Ready for spring

I skate regularly but rarely pad up. Normally I take it easy, think old man in teenager clothing. Today was different, I was bent on a full ramp assault. My pads have been sitting for so long there were literally spiders falling out of them. Sorry mom. It was chilly and I felt rusty but nothing was going to stop me. I had not done an invert in almost a year. My goals were simple:
1. Get upside down.
2. Get air
3. Get stoked
4. Do it all again for as long as possible and
5. Be able to walk away when the session was over.
Mission accomplished.
I bashed the top of my foot on the coping pretty good but I'll be ok and it was totally worth it!


first knee slide blew out my laces.



My sweet wife shot this make and cheered me on. Not my best form but I landed it and rolled away. I'm guessing I made 14 out of 19 attempets not bad for a a year off. I am stoked.


My girls had a blast.





Confession:
I am always finding excuses not to skate, they are usually legit, responsible reasons like: help the kids, fix the house, work for a living, practice music etc, but other times I contrive totally lame reasons driven by fear and guilt. Sometimes I feel like I just don't deserve the time for myself. Other times I am just too scared of crashing. If you let fear and guilt stop you from doing what you love to do then you are not living. When I step onto a skateboard I am overcoming my fear and that is a great feeling.

Pull yourself together man

This may sound crazy but if go too long without skateboarding, I start to come apart at the seams. How long is too long? It just depends. For some reason this activity from my youth has become necessary for sanity. I don't skate enough I guess. Sometimes I'm too scarred. I don't want to crash. The stoke is worth the risk. I don't need to destroy a mega ramp or execute a perfect impossible flip to twenty stair hand rail to feel it. All I know is that riding a little wooden toy with wheels levels me out. I am thankful to be able to ride.

The weather outside is delightful! 12-27-10

WOW! The weather has been unseasonably warm. 50+ degrees every day! P,A and Andrew came to visit the day after Christmas. Great weather and the best lil sibs ever make for an epic winter session. Two sessions today in fact. We hit the ramp once in the morning then again after taking the kids to Bananas fun park. Fantastic day!

PJ Slashing!




Kvon Backside. Some things never change.



Andrew, A.K.A. "Keanu"



Andrea kick'n.

Birth-Day-Sesh!

"Girl you know I,I,I.."
"Girl you know I,I,I.."
"I've been feenin"
"wake up in the late night... dreamin' about your lovin"

"Birthday sesh"
"Birthday sesh"

What? Isn't that the way the song goes?

Well the first line of the song is:

"It's your birthday so I know
"You want to Riide out"

As far as I can tell its a song about a Skate session!
I took the songs advice and had a birthday session of my own in Aspen Colorado. The Vert bowl gave me a little too much lovin... I still feel it. A9 captured a few slams and makes on vid. They hurt a lot worse than they look. At the end of the day I landed six inverts on the 9' with vert. I am stoked! The featured backing track to the vid is my new song "The saboteur"

You're never too old for a lil Birthday Sesh!
"Riide out!"

Birthday Sesh. Aspen CO July 2009 from kvon on Vimeo.

WARNING! AWESOMELY BAD VIDEO CONTENT... on the way to the skatepark.

My brother and I took a lil skate trip up to Snowmass and Aspen, old news, I know... but here's something new: On the way we rolled 32 gigs of binary code. I sent the footy with my lil bro A9 to edit. What he sent back makes Dumb and Dumber look Genius. omg. Four video shorts so far. Get out your lap top and have a seat on the throne because this is "The Bathroom youtuber!"

Flashback to June 2009

It took me a while to start cutting footage from my Spring skate voyage. Here is a fun mellow vid from X-court Skate park in Glendale AZ. This was the last day of our trip. We had a blast. A thousand "thank yous" go out to everyone who helped make that vacation the perfect way to start the 2009 summer!

X-court June 2009 from kvon on Vimeo.

Aspen /Snowmass Colorado. The 4th of JULY!

Up AT the crack of dawn. Drive for 2+ hours. Skate. Drive. Skate. Drive! It was a fun filled 4th, and that was just the morning! My brother "A9" and I pulled off a sneak attack on the crete at Aspen and Snowmass yesterday morning! It was a good, no.. it was a GREAT time! I will do it again FO-SHO! Here are some shots to document our celebration for INDEPENDENTs!


A9 Drops at Snowmass . This pool simulation bowl was so RAD! The shallow end was real tight but still ride-able! The waterfall was steep! This bowl was challenging in all the right ways. It gave us nothing for free! I would like to ride this thing every day and get good on it.


Snowmass is just around the corner from Aspen. This park was built by Dreamland Skateparks. It truly is a dream to ride. But watch out for the water from the sprinkling system. It leaches in through the concrete cracks and can turn this dream into a nightmare! The city of Snowmass should seriously check into this before it becomes a problem.


Snowmass skatepark. View #2


Snowmass skatepark. "B.F.B."Big fun Bowl


I would love to have this in my back yard!


I took it easy. The bigger bowl was a bit intemidating. I wanted to keep it fun and that means NOT getting hurt! I threw a few micro backside airs and called it good!



