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04/04/08 |
4/8/08
04/04/08 - Bang! Another update! I know I should wait a few months to write anything but after my last posting I received an email from none other than Ian Levine. Lots of you remember Ian but if you don't he was a hell of a vert skater. He used to ride for Molotov and I'm 96% sure he was the first person in Minnesota to do a McTwist. I have footage of him doing them at the Oasis when the vert ramp was 24 feet wide and the park was only half the size of the old warehouse. There were batting cages on the other side. Woody did 540s long before then but they were frontside - slob I think. Ian did proper ones. In fact I think he even did 540 ollies. He had a ramp in his yard for a while that can be seen in the Gullwing 'Full Power Trip' video. Anyway, Ian kind of disappeared from the scene like 15 years ago. It's kind of rare that skaters just quit. Especially when they were as talented as Ian. He had full page ads in Magazines and somewhere I have an old Molotov video that Ian has some great footage in (I'm still looking for it). Well someone at his job found some old pictures of him here. Believe it or not he had never heard of hardflip.com! Anyway, he sent me an email saying he's alive and well. He went back to school for engineering and now he's married to a lawyer, got two kids, and lives in South Minneapolis. Sounds like he's doing great. Now I've got to pull out my old VHS tapes and convert them to DVD or Blueray or whatever the hell the new technology is. I'll put some clips on the site when I get them. And Badger is going to be throwing his crusty brain under the hardflip hood. Look for some changes soon. Some time between now and never.  Okay, no skating outside tomorrow. This has been one long ass winter. I've been hibernating for about the last six months. Sessioning the basement is fun but gets old in about 30 seconds. My son has taken to joining me for my kickflip-a-day resolution. He gets all excited and will grab my hand saying 'kickflip? kickflip?'. Then I bring him down in the basement and ask him how many tries he thinks it'll take and every time, no matter how many times I miss he says 'FIRST TRY!'. He's also super into fingerboards. We have a little skatepark set up on the dining room table and even have doubles sessions (see photo - that's my son under my double chin). He yells 'EXTREME' and is getting into all kinds of funny shit. He still can't stand on a real skateboard but tries to ollie on his fingerboards. It's pretty damn funny.
I can't wait for spring. Very much looking forward to skating Shriver's ramp, skating around the Lake (Nokomis), and just getting outside. Went to the park last Tuesday for the first time in a while. I felt out of shape. Shocker. The family and I are going to Florida in like three weeks so I'm trying to shed a few pounds to look awesome on the beach. I'm pretty much just eating vegetables now. It's kind of fun. No good stories, really. I just watched part 16 of the Cardiel Epicly Later'd. If you haven't watched it, you should. I'm probably the last one to see the whole thing so that isn't really relevant. Still haven't seen Fully Flared. I saw part of it but didn't have time to see the whole thing. One of these days. I swear. 01/31/08. You know what that means? 31 kickflips. Well, more than that but the point is I'm still going. Good session the other day. Thanks to Ole, Kevitt, Haugen and the Skatin' or Hatin' gang for continuing to invite me dispite my no-shows. Thanks to Dooner for forcing my fat ass out of the house. Great to see Danny Jensen, C.J., Josh, Jamiel, and everyone else. It made it a lot more fun to be there. Got to catch up with Nesser who has taken my dream trip several times now. Maccu Pichu. I love rocks. Something about stacking rocks fascinates me. He, London and their gals just went and after hearing Steve's stories I'm making it a point to get there before I die. Some of you may remember the Yacht Rocks I've posted in the past. A good friend of mine is engaged to the guy who writes them and I think they're great. Well, after over a year long wait a new one is out with a new actor who many of you might remember. Check it out. Good shit.
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