Love Rye Airfield..

So Wednesday night Rollin' Randy Richard, Jaw Dropping Jared Brooks and myself went to Rye Airfield for Old Guys night. $10 for a 2:45 session is quite good. Especially at this place. Rye is amazing. I can't wait to go again. If you have never been I suggest it strongly. It has something for every level of skater. My personal favorite is the micro area. That little spot is enough to make me want to go back. If that is all it had I would still go back. But that is just a small portion of this amazing skate park. There are 3 bowls, a nice street area, a nice ramp area where most of the bikers are and a HUGE vert ramp. Thing is intimidating to look at. Maybe one day I will drop in on that, but probably not. I don't think I could ever get up the nerve for that. That thing is crazy. But what a great park. I will definitely be going over there as much as possible.

I really loved that micro area. I actually dropped in on the quarter pipes and used the half pipe in there. I almost was able to do a rock and roll fakie. Took a few hard spills trying it, but it was fun. Again, my knee took the worst of it. I gotta let that thing heal. I could feel blood dripping down my leg half way through the night. Anyway, almost got the fakie down. I am excited about that. I am going back sometime this week to work on that. Hopefully I can figure it out and be able to do it regularly. I also was grinding the rail on the little box in the micro area. I actually made it all the way across a few times and stayed on my board. I am happy about that too. It was such a great night. Skating with some of my best buds, not much better than that. I really look forward to skating there again. It is such and awesome place. Join us every other Wedenesday night. Next time we will be there is January 5th. Let's skate! http://www.ryeairfield.com/

These are precious times...

Precious times these are. Yes it's cold, but now is the time to get out and skate before that white fluffy stuff starts falling from the sky. Yes, you could go and shovel out the park, like Rollin' Randy, but I don't think I am up for that just yet. I used to, but just the thought of shoveling my driveway is enough to make me want to stay inside for the entire winter while the snow is on the ground. The thought of shoveling my driveway, cleaning off my car, and then goin and shoveling the skate park is just too much for me right now. I know, I sound like a fairweather skater. I sound pretty weak, but I am. I just can't do that right now. I will take going to Rye a couple times a month until the snow is gone.

I have been skating again now for about a month. I have been out about 4 or 5 times. I know not much in a month, but that's all I can do. I do feel like I am making great progress though. I feel like I have ollying while moving down pat. It feels good. I am getting much more confident. I can feel my confidence grow every time I go out and do something just a little bit better than I did before. I went out tonight around 8:45 and got home around 10:00. It was a great night tonight. I was ollying really well while I was skating along. It realy made me feel good. Only problem is that it makes me want to do a lot more. It makes me want to start doing some crazy stuff. Stuff I am just not ready for. I need to keep myself in check with what I should be trying. I am not 18 anymore. I am 31, almost 32, with the body of a 50 year old, at least. But just getting out and skating is making me feel a litle better. I am sore, but I love it. It is very much worth it. I really hope that within a year I will be doing some grinding and flip tricks. I know, those are tricks that aren't easy, but I don't settle for not getting better. I will work until I have those things down perfect. I don't mind sitting there doing the same thing for a few hours while I try to make progress working on a trick. So I am definitely making good progress. I am getting a really good feel for this, and I hope to be skating for a long time. But for now, these are precious times. Time to take advantage of the fact that there is no snow on the ground yet. Time to get out and do what you love to do. Time to get out and skate.

Maybe i was wrong........

Okay, so i might have been wrong with the preferring to skate in winter thing......man it is COLD out there!

I would rather skate in winter......

