After mounting the board properly, I put all my gear into the trunk of the car and drove to Montana Snowcenter, NL. Although pretty crowded with English geezers, who celebrate their holiday to the adjacent family park – I could finally feel the snow again.

At first I needed to tweak my boots and straps again, so my feet wouldn’t hurt that much, but after getting it right it was time to ease back into the riding.

A ribbed green tube, down rails and a double kinked rail were the features to play with last night. I never rode the double kinked feature, after an hour orso I was confortably doing so. The other features also posed no problem after some warm-up. It’s good to be riding again and certainly knowing that the skillset is still persent and ready for progress!

At the end of the night, Jorg and I put in a small snowskate session. With ultimately landing a pop-shuv-it and an ollie-180 (almost), which means progress is also happening in that area.

All-in-all a very good 3 hour training session!

During the session Jorg put up a few left over beams from the building and challenged me to ollie them. Starting with only a few  I progressed quickly to about 10 logs of wood, which is about 44cm. Then it started to get tricky, Jorg put up another beam and I had to try a few times to get it done. The mental game was kicking in, but seeing is believing. By looking back at a video from myself ollie-ing the 44cm seeing that I had enough clearance I believed I could jump the 11 beams.

The video says it all for me, even though I have yet to break the 0,5m barrier. My hopes are up that I’ll be able to post about that sometime soon . I have a good example in Shark’s Team Member Willem Vogels who easily ollies over 0,7m things. It’s good staying inspired, this energizes like crazy! I’m Stoked about the ollie height I’m making!

This is where I found my challenge in creating /converting designs so they are applicable to the materials and sizes we can buy here in the Netherlands, namely in the metrics units. Besides that fact it has also been true that I’d never built anything like this before and that that in itself was enough of a motivator to check this out.

After reading up on the different designs out there I decided to focus on certain material and transition sizes. The choice I made was a radius of about 2,2 meters, the height of the quarter would be 0,91 meters. The side panels will be made from 18mm underlayment and then 2 layers of 9 mm underlayment on the transition beams, which are constructed from beams with a size 10×5 cm. The final layer is made from a 4mm high quality would for smooth riding.

After planning all this and thinking about the way to construct, the time of construction was there. With the end result shown in the picture, I must say I’m pretty stoked with the result and the way it turned out. Smooth riding surface with a not to steep transition, but yet enough height on the quarter to make it challenging.

Special thanks go out to Shark.nu – Safe House project for giving me the chance to materialize the designs into a skate-able object.

After some shaping, the setups were still powder-like due to the absence of some water to reinforce, but what the hell – Just do it! So after a few tries I finally locked on the backside 50-50 and after repeating them it got better and better. Jorg got enthused and gave it a try as well, for him it was equally successful and after a few tries he was locking the BS50-50′s just as easy.

As always taking it a level further we set out to try a switch bs 50-50 180 in, if this is the correct title . Breaking it down to approaching switch backside towards the tube and 180 onto the tube and ride the 50-50 full length. He totally locked it at 5 minutes to closing time. I was still mind-boggling myself not properly visualizing the movement. The lift stopped and I gave it a final try, although it was close I couldn’t lock onto the tube. Better luck next time!

Summarizing: a super sick training session, which we will repeat next Wednesday. Let’s see if we can continue the progression!

Marieke was doing some proper straight airs and was actually really improving on this. Unfortunately the airbag was filled with too much air which made you slide to the side of the bag on a high speed. If you land properly you can manage to brace yourself for this, but this was not the case with one of Marieke’s jumps and she slided down head first onto the icey slope. Now she suffers from an injured shoulder, which could have been prevented if the guys who put up the airbag took some extra care in how much air they fill the bag with.

Unfortunately I did not bring any video gear, so I’ll post a video clip from the last time we were at Snowworld when the had the airbag placed.

Skateboarding
Besides the training in Landgraaf that Thursday, in the evening it was time for my weekly skateboarding lesson. Which is a welcome distraction when there is no snow around to board on. But since the last few days the temperature in the Netherlands has been below the 0 degree barrier, my hopes are up for some fresh snow . I compiled a short clip from the lesson to aid myself in analyzing my progress and further tweak the technique. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC_liCql6uQ

Or find it on youtube here or on vimeo here

But even though I was rebuilding after working hours, I still managed to attend the lessons at Area 51 Skatepark. The progress sometimes flabbergasts me, as I’m doing stuff I never thought to be able. A few weeks back during the lessons, we initiated the first tries at a feeble stall on the small quarters in the training area. End of that session I felt comfortable doing those feeble stalls, of course it needs a whole lot more practice.

