associations with the bearings, trucks, boards and mountings and what can in unity be done with them aspirationally and inspirationally has a very particular appeal I think.
aidie said: It good to see the freestyle sport making it into the olympics which by the way from the qualifiers is going to be the highlight ( sky brown ). I now watch skatebaorders on TV which I enjoy, they like you are so skilled I marvel at what I am seeing.
When you stated about freestyle skateboarding making it into the Olympics ~ I was not sure if you meant this type of freestyle:
As made famous by Rodney Mullen and then as got incorporated into street and ramp skating involving the flips and all that, so I googled the Olympics thing and found the following, with a young lady (Bryce Wettstein from 0:56) who has a very similar skating technique to that of myself (essentially old-school with the rail grab and foot plant trick to disaster at 1:02), apart from having a very relaxed style compared to mine as I skated hard, heavy and fast. And oddly enough, the next rider (Tristan Rennie 1:09:) did also the sort of things I did, aside from the flip grab (1:30) as I was more into doing early grabs and extensions stuff and not so much flips:
I do not so much marvel at the skaters but feel more excited for them in being able to use the facilities that they have these days ~ I mean oh my whole life wow the transitions and coping lines and lengths of the California Skateparks Training Facility pool complex is completely and utterly amazing!
Watching it all has me reliving my experiences and enjoying thier's too as they get to skate my idea of what skatepark seventh heaven is.
Then there are heavenly places like this too as perhaps the sixth heaven:
Which has from time to time little angels such as Sky Brown doing tuck knee indie grabs like this:
www.youtube.com/watch
Bless not just the airborne division and may all their grinds be long and their transition lines verily smooth!
this is awesome stuff. I cantI believe you were so good ! I was never that good. I had to make my own decks, I couldnt actually buy one, and then attach the trucks and wheels both imported. I just love looking at skateboard wheels I have no idea why ? :) It good to see the freestyle sport making it into the olympics which by the way from the qualifiers is going to be the highlight ( sky brown ). I now watch skatebaorders on TV which I enjoy, they like you are so skilled I marvel at what I am seeing.