My Esk8s. A journal of sorts

rafaelinmissouri · April 23, 2024, 5:11pm

Yesterday the little dude asked to go to the skatepark.

It’s always a bit of an effort packing up the minivan, getting all the safety gear and rides…

Yesterday I only brought the remote for the ATV. The board itself stayed on the wall apparently.

So I was stuck riding the GT which is not nearly as much fun…

Little dude had fun though.
It’s so cool seeing him just kinda do his own thing out there.

He rolled around on his electric bike, which is killer because he can really cover some ground.
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Now that spring is here and evenings are long, I expect this will be happening way more.

rafaelinmissouri · April 23, 2024, 5:24pm

I needed to run downtown today at lunch break for an errand.

So I had to play PEV roulette.

It’s sprinkling, which eliminates most everything.

I really wanted to ride the Flux… But that is a fair weather board.

I wasn’t really feeling the Onewheels or EUC.

The Gravel Boi is still sitting low on the Akashas which my old self is not going to ride on wet ground.

So today’s choice was the Gravel Flux.

It’s such a fun board to ride. But I don’t usually think of it for errands since it’s so giant…

One thing that ends up being really nice around town is being able to go up curbs, and down curbs.

This is the only set up I feel totally good about doing this with, and it does it so well with the 9 inch tires.

I climbed curbs several times today for practical reasons!

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rafaelinmissouri · April 24, 2024, 11:48pm

I got the new hip pads.

rafaelinmissouri · April 24, 2024, 11:55pm

The EUC kids stopped by today.

One of them got the new Veteran Lynx and I wanted to check it out.

It’s a bigger version of my Patton in many ways.

The good news is that I rode it up the block and it felt big, and tall, and stiff…
So I didn’t immediately fall in love with it

So hooray for not wanting more stuff!!!

We all followed the little dude to the school for his most epic group ride to date!!!

SquishyCat · April 28, 2024, 6:39am

One of my lifelong homies just moved near you I think, I told him to say hi for me

rafaelinmissouri · April 28, 2024, 1:26pm

Jaden is in the house.
He even got out with the EUC kids last night, but I could not go ride with them!!!

I had seen your board on his Instagram.

rafaelinmissouri · May 3, 2024, 3:35pm

I like having these smart BMSs on my boards.

There are still several unmonitored batteries in the garage that stress me out.

But at least these I can check on regularly and see what is happening

rafaelinmissouri · May 8, 2024, 5:35am

There is so much cool stuff happening it has been hard to keep up on here.

But spring time has been great and I have been getting some really good riding in!!!

Today is a pretty good example.
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Hung out with the two boys at the skatepark for a good 2 hours.
Clocked about 9 miles in there on the Hosoi.

And tonight I went out for 18 miles on the Llama Links

rafaelinmissouri · May 17, 2024, 2:29pm

Turns out the Onewheel is the PEV of choice when you need emergency apology flowers late, late at night.

(May only work during spring time)

rafaelinmissouri · June 5, 2024, 4:02pm

Here we are.

Summer time!!!

And the living is easy.

So much good riding happening.

A lot of cool stuff Happening with all the electricals.

My favorite is still the daily rides with Luca.

He wants to go out and ride his bike every day.

And now the rides with him are evolving!!!

We have started to leave the neighborhood.

A couple weekends ago we rode 4.5 miles to a Brewery to go meet my wife.

And it has only gotten better from there.

rafaelinmissouri · June 5, 2024, 11:16pm

As the rides with the little dude level up so does the gear.

Just minor stuff.

Cool shades and a pseudo full face helmet.

This was another real deal ride that we got out of the neighborhood.

I got some better footpegs with studs.

They are super sharp on the edges so I made a bumper with Tesa tape.

It actually turned out really good.

The brakes on this bike were really bad. I ordered a couple new calipers from Amazon and between the two I made it work.
So that was another level up.

rafaelinmissouri · June 6, 2024, 1:17am

The rides with the little dude are so cool.
We decided to go to the playground at like 10 the other night and my daughter rolled with us.

Yesterday we went on a lunch break ride and I took the Omakase.
We rode a full 5 miles.

rafaelinmissouri · June 7, 2024, 12:56am

Welp.
It’s been all these years.
And I finally ended up hitting an animal a couple nights back.

I have had really close calls with squirrels and bunnies.

And have probably actually hit snakes.

But the other night I smacked right into a baby raccoon on the Flux.

The family was crossing the sidewalk I was riding up and I slammed on the brakes… But not fast enough.

The Matrix III axle plowed right into the little guy.

Luckily I ride slow to start with. And managed to hit the breaks.

So the little guy seemee fine.

And not to be selfish… But I was fine…

Evwan · June 7, 2024, 2:06am

You aren’t alone. The small rodents on my local trails are 100% suicidal. They stand in the center of the trail till you’re 5ft away from them, then they run. Almost had one run straight into me yesterday. Nearly gave me a heart attack. Snakes are unfortunately common roadkill for me. I feel pretty bad about it.

sevenfloorsdown · June 7, 2024, 3:33am

A bit mean to call them rodents; those are someone’s children!

rafaelinmissouri · June 7, 2024, 12:40pm

I did hit a little kid in my early days.

A 2 year old girl on campus that basically jumped in front of me…

I had a short board that ran into her ankles. I had slammed the brakes…
She was fine luckily.
Just scared.
Family was cool about it…

rafaelinmissouri · June 7, 2024, 5:40pm

Up until this point I have only converted one person to esk8.

My neighbor Benji that bought a Zeus Carbon Pro. Destroyed it. Rebuilt it. And still rides it almost every day.

But a single convert is pretty weak sauce…

Having the hardware to share, doesn’t necessarily translate to having people to try

And I suppose I have not tried super hard, even though I have had more than a handful of my old skate buddies come try.

Going to the skatepark recently has been interesting.

Some of the dudes want to try.

Interestingly enough not every one does…

I had assumed that if you skateboard, and you live in the age of electric skateboards and someone hands you a remote you are going to jump on and try.

Not so much…

Only a couple kids got into really ripping around the park.

But let’s get to the good point.

I have had an old skate buddy come and try and ride.

I’m obligated to drop a picture of his sick bus.

Shout out @Razillian the Precision DKPs made it a great ride for him since they are agile and responsive. And they were stable enough to keep him on two feet.

He was a great street and park skater, but getting onto a longboard with tires is a new vibe.
And he is doing great.