New vids, yo!

The Honda - Revisted

As promised, here are some pictures of the car:

Now, for a little addition to the saga. As if karma hadn't screwed me thoroughly enough, I had another mishap last week. I was playing golf at Silverhorn in Edmond, and my round wasn't going well. I couldn't manage to get any control on any shot I took. We were teeing off on the 12th (I think..), which is a par 3 that runs along the edge of the course next to Hefner Road. I teed up with a 5 iron, and laid into one...shanked off to the right...and CRACK! What the hell was that? Sure enough, a car was driving by and my ball had smashed through the windshield. To make matters worse, I came to find out it was a young family in a Chrysler minivan with two small children in the back seat. Scared shitless. I told the guy I would pay for everything. I finished my round, losing no fewer than 10 more balls because my mind was totally off the game at that point. So what did the bill come to? $222. So let's do the math:

Sold the stolen car: $205

Less: Car dolly: $40

Car windshield: $222

Total : -$59

Anyone want to buy a CD single of Shawty get Loose?

The Honda

This post isn't about skating, but I felt it was a story that needed to be shared. To preface this tale, I will begin by saying that I live in the ghetto. There is a crack-and/or-whore house across the street, and stray dogs running wild. On more than one occasion, panhandlers have knocked on our door asking for money. Someone tried to buy weed from me last week. Our house isn't much better, at least on the outside. The inside is great, and we thought that would be enough to make living in this hellhole somewhat bearable. But outside, the landlords have given up on the landscaping entirely. The once beautiful flower beds are now nothing but weeds, and the yard is a minefield of dog crap from the losers in the other units who refuse to pick up after their pets.


Now for the icing on the proverbial shit-cake. My honda was stolen last week. I got a new car recently, and had been parking the honda in the street across from the devil house - for lack of a better place. I'm pretty sure someone noticed it wasn't being driven, and took advantage. Now, believe it or not, this wasn't altogether unfortunate. The car was a piece, to put it nicely. It had been in numerous wrecks, the most recent of which left it without a passenger-side mirror, or the ability to lower the passenger window. The paint was scratched, the interior was faded and peeling, and the A/C didn't work. And one of the wheels had a stripped lugnut, so I couldn't remove it to change the bald tire. In short, it wasn't much of a car, and you might say the thief did me a favor by taking it off my hands. I filed a police report, and assumed I'd never see it again.


Fast forward to two days ago, and I get a phone call from a random number while I'm with Emily in the middle of enjoying a lovely 1/2 sandwich 1/2 salad combo at Panera Bread. It's the cops telling me they've found my car. I ask if it can wait, I'm eating, and I'm very hungry. No, it can't wait. The woman on the phone tells me that the car has a flat and the ignition has been punched, but other than that it's in good working order. I'm surprised that it would be so pristine, but without time to ponder, I wolf down my sandwich, pack my salad in a to-go box and we head out.


We pull up to a dilapidated tenement complex, and see the police officer's car, but my car is nowhere in sight. Wait... what is that? It sure looks like a honda civic, but it doesn't look like my car. The body and wheels have been spray painted black and red, respectively. The trunk is open, and the contents have disappeared. I open the door, and it only gets worse. There is a giant hole in the dash where the stereo once was. The glove box and the center console are empty as well, and there are tools and odds and ends in the seats which didn't come from me. The cop, with feigned concern hardly masking the boredom in his voice, told me that anything in the car was mine now. So at this point I'll stop and give you a rundown of the treasures I salvaged from the car:


- A DVD/VCR combo with remote (stolen I assume).
- A CD single of "Shawty get loose" (I listened to it today...not bad at all)
- A blue maglite.
- Some screwdrivers, one of which is required to start the car now that the ignition is sitting in my lap.
- A pair of crimson and cream sunglasses with "Oklahoma" on the bridge of the nose. (Oh, the irony!!! robbed by a fellow Sooner!!!)


The front left tire is flat, which happens to be the same tire that is on the broken wheel. The thief had apparently taken a machine tool to it and completely mauled the wheel to no avail. The cop suggested I air the tire up before I drive the car home, so I run down the street to O'Reilly's and get a can of fix-a-flat. When I come back I find out I just wasted $5.43 because the tire can't hold air when the wheel is cracked in half from the inside. The cop tells me to drive it home slowly...duh...so I turn the car on, and it turns several times before turning over. Of course, the bastard siphoned out the gas before he left. That stuff is worth real money. It had just enough fumes left to get me home, with Emily following to keep me from being run off the road. And of course, there's still no safe place to park it, so it goes right back to the street where it was when it got stolen.


