Entries this day: skate_George_R_Brown_disc_perceptions

skate George R Brown disc perceptions

14 June 1994

About a week ago was my latest crazy skating adventure.
My goal for the night was to skate down the 18-wheeler access ramps at the George R. Brown Convention Center on the edge of downtown. At Party on the Plaza, I talked to a guy named Matt, I think, told him my goal, and he and I skated over there. The access ramps are about 3 stories tall and pretty darn long. They actually span a city block away from the building on each side. Before we went up, we planned our exit route that we would take as we finished the ramp. There was a bit of street construction there, so we said "okay we'll skate between these two barrels and if there is no car, we can skate out into the street, otherwise we need to jump over this piece of wood blah blah.." We got that planned, so we skated up one of them, and got scared 3 times as 3 cars came down and each time I *knew* it was a police car and we were busted. Fortunately, I was wrong. We got to the top and looked over the edge. When we would spit over the edge, it took like 4 or 5 seconds to splat on the ground. We were way up there. "Ready?" "Let's go." I went first. I got going pretty fast, got to the bottom of the ramp, skated between the barrels, out into the street because there was no traffic, coasted 2 blocks and that was it. That was it?? I wanted *speed*, white knuckle blinding *speed* that would rocket us across the city. It just didn't happen When I go next time, I'll push myself so I get more speed than just gravity pulling me down.

I found a group that plays disc in a bank drive-through area, so I joined them for a while. ("Disc" is the word we use for the game that normal people call "frisbee." Frisbee is actually a brand name.) So this drive through is like really really smooth concrete, and well lit, so we have big fun there. I was unable to play as much as I wanted; I felt really tired the whole time, like I was doing a lot of work, but just not going anywhere. I made a few cool catches, though: a through-the-legs catch and one big leaping catch that almost made me eat concrete. After playing disc, I saw two women I talked to when I went jousting and they were with 3 other people. They were about to go skate some parking garages, so I joined them. We got to one and found that the building had just recently installed garage door style gates that would not permit us to skate in like we usually do- just skate under the little parking garage arm thing. So that effectively kept us out. So we decided to skate to Jesus Saves and see what we would find there. Across the street from Jesus Saves is the Allen Center parking garage, so we skated that first.

Allen Center is either the first or second garage I ever skated. I remember it was a towering, menacing, *steep*, Garage of Terror, with deadly posts and speed bumps everywhere. Apparently, the owners of the garage decided to make it nice for skaters. The garage was not nearly as steep, the speed bumps were much shorter, and there was much more room between the posts. I also noted that it was only like 4 stories tall. It used to be 10 or 20. As we skated out of the garage, there was a security guard right at the bottom. I stopped and he said "you shouldn't be in here..skate on out of here." So we left and went across the street to Jesus Saves. Jesus Saves is the name of the most tremendous parking lot in dowtown Houston. (Note: the following sentence is not a skewed perception of a beginning skater) Jesus Saves is 13 stories tall, and each ramp goes down two stories at a time. (The rest of the description is skewed by my opinions) When you skate down this sucker, you get going really *really* fast. I can't imagine being able to skate down it without either 1) braking on the way down each ramp, or 2) dumping speed between each ramp by skating on the level surface of the parking area. I chose the brake on the way down method, and tested to see just how *little* I could brake and still make the turn to the next ramp. Only once did I end up going too fast and missing the turn, forcing me to dump some speed where the cars park. I did not hit any cars, and, as opposed to the first time I skate Jesus Saves, I did not wreck at all on the way down. When we got to the bottom, I was sitting on a little wall and I felt my wheels. I like the fact that they get warm after flying down a garge. To my surprise, I found that one wheel was *hot*. Like "yeow! That's hot!" hot. It turns out that the wheel was rubbing against part of the skate and actually melted the plastic there. As the plastic melted, it deformed and rubbed harder against the wheel and removed the wheel from the axle toward the outer edge. It was pretty wild. That explained why I felt like I couldn't skate anywhere when we were playing disc.

Yesterday, I went to the Montrose Skate Shop and showed him my wheel. He was pretty impressed and scraped off the melted plastic part of the skate. Not even counting that one wheel, my wheels were really shot. He said that he had just thrown away 5 sets of wheels from rental skates that were in much better condition. So he gave me a set of wheels that were practically new compared to mine. I put them on and they work wonderfully.

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