Vans Skatepark

     Now I have another good story from the vans skatepark. I went there again and it was fun. This time I spent pretty much the whole time in the mini-ramps, street area and combi-bowl. I learned a new trick on the mini-ramp a fakie-to-fakie-50-50. That took me a while to learn but it was fun. The combi bowl was the  fastest bowl I've ever ridden. Also, it was a little slippery, but not too bad. This time I tried the street section again, but it wasn't fun. I think to enjoy that area you have to be better than I am. Next was the bigger mini-ramp and I had fun just doing some small airs and gaytwists (fakie backside 360). Overall it was another fun visit and I plan to go back there a lot more.

Burton Store

       On August 13th I went to the Burton LA Store for the release of there 2012 product line. It was a day I had been waiting for for a long time. it finally came and i was so excited. My dad drove me up and when they opened up I immediately  bought the board that I knew I was gonna get (TWC Smalls 132), because the 1st 13 people to buy gear got gift bags. I bought the board to get the gift bag. My gift bag had, Snowboarder Mag, Anon Goggles, a limited edition T-shirt, and a little notepad. That was worth it. Then my dad and I spent about 30 minutes asking Diana (our helper) to get different sized boots. I ended up getting some Cartel bindings and my dad completed his gear for this year with some TWC boots. There was free food and catalogs and it was fun. After that we decided to go to the vans skatepark. But that story is for another time.

Long Time No Skate

         Well I finally decided to forgive the Clairemont skatepark and go back. For those of you who don't know, About a year ago, I tried to drop in on the love seat, which is a quarterpipe on the X Games vert ramp they have, that is about a foot below the full size vert ramp. I dropped in and faceplanted on the flat bottom. That was not fun. I haven't been to clairemont since, but last Friday I had an itch to try it again. So my dad and I went to the park, and man has is changed. I knew that the street course had changed and that was fun. They have a manual pad, hubbas, flat ledges, down rails, flat rails, a 6 stair and various kickers, quarterpipes and banks. That was a lot of fun skating. Then there was the mini ramp. That is what I now believe to be the second best park of the skatepark. It is about 4 ft. It is a halfipipe with a spine in the middle on one side, 2 small rollers in the middle of the middle and 1 big roller on the other side. I thought that was awesome and way better than it used to be. Then I headed over to the wooden bowls. Normally I love them, but these were kind of a disappointment. They were all bump and old. There were big wholes blocked off in them and it just wasn't that fun. I really hope they fix it. And finally the thing I came to do... The vert ramp. I started pump just to kind of warm up on it and the first run I did I slipped out. So I've gotten used to the vert ramp at encinitas and this ramp is way more slippery and the transition is different so I wasn't comfortable on the ramp and didn't try it. Next time. I think if they redid the bowls and vert ramp the park would really be perfect.
             Oh and one more thing. On the mini-ramp with the encouragement and support of all the nice guys there, I landed a footplant over the spine. That was a lot of work paid off!!

Encinitas Skatepark

I went to Encinitas twice in the last 2 days. I think all I needed was a little time off the ramp to really push myself once I got back on. All I wanted to do was pump higher than I'd pumped before. Since the last time I tried to drop in on a vert ramp was extremely unsuccessful. I don't want to drop in on something that high yet. So pumping to the coping is my goal. Yesterday, I got on the ramp and pumped up to the vert but that's as far as I got. Same thing today! I just need a couple more hours on the ramp to get up to the coping. I hope to do that over the next couple of weeks. Then today, I went during the middle of the day. Thanks to my sister for taking me. Anyways, There was some guy on the ramp going X Games height. I saw a lot of kids recently who were like 12 &13 years old dropping in on the vert ramp. I don't know how they do it.
That'll be me in a couple months. It's been fun. By the way, I have too much to say about the X Games, so I'm just going to say that I saw it all and it was amazing!!!!!!! That's all!!

Snowboarding Video

Here is the video I made from my first season snowboarding. Oh by the way, you should all check out http://www.virusintl.com/ .

Carls-not-so-bad Skatepark

       I love title puns. Anyways, I think I got there at just the right time. It was about 8:00 pm and I got there right before a big rush came. I don't know what it is normally like but it wasn't very crowded that night. I wish they had either made it a 2 part park. Because the park was slanted. I was in a smaller bowl with coping and accidentally flung my board out. Normally I would walk over and pick it up where it landed. But since the park is on uneven ground. My board rolled all the way to the street section on the other side of the park. It had a cool C-box. And some stairs and bowls. A pretty standard park. There was a 5-stair that had about 5 feet of space to get speed for it. So the park isn't designed very well but if you're good and it's not very crowded it can be fun!!!

San Marcos Skatepark

Panorama of the park.

       I went to the San Marcos Skatepark over the weekend. It was small and it was just a couple people there. I would say just go there if you're in the area but don't go out of your way to go there. They have 1 capsule bowl that is like 5 or 6 feet deep and then your choice of a quarterpipe, Euro, or Quarterpipe to get speed for the next section. Which is all metal ramps. They have a quarterpipe that is about 8 feet and then an angled coping down to a quarterpipe that is about 4 feet tall. In the middle then have a funbox with a flat down rail and ledge. Then on the side a flat down flat rail and a flat down box. I thought the park was in a good location. They had some nice 4 and 5 stairs around it that were seperate from the park. I think it is worth a small session if you are in San Marcos.