TGIF! Welcome to the long weekend. Don’t forget to pay your respects on Monday. Before that, though, is the best Sunday of the year. It all starts with Sunday Gravy, of course. But then we get the trio of the F1 Monaco GP, followed by the Indy 500, followed by the Coca-Cola 600. Kyle Larson is attempting to do the 1100 by racing both the Indy 500 and the Coca-Cola 600. Unfortunately, there’s an 80% chance right now that the Indy 500 will be rained out and totally ruin Sunday. But! That means Monday will have the race. Also, playoff hockey every night, including tonite’s game which is just about to start.

Survival – Personal Edition

Many folks here consider themselves washed. Past their prime.  Well, let’s have a mid life crisis. That’s right, grab that skateboard and let’s learn how to do a proper ollie to impress the youth at the skate park.

• Let’s get familiar with some terms here:
  • Deck: The top wooden surface.
  • Tail: The rear of the deck.
  • Truck: The axles. There’s two of them, front and tail.
  • Ollie: The trick we’re doing which is a skateboard jump initiated with the tail of the deck.
  • Nollie: The trick we’re NAWT doing, but is an ollie where the jump is initiated with the front of the deck.
  • Poser: What we actually are, but can get away with because we’re the olds.
  • Goofy-Foot: When you ride with your non-dominant foot at the tail of the deck.
• Now, let’s get you situated on your deck. We’re doing Regular-Foot which is the opposite of Goofy-Foot. You may be asking yourself, which foot is my dominant foot? Have someone shove you from behind. The foot you first place forward to catch yourself is your dominant foot. Place the non-dominant foot at the front of the deck and right over the truck. Your foot should be between point forward and to the side, so just start at like a 45° angle here. Place your dominant foot at the back of the deck, pointed to the side.
• Bend your knees a bit and bend forward a little bit. The aim here is get yourself balanced with the flexibility to move your balance quickly.
• Let’s get skating! Take your rear foot off the deck and use it to push it against the ground to get yourself moving forward. Once you’re rolling place that foot back on the read of the deck.
• Time to prepare for your trick. Move that front foot back to the middle of the deck.
• With your rear foot, kick down hard on the back of the deck. At the same time lift your front foot to allow the front of the board to lift off the ground. Once the front of the board is off the ground, leap up with your back foot.
• Then move your front foot forward to level the front of the board. If you’re close enough to the deck, you can also roll your ankle forward and use the side of your foot to accomplish this, although I don’t recommend this technique until you’re much younger. At this point the board will be completely off the ground and you only have to worry about the landing.
• Prepare to land. Make sure you are somewhat centered on the deck, that both your feet are over the deck, knees are bent, and that your ankles are straight. After that let gravity do its thing and bring both of you down to the ground.

Once you’re back on earth, let friction slow the board down and jump off. Your insurance would no doubt sigh a big sigh of relief at this point if they knew what just happened. Of course, if they did your rates would triple even without a spill.

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Survival – Species Edition

Time to put the sexy in Friday!

Enjoy the long weekend, folks! Alright, now let’s get to the comments!