Skaters Blog

Not much going on

2008-05-11T23:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I have not updated this site in a long time. Many reasons are of this cause, Not many people that skate are into what I have on this site. They really are into the whole thing of seeing skaters jump off of huge sets of stairs, and thats about it, where as I like just taking pictures of spots, and letting your imagination make you happy.
So I have moved all of my effort into something that I find much more interesting. I still skate, and have alot of fun, but I just find what I tried to do not work for me, and as a result I lost interest in trying to make my idea for this site work.
So I have started up something old again. I use to have a small company with my friend called Kustom Ped Designs. Alot of you skaters might not be into the go-ped sport, but if you are or you dont know what it is take a look at KustomPedDesigns.com.

Speed Wobble!

2008-03-17T17:51:00.000-07:00

Alright Well I wanted to see what would eliminate speed wobble as much as possible. Would it be loose trucks? Maybe it is Tight trucks? I read two different theories, and I had to experiment it for my self firsthand. My conclusion was not what I had expected.
First things first. Speed wobble on a skateboard is created when the skateboard moves fast enough to create the board to go back and forth rapidly (wobble). This rapid movement usually is uncontrollable.
So My "testing" that I did was taken on a hill near my house in Whittier, CA. I did all of my runs at about the same speed for the same distance. The only difference in the testings I did was the tightness, and looseness of the trucks. And to notice any difference at all in these testings I drastically changed the trucks from tight to loose when I did both testings.
So my first test to eliminate speed wobble as much as I possibly could was the "Tight truck theory." The tight trucks theory is that if your trucks are really tight the board will have a harder time to wobble back and forth. Which would reduce speed wobble at higher speeds.
The first thing that I noticed with very tight trucks is that the board is very hard to turn with, so having control of the board to me at any speed is very slim. The ride is also noticeably a lot rougher. As I started down the hill with my trucks maxed out to as tight as they could go I noticed how much control of the board that I did not have, but I kept on going. And as I picked up speed the board vibrated a lot due to the fact that there was nothing to absorb the shock cause the busings are smashed way down. As I continued I felt a bit of speed wobble kicking in, but nothing too much to throw me off my board. just enough to give me a little scare.
As I came to a stop I didn't notice much speed wobble at all. The only concern that I had with the tight trucks is that the board is very hard to turn with, and that the board vibrates way to much because there is nothing absorbing the vibrations the board is getting from the ground.
Now time for the second theory. The loose truck theory." the lose truck theory is that if my trucks are really loose the busings of the truck will be able to absorb the vibrations which cause the board to wobble back and forth.
So for the loose truck theory I loosened up my trucks drastically. I put the nut flush with the kingpin. The first thing I noticed with the loose trucks is that turning and control of the board is easy. Also the vibrations are very minimal.
Alright So here I went again down the hill. Only this time I was going down with loose trucks. As I started down the hill I noticed how easily the board can move left and right. So I quickly got positioned on the board for a downhill run. speed was now picking up, and as I adjusted my feet the board moved very quickly to one side scaring me. I thought I was going to go into a state of speed wobble, but to my thinking I did not. I easily gained control back. Now I'm getting to the peak of my speed on this board for this hill. And at about the same spot where I started to notice speed wobble with tight trucks I also noticed a little bit of speed wobble with my now loose trucks. The only thing now though is that it did not shake as violently.
Now as I stopped I noticed that the loose trucks give me more control of the board. I can turn when I need to, but also when I adjust my feet I turn a little to one side. Having that much ease of board movement would not be very safe when going down a hill, or at any fast speed.
So all in all I noticed not to much of a difference at fast speeds. Loose trucks, and tight trucks both have their advantages, and unfortunately their disadvantages at both high and low speeds. As for me I will keep on testing this theory until I'm convinced one over the other. but for now I think I will just keep on riding loose so I can control where I want to go with my board.

Speed Wobble Testing

2008-03-13T15:46:00.000-07:00

Alright well, I was on Skaterscafe.com asking what causes speed wobble. I got some info and a few people told me that if I loosen my trucks I should notice less speed wobble at fast speeds. I had always thought that the tighter my trucks were the less speed wobble that I would get.
So I will have to go out and test this theory. All I know is that it is going to be a few trips up and down the hill near my house for this experiment.

