Skip to main content

Dusting Off the Board Slider - Second Sunday Skate Sessions S02/Ep01 (Skateboard Basics)

TET sitting alongside a home made board slider 'curb'.
My home made 'curb' board slider.

Season 02, Episode 01 of my ten part, Second Sunday Skate Sessions Series is here. I'm still working to master the tricks of Braille Skateboarding's Skateboarding Made Simple Volume One, however, this season will be more focused on my 'curb' Board Slider, that I built, and seeing what tricks I can learn on that.

If you're actually interested in following my full progress of relearning to skateboard, the first season can be viewed in these posts:

In this episode I do a quick run through of Skateboarding made simple tricks just to show you where I'm at before working on getting my board slider to actually slide.

I made this board slider many years ago, and you have seen it in my previous videos, the last time being in 2020 in, TET Skateboards: Heelflips, Kickflips, Rock'n'Rolls, & Nose Slide Persistence.

In the video I'm not entirely sure how long the slider has been sitting in my shed. I just know it was an exceptionally long time. Anyway, you can watch me bring it back to life as I attempt to relearn board slides.

Season 2, Episode 1: Second Sunday Skate Sessions

Season 1 was incredibly satisfying for me personally, even though it didn't gain much traction in terms of viewership. I came out of it with more purpose for my skateboarding and an entirely new trick that I'd never learned before.

Season 2 is off to a rocketing start, being posted for a full five days at the time of writing, and only getting 2 views (both mine on the first day!).

I'm not expecting my videos to go viral but it is a little disheartening watching other skaters, on the same journey, even with the same skill level, somehow raking in enough views to monetize their YouTube channels within months. 

I've had my TETLife YouTube channel since 2006 and it's still hasn't cracked 1000 subs. Which is on me because the channel has been all over the place when active, and spent many years in hibernation too. 

It's largely focused on my skateboarding now, but clearly I need to do something to make it more interesting while still serving the purpose of giving myself some accountability to keep going.

Anyway, that's for another time. I'll probably post these, three episodes at a time so I don't fill up the blog with just skateboarding content. If you want to see them as I upload then subscribe to the TETLife YouTube Channel.


About the Series:

Each video is filmed on the second Sunday of each fortnight to check in on my progress. In between episodes I try to practice all the tricks at least every second day. More if time allows. Each episode is just to show where I'm at. This is not a persistence. If I don't land a trick after a few tries I move on to the next.

About Me:

I'm a 55 year old skater who has been skateboarding since the age of 18. The mid 90s were the peak of my abilities where I mostly skated mini ramps and curbs. While I've never fully stopped skateboarding, I didn't maintain my skills through the early 2000's. I mostly skated to get from A to B. In the last decade I've been trying to get my confidence back and learn to skateboard well, and maybe be more consistent at tricks that I never really needed to master on a mini ramp back in the day.

Tricks covered in the video: 

Ollie, Frontside 180 Ollie, Backside 180 Ollie, Pop Shuv-it, Frontside Pop Shuv-it, Heelflip, Kickflip, backside board slide.

Comments

Buy Gifts and Apparel featuring art by TET.

Popular posts from this blog

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

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...

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...

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

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...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

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...

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

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...

Movie Review: Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) *No Spoilers*

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...