Arizona recap #2 Father and son

I got the privilege of riding with many cool skaters last week two of which are the father son team of "Pat" and "Pat" or "pj" as the younger is often referred to. Here are a couple shots from an evening session at Kelcore's ramp.

Have a laugh at my expense!

Seth stopped by a while back to try out his camera. I took the time to wipe all the water off of my shoes but little did I know that the lawn sprinklers had left a nasty wet spot on the west transition. Wet masonite and urethane don't mix, have a laugh at my expense!

Wet feet, wet ramp. from kvon on Vimeo.

fly or die. VERT IS!

My brother P made this cool vid to document our two hours on legit vert at woodward Denver. Watch as I get schooled by the big ramp. We had SO much fun. Vert is addictive. Right now I can just reach the coping on the 13 foot monster but I have plans to build a behemoth of my own in the back yard *evil laugh*. You can see from the vid that I was stoked and a little giddy. Vert can do that to you!
GREAT JOB on the vid P. I dig your edit decisions. How did you know I was in the mood for a little Type-O... wait that's Sisters of Mercy, or no... who is it? Sounds just like S.O.M. to me, crazy.

UPDATE: O.K. I got the strait scoop now.. The song is obviously a cover of Sisters of Mercy's Lucretia, My Reflection performed by Project 86. Project 86 has done quite well on the remake I might add. I have met Project 86 before but that is a totally different story. A quick you tube search unearthed many versions of Lucretia, My Reflection, including a rather disappointing offering from Wes Borland's band "Black Light Burns". I found this classic Live sisters of mercy performance complete with keyboard drums and a black glove wearing bass player. I LOVE THE 80's! There is not a good youtube vid of projects remake. Oh well I guess I will have to buy it on itunes.

5293 feet of air...

...above sea level anyway. We took a trip to the mile high city last weekend! We wanted to do something fun with the Family to finish up spring break week. I have been craving VERT and the closest REAL "vert- ramp" is at Woodward indoor skatepark in Denver Colorado. I had vacillated about taking the trip but then I heard that Steve Cabalerro, Christian Hosoi and Tony Alva would be making an appearance at the new VANS store. The news was enough to make me jump off the fence! With four gigs of mp3 sound, my wife, my kids, my brother, my sister and I packed into our suburban and hit the road. Our first stop on Saturday was at Woodward Skatepark. We paid $12 each for two hours and it was worth every penny. The guy at the counter said the Vert ramp was 13 feet tall. It was crazy. We skated for two full hours and then headed over to PEI-WEI for a well deserved feast.


We prayed for a sign... we got one!


"VERT-YA"



"13 feet-whatever... wait... he wasn't kidding!"


Discussing the artistic characteristics of the phallic graffiti on the wall


It has been awhile since I skated something
legit... at first it looked oververt... even though I knew it was just vert.

P contemplates the decision to drop.


P drops first!


K drops.


I LOVE VERT!

P bails but I like the pic


"Today we skated, tonight we FEAST!"



Going into it, I really didn't know what to expect. I dreamed of catching big airs and inverts. I dredded a fall. But with focus.. and balls I rode that ramp until I was close friends with the vert! No Mctwist today... but I am SO stoked! Skateboarding is! Vert is!

The Silhouette

In preparation for my .. uh.. movie (every video producer I know is "going to make a movie" someday... it's kind of a joke) I have been experimenting with a few shots. I want to develop a more artistic style of storytelling. Here is a short clip of a sunset shot I did the other day titled "The Silhouette". No story yet... although I have toyed with ideas that would include middle aged skaters, an unknown punk rock band, an aspiring artist, a small time movie producer... hmmm.

I can't change the world... but I can skate it!

It has been "the week of dental work". My head aches and I feel like I am chewing aluminum foil. Skateboarding might be the last thing on the list of things to do for someone in my condition, however, Skateboarding is a huge part of my well being. I want (need?) to skate daily.

I hauled my new camera out to the mini tonight and set up a few tripod shots. I am borrowing some inspiration from MC. Many skaters are artists. Skateboarding is in many ways a physical art-form.
The surface of the ramp is in bad shape. I was able to repair it enough to skate it but it skates slow. I am not complaining I am just glad to be skating.

Click here to see a larger version of the video.

Maximum Damage

I did a project in my high school photography class (years ago) called maximum damage. The idea was to break all the rules in the the dark room and see if we could get something artistic out of disaster. Standing over my weather beaten ramp, I find myself reflecting back to that project. We had a heavy snow followed by thawing and freezing. The drastic changes have left my ramp in a near un-skate-able state. It is a wavy bubbly mess. I thought an extra layer of outdoor floor paint would protect the surface... I should have tarpped it. RATS!

191 mini ramp. 1988?

In the late 80's I built a mini in my back yard. I had no experience with ramp construction and I had no plan. I started screwing wood together and ended up with something that very loosly resembeled a half pipe. It was four feet tall, twelve feet wide and had uber tight transitions. It went almost to vert in just four feet. It was a challange to ride but I loved that ramp. I skated it every day!

If you are searching for impressive skate footage then keep looking, you wont find it here. What you will see is an authentic 80's afternoon of skating my back yard creation! Fasten your seat belt, we are about to go back in time!

