The weather outside isn't frightful

In Canada, it’s easy to look out at the world depressed at the snow and its death grip on the outdoor skateboarding scene. The good news is that I think the ice is finally entering its final thaw for the year and dry pavement is starting to appear around town. I’ve even seen a few people out skating already!

In this city, there are no indoor skate parks* to start learning how to skate during the off season. The closest one is about thirty minutes away and is actually an indoor bike park. The distance I’d have to travel to embarrass myself, and the fact that I just learned about it last Wednesday, are all the excuses I need to have not visited it yet.

In the time I’ve spent between deciding to start skating and now, I’ve been looking at decks to buy so that I can actually start up skating this spring. I’ve also been looking at Wikipedia and other websites about information on skateboarding, companies, gear, and other bits of info I’m unsure about.

Being an illustrator of sorts, I’ve always been a big fan of Alien Workshop’s stellar artwork and by extension, the work of Habitat and am aiming at decks in that direction when I eventually swipe my credit card through the halfpipe of debt. At Legacy (my local skate shop), they have a really sweet Danny Garcia** deck made of bamboo that I’m thinking of picking up. This blog being all pro-green and all I figure that hemp and bamboo are the way to go.

Of course, because I’m new to the game, I also need to buy wheels, trucks, and other dealios that’ll help the plank of wood actually move down a paved surface. I have no idea what to go with here and will have to ask the Legacy gang for help.

Because of my lack of knowledge, I also have to admit that I’ve looked at decks at West49, a huge, corporate skateboard-ish store chain here in Canada. In the shops I’ve browsed through, they do not have this deck in stock. The reason I’m tempted to go this route is because they have a all-in-one kit where you can choose any deck, any trucks, and any wheels for $169 (CDN). I don’t know if this is a good deal - and risk insulting the Legacy gang by asking them to match a price that I anticipate they can’t do. 

I have to admit - I owned a deck for a short time a year ago. It was an embarrassing Wal*Mart special with terrible bearings and silly artwork (it was a Spiderman deck). Despite owning it for about seven months, five of those months were locked under ice and by the time spring rolled around, I decided to give it up instead pursuing the sport.

* According to one worker at my local skate shop.

** Is it bad that I don’t know who Danny Garcia is (yet)?