Introducing the Second Sunday Skateboard Sessions

Introducing the Second Sunday Skateboard Sessions - Doing Less to Skateboard More

This was my second heelflip attempt of the day.
I was pleased I at least got the full rotation
even if I didn't land it.

I am determined to keep skating for as long as possible, though, since my last post in May 2024, about reigniting my kickflip battle at age 54, I've probably been skateboarding less than I had hoped. Still haven't landed that elusive kickflip either.

Strangely I've been wanting to film myself skateboarding again but have been reluctant to do so because it can be a bit of a hassle trying to create interesting content, not to mention a lot of editing, if you want to capture the full journey of learning a trick. I really hate editing.

Looking at my camera equipment the other day I was thinking what is the most minimal setup that I can put together that would make it easy to film skate videos anywhere?

I landed on using my Samsung A13, Android phone, mounted on a GoPro selfie stick that has a tripod base in the handle, and a wireless mic I bought some time back for filming skate content and being able to talk without being near the camera.

In an effort to not tie myself to a desktop computer to do my edit, I downloaded YouTube's free beta video editing app to my Lenovo, Android tablet. Using Google's Quick Share feature, transferring clips from my phone to my tablet is a breeze. I can literally edit anywhere and upload directly to YouTube too.

Below is my first video filmed and edited with this complete setup. The edit is deliberately minimal as I'm still learning the new video editing studio. I may get fancier later on but that's why this video doesn't have my usual intro or outro.

Rather than just film a one and done video, I decided to go for a series of ten episodes, filmed every Second Sunday (my partner works every second Sunday for the entire day so it's a good day to film and edit all in one go). Ten episodes gives me a goal and an end point, where I can stop or start a new series if I choose.

I've set myself the challenge of getting better at Braille Skateboarding's seven tricks that make up Volume One of Skateboarding Made Simple. I've never mastered all these tricks even back in the 90's when all I did was skate. You didn't need to know these for mini ramp skating.

To keep the videos short, and to cut down my edit time, I'm limiting my tries to three to five per trick. I may do a few extra if I land a trick badly, or get close to something I haven't landed but I'm not going to film a persistence in the video. Ideally between videos I will spend time doing the persistence attempts and hopefully have some improvement by the next video.

I hope you found the video interesting, and you watched through to the end. I'm trying to talk more all the way through to hopefully give a more authentic look at my typical skate sessions. Not particularly easy for me, because I'm not really a chatty person at all.

I promise I won't make you watch me sweeping and do warm ups every time. I just hadn't done either by that point, and the camera and mic were all set up ready to go. I wanted to make a start before I lost my enthusiasm for making the video at all.

It may not come across in the video but I did enjoy filming this and I felt good about where I was at with my attempts at each trick. Especially getting my heelflip attempts to fully rotate. I'd say that's the hardest thing out of all these tricks.

I will be posting the entire series of videos here as I film them. If they're a little too basic for you then I understand if you decide not to watch, but I hope you'll check in maybe at episodes five and ten just to see how I'm doing.

The main thing is that I'm skating again, and enjoying riding my board. Hopefully that comes through.

Comments

Review: ArtHelper - The All-In-One AI Writing + Marketing Assistant for Artists - 'ChatGPT for Artists'

ArtHelper prides itself on being all 'human-made' art. T he idea of an AI, trained specifically on art business marketing, that can not only offer advice on marketing your work, but also assist with creating all the content too, is certainly appealing. Especially to those of us who would rather spend more time creating our art than trying to sell it. ArtHelper does just that whilst attempting to be your 'home' on the internet. A destination for your profile and portfolio, a marketplace for your art, and a directory of artists as well, with one distinction - all the art must be human made. Which, for you AI artists, doesn't count the prompt for AI generated art - because the idea, according to ArtHelper's creators, isn't the art. Which is a fair point, in terms of promoting art 'made by a human', but can get kind of murky when you understand that not all AI art is generated from a single prompt... and 'found object art' isn't actually ...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

