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Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 6 2012, 08:36 AM

Good morning to you GMC folks!

I was dabbling in the garage this morning and I bumped into my very old (bought them in '98 when they were the latest release from Roces) pair of aggressive inline skates. Back then, I used to skate daily and I was part of a very big skater gang - we were about 30-40 I think and we used to spend all the time on skates and do everything on skates Nowadays, there are times when I put them on and go for a ride in the park, but just to cruise and relax, no crazy stuff

I was even caught by the police being hung on a bus in those days - talking about doing extreme stuff and I almost, ALMOST got into being dragged by a motorcycle while being on my skates. I said no in the last moment, when I realized that if I were to fall, I would be REALLY hurt (I didn't have any protection on at that point)

Aggressive inline skating was my share of contact with the extreme sports side and I was wondering what yours was?


Cosmin

Posted by: jonnygas Sep 6 2012, 11:07 PM

Been skating (skateboard) for 15 years, and still do not as often as before, im getting old and fat, but I try to get a couple hours a week atleast, beats going to the gym

I grew up in the northwest of Sweden aswell so I started with snowboarding, but since I blew out my knee it's been abit on the downlow, still go a few days a year, but the tricklist is very small nowadays.

As for doing stupid shit, that list is to long, one thing that comes to mind atm was when me and some friends were roadtrippin to that black metal festival they had in Bergen, Norway, Hole in the sky I think it was called. I decided to bomb a hill with my skate in the middle of Norway, on top some freaking mountain, must have slid 50m when I slammed, my body was pretty sore and bloody... I should have tighten my trucks...

However, it did not beat the pain I had in my ears/head after forgetting my earplugs 2 days later when Satyricon played. Not even alcohol cured that.

Posted by: AK Rich Sep 7 2012, 04:01 AM

Oh man Jonny it sounds like the dreaded speed wobbles combined with mean ol Mr.Gravity bit ya pretty hard.
Skateboarding and BMX way back in the 70's started it all off for me. I loved bombing hills as well and have definately had my share of road rash.
That was all there was for a number of years untill I moved to Alaska in the early 80's then things got a bit crazy with some free climbing for starters.And then it happened. A friend of mine came across a couple of hang gliders, about a dozen of us would go out in the winter
( because snow makes for softer crash landings) and started taking turns on about a 60 or 70 foot hill just teaching ourselves how to take off , land, make small turns and not to stall the kite. this wassn't learned without many crashes and repair jobs on the kites.After a while we moved to the mountains where my first ever experiance with flight began, I had never even been in an airplane at that point so the first time I flew was the flights I made on both of those gliders, that was by far the biggest adrenaline rush I had ever had still to this day and I will definately never forget it. It literally was fly or die. We also used to come out here to Big Lake and attach about 300 feet of line to the kite and tow it behind my chevy van across the frozen lake. But I gave it up shortly after that because one of our group , the youngest guy, jumped from a mountain above the town of Eagle River, The kites glide ratio was not capable of getting him to the point he needed to make it to in order to land safely, He clipped a tree about 200 yards short of where he needed to land and it sent him spinning into some powerlines, he was killed instantly.RIP Mark Rose.
In the early 90's I discovered watersports, It started with Kneeboarding and quicky moved to the newest craze which was Wakeboarding, I pretty much put my guitar away for a number of years while I was hooked on this sport and also got into snowboarding in order to cross train and try to keep riding all year round.I even became a Rep for HO sports which manufactures Hyperlite wakeboards so I could sell them to my friends and riding companions for extra sweet deals, man those things sold themselves when ya demo'ed them out. I also bought what is called a freebord which is a skateboard that rides like a snowboard. It has 3 wheels for each set of trucks and enables you to make turns like a snowboard but on pavement.I have also done other watersports such as Wakeskating , which is a wakeboard without bindings,Barefooting,Inland Surfboard which is surfed on a boat wake. And finally the Air Chair and the Sky Ski, both of which are hydrofoils towed behind a boat, man you can get incredible air with these things and it wassn't long before I was doing backflips on it. I am currently on my 3rd Tournament boat my brother and I bought together , A 2000 Calabria XTS with ballast tanks built in to make a bigger and fatter wake.I would love to have a V-Drive Wakeboard boat but probably won't upgrade again cause the Calibria still does great and the new V-drives are just way spendy.The Calabria was bad enough at $42 K Not to mention the fact that I am getting old and now am affectionately known as Coach by my friends kids. And dont ride near as much as I used to , Mainly I only ride the Wakeskate the inland Surfboard and the Hydrofoils to take it easy on the knee's and an ocasional snowboard trip But for years I lived by the words Go big or go home! If you ain't wrecking you ain't riding! and Ya gotta love to crash!I have also done lots of backcountry riding on the snowboard and the most epic riding ever was from Valdez Helicamps where you can easily do 30,000 vertical feet a day all above the treeline and make fresh tracks every run,I used to love making straight lines thru all the skiiers pretty turns lol . I think we did 50,000 in a weekend one year.After you do that you are spoiled and resorts barely make the cut anymore, and groomed trails? who needs em? lol
Through all the this the worst injury I had was while backcountry snowboarding where I suffered a seperated shoulder. Yeah I have been lucky.
Here are some pics of some of my toys
[attachment=28806:IMG_0184.jpg]
[attachment=28802:IMG_5185.jpg]
[attachment=28807:IMG_0187.jpg]
And one of me and friends , I am in the center,this is an old pic in my drummer buddy Steve's old Bayliner
[attachment=28803:the_crew.JPG]
And a couple shots of me on the Sky Ski
[attachment=28804:sky_ski.JPG]
[attachment=28805:BACKFLIP.JPG]
And last but not least Da Boat, thats my buddy Dusty helping get her ready
[attachment=28808:DSC04372.JPG]
The only pic I have that I know of from hang gliding that I have is a picture of my old van towing the glider but I haven't been able to round that one up yet.
Sorry for taking up so much space with this post Cosmin , The history is long.
Live to ride, Ride to live!

