I will miss Taipei

For me, leaving Taipei involves rituals. One of them is yakitori. Another is getting really stressed out and not sleeping. I usually wander by the bridge on foot at some point, and I usually wander around to the places I used to live here, in Dadaocheng and at Minquan station. Another ritual is realizing I can't find my passport and spending many hours moving every item in my appartment from one side to the other, one peice at a time. I always go by a night market, (raohe, this time) and I always buy a bottle of whisky and some 臺客 shorts for my grandfather. I would get him the blue flip flops, but he's too old and he'll fall. 

I always have a skate session that I know will be the last one in Taiwan for a while. This one started at linsen park, under the lights, on the flatground. A kid came up who spoke fluent english and we warmed up. he said he was expected to meet his friends there. It's thrilling to know young skaters are starting to spend time in teh streets. He had the begginnings of ray barbee flow, and was a genuinely friendly guy. I hope we can have a proper street session when I get back in September. RMJ arrived and so did the police. They informed us that skating in parks is illegal, and hey, did we know about the bridge? It's this awesome DIY sport with a box and a rail that you can jump on once every ten minutes because it's so crowded and full of dancers that no one can skate there. No, we didn't know about that place, but the cop said we would like it. We started to leave and he said, you don't have to go, I'll just pretend I didn't see you here. But if someone complains, I might have to come back and then maybe you'll have to leave. This was the best kick out ever. He scooted off and so did youngE. So RMJ and I went about a hundred yards away to a series of marble benches, good height, but not long, arranged in pairs with a gap in between that would make them a video quality spot, if I was good enough to skate them that way. Instead, I have to just treat them as a short ledge that is difficult to come out of because they are recessed in the dirt, so you have to swing back out onto the sidewalk to roll away; if you come off the end, you'll just be in the dirt. A weird man plays out of tune guitar there and blasts backing music from a car battery. 

Next up was an unskated black marble ledge on the backside of the park that I've been skating past for two and a half years, but never noticed. It's thick with pedestrians, even late at night, so we had some shocked onlookers as we broke it in. Then RMJ ********* a big boulder, right beside a fat woman playing with her internet telephone. It was loud as fuck, but he made it on the second try, and somehow, she didn't look up. 

We crossed the street but the fountain was full, so we went up a block to a yellow manny pad at the entrance of a parking garage, but traffic was thick going to the brothels, so we went up a little farther to the lychee spot. 

I'm calling it that because it was literred with unripe, fallen lychee fruit. It's got vicious tiles, some loose, and some with unsettling big cracks right on the approach and exit, from both directions. It's right in the middle of whoreville, so even at 3 am, there is a mob of party people and party slaves getting in the way. The draw is the difficulty of skating this spot. It's a low slate ledge, with a poorly pourn cement bank up to it. It's too steep to roll up easily, and too wide to ollie into a grind comfortably. Wheels grab on the bank if you try to ********* it or *********** it, and even doing a mini ******** is sketchy, mostly because of the tiles and cracks. To make it even more difficult, it has a wall on one side, and a rail on the other, so if you stumble and go head first, like say over a crack, you're going to smash your face into one or the other. 

I am mentally weak, so this is not really a spot for me. It's fun because of hte challenge, but I can't skate it like RMJ can. In his own words, it's a spot where you have ot work to even get a *****. He worked for it, and got some good ones; the trend is away from surfing sketchy, committed roll aways, but that sucks. That's what he was doing, and it was stylish. 

Then we went ot my old old hood and went by my house where I really got into street skating. We went up to the yellow jacket rail, and I did some *********s for nostalgia. I still can't ****** up the ledge to the spot; my fantasy line there is a couple of flatground tricks, ****** up, then ********* down the rail into traffic. Next he skated the jaws of death bank, with power boxes on either side, about 24 inches clearance and the busiest road in Taiwan as the started and stopping point. Then we cruised as far back as I could stand, but  I got tired, so we beered up on the old stoop and went home. 

It's not all I want from a night of skating in Taipei, but it's all there was to be had. Next up, America.