Epilogue: I rented a tow dolly from U-haul for $40, took a half-day of vacation, and dragged the honda to Carmax, where they will buy anything. No lie. And...drumroll please...$205.00. That's what my car is now worth. Luckily that is just enough to make the whole ordeal even somewhat worthwhile.


God I can't wait to get out of here. I close on the house August 3rd (Oh yeah, I bought a house. It's in Edmond. It's awesome because the neighbors have teeth and don't take the bus to work.) Counting down the days...


P.S. I forgot to take pictures of the car, but I'll make sure I get some when I go pick up my check.

Venues - The School

There's a school near my house that is a skaters' paradise. There are flat rails, curved rails, kinked rails, planter ledges, downstair ledges, flat ledges over stairs, pretty much everything you can think of, it's there. However, I've come to realize, I'm still not good enough to take advantage of most of this stuff. I am having trouble building up my courage to jump on the bigger rails.

But... I grinded my first handrail today. It reminded me of my very first time to jump on a handrail. It was about a 4-stair rail, maybe 5 feet long, and I only grinded about the last 2 feet. But dammit, I jumped on with both feet, and slid. It counts. I'll have to be patient, progress comes ever so slowly.

Old School 2

Consider my first set of videos to be titled "Old School 1", the original T-Money skate video. This, then, would be "Old School 2". The skates are better, the rails (rail) are (is) higher. The tricks are...roughly the same. I'd love to do some videos on location at some sweet skate spots, because I think I'm just about ready to jump back on a real handrail. But I don't know if I could convince Emily to come with me to document the experience. Until then, I present "Old School 2". Enjoy!

New Skates!

I've decided if I am really going to getback into skating, I need proper equipment. I was doubly motivated after the guy at the skate park dogged on my old skates. But he wasn't wrong about how ghetto they were. Take a look at the pictures and compare for yourself.

Old Rollerblade CI5's. These were awesome way back when. I bought this pair at Play It Again for a steal because they were pretty worn out already, but the wire around the buckle and the disconnected cuff were my doing. These things are falling apart. Plus, they're size 13, and I wear an 11. I just got used to them being too big.

The new skates aren't exactly "new". They're Salomon STi Pro's, and they're about 3 years old. $300 brand new, but I got them for $60 on e-bay. They are in great condition, but they went for next to nothing because Salomon exited the aggressive skate market over a year ago. Nobody wants a pair of skates from a non-existent

manufacturer...except me that is. I skated them
for the first time today, and they're like a dream. They have UFS (Universal Frame System) frames, so I can switch out the frames in no time, and they have a combination hard/soft boot that has awesome support. When I grind, the skates feel locked onto the rail. It's fantastic.

Now for the next bit of good news. I raised my rail by another 8 inches! More videos to come...

Old vs. New - Skaters

Back in the day, everyone's favorite skater was Arlo Eisenberg. He was the Godfather, the epitome of skating talent...back in the day. Here is a video of Arlo from Hoax 4 (my first skate video), which we thought was incredible at the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3u-H4BijMhU

I have a new favorite skater now, and his name if Chris Haffey. He represents the level that the elite skaters are on today. Everything is bigger, more technical, more ridiculous. The stuff he's skating is so unbelievable, it's almost superhuman. Here are some videos of Chris Haffey for comparison. Nothing against Arlo, because he'll always be my hero, but Chris Haffey makes Arlo Eisenberg look like an amateur.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAFknDIzGDc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiZ5BnLrbVk

Venues - Mathis Brothers Skatepark

Yesterday evening I took my first trip back out to the skatepark. In this case, I'm talking about the Mathis Brothers' Skatepark next to Mitch Park in Edmond. It was not as great as I remember. There's a major difference between skating on a round rail over grass and skating on a square ledge on cement. I know this because my bruised and bloodied knee told me. Alright, it wasn't nearly as bad as all that, but here's the basic rundown:

1. I was the only person on inline skates for most of the afternoon, until one other guy showed up. He asked me where I got those skates because he hadn't seen them around in FOREVER. Thanks man, I know they're old, no need to rub it in. Also, he was ridiculously good, which only made me feel worse in comparison.

