Skate Cincinnati

No, mom, it's not a mid-life crisis. (But warn me if it becomes one.)

It’s been a while since I updated you all: Minus the whole part about Donald Trump taking office and the resulting shitshow we’ve endured the past five weeks, things have been good.

Our trip back went great, saw some old friends, the old neighborhood, spent some time with family and old neighbors.

One thing Santa did not bring one of the twins was a skateboard. A bike accident last fall prompted a hospital visit, so a “two wheel scooter” (must be two wheels!) came from the North Pole. And while it is appreciated and loved, it was not a skateboard.

Constant questions about getting a skateboard.

A former colleague of mine, before the twins were born, asked if there were any boys. I gave my standard line, that I was just happy we were so lucky. I didn’t (and don’t) care about boys or girls.

His observation was: “Well, the advantage to getting a boy, for you, is that you can do all of the fun hobbies you like as a kid and not be judged for it.”

Your marriage mileage may vary, but it’s generally correct.

We went to a local skateshop, Blacklist, to look at boards. They were very nice. Since it was so close to Christmas and the weather shitty, I fell on my sword and bought a skateboard for myself.

What a dad.

For those who care, it’s an Alien Workshop Joey O’Brien Bug Juice on Krux trucks with Spitfire wheels and bearings. The understanding was that she could try to skateboard on it and if she really liked it, when the weather improved, she could pick one out.

That didn’t last long. But more on that in a second.

There’s a lot of overlap between the hockey and skateboarding communities, so growing up playing hockey, there was a brief period where I skateboarded. While the local Newman-Adler sporting goods shop had some things, I signed up for a California Cheap Skates (CCS) catalog and bought a blank complete with a plastic-coated bottom on some name brand trucks with money I had saved from my paper route.

I can picture them in my mind but forget the brand. Maybe Independent? This was before a lot of board brands came up with their own house trucks.

Due to my impatience and OCD about not wanting to damage the board (who gets into skateboarding thinking that? Me, apparently!), I decided to sell it to a neighborhood kid, a trouble maker, who never paid me back and then claimed to have lost the skateboard.

I ate the loss.

On a family vacation to Brunswick, Georgia that doubled as a work event for my wife, I took the girls to this oceanside town and went to a skateshop. The twins were fascinated, and Twin B found a penny board from Swell with a Hawaiian theme.

She had to have it.

My wife was very accepting of it, but both twins started “boardin” in the hotel room, and in the parking garage. And, when we got home, in the basement hallway outside my office. Twin C asked for the same skateboard, but with different colors. Now, the girls go boardin’ every day after school in front of my office. It’s adorable.

The weather in the last few days has picked up—it’s false Spring—so we’ve done some driveway work. Safely and with pads!

There is a local skate park in nearby Anderson Township, as well as one under a highway bridge in Newport.

I think we’re a long way off from going there, but just boarding around flat ground? They find that fun, and so do I. At 41, I am beginning to feel my age and this dog isn’t terribly interested in learning a ton of new tricks.

I don’t want to end up at the Spill Station.

Never, ever buy a Walmart skateboard.

Sometimes when I have a plan to see a new part of the city, I bring the skateboard. It can be fun to find a spot, like the parking garage below next to a city bureaucracy near TQL Stadium.

If I were more talented, this city is eminently very skateable. But also very dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. And I’m smart enough to know where my limitations end and self-preservation risk assessment begins.

Last year, the Canadian skateboard company Landyachtz asked is fans what city they should come to. Cincinnati won.

Check it out, it’s very cool and a nice showcase of the city.

I have long found the truly-long “longboards” sort of detestable. I don’t judge those who love surfing, but it’s not for me. The Landyachtz guys do sell a bunch of these, and even weirder boards, but what I like about their lines (Dinghy, Tugboat) is that these are sort of crossover lines.

They have the wide wheels, one kick tail, but are a little more than a penny board in terms of design. That’s more my style.

Ohio has a bunch of skateboarding ties, but since we are The Heart of It All™ that’s to be expected. Alien Workshop is based in Dayton, though its ownership has changed over the years. One of its sponsored skaters, Rob Dyrdek, is from Kettering. He even built a city skatepark there in partnership with DC shoes.

Locally, there’s a nationally known skateboard site near Newtown called “Revive.” People who skate or are on YouTube might know it as “The Shredquarters.”

Perhaps when the weather is warmer, I’ll reach out to them to see if the girls could go there (it’s not really a retail location) to pick out boards and make them.

In the meantime, pray for my ankles, elbows, head, and wrists as I try to keep the three of us safely upright and having fun this spring.