{"id":3977,"date":"2011-12-01T10:11:13","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T16:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.brickhouseracing.com\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2011-12-01T21:10:01","modified_gmt":"2011-12-02T03:10:01","slug":"skatepark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/?p=3977","title":{"rendered":"Skatepark!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday evening, Matt asked if I wanted to join him and Joel at the new Memphis Skatepark for an early morning shred session. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of any good excuse to not go-<\/p>\n

Excuse 1: “but I don’t have a bike that’s good for riding in a park”
\nUse the Endo Machine <\/a><\/p>\n

Excuse 2: “but bike day is only on Monday”
\nIt’s 6:30 in the morning. WTF do you think is going to be there at 6:30 on a weekday when it’s 30 degrees outside?<\/p>\n

Excuse 3: “Ive got no skills, what am I going to be able to do?
\nYou’ll have fun, trust me.<\/p>\n

So, I was up before dawn layering myself and not really sure what to expect. Most skateparks I’ve been to are the general “street” style park, and, since I have no “street” riding ability, I didn’t know what I’d be facing. However, the Memphis park turns out to be a little bit of a throwback, with two bowls that ride somewhat like an in-ground pump track.<\/p>\n

I f*cking LOVE PUMPTRACKS.<\/p>\n

Joel and Matt were on BMX bikes, and were ripping around at high rates of speed. The Endo Machine wasn’t quite the park ripper- the headshock kept clunking as it repeatedly unloaded and bottomed out. Joel and Matt both took it for a spin and promptly returned it, kinda like:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All clunking aside, I still had a blast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Watching them, I realized that a large hole in my riding abilities exists. I also realized that the Endo Machine is not an appropriate bike for riding in a skatepark and learning such skills. If there’s one thing I hate, it’s when I feel like my equipment is an excuse for my lack of performance. If I’m going to suck, it’s going to be because I (not my bike) honestly suck. So, like any normal person who is determined to shred a skatepark with the goal of becoming a well-rounded mountain biker, I went home and bought a bike:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun this winter.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday evening, Matt asked if I wanted to join him and Joel at the new Memphis Skatepark for an early morning shred session. Try as I might, I couldn’t think of any good excuse to not go- Excuse 1: “but I don’t have a bike that’s good for riding in a park” Use the Endo…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":151,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8Uq-129","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/151"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3977"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3986,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3977\/revisions\/3986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brickhouseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}