2. I don't have the balls (or maybe the proper protective gear) to try 90% of the stuff there. I spent my time on two or three managable ledges, just trying to work on my grinds.

3. The park was crawling with 13 yr. old skateboarders. Out of the 30 kids there, maybe two of them could land any sort of trick, but they all looked at me like I was the one that sucked.

4. Falling on cement hurts approximately three times as much at 26 as it did at 16. I'm pretty sure I heard things crack. But I am still all in one piece. Every cloud...

5. At one point, I heard a 13 yr. old girl with braces ask her 13 yr. old friend if he "still smoked crack". Enough said.

All in all it really wasn't that bad. I felt like I was in the way most of the time, but I did hit some decent tricks after I got a little more comfortable. Gotta keep practicing if I'm ever going to compete at the X-Games.

Session 5

Alright, I skipped a few sessions, but I've been making some really good progress. I've been at it for about 30-45 minutes a day every day after work, which is about how long it takes for me to be either severely overheated, lonely from skating by myself, or too annoyed by the dogs that constantly bark at me from the house next door. But I'm posting this session in particular because I had Emily come outside to take a couple videos of me for my adoring fans (just kidding, you're the only one who reads this...). You can see, my form is not anything special. I'm still very stiff legged, and I don't go very fast. But I've been able to throw in some alley oop tricks, half-cab tricks, and combos...sort of. Check it out, and pay particular attention to how buff I look in my sweet sleeveless shirt:

Session 1

I started with the bread and butter of grinds. The Frontside, and the Soul grind. I worked my way up to doing a Royale, and a Topside Acid as well. 4 grinds. Not bad for day 1 I guess. I'm definitely going to have to work at this.

The Rail

Today I drove to my local "big box" hardware store and headed to the plumbing section. There, I spent more money than I ever expected to spend (steel prices these days...geez!!!) buying galvanized steel pipe of various lengths, as well as several types of fittings. These are the pieces I'm putting together to make my first rail.

I am not a great jumper, and I never was. I always excelled by having a larger arsenal of grinds and other street tricks than my buddies. So rather than building ramps, I am going to start where I left off, and try to re-learn to grind.

The rail is finished, and she is a beauty. 10 feet long. 12 inches high at the top, and 8 inches at the bottom. 1 1/4 inch diameter.

Day 1 - The Idea

Let me explain the purpose of this blog by way of a quick introduction. I'm Tristan. I grew up in suburban Norman, Oklahoma, and I led what I consider to be a fairly ordinary middle-American life. I did well in school, didn't get into any serious mischief, and graduated from by hometown university (Boomer Sooner!).

Now, I'm 26 years old. I've been out of school for two years, and I work for a bank from 8-5, behind a desk, as a commercial credit analyst. I live with my lovely girlfriend, 2 dogs, and a cat, and life is grand. But lately the days and weeks of my life have taken on a certain, rather predictable pattern. I get up at 5:30, walk the biggest of the two dogs (who, although she outweighs the little guy 10 to 1, still has the smallest bladder of the bunch), then eat a bowl of cereal, grab a shower, and head to work. When I get home around 6:00 I do some chores, run some errands, walk the big dog at least two more times, and settle in for a couple hours of tv before bed at around 9:30.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the whole early-to-bed-early-to-rise thing. I have goals in my professional life, and I'll do what it takes to get ahead in the world. But sometimes I wish life could go back to the way it was during the summers of my youth. I was carefree, had no responsibilities, and my best friends and I skated anywhere we wanted to go.

Skating, and by that I mean "aggressive inline skating", was what defined us during those years. We would wake up early to skate, and stay up late to skate. When we weren't skating we were sitting around listening to 311 (the self-titled album) or the Offspring while we took our skates apart and then rebuilt them, read Daily Bread magazine, or watched skating videos for some inspiration or ideas for new tricks. This was back in the days of Video Groove, The Hoax, and Quest for the Holy Rail. Arlo Eisenberg, the father of the sport, was in his prime.

I don't know whether it was out of sentimentality, or just messiness, but I have kept my old skates rolling around in the trunk of my car for about a decade now. I think it is time for them to get some use. I'm going back to the Old School, and this blog will serve as a record of my progress.