Category : Cap’n Old Balls

Cap'n Old Balls Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Skater for Life

How long do you plan on skateboarding? I always used to say to my friends “I’m going to skate forever”. I still truly believe that as long as I can stand up and my balance isn’t screwed, I’m going to be riding a skateboard. In my opinion skateboarding is the the most fun thing to do, it’s just satisfying on so many levels. When I see dudes I used to look up to still ripping I get super stoked, because I know as long as I want to go skateboarding, I will. Check my man Ron Allen at 50 years old. That’s no typo…. He’s fifty! Then go look up what H-street is all about.

Later.

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Cap'n Old Balls Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Gonz is God

‘ve been watching skate videos since the bones brigade were formed ( mid-80’s) I love to watch the progression of skateboarding happen right in front of my eyes. I still watch a couple of video parts per day and I’m always thinking about skating. In my opinion the best skate video part of all time is Mark Gonzales part in Blind – Video Days. This part has it all. Never been done before street tricks( at the time) vert, mini and handrail tricks. There is a reason why The Gonz is a legend, the dude was way ahead of his time. When you watch this part remember it’s 1991! Look at all the switch and nollie tricks he does. His style is effortless and second to none. Game changer right here…

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Cap'n Old Balls Extreme Sports Skateboarding

Schpeels on Wheels

When I first started skating in the 80’s wheels were mostly 60mm, 95a, conical shape and some kind of neon color, usually pink. That was basically the 80’s in a nutshell and skateboarding was no exception. I loved the shapes and colors of wheels back then but things were changing, wheels were getting smaller. In the late 80’s when street skating was about to blow up a 57mm thinner harder wheel was becoming the norm. By the time the 90’s were in full swing wheels were becoming ridiculous and so were the pants. Wheels were like bearing covers, they were terrible and if you rode anything bigger than a 52mm you must have been a vert skating jock! Big wheels were not cool. By mid 90’s things evened out, 52-54mm were deemed acceptable by the skate world, no colors though and all the same shape! Probably the same shape wheel you are riding now. If you had colored wheels you were very different. This thought blows me away, how could wheels be the same shape for so long? Nobody seemed to care or notice? I certainly didn’t, until they started selling re-issue old school wheels. Powell Peralta was one of the first companies that started selling re-issues. G-bones and rat-bones were some of the best wheels ever made. These wheels were more for cruising though. The reason wheels haven’t changed much is because a huge amount of tricks incorporate some kind of slide, this is why the durometer of wheels are generally 99a-101a being the hardest. A popular durometer for cruising is 78a. Still that’s no excuse for wheels having the same bubble shape for so many years. I’m happy to see some really different wheel shape, colour and durometer coming out, it keeps skating refreshing and fun.

Don’t be afraid to make your skate set-up your own, try new things. Design your own board graphic or do some kind of grip tape design. Try a wider board or softer wheels. Be you, have fun and keep shredding.

– The Captain

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Cap'n Old Balls Extreme Sports Hippie Mike Protest Skateboards Skateboarding Team Riders

Cap’n Old Ballz – An Hour with Hippie Mike

I’ve been watching all of Hippie Mike’s video’s on YouTube seeing what he’s up to. I’ve been so stoked on how he get’s people pumped to skate by having different kinds of sessions and filming projects. One of the video’s that really caught my eye were of the latest ramp sessions, the ramp contest was insane. I realized that Hippie has had ramps for years and I’ve never skated any of them! So I shot him a quick text about how fun the newest version of his ramp looked, he got back to me right away inviting me to shred and even film the next episode of Cap’n Old Ballz….

My thoughts exactly – so we hooked up for an hour the other day – the rest is history.

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Cap'n Old Balls Extreme Sports Skateboarding Video Reviews

Review: Cap’n Old Ballz Episode 1

Yeeeaaaaaah! D.L.! Dave Levington!

Straight outta Langley!

Dave called me the other day and told me about a couple of videos he’s been putting on Youtube of some of his older footage, and what looks like some newer stuff. It’s tough to be any type of athlete as you get older, especially a skateboarder. All the things you used to do so easily become difficult due to less strength, more weight and mental arguments inside your head. But some people are truly “skaters for life” and D.L. is definitely one of those people, just like me.

Check out Episode 1 of Cap’n Old Ballz and recognize the skills of a true skateboarder. The tricks might not be the most bangin’ for the insane standard of today’s generation, but the style says it all. Keep it up Dave.

Keep an eye out for more episodes of Cap’n Old Ballz coming up featuring other skateboarders of the past who can still rip it up…

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