Last night at the lessons, I was asked what I wanted to learn next… In the back of my mind I had the snowskating event from a few weeks back where I felt comfortable making boardslides, this inspired me to ask for something I’d been fearing and putting off for a while: a boardslide on the double tube flat rail. Even though I am capable doing a boardslide on the big training tube, I raised a psychological barrier for myself thinking that the iron tubes would not be as easy. This fear, unfounded as it may be, kept me from trying and go for it. This is when Wouter challenged me and I pu t aside the fear and doubts and made a first attempt. Now that the barrier was gone it took me about 5 tries to finally make my first proper boardslide. After a few more I got more comfortable and relaxed, so I could try and focus on turning the board out and ride away. So stoked to have done that…it’s been on my list for a while and I put it up there with too much fear. I rocked that rail, success!!

PS. I’ll bring the camera next time so I don’t need to grab examples elsewhere And to keep a good log of my progress.

Lesson Content
There are many variables as to ascertain your skateboarding level. At Area 51, this is done by the instructor who uses several quick observations to see what level you are and bases the lesson content on that. Besides the basics, which anyone starting out with skateboarding should know, they leave room for your own ambitions. If there is a certrain trick or area you’d like to know more about, just ask the instructors and they’ll have you performing those basics in no time.

The basics to skateboarding are introduced to almost anybody who has some experience on a skatedeck. Not to let you start all over again, but just to be sure the proper platform is there/created to start building the rest of the technique. With this platform or basis, you’re rigged with the knowledge to help you out in situations during your homework sessions. This is where the power of this type of education lies, built on a logical way of thinking and prepping you with proper basics.

The advanced content is based on the basics skills you are taught in the beginning of a course. For instance: when riding that quarter, you’re reminded back to when you were making that first kick-turn frontise or backside as to leaning into the ramp, but now you apply it also on a ‘disaster’ or air out of the quarter. Another example is basics to ollies applied to higher speeds, on banks, in quarters, over hips & more.

As a lot boils down to body posture and alignment of shoulders, it is a good thing these basics are taught.

Instructors
An important factor to being taught well is a good instructor, which is very much the case at Area 51. Wouter Bosch has extensive skateboarding experience from the past and has been observing, figuring out, investigating and applying his own view and logical approach to skateboarding for several years. It’s this logical approach which lets you make sense of things, creating just enough of a spark to get you going and go for that new trick. As with most techniques, body posture, composure and alignment techniques, this can be taught best only if you experience or know what it feels like. This is where the skills of an instructor come into play, not pushing you but enthuse and boost your confidence by basics already in your skill-set.

Another strong point of the education is that new instructors are being trained and equipped to become an instructor. Although this might not feel efficient, but in my experience this can work just as well. Both instructors that have taught me are very well capable of bringing across the message or the way one should do a trick or technique. When the learning instructor is not capable enough of explaining, the other instructor senses this and adds the appropriate explanation. So far I’ve only been taught by skilled instructors and that’s a blessing, as they both know just the right tips to make me get more out of skateboarding.

Communication
In light of bringing across the lesson content and feedback there are no obstacles for the instructors when it comes to both the Dutch and English language. Sometimes they’re both so eager to explain something it’s hard to focus on either of it. Then again they both convey the same message and that’s comforting.

When it comes to communicating about lesson schedule changes or cancellation due to illness, it’s somewhat less organized. I find myself showing up for a lesson, only to find out it’s postponed or cancelled due to an activity or event. In my case I travel about 30 minutes for a single journey and an easy call or email would be sufficient. Furthermore during the summer holidays I knew when the schedule ended, but I had no real idea when it would start again. Luckily one of the fellow class mates did receive an email and he forwarded it. It’s not their strong-suit and there’s work and room for improvement on this topic. Even though this is from my personal experience, I’ve heard more complaints about it which made me point it out in the review.

Location & Service
The location of the park, traffic-wise, is good for people with a car. When it comes to train or bus, I think one needs to travel the last part by skateboard or by means of walking. The parking spots at Area 51 itself are limited and seem to be in favor of other people visiting nearby businesses or gyms. As an alternative, there is a pretty cheap parking garage with lots of space nearby, so parking your car shouldn’t be the problem.

The park itself is a perfect location to learn how to ride a skatepark and it’s obstacles. Not only do they have the big park, but there’s a dedicated area for the school’s purpose. This dedicated area features a lot of obstacles which are not intimidating as some of the ones in the big park might seem when you enter the park for the first time. It has 2 quarters, a wall-ride, several curbs, a tube, a few kickers/ramps and some rails. It’s big enough to teach several people simultaneously, but it’s harder to follow the instructors words when there are people rolling around whilst you are being instructed.

From a service point of view, the park offers to pay for the lessons independently or you can get a card which gets perforated for each lesson you take for about 8 lessons worth (€80,- EUR). The website features several web-forms, through which one can sign up for either workshops or lessons. In these forms you can already specify your level, which tricks you can already do, if you own your own material, if you ever visited Area 51 or another park for that matter and what kind of lessons you want.