Here is a pic of my setup. I guess you could call this my suspension setup, and my ride!

Paranoid Park

2008-03-12T03:54:00.000-07:00

Alright well, I was on Myspace right, and I see this link for a movie titled "Paranoid Park." It is directed by Gus Van Sant . Now I watched one of the previews, and the movie seems to look alright. The movie is about some skater kid in high school who is involved somehow with a murder. Now I dont know too much else about the movie, but once I actually can get my eyes on this movie I will post my input on the move.

An old Picture I had on my computer

2008-03-11T11:22:00.001-07:00

Yeah here is another pic I took awhile ago while I was on my way to the whitier skatpark. And like I said before, I need to get a better camera.

Who is at fault?

2008-03-05T11:12:00.001-08:00

So take a look at this article here that is written by "The Argus," a U.K. internet source for news.The artice. So after reading this article a few times I came to my own conclusions. Here is my review of this article.
There were a few kids who were skating, and were forced to stop skating. As far as the article says they were never told to stop skating, just forced to stop, by a local store owner who took matters into his own hands. Which resulted in pissing these kids getting pissed off. I sure as hell know if some old dude came up to me and tried to take my board from me I would get pissed.
Now what this store owner should have done was ask these kids to stop skating, and if they refused then call the local authorities. Yes I believe that would be the more professional way of handling things, or at least a safer way of handling the situation. Instead the store owner tried to do things his way.

Twitter.com

2008-03-05T01:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, i think this is a really neat little idea. Twitter.com. I think it is pretty chill.check it out.

My Boards

2008-02-28T16:11:00.000-08:00

Alright so here is my collection of my boards. I have no idea what the one on the far left is or the one on the far right is. The one on the left I found in my grandmas backyard. it is really weird because one half of the board if wider than the other half. but it was really scrapped up when I found it.
The board in the middle is my current board by Blind. I love it. its soooo nice! I usually get things about the board being to skinny, and people ask how I ride with the board cause its to skinny. But I like it, so I'm fine.
The the board on the far right is my board that I cruise with. it has Lucky 7's in it, and it is as smooth as fuck. It seems to spin a lot more than my bones swiss i use to have a long time ago, but I don't know. and it seems to never stop. The only thing about this board is that I dont know who made it. it was in my great grandmothers garage, and it was my uncles. when he gave it to me the board was blank, with no hole either for the trucks. so i painted the deck, and then drilled the holes for the trucks.

Yesterday

2008-02-28T09:47:00.000-08:00

I took some pics yesterday when I was skating to the Whittier Skatepark, and on my way home from the Whittier Skatepark. Some of the pictures are a little blurry because I didnt have the camera focused correctly due to the fact that I didn't want to lose my balance and eat the pavement when i was taking the pics.

My board

2008-02-27T17:23:00.000-08:00

So I changed my trucks on my cruising board because my old GrindKings were at the end of their life. So i changed them with a pair of Krux that I had bought a long, long time ago. The Krux are a lot stiffer so I'm not wobbling anymore down hills, but the only thing that was bugging was the front trucks. the corners were sticking out from the board. So today I decided to fix that.

I had already started working on the trucks when I took the pic. So here is a before of what I was talking about/ That is how the corners of the truck were sticks out.

Now here is what it looks like now. I rounded the edges with a file, and my Dremel. It seems to have worked out pretty smooth. I like the way it looks now. Im just debating on wether I should leave it how it is, or paint tha base of the truck.

Whittier Skatepark

2008-02-27T15:06:00.001-08:00

Today was 2.5 miles trip from my house to the local skate park. The skate park is located on Mar Vista, and Washington Ave. Its right across the street from the police station. The park also requires you to wear all padding, which is enforced. There is some dude outside of the gates who sits in his truck and watches the park making sure that everyone has pads.
Well the park it self is really quiet. There is hardly ever anyone there. The only time That I have seen someone in there is when I tried to go in, but I "wasn't allowed" because I had no padding. My favorite part about the park is the bowl. It is huge, maybe to huge, but its a lot bigger than the brea skate park pool.

