rain stops ollie practice so off to churchill
Last night I decided I should go and practice my ollies, so I started skating to the deaner on my shortboard (how weird does that feel after two weeks exclusively on the longboard?). However, I got about 3 metres before the rain started so I turned back, grabbed my pads and drove out to the indoor churchill miniramp.
There were a few skaters there, most in their 30’s and most very good. Standing outside the stable the amplified sound of boards and trucks slamming down on the coping made me nervous, but inside the atmosphere was friendly.
Predictably I didn’t put my pads on straight away and have some scabs to prove it, but got fully padded up before too long - sorry hardcore skaterz, but that’s just the way it has to be!
It’s difficult to tell if i’m improving or not, as I haven’t really learnt anything new and i’ve never been a consistent skater, so it’s difficult to define what I can and can’t do, i.e. it’s more "have done" rather than "can do" this and that. Not that any this matters, I just take comfort in the fact that i’m not finding myself doing those bizarre unintentional slalom style maneouvres across the flat any more, and I can rectify my foot positioning easier, when they drift into a sort of penguin stance. Managed a couple of frontside 50-50’s (twisting them round to tail to drop back in, with a pause and a wobble, to keep the suspense). I still have a mental block with backside 50-50s and stalls although I managed a few accidental backside feeble grinds.
I’m trying to work out what I should try to re-learn next - to get me out of the rock fakie, tail stall, rock fakie, tail stall rut - I think frontside ollie to tail and frontside ollie disasters should be first on the list. That’s the important thing here - it doesn’t matter to me that I haven’t got a whole list of moves, more that I get enjoyment out of variety and flowing from one thing to another rather than repeating myself all the time. And therefore as I skate for enjoyment, I need some more moves 
While there were people there I was only getting a run every few minutes, but after they left I had the place to myself and predictably I skated until I felt sick (which takes a lot longer these days), as if I had to use up every available second of ramp time. As I got tired I got careless and sketchy, so after about half hour of the ramp to myself I walked wobbly legged back to the car.