Price vs. Quality
The price of € 10,- for an hour of skateboarding lessons, when taken in a series, is a fair price, given the quality you get for it. If you take into account that the entrance to Area51 itself normally is € 5,- it is a good deal to follow a series of lessons, because afterwards you can stay at Area51 to practice the skills you’ve just learned during the lessons. You can also do a training session on Saturdays between 11:00-13:00 before the park opens up to the public for € 15,-, where the whole park and the dedicated area are at your disposal.

Thoughts
My thoughts in this are that it’s usually the right pointers that create my path forward in progression as I’ve seen it over the past few months. Since I started with the lessons back in April 2011, I’ve progressed from just being able to cruise around the park and dropping in from stuff towards knowing my way around in the mini-ramp (rock-to-fakie, rock-n-roll, axle-stall, 5-0, 50-50 grind & more), perform several new tricks (boardslide, kickflip, heelflip, 50-50 grind & more) and improved my overall technique on all grounds (body posture, rotations, ollies, stance & more). I’d like to state that it’s a good location how to learn skateboarding. The instructors are experienced, the lesson content is specifically for you and your progress. Where you want to take it, is in your own hands!

Contact Information: Area 51
Website:
General – http://area51skatepark.nl/
Skateschool – http://area51skatepark.nl/skateschool/

Address:
AREAFIFTYONE STRIJP-S EINDHOVEN
Klokgebouw 51
5617 AB, Eindhoven
The Netherlands

Telephone: +31 (0)40 2341060

E-mail:
General – info@area51skatepark.nl
Skateschool – skateschool@area51skatepark.nl

Background info
With snowboarding as well as with skateboarding I’ve seen that it’s possible to learn new stuff, which I had never thought possible. In the History part in the “About me” section of this blog, I already wrote about how I got into snowboarding quite some years ago. What I was capable of back then, very much differs from the stuff I’m throwing down nowadays! For the snowboarding part, this is mostly out of self-teaching, watching videos and through the use of the SnowboardAddiction.com resources. For skateboarding I also already went into the history of how I came to take the lessons at Area 51 skatepark, Eindhoven.

Even though the tempratures were still low, they pretty much were an omen of what the rest of the day would bring. Never the less, it’s good to have put some practice in again, before we have the first lesson after the holidays. Just for review and progress I’ve shot a small video clip of me ollie-ing from a small stair, which is part of the park.

Hopefully the weather will continue to be nice for the remainder of the summer her in the Netherlands, because it hasn’t been all that perfect.

As the summertime came around this year, of course the classes were done and we got our homework from Wouter to practice over the summer month’s. Not all exercises and tricks are in the pocket, but certainly I’ve made solid progress on specific grounds.

The Homework
Tricks Wouter asked me to perform when he was back from his holiday, were: Heel-flip, Kick-flip, Pop-180-shuv-it, Frontside & Backside Ollie 180 and last but not least an Ollie Late 180-shuv-it.

Technique ; in general I had to practice my normal Ollie technique as this forms the basis for all other stuff. Not that it wasn’t high enough, but more keeping the shoulders aligned with the board instead of slightly rotating outwards » thus creating the unwanted rotation whilst in the air. I’ve put a lot of effort in to get this perfected and it seems I’m getting somewhere. Now it is time to shift the focus from the shoulders to the back leg retracting and increase the speed, whilst keeping the basic technique of the shoulders in mind.

“What do you do for the Shark Cartel? Are you also a team rider?”

This is a question I get asked a lot by the newly selected team riders which Jorg Jansen (Founder of the Shark Cartel) has asked to join over time. A good question to ask, because it’s the most obvious one to ask as I don’t posses the full skill-set for a team rider. Then again the most obvious is easily forgot as well…

What’s a team without the auxiliary people; i.e. designers, videographers, photographers, web-designers, park-builders, shapers, coaches, etcetera. They all supplement to the team effort in a way the brand gets promoted and put out there the way they all like to be perceived. It’s a selected set of like-minded people with a certain drive for the sport, for which they don’t need external motivation – as they do what they love.

In this regard I’ve been on both ends of a team side; in being the athlete before and now a supplemental aid to the team. This is what it’s about and what it has been about for a long time with me and Jorg. The synergistic effect that we create by feeding off each others energy & thrive for certain sports makes the bond unbreakable.

So to try and formulate an answer to the most obvious question asked: “I aid Jorg with the Cartel in realizing and achieving it’s full potential, by providing my skills & enthusiasm for the beliefs the Cartel stands for.”

Besides the supplementary work, of course, the most important thing is to practice, learn and just do the sports of snowboarding, snowskating, skateboarding and more, because it’s what brings me so much fun and good times. Just by seeing other people progress the sport or themselves is enough to get me energized and motivated.

So why are you not selected for the Shark Cartel?