Best foot forward. Kickflips part 1.

Relationships are something you have to work on.  They must be continually nurtured to get the most out of them. If you neglect them, they are not as satisfying as they could be.

My relationship with skateboarding has been the longest one that I have had. Its been there for me through thick and thin, in sickness and in health. At this stage it's looking likely that it'll also take death for us to part!

My latest board, Consolidated Karma Tsocheff, Indy stage 10s, NOS Santa Cruz OJ teamriders and Bones Swiss.

It's not always been an easy journey though. In the last 27 years, we've had our fallouts and our trial separations. We've even split up several times.  There have been good days and bad, but for the most part, it has been worthwhile.

One thing I've learned over the years is that the secret to a good relationship is mutual understanding and compromise. Like you would expect from a 27 year relationship, we've both grown familiar with each other over the years and learned to live with each other's eccentricities.

But most of all, we understand each other, we know why we're together and we're in it for the long haul...

My old Lakai Koston's just aren't up to the job any more.

 I noticed at the weekend that I couldn't get Caspers to work at all, foot kept slipping off the end of the tail. The problem is basically that my shoes are worn out and need to be replaced with something a bit more grippy.

Seeing as the local skater-owned shop closed down years ago (I tried my best!), I broke with tradition somewhat and bought a new pair of sneaks from a local sports shop.

There are numerous reasons why I should have perhaps went to a skateshop, but with a lot of skateshops catering more for fashionistas and sneaker collectors than skaters now, I don't have that big a problem with the idea of going for the best deal when it comes to footwear. 

I remembered back in the day we all used to wear Puma Clydes. I couldn 't find a pair, but these were pretty close, with a vulcanised rubber sole and a waffle grip I figured they would do the job.
I'm happy to say that I was right.

My new shoes. Puma SE Vulc. Effectively a skate shoe you can buy in any shop.

So with my new shoes strapped on, it was time to rekindle the spark we once had and kickflips.
It became apparent that this relationship had soured a little and there were to be no kickflips or pop-shuvs until such time as I gave my "lady" a bit more attention.

However a bit of Casper action was a nice compromise...