The bridge is hot and crowded and I quit my job

It was an unusual session because I spent it during the intensely hot day, and under the bridge, but skoto invited me and i'm leaving on a trip shortly, so I went anyway. In the months since I last went there, I've gotten better at almost everything. This was good. The heat was not. The crowd of 60 people skating a spot that at best can accomodate 15 wasn't really that great either. Towards the end of the session, I cracked the picasso deck. I'll donate it next time I go out.

long cruise to flatground

Lzyk and I went to an allyoucaneat hotpot. This is a place where you get a chemistry lab style hotplate under your table, adn a metal bucket to cook food in. You can choose five or six styles of soup broth, and then you get a plate and it's time to head to the buffet. This is a magical place where you can gather dozens and dozens of things to eat; at least six varieties of mushrooms, another half dozen varieties of green leafy vegetables, a baker's dozen kinds of vegetables like squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, oo-toe, etc. Then there are eight different meats, sliced for shabushabu, shrimp, eggs, fish, tofu of every color of the rainbow except the bad one, shellfish of several varieties, little whole octopi, and at least 20 other things that I didn't get a chance to even look at, much less put in my cooking bucket. All of this was $380 nt, or about $12 USD. Some might scoff that the quality suffers, but but those people are uninitiated. This is the best deal in asia, but it comes at a ghastly price. Noth the kind you pay with money though. The last time I ate there, I couldnt skate or do anything else for almost 24 hours afterwards, including eat, because of the pain of consuming so much food. Tonight I was a little wiser, but still overdid it to the point that I nearly backed out of skating.

Thanks to my friends for not giving up on me. They started teh session at linsen  park, and harrassed me until I agreed to meet at the three stair park by my house, "just to skate around." From there, we got a message form a long lost homey who was out of taipei for years and just came back. I didn't think of a stupid name for him yet, but I will. He deserves it. He invited us to a flatground spot in Daan, which means "egg" or something, so we cruised about 20 minutes to get there.

The session there was mostly unremarkable, just smooth flat with wiggling longboarders going around. A dude I apparently met before but didn't recognize without the beard was there, and we skated and chatted and had a bang up time. A bum with breath of an alcoholic dragon leached onto me at the end and we discussed why I love Taiwan and don't like living in America, as best I could manage. On the way home, I got a ********* on a sketchy fucking street rail, with rickety loose tiles all over and a terrifying marble pillar about a foot away on the egress. I am a mentally weak skater, so I'm proud that I eventually managed the trick, after no attempts on the first six roll ups. Street skating is hard.

RMJ and I parted ways with PJA at ubike spot and beered up on the way home, with sufficient park discussion to make me feel like I can handel the next day at work.

Bad omens make for good skating

I think it's not unreasonable to be superstitious, at least about skating. So much of the experience at least appears to be entirely beyond my control. I might rolled down a new block and find a new spot. I might roll down a new block and hit a pebble. I might get hit by a taxi. Fuck taxis. I've lost the plot here.

It's normal to develop some superstitions about skating in the street. For example, I think I know if I'll skate well based on the moment I first pick up my skateboard. If it feels heavy, I'll suck; if it feels normal, I'll suck; if it feels miraculously lighter than usual, I might get something new or feel satisfied  at the end, even though I suck. I have no control over this feeling at all, it's really like destiny at this point. Although little pieces of my set up chip off due to wear, and the trucks grind down, this can't be the explanation, because it would be linear and I would just get better as the equipment wore out. Instead, it's almost totally random.

I had a bad day, and went back to Taipei, arriving at my front door exactly at the stroke of midnight. I threw down my suitcase of shit and put on skate gear, with the intention of skating the city late on a sunday night, without any plan. Maybe **** the adidas white rails, but that's a dumb idea.

I threw down and immediately fell, like, first touch of my foot on the board. Back foot didn't even come close to getting on. It's because all this street has worn out my pivot cups and I'm lazy and cheap, so I didn't spend the extra 50nt for new ones. Also, jimis hasnt had new ones in a while, and I refuse to buy them from anywhere else but anytime, which is very far away.

