I finally made it back to transition yesterday and, in a culmination of a 2 year saga, on a surfskate.
In short, I decided to start documenting the Japanese skate scene and the skateparks around Tokyo where I live, but encountered problems with access to the skateparks for filming.
I learned that most skateparks won’t allow non-skaters which, whilst it may well avoid issues with nuisance and injury also meant I had to be skating myself to gain access…
Now 62, my skateboarding is pretty low key these days and I only I only had longboards that wouldn’t even fit over the roll-ins, let me kickturn or ride the transition with any confidence generally, so I needed a shorter board; but now 62, not TOO short!
So I went shopping for a cruiser at the Elephant’s Graveyard of Japanese Skateboarding, the Book Off Mega Bazaar in Minami Funabashi and found a Carver 32” Super Surfer.
I fitted my longboard trucks and wheels, had a lot of fun carving and sliding downhill and went back to the skatepark but between the turning radius and rubouts, couldn’t make it work.
So I borrowed a friend’s surfskate, had fun, ordered some Carver trucks online, started working on my figure 8 turns but, but on delivery discovered they ship with marshmallow bushings and I wasn’t about to take them on transition.
The usual recommendation is for hard Riptide bushings but I couldn’t get them at a sensible price in Japan, and ordered them when I got back to the UK for Christmas.
I finally got them fitted and with the board suitably stabilised got out to some nearby transition at Winchester Skatepark.
Thanks to Nathan and the other locals there for making me feel welcome and letting me grom around the bottom of the bowls; I had a great time!