Life on Balance (Board)

Despite the wife giving me 3 hours to go and do whatever I wanted, it was far to hot for me to go and carve up some hills, so spent the weekend doing a little exploring, bit of trig-point searching (I'm not trespassing, honest!) and bit of wobbling around on the Comp 16/ plastic bottle balance board.

I keep my eye out for drainage pipe, but no such luck.  Doesn't really matter as the wife gets through a bottle every couple of days so there's usually a stack of them out the back.  My set-up is certainly easier to use than the scrub version they had knocking round KMC back in the day, but it's also cheaper and I normally get around half an hours wobbling before the bottle gives up.

In other news, went to see a Chiropractor for the first time last week following a twinge after picking up a small lunch box.  I figured that after years of crashing my board in various ways, years of humping stuff round building sites and months of lifting baby Ethan in 'the wrong way', that something must be up with me.  Took £42 and an hour to say that on the whole I was okay, if a little stiff.  This is fair enough - I don't tend to stretch ever.  It's probably why my left achilles tendon doesn't feel too good either, but that's another story.  Anyway, I wasn't at all surprised that I was recommended a few weeks treatment just to see what happens.  I get the picture that I'm going to spend around £100 just to be told that my back is exactly the way it should be for a thirty-something.  But does chiropractory work?  Does it work like a placebo?  Will it work if deep down, I don't believe that it will work?  I've had one manipulation so far with another two on Thursday.  Watch this space.

Elsewhere, after wondering why the BFC had the website yumyumbfc.com printed on their latest DVD 'We'll apologise later' when the link didn't work......suddenly the link does work.  Welcome back BFC!  Well worth a gander and a bookmarking for some quality pics and a nice Nicky Stirrups video.


This weekend - 29th and 30th May 2010: IRONSIDES Court Farm Mountainboard Centre, Tillington Herefordshire HR4 8LG for Round 2 of this years ATBA-UK International Mountainboard series.  Got another pass out from the misses so look forward to seeing a load of you there.  Intention at the moment is to get there on the Friday for a bit of a practice as I've not been to Court Farm in a couple of years.  Only thing I can think right now is that with all this good weather recently, its going to be fast.

Word on the street is that there is the possibility of a few people camping in Cannock Chase towards the end of June for a weekends session in the woods.  I've been a couple of times as written up here and had a blast each time so keep your ear to the ground, or alternatively, visit the SD forum thread here.

Sore Ankles :(

Been waking up for the last 6 months with the occasional sore ankle that goes away after a while but is definitely worse after I have been boarding. Although I mountain board with high ankle hiking boots on, certainly most other things I do are in trainers and perhaps a little support generally is in order..??

I've splashed out on a pair of 661 Ankle Race Brace Pro 2009 ankle supports (£12.00 each from Chain Reaction Cycles, next day delivery, zero p&p), which arrived in the post this morning.

 

First impressions seem good and I'm wearing them now in the office, underneath my trainers.  They take a bit of time to put on, as you have to tie all the way up, though this does lead to a really good fit.  Then, two straps go around, under and back around before Velcro-ing to each side of the ankle.  A third strap then goes round the ankle holding everything in place and tucking bits out of the way.

I ordered a size 'Large' as with my size 10.5UK feet I appear to be on the bottom end of the Large foot scale.  Seems to fit okay with a bit of leeway had I had smaller feet, and loads of leeway had I of had larger feet.

What I really need to do now is ride and feedback my feedback.  I'm hoping that they stay comfortable for a good three hours or so riding.  More information to follow then....

Edit: Took these riding this afternoon -

Did they fit under my boots? Yes
Did I know they were there? Yes
Did my ankles hurt?  So far... No

Though I couldn't ride for toffee at one point, and I certainly can't blame the ankles for that.

Sweet Round 1: The Edge Video

 
ATBA UK Round 1 - The Edge from Re-Ride Media on Vimeo.

...and looks ace full screen.  Credits on Vimeo accredit it to Pieter Hynam - nice work!
Looks as though it was a wet one with a couple of the corners taken off due to the weather.  Still looks like a very fun weekend, Round 2 not far away at Ironsides Court Farm on the 29th/30th May.

Skateboard of Death(TM) gets new bearings

I don't think I've talked about my skateboard before on here, mainly because I very rarely skate.  I can't do tricks on it - not even kickflip, but I do keep hold of it for one good reason - it scares the life out of me.

Bit of history for a moment.  I bought the board during a long 9 month period between leaving university and convincing someone to give me job that was loosely related to my degree.  This was the time when Derby Storm was still in its prime i.e. open (before the bmx'ers made holes everywhere from their pegs) and there was loads of lines to ride.  Not that I did much more than carve up and down the shop floor (t'was an old factory) with the occasional go on the small half pipe.  I didn't wear any protection back then - nobody did except for the occasional in-line'er (fruit-booter? you all know the jokes), but they wouldn't do up the helmet strap because that wasn't cool.  I think I did as much damage to myself over that 3-month period as I have done in three years of mountainboarding and most of it was preventable if I hadn't of been worried to wear protection.  My right knee still aches when the wind blows the wrong way...

Anyway, less of the morality tail, point being I still pull out this board occasionally because it is ace.  Put together by some lass in one of Derby old skateboard shops down Saddler Gate in around half an hour.  She asked me if I wanted one off the shelf or cobbled together from a few slightly better bits.  I opted for the latter and have told everyone since that it was a 'custom build'.

But the thing it does best, as mentioned at the top, is it scares me.  The deck feels far too small, the wheels look ready to crumble at any time, the trucks....well, I think I put them back together correctly last time???? And the bearings?  Well, my biggest fear is them seizing up and last week one of them did.  Any other tale would involve this happening on the biggest hill you can imagine leading to my serious escape or demise.  Rather boringly it fell apart in the back garden, and I fell, rather ungracefully into the wood chippings.

Turns out they don't make bearings the same way they used to - you have to insert a separate spacer separately.  Bought the bearings off ebay thanks to a tip-off from River from the mighty Lush Longboard forums here.  £2.75 for 10? Sounds like a plan - I bought 20 just to be sure.  Postage was only 95p either way.  Spacers I picked up very cheaply (free) from Rollersnakes located very cunningly just round the corner from me.

We don't do badly for small skate parks dotted  around Derby despite the demise and closure of 'the Storm'.  There's one in Markeaton Park and a slightly larger one in Alvaston Park down London Road, right next to the huge BMX track.  (I've tried to mountain board both the bmx track and the associated pump track - no luck and ended up with big gash to underside of deck).  But there is the intention of £200,000 to be spent on a city centre open park which could end up being rather good.  Details at this stage are a little sketchy, but if you want to keep up with the news then the Derby Skatepark Project is a good place to start.  Definitely one to keep an eye on anyway and could be very well placed for a quick lunchtime session or drop in after work....