I got up and kept going. It took about 45 minutes to get to 101, which is still an alien and bizarre sidewalk path for me. It's popular with those who film themselves skating, but I don't, and I usually leave them and their security problems to themselves. On teh way, I had some other weird omens, like hitting cracks and having to run it off, and taxis almost hitting me out of nowhere.

I went east/south east on an alien and unexplored street, and was rewarded with a very steep five stair rail. It's quirky and Taipeinese, but it got me thinking about what exactly was worth getting hurt for tonight. That rail, and the bad day, put me in just the right mood to appreciate failure.

I kept going and found what has to be the longest marble ledge in Taiwan. It's three blocks long, uninterrupted, because it's on the outside of some silly military thing. The entire length of it shows no sign of having been skated. This would be a 20+ trick line, if such a thing exists. It's like a mostly unsurfable wave, whatever that means.

I steeplechased over to 101, and got ran off by security a couple of times. That whole area is shit. City hall has a bank with grind, were I started to really try tricks. About five tries in, I ate shit on a pebble, inbetween throwing down and the first push. Another bad omen. My skateboard shot backwards, and I rolled over to watch it go, helpless, out into the road filled with taxis like the Nile is filled with crocodiles. No crocodiles got it. I tried a few more times, but it was half hearted, and I gave up and looked around for 101 and went in that direciton.

On arrival, I had to wander around for a minute like a tourist. I had had in mind to skate this metal curb flat bar thing, with the idea of a *****. I hadn't tried one on a rail of anykind since the unfortunate experience of slamming in my moms drive way.

Astoundingly, I nearly made it first try. When my trucks hit the metal, it was like the sound of a hammer hitting a naked anvil. Not so bad at first, but when you try enough times, the sound of failure starts to ring in your head. I tried a lot of times. There aren't many houses nearby, so I wasn't feeling too guilty about keeping people up. Another try, another bang. The sound resonates almost like a very shitty square bell. I tried something like 50 times, as best I can figure. Never got it. At the very end, on the closest tries, when I tried to turn out, the truck just slid off, but in a way that I couldn't control. There must be a mystical secret to this. In the meantime, an MRT guard came out to watch and supervise and give me dirty looks and talk to his superiors on the radio, but apparently found out I was outside fo his jurisdiction, so he never approached me. My board flew up and hit me in the chest, mouth, thigh, shin, arm, etc, but I never got it. I'll be back, but not for a while. I've been coveting this spot for years, and I came so close and failed.

Next I went home. about 90 minutes of cruising, since I went a roundabout way. I ended up by the bridge, and skated one line, up and back, since it was 3 am.

Around this time, I realized the squeeking I had been hearing behind me for god knows how long was from a bicycle. This isn't usually a creepy sound, but the ddue turned down the bridge and tried to follow me back home. I realized abotu that time that I been hearing that sound for ages, adn I had no idea how long he had been following. I threw him off by giong to the park and drinking some beers in public. He watched and filmed and talking on his phoen for a while from other side of the park, but then left and then I went home.

On the way home, I did my first ever ** ***** up a curb. I had been eyeing that one for a while. I'll back back to the 101 metal. I'll be back.

Everyone wants to borrow my skateboard

It was going to be a solo night out on the town, and I hadn't been to 圓山 for a while, so I cruised up to the start the night at the magic river bench. Since I quite skating there twice a week, I've been able to notice my improvements a lot more sharply. What used to be a reasonably high ledge is now almost too low. I can't **** the whole thing yet, but it's such smooth granite that I can easily do half of it. It's the place where I first learned ** ********s, and when I rolled up, it was my first trick; the longest and best one I've ever done there. Progression is a good feeling. Last time out, I got a couple of new grinds, but this time I could only repeat one of them. No matter, it was still good exercize, and a peaceful night at the riverbank (for me. I ran off dozens of people with the clattering of the wheels on the tiles. Only a couple singing the most out of tune karaoke to each other chose to put up with my noise.) 

