Growing up is optional

I got the opportunity to go to work with a friend tonight who drives a highway patrol car for the police. We had to go really fast (I won’t say how fast) to catch a guy doing 126km/h (78mph). For the foreigners, the speed limit here is 100km/h, the roads are not straight, and it is strictly policed.

Rush hour is the boring bit, although there was a minor accident that we had to go to.

If you get the chance, do it. More details may follow…

One thing I forgot to say: When we stopped anyone, they all reach for their cell phone the second we walk away from the car to write-up the ticket. I guess everyone wants to tell someone. Either to vent, or for consolment? What did you do last time you were stopped?

Got a B for my final exam. Not as good as I hoped, but it’s better than I thought it would be. Should end up with a B+/A- for the paper overall. Anyone need Strategic Governance analysis done? Directorships on offer?

• A new skateboard
• 4GB iPod
• Beer

I want to keep a record of my skating so that I can look back and see what I’ve done, without interfering with my main blog. To keep the admin easy, I set it up at Wordpress.com. They can do all the hard work I just keep it up to date.

Bigger posts and reviews etc will still go here. It’s just to keep track of where I go and what I achieve. If anyone else wants to get in and use it too, let me know and I’ll set you up as a user too.

Went for a skate at Maclean park last night. Got given a lesson in how to ride a longboard at a skatepark. A guy was there jumping over the spine, among other things, on a longboard.

It wasn’t a standard setup. He had shortboard trucks and wheels, with no risers. Now I want to get a shortboard too so I can learn more tricks…

One month on and I’ve worn out my first bearing. It’s starting to bind up a bit and some of the others are starting to get very noisy. I estimate that I’ve ridden about 300km (186 miles) this month. Mostly flat, smooth surface around the Wellington waterfront and the footpaths and roads near home.

I’m not sure how long a skateboard bearing should last. When I skated as a teenager I could get about a year out of a set of bearings. Are there any skaters out there that can recommend what I should look for in a reliable long-life bearing? Or is it more cost effective to just use cheap ones?

Been playing around with my new Barfoot longboard. I’m absolutely stoked. I’m used to the flex now. I used to feel very aware and uncomfortable about it, but now it’s cool. I have only tried some relatively small hills, hitting probably only 35-40km/h (22-25mph).

On fine days I’m travelling about 14km (9 miles) on flat land around the Wellington waterfront and then from the train station to home. I’m still looking for some hills that aren’t too steep to begin downhill on.

I still want to build my own deck and I think Kauri would look cool, but I’ll stick to my Barfoot for a while.

It’s here! Two weeks ago I ordered my new Barfoot Roundtail Noserider online from SK8SonH8 in San Francisco. I’ve never had a longboard before, so my review is going to be based on what I know from riding my oldschool shortboard.

The first thing that is obvious about is its size. At 47″ (1.19m) it’s taller than my 6 year old daughter, huge compared to most skateboards. Pulling it out of the box, the next thing I found was the new Revenge torsion trucks. The website still had them listed with the older Baku Torsion trucks, but I didn’t mind either way, as I have nothing on which to base a comparison. From what I’ve read online they’re both excellent. The red stripes were nicely matched with Kryptonics Route 62 Clear-Red wheels.

The deck is shaped like a surfboard longboard: broad nose, slight rocker and round tail.

Standing on it for the first time was a bit unnerving, the trucks being 37.5″ (0.95m) apart meant that there is a bit of flex when standing in the middle of the board. This is likely to be exaggerated by my unorthodox riding style.

The slight rocker gives it the impression of having a kicktail. I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but it works well.

Not willing to take it out a bomb a big hill on the first go, I took it for a long lap around the block. It’s very smooth, even on New Zealand’s hard chip road. On the smooth asphalt roads it’s even better. One or two pushes on the flat is enough to get a really good roll. Even a small incline results in good acceleration.

Overall I’m very pleased. Keep watching this space. There’s bound to be blood and gore as I get more experienced.