Second Sunday Skateboard Session Episode 9, and 10 - Shuv-it Revelation and Did I Improve?
The final two episodes of my ten part YouTube series documenting my process of learning the first seven basic skateboard tricks from Braille Skateboarding's, Skateboarding Made Simple.
These are the links to Episode One, Episode Two, Three to Five, and Six to Eight, should you feel the need to see where I started or you want a bit more background on my personal skateboarding journey that began in 1988.
I won't ramble on in this final introduction to my last two sessions, other that to say, episode ten is the highlight in terms of getting a direct comparison from episode 1 with side by side footage.
Episode 9 - Frontside Pop Shuv-it Revelation
The only episode not filmed on the second Sunday, thankfully due to the weather raining Sunday out and not my lack of willingness to continue. Monday was also very rainy but I managed to fit my session in during a small window of no rain late in the day.
It was a little bit of a difficult session in that I could only utilize the dry space directly under the carport but I did come out of it with some insight on better controlling my frontside pop shuv-its. Seemed like putting my front foot closer to the front edge of the board was helping to keep the board more underneath me. I even came close to landing a moving one except, toe drag.
Episode 10 - Comparing First to Last - Did I Improve?
Filming the final episode heading into Aussie Winter was always going to be hit or miss weather-wise. Unfortunately it was a miss and I was confined to skating the dry area under my carport again. The session was also rushed because it was windy, and the forecast was promising rain by the afternoon, so I was mainly just trying to get through everything as quickly as possible.
It was actually one of my worst sessions, with a bit of an angry meltdown (edited out) because I felt I wasn't able to really demonstrate my progress compared to episode one.
That aside, in this video I have inserted my best attempts from episode one alongside my attempts this session. In my opinion there is definitely some improvement but mostly with the harder tricks, and, of course, landing my pop shuv-its, even if they're not really popped.
---o ---o--- o---
Overall I think this series was a success for my skateboarding.
Rather than just go out and 'noodle around' doing random stuff, it gave my sessions purpose and direction that makes my skating feel more productive. The consistency of trying the same tricks every session really helps track improvements, as well as discovering various adjustments that may get you closer to landing.
As an example, when I started, I really struggled to get the board to flip on heelflips. Presently I know exactly how to get the board to flip almost every time. To the point where, if I just put my back foot on, it would be a land. Not there yet though.
As mentioned in the last two videos, I do intend to do another ten part series but I'm going to wait until the Spring. This will give me time to think about the format, and hopefully make something a little more watchable.
I am kind of disappointed my final episode, after being up for two weeks, only has 12 views at the time of writing this. Though I think it's partly due to the video title not mentioning a single skateboard trick that YouTube's search might pick up.
Regardless, this series was always for me. To make sure I had something to show that I was honoring the commitment I made to film a ten part series of me learning skateboarding basics. Totally worth doing, and I'd recommend you try it too, if you're learning to skateboard.
Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see vi...
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...
B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...
Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...
I 've previously written about why I didn't see Fantastic Four in cinemas , essentially the movie being released too close to Superman (2025), to which I gave priority. Since I have a Disney+ subscription for this exact reason (to watch Marvel movies), I've finally seen Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025). I'm not disappointed I chose Superman to see in cinemas. Set during the 1960s, Fantastic Four is a cliff notes origin story for Marvel's first family before they are thrust into solving world ending events at the hands of a god-like alien, Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who is heralded in by his assistant (I guess?), the Silver Surfer a.k.a. Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner). While this movie is definitely a step up from previous Marvel films of late (though I'll maintain Thunderbolts (2025) is a better film than this on a character level), it's kind of a return to the Marvel Phase One Superhero formula too. That is, set up who the heroes are, bring in the threat, ha...
Undefined Technologies Ion Propulsion Drone prototype 3D concept image. You may have heard of Ion engines or, more likely, Ion thrusters. NASA uses them on their spacecraft to help maintain a craft's position or to propel them through space. Upon hearing that you might think they're big, powerful engines, but actually they are not. They work well in the vacuum of space but, once any kind of atmosphere and gravity is involved they'd be hard pressed to launch you off the ground if you strapped four of them to your lawn chair and yelled "up, up, and away!" I am no expert on Ion thrusters - they're basically magic that science has an explanation for. If you want to know the details, The Space Techie website has a layman's explanation . Build Your Own Ion Thruster Earth based Ion Thrusters work a bit different to their space based cousins by Ionizing the same air that we breathe to create thrust (an effect known as Ionic-wind ). While they sound highly soph...
The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...
Comments
Post a Comment
Comments are moderated by an actual human (me, TET) and may not publish right away. I do read all comments and only reject those not directly related to the post or are spam/scams (I'm looking at you Illuminati recruiters... I mean scammers. Stop commenting on my Illuminati post!).