Skim + Drinking + Pit Night!

So me and my friend Paul decided it would be a SWEET idea to head to Wreck beach to skimboard at 3 p.m., and skimboard while drinking both Jose Cuervo, and Heiniken.

Boy were we right!

So we get down to the beach, and get some odd looks due to our wetsuits, and probably the booze as well! We are STOKED to say the least.

We are suiting up and I realize Paul has no friggen boots or gloves, so basically he is freezing the entire time. Doesn't make for great skimming unfortunately!

We took turns taking pics/vids and we got a bunch of good footy. Here it is. I landed a new trick! A 180 Ollie with a backside grab, looks pretty stylin' if I manage to pull it off! I also got a 360 shuv on film for the first time, so I'm pretty stoked on that too!




Here are some pics from the day as well! All in all a great afternoon/evening! I've included some pics from the Pit as well!

Till next time!

Wreck Skimmming... In the Fog!

Kinda had a day of nothing, so me and Trever decided to make the afternoon one of skimboarding!

The tide was on it's way out from about Noon onwards, and so the tide was NEVER an issue since we started skimming at 2. We stayed until about 4:30.

At the beach there was a little channel that led right out to the waves, so we used it in order to hit some waves and do some aerials. We started off just messing around with Ollies and some random stuff, then moved to some flatland-ish spots to do some shuvs, 3-shuvs, spins, body varials, (horrible) big spins, etc.

It was super awesome, but the fog was INSANE, even at sea-level. At the end of our day, we decided to do one super-solid pop-shuv, and a clean 3-shuv. Basically we were SO tired from skimming for 2 hours non-stop, that we took a LONG time to start landing them. Finally, after about 15 minutes, we had both done them. After that we headed out and that was that!

Basically a beautiful day, and great skimming conditions! Wahooooooooo!

Sunny afternoon skimming!

Down at Wreck Beach at around 2:30, beautiful day, my flatland board, some carveable waves, what more could a guy ask for! Minus the cold wind!

Felt pretty strong today, so I went hard, pulled two solid 3-shuvs, some 180 shuvs and some ollie 180s. Then I decided to do some ollie nosegrabs. I did 7 in total, landed 5 of them cleanly, those 5 with super clean grabs as well. Just what I wanted. I attempted some indy grabs but I only did 1, and it was sort of a sketch landing. Oh well! Lots of time to practice!

Did yoga again this morning, and it was superb! I'm loving the class, and I'm glad I know someone in it!

I'll post pics of the beach sometime this evening

Yoga, Swimmin' and Skimmin'

I'm amping up the swim training, and that's the only reason I have swimming in the title.

This blog is about skimboarding and other related boardsports.. BUT... i'm making an exception for Yoga, since it feels connected to surfing and skimming.

Had Vinyasa Flow Yoga at the student rec center here at UBC, and it was AWESOME. The instructor was super good and helpful, even though I haven't done a ton of yoga. It was tough and I was sweating a little at the end, but I felt really calm and satisfied at the same time. Makes me understand why Taylor Knox does so much of it.

Skimming was GREAT. It was a foggy day here in Vancouver, as you will see by the pics I took. I couldn't convince my buddy to come down with me, so there's no action shots unfortunately. Regardless, I did some messing around, aka. carves, a few ollies, some ollie 180s, then I got down to practicing my shuvs. I haven't focused on shuvs for AGES, so I think now is a good as time as any to get them down.

I did 10x180 shuvs in the flattest area I could, so I could only get a little pop/air. I was 10/10. Then I switched to 360 shuvs. The tide was coming up so I was slowly losing my flat area, thus making it harder to find a good spot to start the trick. I missed the first 2/5, then got the last three, for a total of 3/5. I'm pretty stoked on that. I also realized I dont bend my knees enough, but that's all changing!

A sick day of skimming, swimming, and yoga to say the least... Now if class could just disappear too!

Commonwealth Trials, Skimming, Skateboarding

So it's been a busy past few days!

On Thursday I applied for a job at Pacific Boarder. NO idea if I will get it, but I hope my skim and surf experience will help in my favour!

Regardless, Thursday I went skimming down at Wreck and it was about 3.5ft, which is GREAT at Wreck. There were little waves, so I could practice a little carving and speed gaining movements. After that, I practiced doing 180s both front and backside without hands, so I can really improve my ollie 180s! It was great doing them repetitively and by the end I really felt comfortable going both directions. Backside is my most comfortable, so I spent more time on frontside and definitely have a lot more confidence. Now to throw in the ollie! I was also landing SUPER solid 3-shuvs and Indy grabs.

On Friday I went for a bike ride, about 90 mins. out to Richmond in the FREEZING cold! A bit of a mistake, but it was pretty fun! I've decided to only list my time spent in Surfing/Snowboarding/Skimming/Skateboarding on this blog, since I have my own training log for triathlon, and it's tough keeping both!

Saturday, today, I had Commonwealth trials for competitive lifesaving and had a pretty good day. 2 Silvers, and a 4th. Not too bad. I think my times were competitive enough to qualify me for the Commonwealth lifesaving sport games too! Holla! Hopefully that pans out. Looks like the swimming training will be my priority before Nationals in May, or Commonwealths in June.

Tomorrow I'd love to skim, but I dont think I'll have time since I really want to spend the day with my gf!

That's all for now. I'm going to become a picture freak before my next post so there will be tons of photo evidence of EVERYTHING!

PS: I've been skateboarding a ton, and I really feel like it will improve my skim and surfboard handling skills!

China Beach/Sombrio Surf Day!!

So after a late night of Guitar Hero with Matty, watching him DESTROY the expert difficulty (up until the boss battle with Slash), I woke up and headed out in my mamma's Civic to Jordan River! It was low tide at around 10:30 a.m., and I was worried about the quality of surf at JR, and I was definitely right. Waves were tiny and I was a little worried.

I headed the extra 20kms out to Sombrio beach and it was hoppin'. "Chickens" was empty, "1sts"had 2 people, "2nds' had 3, and "waterfall" was empty. The tide was still pretty low, but on it's way up so wave quality was quickly improving. Forecast was for onshore winds, but it was milder then expected for sure. Sets were clean, 4ish waves per set, and quite regularly timed! Got about 2 dozen rides at 1sts, none really longer then 5 seconds unfortunately. Had a great time though. I left after the crowds started arriving... gotta love those people who sleep in.

I headed down to my favorite beachbreak (China) and surfed there with another guy for about an hour, and caught about a dozen waves, again nothing longer then about 5 seconds. Most of the waves closed out pretty quick, and had no discernable peaks. Tried to pull my first off the lip maneuver but it didnt work out and I ended up nose diving and bailing pretty hard!

All in all a great day! On the way out, "The Point" looked super solid on it's trademark right, but I was just too exhausted and undernourished to head out again. I saw a few longboarders heading out though.

I had to ride my 6'5/ 18 1/5 / 2 1/4 Shortboard, since my small wave board is in Campbell River at my dad's. Did pretty well in the shoulder high waves considering it's suited to much bigger waves (overhead).

Meeting up with RuRuRemon tonight hopefully, maybe heading out to the bars? Who knows! Back to UBC tomorrow (after another surf sesh :D)!