I know it sounds crazy, but I would rather skate in winter than in summer for multiple reasons. It's 24 degrees out right now. I just got home from a 1 1/2 hour skate session at the Nashua skate park. And I loved every minute of it. The main reason I love to skate in winter is because I don't get as worn out as quick. During the summer I just can not do vigorous activity for any length of time. I get overheated very quickly, get dizzy and nauseous. It just isn't fun. So during the summer I might be able to skate for about half hour before I am done. But in the winter, I can skate for hours. Seriously, once you get moving and keep moving you keep very warm. Again, tonight it is 24 degrees and I skated for 1 1/2 hours and worked up a real good sweat. I actually would have stayed longer but I didn't bring anything to drink and my water bottle in the car was ice, not water. So I had to go. But my stamina in the cold is so much better than in the heat. I will still skate in the summer. Probably late at night or early in the morning for the most part. But winter skating is for me!

I also have to talk about how I did tonight. This is really only my third time skating in about 14-15 years, so take that into consideration with what I am about to say. Hey, I am proud of myself and that's all that matters, right? I really love the Nashua skate park. There are all sorts of good lines to take. But tonight, I felt like I made huge leaps in my return to skating. I landed most of my ollies while moving. So I feel like I am getting that down really well. I think a couple times I ollied about 9" - 12" while I was moving. I am quite proud of myself for that. I even managed to land 2 heel flips for which I threw both arms in the air and jumped up and down like I just threw the winning pass in the Super Bowl. Yes, I get a little over excited about things. If you know me you are not surprised by my actions tonight. If you don't, yes I am a total dork. Anyway, so I have conquered! I have become a MAN! I can ollie while moving now. And it wasn't just barely rolling. I was going at a good clip. I am very excited. I think my favorite line I hit tonight was going down the ramp on the left of the park, over the little bump, or whatever you call it, and all the way into the 3-sided bowl at the end of the park. I was working on just going up the quarter pipe and back down. I almost got all the way to the top and came back down without falling. Again, very proud of myself. I really am a dork. But I really feel that I am progressing well since I only have been skating for real 3 times this year. Hopefully my progress continues and I will be able to really do some cool stuff soon. That's it for now. Hope I didn't make you sick with my love fest with myself, but if I did, oh well. Deal with it.

Sometimes, you just shouldn't skate...........

Wow, I can’t believe November 27 was the last time I blogged. That also means it was the last time I went skating……not gooooooood at all! I did go out skating yesterday though, even though it was about 15 degrees or less with wind chill. I do have some insulation (some call it blubber) on this body, so it wasn’t too bad. I took off from work for my lunch break and headed over to the Nashua skate park, which is only about 10 minutes from my work. It was a blast. Ollied a couple times while I was moving, moving slowly, but moving. I made it around the park a couple times so that was good. But it really wasn’t a great idea to go skating on my lunch break. Why you may ask? Well, I will tell you. I was just getting in one or two last runs before I headed back to work. Turned out, didn’t get two in, only the one. I decided that run was my last as I lay on the ground with a ripped pair of jeans covered in blood. Yep, took a hard spill and paid for it. Like I said, I ripped my pants open, tore the skin right down on my knee. It was bleeding pretty good. So, I decided I better get back to work. As I am driving back I am trying to decide how in the world I am going to hide this from my boss and how am I going to bandage this up. I remembered that I work at a very dangerous place and there is quite and extensive first aid kit available. So when I got back to the office, I went down to the production plant and opened the first aid kit. Can’t tell you how excited I was to see bandages. I don’t think I have ever been that excited about bandages before, and probably won’t be ever again. The only reason I was upset by the first aid kit is because there were no Hello Kitty bandades in there. Oh, well. Anyway, I took some bandages and some cleaning wipes and went back up to my cube. The cleaning wipes hurt a thousand times more than the actual impact of my body crashing down to the cold concrete surface. So I wiped off all the blood, put on some bandages and went back to work. My boss didn’t notice, but one of the other engineers I work with did. We were discussing a project and he saw my ripped jeans and saw they were a little red. Then we had a discussion about how those pants might be worth more now because they are ripped. I don’t understand the buying of ripped jeans, I really don’t, but that has nothing to do with this. Anyway, He decided to use scotch tape to fix the rip. It actually worked for quite a while. I was surprised. So thankfully, all turned out okay. My boss didn’t find out and I got to get out and skate for a bit. All in all it was a good day. I am definitely looking forward to my next skating adventure and will keep all of my devoted followers (which are probably none) up to date with my skating progress. "I gotta say, today was a good day!"

The beginning of better things to come....

Thursday was my true beginning back to the world of skating. You can be interested in it, help start a board company, toot around the skate park on someone else's board for a few minutes, but those aren't the true start. Technically, Wednesday night was my beginning back to really skating, when I got my new setup. Then bright and early Thursday morning, 7:30 am, I went skating at the Pepperell, MA skate park with my good skate friend Randy the Rollin' Richard. Looking forward to more of those days. It was fantastic! I really can't say that it was bad in any way. Well, maybe that's not 100% corrrect. I did do something stupid and am still hurting. I think I might have sprained my foot doing it. I tried to drop off the ledge and land it. STUPID! Especiall since you might remember I still haven't ollied while moving yet. Well, I HAVE CONQUERED! I ollied while moving and am quite proud of myself. True, I was only rolling with one push, but I did it! That is why I decided to try to drop off the ledge. Getting just a tad ahead of myself. And I paid for it. But, all in all it was a great morning. Skated for about 1 1/2 hours with Randy. Good times. I even managed to make it all the way around the park without stopping. By the end of the morning I was crusing along. It felt good. I was on such a high afterward. Now I can't wait to make it down to the Fitchburg park and see how I do there. Hopefully I will make some progress and be ollying like a jackrabbit soon. I know, that's not what rabbits are usually compared to, but it works. Having my own board is going to make a huge difference. I hope within a year to be able to land a kick flip or heel flip with regularity. We'll see how that goes. But for now, I have conquered, and this is just the beginning of good things to come.

So I did it......

Got a new board set up today at the Nashua EB. Brian Fiske put it together for me. Thank you Brian! He was awesome, extremely helpful. It felt good to have an old school guy like myself help me out with putting a board together. Got an 8.25 Shape Deuce deck. Local board company, so I am glad I got that. Local wheels (Brian Fiske's company) Bloodmobile, and of course Indy trucks. Had to go with Indies. That is what I had way back in the day on my Hosoi and the Small Room Hand board I had. I look forward to skating this new set up. Hopefully spend some time skating this weekend. Maybe head over to the Pepperell park for a bit. I am excited, very much so. This should work out great. Thanks again to Brian at the Nashua EB. Look forward to seeing more of you guys.

I am slipping.....

In September I started myself on a gluten free diet for a couple reasons. One, about 10 years ago and then again about 5 years ago my doctor recommended it because I have a wheat allergy. Only took me 10 years to listen to them. Not too bad, right? Second, because I knew it would help me lose some weight and be a little healthier. Third, I knew it would make me feel a little better about myself. And I know it would help me have more energy and I would hopefully be able to compliment the diet with a lot of skateboarding to help myself lose even more weight.

Well, I was doing great. In a month I lost about 10 pounds. In two months I lost another five pounds, so a total of 15 pounds in two months. Not bad, especially since that was just the diet. But life has gotten in the way. First of all, food is just so good. I can’t tell you how terrible some of the gluten free food tastes. I tried some brown rice tortillas and oh man, HORRIBLE! It literally felt like I was chewing on cardboard. If you don’t have a wheat allergy then thank your stars because you don’t want to have to try this diet. Besides food just being so good, pizza and beer in particular, it is very difficult to live on this diet. Just about everything has gluten in it and the food that actually tastes good that is gluten free is expensive. Lose-lose situation here. Another reason I have slipped is because I have failed to get myself a board and get out skating. Over the past few weeks I have seen my gut get bigger as if someone put a balloon inside me and is blowing it up. This is not hyperbole, it literally looks that way, just ask my wife.