West Beach Skatepark, Adelaide, South Australia

Main Vert Ramp, West Beach. West Beach Skatepark , Adelaide, South Australia, is one of my favorite skateparks, even though I can barely skate anything in it well. Most of the park is way above my ability. Located not far from the end of the runway at Adelaide Airport it can be a bit disconcerting seeing how low the planes get as they come in to land. From certain vantage points you'd swear they're about to crash into the park instead of fly over to the runway. The park is nearly an hour's drive from my house in Gawler so the only time I get to visit is if I'm dropping my partner off at the airport (which is a rare occurrence). This particular day was a hot 41 degrees celsius. I didn't think I'd skate but the heat guaranteed the park to be virtually empty (except for one other skater who lasted about as long as I did before giving it away). Below is a video with some highlights from my, about an hour long, session. As you can see, my ability is l...

Tesla Unveils Optimus Robot Prototype and Second Generation Prototype - Movie, iRobot, May Be a Documentary?

Tesla Optimus Prototype One, Development Platform. September 30th finally rolled around along with Tesla A.I. day and the unveiling of not one but two Tesla Optimus Robot prototypes. Which was quite a bonus since we hadn't heard anything much about these robots when I wrote about them in July of 2022. Before revealing the first prototype, Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, made a point of managing everyone's expectations, just in case anyone was thinking they were about to see anything close to the actual human concept 'robot' we saw last year. I honestly don't think anyone was expecting that. Prototype One - Development Platform The prototype that walked out on stage, for the very first time without ever being tethered to anything (apparently), was still incredibly impressive despite not being streamlined and highly refined in its capability. It walked quite well - eerily similar to the first generation robots in the 2004, Will Smith movie, iRobot , and even did a bit of a dan...

How to Transfer Any Line Art to Your Griptape - Easy Skateboard Griptape Art Tutorial

Dog Star Griptape Art by TET Griptape art is once again gaining popularity amongst modern skateboarders. For those of us who have tried to create our own griptape art, using paint pens, you'll know reproducing your design onto the grip, without making any mistakes is incredibly challenging. Mostly because you just have to go for it and draw the design freehand, with paint pens, directly onto the griptape. You can make the odd mistake here or there but if you get the proportions of the design completely wrong, it can be very difficult to fix. Often you just have to live with the mistake. To address the problem I've come up with an easy way anyone can transfer a line art design to their griptape, removing almost all the anxiety of getting the proportions wrong. In fact, you could do this with any line art design, even if you have no drawing skill at all. Watch the video below to see my technique in action and/or skip past the video where I highlight the basic steps to get your de...

Mount Lofty Botanic Garden & Stirling Hotel, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

My partner, Enigma and I stayed overnight one weekend at an Airbnb in the Adelaide Hills to attend a wedding and needed something to do the following day to make our stay more of a weekend away. Enigma suggested a visit to the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden followed by lunch at the Stirling Hotel. If you're curious about our Airbnb stay it was in a self contained guest house known as Borow in the township of Uraidla. Definitely a very pleasant stay, but more functional than a relaxing getaway in itself. Best suited to someone touring the Hills region and just in need of somewhere comfortable to wind down at the end of the day that's more roomy and homelike than a hotel room. Mount Lofty Botanic Garden I've visited the Mount Lofty Summit several times over my last 23 years in SA, most recently as part of a guided bus tour , and I've never heard of the Mount Lofty Botanic Garden . Enigma and I were expecting something along the lines of the Adelaide Botanic Garden which i...

The Liberal Party Attempt to Win Back One Nation Supporters By Stepping More to the Right

Federal Liberal Party Leader, Angus Taylor, and Deputy Leader, Jane Hume. Image: Gemini and TET. G enerally I try to keep one eye on Australian politics, mainly at the Federal level because that affects the whole country. State based politics really only become interesting at state election time, as they're something of an indicator of how the various parties might fare in a Federal election. As indicated by the gains One Nation has been making at state level, with a recent Australian Financial Review/Redbridge Group/Accent Research poll suggesting the party is now the most popular party on primary support . Much of this surge has been at the expense of the Liberal Party of Australia with former supporters seemingly agreeing that you may as well be voting for Labor since the parties are so similar (they aren't but they're both close enough to the political 'middle' it can certainly seem that way). It seems the all new Liberal Leadership of Angus Taylor, and Deput...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog