Category: Journal

Last night I was back at Rampworks skatepark, determined to continue the progress I had made last week. Granted, it’s baby steps of progress, but it’s progress all the same.

With my somewhat silly fear of dropping-in out of the way, I was keen to try something with a bit more flair on the mini-ramp, and spent about an hour just trying the same thing – with limited success I admit, but it was damn good fun all the same.

With a week to recover from various slams and sketchy moments, I’ll be up for it again same time next Wednesday. If Dado can recover from a “broken” back in time, it’ll be three of us going for the next instalment.

Note to self: Wrist guards are all very well, but you do spend most of the time landing on your knees and elbows. Invest in some pads for those too :o)

I finally made it out on the ramp I got for my birthday at the weekend. Initial attempts were by skateboard, although I proved to lack the talent needed to stay on the board for the duration of the short flight. After several sketchy landings I decided to bring out the big hardware and called my mountain bike into action.

This was a different kettle of rabbits altogether – a quick tightening of the suspension and I was racing toward said ramp with much gusto. Many moons have passed since I was last jumping ramps on my bike, but fortunately it went well, with the neighbourhood kids being suitably impressed with my aging brand of extreme!

I had a few sketchy landings, but in the end I ran out of fitness before I ran out of nerve. Quite pleased with myself, really – wish I’d dragged the ramp out sooner now, as the weather is definately on the turn for the worse.

Fortunately there’s the indoors Rampworks skatepark here in Liverpool, which I went to for the first time last week, and plan to go again mid-week. It’s a cracking park, although the stuff is much more daunting than at PlayStation Skatepark in London. With the help of my workmate Chris, I was dropping in to the mini-ramp for the first time last week, so I’m looking forward to taking it one step further with our next visit. (or making even more of a tit of myself, as the case may be.)

After a week of having Sky installed, I can safely say it kicks ass! I’ve watched so much cool stuff that I’ve barely been near the traditional terrestrial channels. With the Extreme Sports Channel, the NFL on Sky Sports and various other odds and ends, I’m very content with the level of programmes I’ll get to enjoy.

Especially since Fliss is paying for it! ;o)

And the Champions League hasn’t even started yet… and when it does – no more smokey pubs for me. Yay!