Diet and skating is the answer, or part of it anyway. I need to get a board! When oh when will our decks be in Randy??? Please give me the good news that they will be here today! If they are I will be down faster than the person in that horrible Comcast high-speed internet commercial. The one that morphs some guy into some pretty weird creatures, creepy! I love the design on the board too. Check it out, it is above. But PLEEEEEEAAAASE be here soon. I am dying to get out on the pavement and skate. I know many are saying “Just buy another deck and use the one you are getting as a second deck.” Great idea and I have even thought about that, but I am CHEAP! If I can save $60 I will, even if it means my health darn it. Okay, that’s a little bit of an exaggeration but you get the point. I don’t spend money if I don’t have to, unless it’s plastic, then I spend way too much (and yes I thought about that too, but I just can’t bring myself to use the plastic for it). But, that’s a topic for another day. I just need my board. I need to get out and get some exercise. I need to get the blood pumping. I need to eat healthy and skate. I need to practice so that I can finally write one day on this blog that “I have conquered. I can now ollie while moving.” Man I look forward to that day. It can’t come soon enough. So get here board, I need you to save my life…..PLEASE!!!!

Getting antsy....

As excited as I am about tomorrow, the 1^st Annual Day of Awesomeness, I am getting antsy to get a new board. I just can’t wait. I look forward so much to getting back into the groove of skating. I still have all my pads from when I skated. I have my bright red Roces helmet with an Incubus and Elliott sticker on it. Back then Incubus was much harder than they are now. You can check out their album “Enjoy Incubus” to see for yourself. Anyways, back to what I was talking about before. I am extremely excited. I think that I might go to the Airfield next Wednesday. I also only live about 15 minutes from the Pepperell skate park and the same from the Nashua and Hudson, NH skate parks. There is not a shortage around me of places to skate. It is quite amazing that all these places exist. We didn’t have any of this back in the 90’s. Skating has definitely come a long way since then. I do look forward to it and will post my progression on this blog and let you know how my journey back to skating goes. Hopefully we will see you tomorrow at the Fitchburg skate park for a day of awesomeness.

Athleticism overlooked....

If you have ever sat back and watched in person someone who can truly skate, you probably sat back in awe as the person pulled off some trick with a name as long and complicated as the Latin names for many animals or insects. Like Parastratiosphecomyia stratiosphecomyioides or otherwise know as the Soldier Fly. And no, I didn’t know that off the top of my head, not that anyone thought I did. If you saw this on TV, you were probably impressed. But, like most things, real life is much more difficult than television. Many of us sit on our couches watching some sort of sport and say “How could he not have caught that?! Even I could have done that!” WRONG! Probably not many of us, if any, could catch a ball being thrown to us by John Kitna, never mind someone like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning. The velocity that these mutants throw the ball with would break our hand clean off when we tried to catch it, if we could even get our hands on it. Many people, sadly view skateboarding (or BMXing) the same way. “I could have done that, how hard could it really be? They’re just going up and down, gravity does the work.” Again, WRONG! The athleticism of a professional, and even an amateur skater, is truly amazing. It takes strength, balance, perception, creativity and amazing coordination to be able to do the things a skater can do, even some of the more simple tricks like ollie while moving (someday I will). It’s just not that easy to do, and yet people think they could hop on a skateboard and ride a half pipe or do the crazy stuff that skaters can do. It is truly amazing to watch these guys (or girls, don’t want to make anyone upset) do their thing. It is sad that they are not more recognized for their athleticism. So here’s to the skaters! Not just the pros, but to all of us. Whether just trying to learn or have been skating for years or are getting back into it like myself, consider yourself an athlete, because the truth is, you are.

For those who need proof I used to skate here you go. Not a great picture, but the only one I could find.

Winter skating....

