Hubris Comics

Still learning to make videos

Jan26

by Greg Cravens on January 26, 2013 at 2:12 pm

Posted In: Gideos

I managed to cobble this thing together. It’s weird, and I had some issues that YouTube didn’t like, but take a look…

I have no idea why it’s up in the corner like that. There were several versions that were higher resolution, too, but YouTube wouldn’t load those at all. I have no idea where I botched it up, but there you go. Anyhow, I have no idea why the one guy stood around clipping his fingernails… I mean, I’d already asked him to move one way or the other ’cause I was filming. Who knows.

What matters is that the clinic classes went really well, and a lot of skaters learned new skills. I learned to drop in at my favorite skatepark. So there. The next clinic and competition is in February, and involves ‘street’ skills- meaning that the flat areas of the park will get used. This time was for half-pipe type skills. Some of the very youngest students didn’t drop in- the older ones rolled in, and a couple of the very littlest guys climbed down into the bowl and skated from there. It was great.

Also, the laid-back music I put on this Gideo was for the little folks and their parents who see skate videos with all the screamin’ and the cussin’ and the crashing guitar noise and are put off by it. Don’t be put off. Go and get you some exercise at the skatepark.

└ Tags: Class, competition, Gideos, skate, skateboard, skatepark, Winter, Winter Clinic

2 Comments

Reminder about this weekend:

Jan24

by Greg Cravens on January 24, 2013 at 9:34 am

Posted In: Play Nice

Are you in the Memphis area? Got younguns who’d like to learn to skate? Got younguns who’d like to win a Hubris book or some stickers for being in a competition? Day after tomorrow is the first of the Clinic & Competition things at the Tobey SkatePark on Avery road behind the School Board Building, and right next to the dog park! Come on out, assuming there’s no rain. Ignore the cold, because if you skate around at all, you’ll be toasty warm! And there’ll be donuts and stuff. Come early and skate around a bit!

The other day, a friend of mine (Hey, Bruce!) said that he didn’t bring his kids to the skatepark because he didn’t know anything to teach them. I told him he had it backward. I learned from my kids! The stuff I thought I knew from skating plastic K-mart skateboards does NOT apply.

Anyhow, I doubt anyone will mind if there’s a Mom or Dad ‘helping’ with the classes for the little folks- while really the Mom or Dad is trying to learn to skate.

Come on out!

Comment

Cold Drinks

Jan19

by Greg Cravens on January 19, 2013 at 11:15 am

Posted In: Dirty Pictures

I spent New Year’s Eve in Snoqualmie Pass in Washington State. Karl and his family have a lovely ‘cabin’ up there, across’t from the ski resorts. (It’s more of a really nice condo than a cabin, but if you got one, you can call it anything you like)

Next door, in an empty lot (empty of houses, full of snow) Karl and my brother made their traditional ‘snow lounge’. Meaning they used snow shovels of various descriptions to cut down into the deep snow, leaving a table in the middle of a lot of cleverly fashioned seats. The neighborhood kids, and mine along with ’em, ran rampant over the whole thing, and we needed to do a little rebuilding during the daylight hours, but by nightfall the footprints had been eliminated from the table and the seats were sit-able again.

And there was a bar carved off to one side. Here it is:

The drinks needed no refrigeration. In fact, your beer would have ice in it before you could finish it. Not bad a’tall.

Keeping the fire pit from melting its way down through the table was the tricky bit. But that’s another story.

└ Tags: bar, beer, carve, ice, jeff, Karl, New Year's Eve, snow, Snow Lounge

1 Comment

Resolved

Jan17

by Greg Cravens on January 17, 2013 at 9:59 am

Posted In: Dirty Pictures

If you need a booster shot to your New Years’ Resolutions, here’s a LINK to an article I did some spot illustrations for, and here’s the cover illustration!

└ Tags: memphis flyer, New Year, Reinvent, Resolution, Resolve

Comment

Surface Truth

Jan12

by Greg Cravens on January 12, 2013 at 10:44 am

Posted In: Play Nice, Talk About Toys

I’ve mentioned before the nice skatepark that was built here in Memphis a little over a year ago. It has one of those nice polished concrete surfaces that seems forbidding at first, but is really nice to skate on. But I just got back from a trip out to the Pacific Northwest, and where there’s that much snow, you do your skating indoors during the winter. It’s been a lot of years since I tried skating indoors. The last indoor park I went to much at all, I was taking a BMX bike after a few skateboard falls. Let me tell ya… I was worried more about skating an unfamiliar board than I was an unfamiliar park. I figured I had a really nice kickturn, so I could find some area where I could while away a lot of time just skating round and round. Maybe, I thought, I’ll work on riding fakey if I get tired of kickturns.

Well, not so much. Turns out that concrete is very forgiving when it comes to your balance point and the amount of friction it affords your wheels.

I fell down a lot indoors, and the kickturns in which I was so confident in were not right for a roomful of high-quality masonite, steel edges and slick concrete. The board slid sideways out from under me over and over again. I hate to admit it, but I lost my temper and my good mood quick. I’d like to think I could get used to masonite and all. I’d be a better skater for it- the finesse and control needed are exemplary. So… who’s got the money and the business plan to come into Memphis and build another indoor park? I warn you… we’ve had the low-end park (the Dark Side) that did everything on a shoestring, and we’ve had the high-end park (Cordova) and a couple of others, I guess, and they’re all gone now. I imagine that the profit margins on such a business are slim, and the insurance pushes the ledger toward the red.

Revolution Snow and Skate is the indoor skatepark in Wenatchee, WA (there’s an outdoor park, too. Not much play this time of year is my guess) An employee there pointed out that the skatepark is NOT how that business stays afloat- the storefront supports it, though I’m sure the store benefits from having an onsite skatepark.

Visit ’em if you get the chance. Skate a little. Buy something. Tell ’em we says “Hey.” Nice folks.

Just so you don’t think I didn’t enjoy my time there- When I couldn’t fall back on my routine skills, I learned to drop in, finally. It was a great day. Very exhilarating.

But I still can’t ride fakey worth a poot on masonite.