191 Thompson Vintage K from kvon on Vimeo.

Fall

Fall is here and almost gone. I lament few too many photo opportunities. The leaves started to turn, we had a big freeze, the leaves all fell. I am still skating as much as possible, playing shows with Hail The Sound and loving life. I got a new lens and did a few timed shots, cleaning and winterizing the ramp, enjoying the perfect weather.

D's Shots

My five year old loves to shoot photos with my Nikon. He is very aware and careful with the equipment. Today while we were skating he wanted to shoot. Here are a few of his shots! Nice job D-boy!

Self portrait for 7 days

I am doing this fun 7 days of self portraits on flickr. Here is my shot for day one.
This is a 30 sec night exposure. I used a tripod and the camera timer. I popped off a flash from my sb-800 and then used the green display on the back of the flash to draw the k. I shot it ten or twenty times. Other versions had the full "Kvon" but I liked the feel and composition of this shot best. ©kvon 2008

A work in progress vol 2

Skateboarding is! Here is a video of some of my less-good (ok not a word) skating. I am tired of not having any visual content to post. I want to document my progress, so I dragged my wonderful wife away from cooking dinner to shoot three minutes of skating. She was holding my sweet daughter in one arm the camera in the other and swatting mosquitos away at the same time. My girl is a super hero! Thanks babe! On the other hand my skating is not where I want it to be, I am low on sleep, I skipped lunch and had poison, I mean coffee. This contributed to my major sketch style in this vid. Oh well it will make later vids look that much better!

STOKED TO THE ROOF!... Memoirs of a Rad Dad

Twenty years of practice finally pays off! I got my hand plants on the coping and I am landing them! Now... if I can build an 11' vert ramp I can practice the real deal!
I am not as rad as this dad or this dad but I am not as old mature either... what I mean is... I have a few years to catch up! These guys are quite an inspiration to me because they are bucking the stereotype... but more than that they are skating for the love of skating.

After landing my hand plant several times I went inside the house to find a poop catastrophe. No picture. My yongest son had an accident, "o.k. no problem" but then he tried to clean it up..."uh-oh!, big problem". I love being a dad!

I GOT IT!

Well it's not the full on tuck knee air but I am calling this a personal milestone none the less. I have done the same old frontside air for over twenty years. I tried the tuck knee a few times but it felt weird so I bailed. Today I pushed through to land several demi-tuck knee airs. Now I just need to pull the board back and get that knee down! I don't have access to a real eleven foot vert ramp, Still I press on hoping that my work here on the six will help once I get to ride the real deal. Regardless... I am stoked!

Then and Now

More than twenty years has passed since I started skateboarding. A lot has changed. Much has stayed the same. I am more chill and I am more uptight. I have more money and more bills. My family has grown and my love for them overflows. The world has turned, I am still here. That front-side air feels like the first time! I would like to tuck my knee. The movement is a little different. It will take work. I am also working on a front side air to tail and a finger flip front side air to tail. It will take work.

Skateboarding is!

How do you categorize skateboarding? It has been said that skateboarding is a sport, like football, running or skiing. Other people have argued that skateboarding is an art-form, a venue for self expression.... maybe skateboarding is a science? What happens at the coping? Is it a trick... is it a maneuver... or is it an EXPERIMENT!?!?!



P sporting his D.I.Y. goggles made from Gatorade lids and an old drum head. Rock to fakie sans vision.

Out with the old....

I used to grab behind my front heal for about 99% of my backside airs (see first two pics). It always worked great for the "pre-grab" airs of the old days... Last week I decided to change my "go to" backside grab from behind my front heal to the standard "in front of the front heal grab". This works much better with the "late grab". Now, I can get a better pump into the transition and go higher. My goal is the top of the safety rail! (about four feet).

88-ish Little Park ramp

The Little park ramp had amazing views. It blew over during a wind storm. This ramp was later cut down to four feet high, a victum of the mini ramp craze..... what a shame.

Kvon getting comfortable with the new grab. July 27, 2008 Photo P

Wow! Are you o.k.babe?

My wife rocks! She is an Awesome snowboarder, wonderful mother, gourmet cook, artist and skater! She has only been skating a little while but her approach is very aggressive.... maybe too aggressive. Here is a mini-ramp clip of my sweetie from a few weeks ago (before we built the new ramp addition) you know how this ends... don't worry, she wasn't hurt, go ahead and watch the clip a few times and laugh... she and I did.

What a difference a day makes

I have once again neglected my blog. For this I do have a good reason. I am adding onto the good ol backyard ramp! The following pictures of the ramp tell the story best.

The Ramp Sunday morning

A trip to Home Depot, A Birthday lunch for Mom, a dessert at Grandma's and several hours later... we had both transitions and the flat framed. On Monday night we framed up the decks. On Tuesday night I had a Recording session. Tonight I hope to get the sheeting done.

The ramp Tuesday night.

The addition is just under six feet tall, eight feet wide with six foot ten inch transitions and eight feet of flat bottom. I attached the coping using an ingenious technique that I found online.

I have incorporated a natural "feature"/obstical on this ramp that I hope will make for a more interesting ride.

Tonight I hope to finish the Sheeting.