As the world turns us away from the warm rays of the sun, it is time for us to embrace (or try to anyway) the cold winter moths ahead. Months full of lazily sitting around with nothing to do, waiting, hoping for the season ahead. I say it’s time to change that lazily sitting around. It’s time to take control and say “I will not let Senor Winter ruin my life for 3 months!” How can we do this??? We skate. Over the years of married and family life I have become pretty much a bean bag chair to my kids. I guess my gut is squishy and comfortable to sit on. It has also become a resting place for bottles of SODA (what did you think I was going to say, got to keep it PG right?). It has gotten to the point that I can almost just let the bottle sit there without holding it at all. I know, I know, pretty sad. No very sad. I have become so immobile that my body screams at me at the slightest hint of exercise. Almost like it is confused and doesn’t know what to do. I’m not sure that my heart has even beaten for the last 8 years. I just assume it has because I am still breathing. Like I said, though, time to change. This winter will be different. I will take control, and I will skate. Back in the 90’s when I was skating it didn’t matter what season it was, heck it didn’t even matter if it was raining or snowing. Out the shovels would come and along with them the boards. And after a half hour of skating, we would be in shorts and T-shirts in the middle of winter. Oh for the days of yore! The days when I had some energy, time, and I would say money but I’ve never had much if any of that. How I do long for the days when I didn’t get winded after running for 5 feet, which is only like 3 steps. Again, very sad and pathetic. But now I will do my best to get out and enjoy my self once again. I will be hitting the Rye Airfield at least a couple times a month and I might just try to be brave and skate outside like I used to. That will probably only happen if I have my supports behind me, Randy and Jared. Two friends who I have gotten to know in my adult life, post-skating Marcel. The Marcel that loves Single Malts and beer. Maybe a little of those will help me get out in the cold too. But I will skate this winter and my goal of ollying while moving is still there. Hopefully I won’t chicken out and be afraid of the pain, something that didn’t bother me before. Man getting old is terrible. I digress. Jared and Randy need to know the skating Marcel, the one that wasn’t afraid to drop in on a vert ramp or bowl. The one that wasn’t afraid to take a couple slams to land that new trick. They will see that side of me. It will just take some time. No, I am not at all saying that I will become fearless and become a great skater. That just isn’t going to happen because honestly I don’t think my tolerance for pain is very high, I’m kind of a wuss. I just want to be like all other skaters, pushing yourself to do something you are afraid to or think you can’t do. Challenging yourself to be better. I need to reinvent myself and get back to some semblance of a healthy human being. The only way I really want to do that is to skate, and skate I will. Here’s to the old, fat guys who want to do something about it! HERE! HERE! I will be waiting for you with board in hand, or under foot and hopefully ollying while moving!

Who Am I? Father? Skater? Friend? Yes!

For those of you who don’t know me (which probably not many do) I am Marcel Scott. I am 31 years old and am not currently a very good skater. Someday, with a little help from my friends, I will be. I used to skate way back in the day (for me anyway). It was from about 1990 to 1999 that I skated. I was decent, nothing to write home about, but decent. My first skate board was a Christian Hosoi. It had Independent Trucks, Bones wheels and the board itself was fat with no nose, like the boards from Gleaming the Cube, which by the way is an awesome movie. It was awesome and that board will live on in my memory forever.

My cohort, Randy, has gotten me to have the skate buzz again, and for this I am eternally grateful. His passion for skating has reinvigorated me and I hope again to be able to ollie while moving one day. As for right now, the ollying must be standing still, but one day I will concur! I will land an ollie and stand up and say "I have become a MAN!" One day! One day it will happen but until that day comes I will dream the dream knowing that dream will become my reality. Also, one day, I will lose this beer gut that has grown steadily over the past 8 years. This will be due to skating again, so in a sense I will owe my life to skating. Thank you skateboard, I am indebted to you forever!

I truly look forward to seeing this company (Weatherd Skateboards) progress from the grass roots stage. I am honored to be part of it, even though I haven’t been skating for so long. I hope to see it become a company skaters can be proud of. A company they feel like they want to support because of the way it is run and because of the attitudes of those who are running it. This will truly be a great experience. I look forward to the day of Awsomeness. It will be fun and I will finally get a board again that day, so look out. I guess all I have left to say at this point is SKATE ON!