Bored

2008-02-26T10:24:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I was at home, and I got a really great idea out of boredom. I decided to make a candle out of my old wheels I had sitting around. It looks way better to have these wheel candles instead of huge candles from target in the room. I just got some candle wax, and made some wick out of cotton, and poured the wax into the wheel, stuck the wick in the center, and there I had it, a wheel candle! Now what I should do is sell them, and make some money! Now that would be cool!

2008-02-25T13:58:00.000-08:00

Alright so today I headed out with my cruising board towards Santa Gertrudes, and Leffingwell to this little ledge behind the Little Caesars pizza place. The place looks skatable, but there is just a lot of little pebbles here and there. I'm sure if it is swept up a little it would be decent.
I don't know what the place is, but it looks like some kinda of loading and unloading zone. it looks abandoned due to the fact that it is so run down, but then the one security camera that is there makes the places seem to be occupied . There is a U-Haul right next to it, so maybe it is part of the U-Haul place, but I'm not to sure.
What I like about the place is that there is a Little Caesars pizza place right in front of the spot. So when everyone gets hungry there is good, cheap pizza and bread sticks.

Some Dude I saw Skating.

Someones left over pizza. There was still pizza in there.

Back

2008-02-20T11:25:00.000-08:00

Well, I have been a little under the weather these past weeks, and didn't have to much time to update the blogs. So my bad. The only problem now is that It is raining outside, and there is not much to do. If I cant skate, then what am I to do inside?
Well So far the day is slow. Its raining outside, and I have decided to make Toaster Strudels. I just wish my frosting on the Toaster Strudel looks like the frosting on the package. The package has nice swirls and mine is retarded.

Spots I've seen

2008-02-07T17:36:00.000-08:00

So today I took out my board I cruise around on. And I took some pictures of these 2 places that I usually see kids skating at, but the pics came out really crappy. But I will put them up anyways.

And then there is this awesome looking wall! which is located on the corner of Whittier Blvd, and Colima. It has a really nice slope but if you screw up and fall off your board during the afternoon you can say goodbye to your board cause there is alot of passing cars that are sure to run your board over.
I'm not sure what time is good to ride it without having to worry about losing you board but I'm guessing around 7 or 8 pm or early morning. I will get up one morning to try it out. But then again I'm to lazy to get up that early.

The Fish Dish Revisited

2008-02-06T18:43:00.000-08:00

Well I only ended up going to what I know as "The Fish Dish" if it has some other name, please let me know. We got a few pics of this place midday Tuesday. The place was really cleaned up from the last time I was there.
When you first get to the entrance you will notice about 5 or 6 long dark tunnels that have light at the end. It doesn't look like much. As you make your way down the tunnels it gets dark for a while, and then as you make your way out the light starts to come back. Then once you are out of the tunnels you find yourself at The Fish Dish.
The place is pretty secluded, so if you want a chill place to skate and hangout its the place to be. Out of the couple times that I have been there I haven't seen anyone skating there, but there are signs of people skating. One of my friends told me part of some skate video was filmed there, but i don't know any truth to that.

Fish Dish

2008-02-04T16:38:00.000-08:00

Here are a couple pictures of this one place that I was told was called "The Fish Dish." it is located in Craig Park and the very far end by what i believe is the 57 Freeway in Brea, CA. My friends took me over there, and the place was a really chill place to skate, and hangout at. I'm going to go back to the place tomorrow to take some pictures so you can get a better idea of what the place looks like. And I was told that on the other end of that park there is a place called "The Fish Bowl." So i'm going to look for that tomorrow, and get some pictures of that as well.

First Kick!

2008-02-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

My name is Vince, I live on the border of Orange County, and Los Angeles County in Whittier, CA. I grew up in Fullerton, CA and well, that is where most of my skateboarding adventures take place.
I love skating! I love the fact that I can just go out, with my board, and cruise all over the city. I can find a parking lot to just hangout in and practice my tricks. and maybe i might not find a parking lot, maybe I will find myself on a school campus just cruising around, or in Downtown looking through all of the shops windows. and sometimes I might see someone that I know passing by, and well it makes it even that much better having someone to skate with. and it isn't always about skating for tricks, or to cruise. Its the adventures I get, the people I meet, and the trouble I find myself in with my friends.
I'm not to sure about the similarities my skating adventures are to yours, but I find mine to be the best times I can have on the weekend. And I find them exciting enough to share with you.And I'm sure that you will enjoy them.