Still Here!

A long time ago, I remember reading a blog about blogging. It said something like, “Hot pro tip: never apologize for or explain periods of absence, it makes you seem unprofessional!” Well, forget that. This is a skate blog, what makes it scream “professional?”

I keep from discussing details of my personal life too much. In my opinion, this is a blog for a few things:

1. Gear reviews
2. Beginner help
3. Maybe some commentary on skate culture? I don’t know, lists should have three items.

So with that in mind, I try not to get too personal. I’ve even kept from posting videos, but I’ve been thinking of changing that policy in the future, especially since some people could find them helpful for learning.

It could be a while though.

You see, I’m just now getting back into skating after a prolonged absence. I’m sure a lot of skaters have had some rough times this past year and a half. The COVID-19 pandemic drove many of us indoors. People who skate to commute found they no longer have to skate to the office, because “the office” is the desk next to their bed now. People lost loved ones to this terrible virus. On top of it all, across many parts of the world, this summer has sucked. Wildfires out in the western U.S., oppressive heat and rain in the east, hospitals filled to the brim in the south, and unseasonably hot and rainy weather in Europe too. Let’s be honest, this hasn’t been our best summer for skating.

I signed up to get vaccinated literally the day I could, and I’m glad I did. It freed me up to have some new skate adventures in April. Not as many as I’d like (is there ever enough skate adventures?), but it was nice to have some time to get back out there. I started testing two new longboards and even converted one of my longboards to an electric longboard and started testing that. I’ll be resuming those reviews in the coming weeks. Bad weather and some health issues took out most of my summer.

Thanks to some surgery for tests in May, I was diagnosed with a rare cancer in June. I spent May through July getting and eventually recovering from surgeries to remove it all. I can say that my doctors are confident that I am cancer-free now, so don’t start worrying over little ol’ me, I’m going to be just fine. I don’t want to call it an “easy” cancer, because, 1) it’s still cancer, and 2) people have died from it so I don’t want to offend anyone, but, fortunately, it was pretty “easy” for me.

Still, the procedures and recovery were awful. The first week was rough and the next few weeks weren’t a cake walk either, but I had to stay off my feet for months. I was barely allowed to walk more than a block or two down to the grocery store, and, even then, had to limit what I could carry back. I wasn’t allowed to keep my heart in shape with cardio, or spend time on a balance board to keep my ankles strong. It’s made getting back out there tough, and it’ll take a while before I can really thrash the hell out of these setups to do a proper review.

The other day I finally had enough at work. It was a bright and sunny day, and I decided to take a little skate break. I used to do them early in the pandemic daily, but since recovering, I hadn’t felt confident enough to do it and then get back to work.

All of the muscle memory was still there. The balance? Still good. When I came up to my go-to hill, I told myself if I don’t go hard, I’ll just take forever to get back into it. So I pushed hard down that hill, threw a glove down, and busted out a sloppy but not half bad toe slide into a 180º. I wanted to make it a pendy, but, honestly, I lost some core strength and got nervous about changing the momentum back, so I just took the 180º and celebrated that. Little wins. The pendies will come back with time.

I babied my wrist after I broke it and I still don’t feel as confident heel side as a result. It took forever to get enough flexibility back to even put a glove down, let alone the strength to support my weight on it. I still don’t like to do more than a light speed check before a turn with glove-down heel sides. On one hand, it got me to do squatties and standing heel slides more, and also forced me to focus on my toe slides more, but on the other hand, I’d like the confidence to get my busted up wrist back on the pavement. I don’t want to make the same mistakes as I recover from this, so I’ve been pushing myself back in, building back strength, and sending it.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that I’m going to keep doing this project. The quiver must grow and it must remain quick! I have some ideas for the future to help facilitate more reviews, mainly selling some of the setups I don’t want to keep so I have room and money to buy more. I’ve wanted to review the Comet Cruiser for a while now (and it’s been requested multiple times), but I just haven’t been able to justify the cost and another cruiser setup. But, maybe if I can make some room…. I’ll get that up and going eventually, just have to figure out the logistics. I still want to make sure I’m offering my less-used setups at a steep discount so beginners can snatch up quality setups rather than running to junk from big box stores because they don’t want to make a large investment.

I usually keep the review pipeline a bit of a secret so I’m not pressured into doing any one type, but, hey, you’ve been patient, so here it is, in no particular order:

• Landyachtz Switchblade, a fun freeriding machine
• Landyachtz Rally Cat, a quirky and versatile double kick setup with tons of rocker
• Loaded Vanguard, an oldie and a classic, tons of high rebound flex for a unique carving experience
• Unlimited x Loaded electric skateboard kits, because I didn’t want to rely on public transportation during Covid but also found that some areas are really tough on a push longboard
• Landyachtz Stratus Hollowtech, a light and surprisingly stiff dancer. Yes, I was getting into dancing, and looking forward to getting back into it. Though I’ll basically be a beginner again because there is no way I had much muscle memory yet.
• An attempt to improve the Landyachtz surf skate without buying new trucks… though I may end up buying new trucks anyway. Still, I wedged the trucks even more and added new, grippier wheels, so maybe it’ll feel more surfy?
• Wheels, like Easy Hawgs, Remember Collective Hoots, Powell Peralta Snakes, and so much more
• Trucks! I finally decided to get over their gross advertising and try out Caliber II trucks
• And so much more!

So, stay tuned and thank you for your patience. I’ll be back to thrashing on four wheels soon enough, but I knew it would likely take months to get back into shape and then fall and winter could get in the way, so I wanted to at least explain now why this lack of posts may stretch on for a bit more. I hope you’re all still here when I’m fully back!

Thanks!

– Dani