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 7 2012, 07:32 AM

Wow! What a post man!

And what awesome extreme activities! I had NO CLUE you were up to such things!

Posted by: AK Rich Sep 7 2012, 07:20 PM

Yeah I was pretty crazy in my younger days. Age has settled me waaay down, although I have always wanted to try Skydiving and the next logical step Wingsuit flying! I guess I will always be an adrenaline junkie.

Posted by: thefireball Sep 8 2012, 03:27 AM

Tbh, I have never been extreme in anything. So I have nothing to contribute.

Posted by: Grace Sep 8 2012, 04:34 AM

Pfft....the most extreme I've ever done is probably jumping in a pool from a roof top, swimming in a lake, snorkeling in open sea....and riding Disney's Tower of Terror by myself cause no one else likes it lol....these are not even sports!! Idk why I'm writing here BUT! I do love watching extreme sports and playing them on video games

Posted by: Ben Higgins Sep 8 2012, 09:45 AM

Wow, some great stories here.. and Rich, you're a sports god !!

I've never dabbled in the extreme sports. My cousin, Joe, on the other hand.. has recently been kayaking in Chile and here's a short video they made of their experiences. They had cameras on their helmets and they couldn't film the stuff that was even more extreme because the cam wouldn't handle it...

Here's the vid, I only saw it myself yesterday... takes a while to load but is worth a watch. Chile looks beautiful !

http://vimeo.com/39756812

Posted by: PosterBoy Sep 8 2012, 09:52 AM

I used to snowboard and mountain board, but I was at the unextreme end of the scale

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 8 2012, 10:14 AM

THAT WINGSUIT STUFF IS OFF THE HOOK! I'd LOVE to try that Although I think I am already scared, just thinking of it. But flying, has been a dream of mine since childhood Not machine flying, but human flying

Posted by: AK Rich Sep 9 2012, 02:48 AM

Woooow! that is some incredible footage and breathtaking country! I have done a little whitewater rafting, some class 3 stuff even but nothing near that level, some of those chutes and gaps and drops looked extremely hairball! Man that looks like the kayaking trip of a lifetime. I gotta say I am a bit envyous of your cousin Joe, thanks for sharing that Ben , incredible footage! Makes me all tingley watching it to put it mildly.


Mountain board, Is that an off road skateboard? I think I have seen those before. Looks extreme to me just to try that!

Posted by: GregH Sep 9 2012, 05:37 AM

I don't know if anyone would think of it as extreme or not but I have been involved in competetive aerobatics for several years. That is flying loops and rolls (and more) in front of judges. On a typical flight I see about 8 gs positive (8 times my weight into my seat) and 6 gs negative (6 times my weight aganst my seatbelts). I fly in Unlimited catagory. I built my own aircraft to compete in. I do reasonably well in the Region (Northwest United States) (5 time regional champion) and have been in the top 10 in the Nation. I have taken a little break the last couple of years and am only flying airshows at the moment (smaller airshows, usually preforming to around 5000 to 10,000 people).
Here are a couple of pictures in flight at the US Nationals in what is called a 4 minute freestyle flight (most competition flights don't use smoke, just the 4 minute).




And here am I, sweating out my turn to fly on the starting line.

Posted by: Ben Higgins Sep 9 2012, 12:58 PM

Woah.. Greg that is definitely extreme !!

Posted by: WeePee Sep 9 2012, 02:18 PM

Wow Greg that's really EXTREME !!



I started to skateboard with friends when I was 13 years old. We skated almost everyday at the summer. Even in the winter too. When we didn't have money to go indoor skate park we sneaked into this huge Ice hockey arena's parking lot. Even when it was -15 celsius We just loosened our trucks so we could turn.

Craziest thing what I have done is jumping down 7 stairs. Also I have kickflipped down 5 stairs.

Usually we got kicked out of certain places because people didn't want us to skate. Newer had any trouble with the police though.

I stopped skateboarding few years ago. I even tried last summer to skate but I fell on my butt on an easy trick so I figured that I should quit.
Here's me. Switch crooks in 2005.