Another BS air in the bigger bowl.



Kvon Pivot in the bigger bowl at Snowmass.



Victory! "The hairy pit old man hath skated The and walketh away to skate another day!"


Commonly miss-referred to as "Butt-pencil" THIS, is a little place called Aspen COLORADO!
Colorado Combi! Two 6'+ rounds and a 9' or 10' square! OH-SO-SMOOTH! I love this Bowl!



Kvon back side Carve.


Shot of the park surroundings.



I love this town!


4' to 6' area. Tons of lines! THe Locals kill it, and you will too!


The big tile extension.



A9 with a cool fly-out!


This little bowl is RAD for beginners. It just ROCKS!


We returned home tired and happy, ready to light some fire works! I hang out with my wonderful family then we grilled steaks with our good friends Jim, Allie, Honor and Eden. We lit fire works in the street in front of our house then walked down to the community overlook to watch the city burn some $. It was a good day!

Sumer time rolls

Bust-a-backside! A9






Bail shots rule!


A9 "chillin-it"


Kvon invert


Kvon Lein to tail


Kvon Boneless one



Tha heat makes ya K-ra-Z!


Big B Shreds!


I have been racking my brain to no end... trying to formulate a plan to build a vert ramp. I have always had this passionate pursuit of big air. I have dreamed of boosting 6'-8' above the coping on a 12' vert ramp. There is currently no such ramp in my town (to my knowledge). So, I can drive out of town or I can build one. I would have started building already but there are variables that perplex me. Ramp construction is relatively straight forward but knowing the future is another thing all together. It's like this.. say I build a vert ramp and.....
1. my neighbors throw a fit.
2. we decide to move
3. it rains and snows ALL the time..
4. etc.etc.etc...
Anytime I am working on a plan I go through a time like this. I am just trying to work out the details. I'll get it worked out. Mean while, "LETS SKATE!"

Old Kook Skating... Magazine???

There is something cool about a magazine. When I was younger my mom would take me to the grocery store. I would hit the magazine isle while she shopped. Those were good times. There was a wealth of knowledge in those pages, they made my world bigger, more exciting! I read BMX action, BMX plus and eventually Thrasher and Transworld Skateboarding. Some times I would switch things up with a Hit Parader or Black Belt, the mag for the suburban Ninja! I fantasized about being on the cover of BMX or skateboarding magazines. Enough back story. Recently I did some basement layout work for a fictitious mag called Old Kook Skating. Old Kook Skating mag is based on a website with the same name. There are lots of skate forums out there, I belong to many of them but Old Kook has an innocent purity that puts your finger right on the pulse of what I believe to be the true essence of skateboarding. It's not about being "core" it's about the very act of shoving the earth and its gravitational pull away from you and rolling. Just roll away! I conclude this post with two mock up "covers" for a magazine that lives in my soul! Old Kook Skating dot com!

Kvon Helmet art #1

I have been wanting to do something custom and iconic to my helmet for quite some time now. I dig it when people customize their gear. It helps as identification in pictures and it is a lot of fun! I put together some primitive helmet art the other day. The concept was an electrical tape interpretation of old time football meets classic skate bones. Seems like all my stuff is black and white these days. I didn't really plan it this way it just sort of worked out with the supplies on hand.

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.

Working on it. #3 060909

A few days ago I reached my next step to invert style. I am grabbing after the wheels cross the coping. This will help me work this trick up to larger transitions and vert. I am also working on the madonna and a trick I call a 3/4 cab pivot. Additionally we are getting used to the new firmware "1.1.0" in our Canon 5d markII(s). 1.1.0. allows full manual control over the video features in the 5d markII. It's a whole new world for us with the 5d markII! We are stoked!

Mulberry brigade from kvon on Vimeo.

Kvon's New vert model

I like a little customization when it comes to my passions! Someday I will learn the art of screen printing but for now I am doing one off customs that feature hand cut graphics on masking tape. Primitive but fun. Here is my new setup: 8.25 mini logo custom spray paint, Indy 149's(?), 60mm Bones spf concrete lovers, thin ribs and for now, china red bearings (I have swiss 6 balls on the way)

Vert is dead..

So it has been said... Vert is dead... "There's no money in it." does that make it dead? The skate companies may be wrapped up in marketing strategies and styles of the 90's but there is an movement on the horizon. I say if vert is dead it's because we killed it today! So get out there and do your part. Vert is dead? KILL IT DAILY!

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.

Working on it. #2 051209

Late grab and Sab plant.



Sad plant. I don't know if I am doing this right. Sad plant is a regular invert with a strait front leg to tweak some style into it. I am working to extend it up and stall it out... then tweak it out. This is where I am at... I am working on it!



I have been throwing backside airs for over twenty years but they have been (for the most part) "early grab". Early grab is an easy way to learn but is very limiting when it comes to boosting hight. I have been working on the late grab. It is coming along. I am working on it. Here is a make.

Big D and A9

I love this time of year! D is doing very well. He is dropping in. I still give him a little help, he could do it on his own if I wasn't so scared.