After a couple of hours, I wandered down teh river to a long round curb that's painted yellow and black. It works for slappies in both directions, but you can also just roll up onto it from either direction. Next to the curb is a micro spot. It's a box, about the height of the skateboard, and about as long, but maybe 12 inches wide. After that I tried some *********s on the tall, rough granite cubes. Someone else has put some wax it since I was there last. I've never seen anyone else but our little crew and long boarders out there. I skipped the ampitheatre beacuse I was already exhausted, and started for home. 

As I cut through the big park, I discovered a lazy bank, so even though I was exhausted, I managed some ******s on it, just to break it in. It'll be a good warm up spot on the skate up to the river next time. I thought I would cruise over to linsei for pig parts, so I grabbed a beer from the old seven. On my way in, someone asked if her friend could borrow my skateboard, so I consented. It turned out to be someone learning to skate at the hospital in ximen. She pushed around on the sidewalk while I drank my beer, then we chatted a bit. She seemed a little confused that someone would ride their skateboard down the city sidewalks instead of under a bridge of in the postage stamp  size spot at ximen. I encouraged her to try skating street. Taipei is wasted on the local style. 

I crossed the street and ****d the green stairs for fun. It used to stick really bad on me, but this time I could easily **** the whole length of it, even exhausted and in the dark. I got a couple of shitty **s and managed to push the rest of hte way to the pig parts stall. There was no where to sit, so I grabbed a couple of beers and went across the street to the plastic stool ghetto yakitori that's half in an abandoned building. They play mandarin hip hop and have strong fans, so I like htem, but most of all, they remember me and drink beer with me every time I come by. This time, the head griller wante dto borrow my skateboard. Despite his pot belly, however many beers down he was, and his taike blue flip flops, he pushed down the sidewalk tiles and did a kickturn and came back. Well played sir, I think you might have done that before. 

I learned two new tricks to moving my foot slightly

JA is leaving Taiwan soon, and he will be much missed. We've been doing as much skating as possible in the last few weeks he's got here. RMJ joined us at the little three stair park for warm up. It was hot, but not unbearable. The afternoon rains cleared out the bad air. I brought an icy water bottle and hoped for the best, regarding what I think is now two months of neck pain. 

We cruised east as a trio up the green line, mostly dodging between pedestrians and sniping curbs and ledges as we went. I'm starting to get a better memory for what that road has to offer, especially on the south side of the sidewalks. We pushed and pushed and came up to what is now my favorite spot in Taipei, which means it's also my favorite spot in the world. It's a recessed stair set, flush with the brick walls on either side. Each stair is capped with bronze colored metal coping that grinds so unnaturally fast it's hard to believe at first. It's almost as though you actually gain speed on the grind, instead of lose it. The first one is just at the height that is too tall to be a curb, but too short to be a ledge. The second stair is fairly tall ledge, but they are steep, so it's not too difficult to get to it. It's also got some bike racks for ******s. 

To that point, I had been happy to just not have any session ending neck pain. Then a miracle happened. I'd been trying to learn ********s on and off for a while. I tried it at the curb/ledge, and couldn't get close, so I gave up and skated what I know. As we left, I tried again and nearly landed it first try. Within a handful of other tries, I got it, long and clean. 

Next spot was up by the arena. I got another new grind, but not nearly as clean and it almost didn't actually grind at all. Two new tricks at two consecutive spots felt like a triumphant return. To cap it all off, we went to a bank spot with tiles on the surface and pebbledashed rough banks, about waist high. It will be a seriously good place to skate when the bushes get trimmed back a little. 

better than nothing

Lots of complaints. I feel like shit from starting to run regularly, but more importantly, skating curbs that don't grind well has rurnt my neck.

 dogpiss curbs. xintigan temple. new spot ollie up 3 or 4 stair ledge, up another, then down a complicated and twisting rail series, or over the flatbar to street.

the highlight of the night, besides getting to skate at all, was a small park RMJ and I found with round flat rails that we skated late into the night. I got some *************s and RMJ got them **.

hopefully I'll be back soon