Skate News
So the second annual Casper Skate Competition is this Saturday. I’m…not very fond of contests, to put it lightly. This will be my 4th competition experience, though only the 2nd official contest I will be entering in some capacity.
The first competition I entered was about 7 years ago or so. It was really unofficial; several local skaters put it together in a warehouse they owned out by the airport. There were several titles available to win, which earned you nothing but street cred. About 10 locals competed for “Best Fuckin Run”, “Best Fuckin Trick”, etc etc. Unfortunately I walked away with “Worst Fuckin Wreck”. I was awarded an empty 40oz bottle with “Worst Fuckin Wreck” written on it in Sharpie (all in good humor, of course). Unfortunately, the wreck warranted a trip to the hospital for some X-rays of my wrist, and while I was there, my stepmom threw out my trophy. If she hadn’t, I would still have it today.
The second competition I entered was Casper’s first (semi) official competition, held during the grand opening of the skatepark. It was only a high ollie contest, but I tied for 1st with 6 decks, and won a shiny new deck (the kid I tied with won a pair of shoes. In fact, I think he lurks here).
The third competition I experienced was Casper’s first OFFICIAL official competition. Skaters had two runs of a minute each, and about 8 billion kids entered. It drug on forever. Though I had kicked around the idea of entering, I’ve never been too keen on competing. I went just to skate and watch, and had one of the worst times of my life. Not only was it completely UNfun, I got a terrible sunburn. The comp was such a buzzkill I didn’t skate for about 2 weeks afterwards, and I didn’t skate the park for about the next 7 months. Though I could never see myself making a concious decision to stop skateboarding, that competition got me close, and I didn’t even enter!
So WHY the hell would I enter this year? Well, because they’ve reintroduced the high ollie, and kept it separate from the standard street contest. I can think of about 10 skateboarders in town that skate so far beyond my capabilities in both technicality and consistency, that entering the contest would be a waste of my time and self esteem. I KNOW these kids are better than me. I don’t need to prove it to an audience. Aside from that, even if I could still hold my own on a street course (like say, 5 years ago), I’ve never liked competing, even on friendly terms. I rarely even played SKATE with my friends (think HORSE, but with skateboard tricks instead of basketball shots). However, when it comes down to raw pops, I think I’m still a contender. If I can spend $5 to enter the high ollie and possibly win something for my trouble, why not? The only competition I’m really worried about is the kid I tied with at the skatepark’s grand opening, and even if there’s another kid I don’t know about with vertical comparable to mine, there’s nothing wrong with 3rd place. Besides, even with all the tricks I’ve learned (and all those that I’ve lost), the ollie is still my favorite trick. I could cruise around town and just ollie stuff all day. So, my plan is to enter, shoot for 3rd place, and if I get higher, let it surprise me. There’s a lot of good skaters in this town, so competition will be fierce. Still, I’m confident I’ll place.
So anyway, time to complain:
Today, I head up to the skatepark to “train”. With the comp just 5 days away, I want to make sure my ollies are perfect. Bonnie bought me some new bearings after I blew one 2 weeks ago, and I’ve just started skating a new deck with plenty of pop, but I have to make sure I’m comfortable on it. Now, the skatepark DID get its money, and they’ve slowly been resurfacing the ramps at the park. Well for whatever reason, they built this completely useless little funbox with a railslide on one side. It’s tiny; too short in every dimension. Again, for whatever reason it’s become popular to stack this useless funbox on top of the flybox, effectively rendering both obstacles completely useless. Don’t let that little funbox trick you, though: Despite its small size, it weighs…I’m gonna say 3 tons, give or take a couple pounds. It must take an army of little kids to get it up there, just like little worker ants, and even trying to SLIDE it off the side of the flybox by yourself is impossible. Rather than trouble myself, I tried to skate around it. The FIRST trick I tried of the day was to hit the grind on top of the flybox. I got up on top of it and 50-50d just fine, but as I was coming out I realized “Yeah, I’m not going to clear that stupid little funbox”. I landed right next to it, alllllmost rode off, but clipped my heels on the corner of it. This threw me completely off balance, and I’m not exactly sure what happened after this point, but I know my board torpedoed out from under me. What I can’t figure out is I skate goofy, right foot forward, yet somehow managed to land on the right side of my body, despite falling backwards. I must have 180°d in the air and come down on my elbow. No big deal, really. You scrape your elbows pretty often skateboarding, but I landed in such a way as to force my arm, from a REALLY weird angle by the way, into the side of my rib cage, completely knocking the wind out of me. My immediate instinct was to jump up and walk it off, before I really realized that I couldn’t breathe. I took several steps, realized I was incapable of inhaling, and nearly passed out. I stumbled a little bit, light-headed and completely disoriented, and plopped down next to a fence, my breath coming in short, painful, weezing gasps. Confused, I thought I had hit my head (which I have done ONCE skateboarding, being a dumbass, riding switch down a huge grass hill), and was scared until I realized my head was not what hurt, but my ribs. Of course I was immediately scared again, positive I had broken a rib. Finally my breathing normalized and I stood to walk off the injury, and assess the damage. I had a large scrape on my elbow, which sweat was dripping into. It also hurt to inhale too much, so I struggled to keep my breathing shallow. Finally, as my awareness came back to me, I decided I would relax and take some photos. I only snapped a couple, and none of them were very good. Plus my stinging elbow and burning ribs were telling me I needed to relax so I just went home.
My elbow, though it’s not very bad. I mostly like the picture because at first glance it’s difficult to tell what’s going on in it.
Hopefully this injury doesn’t keep me out of the competition. The wreck was nearly 2 hours ago, and my ribs are still very tender. There’s no bruising, and the pain isn’t EXCRUCIATING, so I’m not sweating it, but I should be pretty sore tomorrow. Anyway, here’s the picture that turned out MOST decent, and it didn’t even expose right. I had the shutter speed way too fast for some reason. Still, I’m surprised I could operate the camera at all…I wasn’t thinking too well.
