Confidence building with Captain Caveman...

Today was a funny day, I was so overwhelmed that BOTH Mike Vallely and Alan Gelfand had replied to my emails that I didn't really know what I was going to do today (interviews from both coming to a future blog, I'm so excited!).

I had a bit of a mental block over the past few days as to where I would end up going and what I'd do when I got there. In previous blogs I've always had a vague idea of what I ultimately wanted to achieve for the blog, the tricks, the town I was going to...

I suppose it was because I was back at work for a while and I'm not really in the zone.
Nevertheless, I achieved something today, so it's all good.

The gates of Pittencrieff Park (aka The Glen) in Dunfermline.

Today's weather was at best murky. Dry, but murky. I considered heading way out west to the opposite coast, but I didn't want to take the risk of spending the whole time travelling when I could end up going somewhere where the weather was even worse and then not getting to skate at all.

After finding a sheet of MDF in the garden, I considered constructing something and just staying here, but ultimately I had to get out and do something.

 I settled for Pittencrieff Park in the city where I live, Dunfermline. It's a large public area (76 acres) with wide tarmac footpaths, gardens, playparks and lots of grassy areas. Good place to go cruising, but no real discernible spots unless you're creative.

Andrew Carnegie, born in Dunfermline, was the second richest man of all time and a great philanthropist. He originally bought the park from it's private owners and gifted it to the people of Dunfermline. Nice one, Andrew.

On the way down I thought that I'd try the caveman as a trick today.

The idea felt kind of half-assed at first. A caveman looks kinda cool, granted, but there's not a great deal of skill required. At least that's what I thought!

I also quickly realised that I've not really properly concentrated on this trick since I was a teenager, so this wasn't going quite as simple as I thought it was!

Pittencrieff Museum, which features in the video.

What I thought was going to be the skateboarding blogger's equivalent of, literally, a walk in the park, turned out to be much more than I expected. Firstly it was difficult! More difficult than I remembered it being certainly.

However, this made it very challenging and worked wonders for my confidence. By the end of the short sesh I was going bigger and faster, starting to trust my abilities and realise that perhaps I'm not as bad as I think I am.

There's some definite "finesse" required in my technique, but it was improving towards the end of the afternoon. Nonetheless it was hella fun making this vid!

Enjoy...