Oh yeah HUGE respect to those who snowboard and surf. It requires a lot of "balls" to do tricks.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 9 2012, 03:54 PM

Dudes! I had no clue you had such extreme adventures

Well, I must say, in the latest years I have been totally avoiding any form of sport that could injure my hands/ arms. Even though, when I skate in the summer or winter on the ice rink I never wear any protection

Posted by: Ben Higgins Sep 9 2012, 07:17 PM

We've got some secret adrenaline junkies here at GMC !

Posted by: Azzaboi Sep 9 2012, 07:46 PM

Rock on with some Extreme Sports!!!

Awesome stuff guys, I thought I was the only crazy one.
GregH - The aerobatics flying looks like soooo much fun, I've flown a small plane, but never that extreme.
AK Rich - As for wake boarding, I know that's a lot of fun, is that Sky Ski similar?
WeePee - Wicked skateboard grind!

Personally I have done...

Surfing
Wake Boarding
Skateboarding
MotoX
Free running, also known as Parkour

Such as this...


Once when 12-14, some friends and me, got into school after hours (after getting bored at an all nighter netcafe) around 12pm-3am, broke into the swimming pool area, free running jumped up onto the school roof (1 and 1/2 stories up) to do front and back flips into the pool in our boxers. We didn't realise it was silent alarmed and the police came with a k9 unit to chase us down! Who would of thought the dog could climb a bit too. They where nice to offer us a free ride home to our parents - waking them up.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 10 2012, 07:16 AM

Azza

I've had quite a similar experience back in the 10th grade (2001) when I was riding hooked on buses while being on inline skates We were 3 dudes and a girl. Needless to say, the cops got us (I was so stupid that I have come to see what they wanted even though I was VERY far away and I could've went off without any headache)

They took us to the station and made fun of us and then called each of our parents to come and pick us up. My mom and dad were at the mountain house and no one was at home aside from my grandma. Those stupid cops told her that we are near the Municipal Hospital and the poor woman thought I was hurt or something and since she has a heart condition, things got a bit out of hand, but she settled down pretty quickly after hearing my voice.

I can't say how outraged I was and how much I wanted to kick those cops for pulling such a stunt

Posted by: Ben Higgins Sep 10 2012, 09:21 AM

Oh no ! There's nothing like feeling the long arm of the law to put the fear into you when you least expect it !!



So the cops deliberately let your grandma think you'd been hurt ? That's a bit cruel.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 10 2012, 09:45 AM

Actually they were stupid enough to start the phrase mentioning the Hospital They were not cruel, just stupid ))

Posted by: Ben Higgins Sep 10 2012, 12:33 PM

Ah I see !!

Posted by: AK Rich Sep 11 2012, 10:32 PM

WOW! That is very Impressive Greg. I would DEFINATELY say that is extreme!
You know my friend Steve may very likely be a fan of yours , He does pattern flying with RC versions of planes similar to yours in IMAC competitions which I think is modeled from the IAC. I think they have a 4 minute freestyle as well.
Also that pylon racing looks pretty wild , Have you tried any of that?

Posted by: AK Rich Sep 11 2012, 11:21 PM

Right on Azza! Another wakeboarder!
Yes the Sky Ski is tons of fun! It flies thru the water on that foil that kinda look like an airplane at the bottom of it, you dont even really need a wake to jump , all you have to do is get the ski riding high out of the water where the foil is just below the surface , then lean forward slightly to dip it and lean back hard and it launches out of the water easily. The faster the boat speed the higher you can jump.You can get even bigger air by launching the foil right out of the top of the boat wake for maximum air. It is kind of a finesse thing to contol with small and subtle body leaning to ride it and when first learning it is very easy to overcorrect and get out of control.
I dont know whats more fun , riding it or watching newbies ride it , when I was first learning my brother had to stop the boat on many occasions because he couldn't drive the boat anymore from laughing so hard

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 12 2012, 07:58 AM

It's always the same in all sports, right? Making fun of rookies is a sport in itself

I remember when I first got on my skates, I was pretty...no, not pretty, but VERY fat for my age - I was weighing 87 Kilos at 13 years Needless to say, all the skater dudes who were most likely thin, were making fun of me, for being a beginner AND for being fat

Posted by: Azzaboi Sep 12 2012, 08:32 AM

Sounds like a lotta fun, Rich!

Once I tried to teach my mum how to ski, after a couple of attempts, she managed to get up partly - one leg bent and the other leg straight out in front with the ski angled upwards. She went around the lake twice in that position, everyone was clapping and through she was pro or something and doing tricks, when really she just couldn't get all the way up and keep balance. Haha - fun times.

Posted by: AK Rich Sep 12 2012, 09:39 PM

Hahaaa Thats Awesome Azza! Go Mums!!

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 13 2012, 08:38 AM

Can you imagine that I can't ride a bicycle? I would probably hit the first tree if I went up on one

Posted by: Ben Higgins Sep 13 2012, 09:47 AM

Can you not ride a bicycle ? Did you do it as a kid ?

Posted by: thefireball Sep 14 2012, 01:44 AM

Oh wow, Cosmin! Never knew that. haha, but I have never ice-skated either.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Sep 14 2012, 06:52 PM

Ben, to my real shame, I remember giving my grandpa a hard time trying to teach me