David, your Dad is a major influence on me, mostly because even though he dealt with real pain every day he rarely complained unless it was absolutely necessary. I took your Dad to Killington once to go hardboot snowboarding, but the forces on his knees were just too great- after only two short runs they swelled up to the size of big grapefruits, he had the technique but the G-forces he was generating were too much to bear. Last year I developed a new style of riding that doesn't create as much G-force and I wanted to show your Dad ...get him up to the slopes again. I'm sure he'd say I was nuts.David Smart wrote:John, I think I vaguely remember going out with you, your son, and my dad for a slalom session when I was younger. (Though it may have not been you lol sorry.) But anyways, the passage you have written here about my father reduced me to tears as I read what he had written about slalom. He truly did love the sport as much as someone possibly could, and it makes me thoroughly regret every time I was "too tired" to go out and skate with him.
Over the past day I have been reading countless facebook comments on my Aunt Trish's (another avid slalom-er) profile, and pictures from all of the people that he has been friends with in the slalom community and it is truly amazing. I myself don't know much about he slalom community, but seeing the positive impact it had on my father's life, i'd like to get more involved myself in the near future. Though slalom is not my forte, I think with the combination of my dad's genes, and as he would say "stupid kickflipper skating" experience, with some practice, hopefully, I can progress quickly.
At some point in the future i would like to host some kind of slalom competition out here on eastern Long Island in memory of my dad. I am not positive how to make that happen on my own so i would need some of you veterans to help me figure out the details. it doesn't have to be huge, just a gathering at my house, where there is quite a sizable and nicely paved road (plus a half pipe in the backyard). I'm not sure if this is too much to ask, as it would probably be an expensive trip for most people, but your help would be greatly appreciated.
Once again thank you SO much John, you don't know how much this would have meant to my dad, and how much it does mean to my family and I.
-David Smart
So his knees bothered him all the time, (I think from skiing moguls in Utah) and he worked hard pulling wire, probably on his knees. He would describe the coolest alarm systems to me (ones that weighed you to tell if an intruder was a deer or a person, ones that would track people if they left a package in a room and went to another room ) how he kept up with all this technology was pretty wild always changing. But it was not easy on him- it was a ton of painful work.
So today, I am recovering from ankle surgery, I had a bone spur removed. And ironically, this triggered a massive inflamation attack in both my knees and my other ankle- .... as I try to move... it is super painful - pretty debiliatating. I have no idea how your father coped with it. I try not to complain..but I just can't hold that stuff in like your Dad. But you would never know he was in pain until you saw his knees swell up. Your Dad is the very essense of the best meaning of the word humble. It's a gift.
Troy talked about making a cool timing system with a large multi connector timing cable that also carried speaker signal for loudspeakers and feeding video monitors which would run the length of the course.. to make the scene even better. Those SMART ramps were just so well designed- the transitions on them were just perfect- they were better designed than any ramp of its size before them- the transitions were perfect... your Dad really thought a lot of things through to completion. He was always working on something in his shop down in the basement.
I think you came to Massachusetts and skated with Bryan (My ex GF's Son) with your Dad. I also skated with you when you were really young in The Hamptons (I think you were 6- it was 2002) in this cool development that Troy wrote about in the first post. There were actually three hills and we would set an easy course for you guys to do on the easy slope at the top. Ten years goes ...it slips by silently.. thousandths of second at a time.
It's also cool to see footage of Troy skating- he has a very distinctive style that is deceptively quick. Not a lot of flailing around- just good focused solid drive. I think he did really well at the Red Clay Cup race too, and Possibly in Luna. He really looked forward to those races- we'd talk about what courses and set up he was running- I'd give him some course setting stuff to try out. I don't know how he did it all. Most people send footage of them skating but your Dad did it all by himself and figured it out.
I'm sure he would like to see a race happen in the Hamptons- he' always given so much to the slalom resurgence..so keep an eye out for some super smooth pavement. I used to hunt for slalom hills I called it "Good Hill Hunting", this was before topo maps on the iPad...I'd tell your Dad to look at tree lines descending quickly... or to get a map and look for hills called "Summit Ave", "Scenic View", "Bob Sled" , "Sunrise" , "Overlook" ..etc...
Your Dad would vary his routes to and from different job sites and find the absolutely BEST places to skate. Everytime I would try to did what your Dad did I would just get hopelessly lost on some back road. He was just good at everything he did. I knew whenever I came to skate with your Dad he would have the newest pavement on the best hill.... I would pull up to this perfect blacktop without even the lines painted yet... "Troy, how the hell did you find this? This is INSANE!! How do you find these hills on this "flat Island"?" He'd just shrug, smile- quickly stuff a stack of cones in my arms "we only ahve so much sunlight- set it up!" ..... and I'd start dropping a course, psyched for the great pavement. Walking up we'd talk about how it would be great to host a race, and try to figure out the logistics of getting people to Long Island from all parts of New England. I still can't remember where all the hills were.
If you ever want to learn how to skate faster, I'll teach you anything you want to know... you have your Dad's genetics and a lot younger joints. Or if you ever want to snowboard and get really good fast, and fast AND good.. just let me know. The determination is up to you, that's not genetic..it's learned.
My Mom LOVED to race. She raced Mercedes Gullwings and beat all the guys at Limerock Park. I never was really interested in racing until I got into skateboards. I'm sure even if skateboarding isn't your type of racing you'll find racing somewhere IN YOU at some point....it's just THERE. Your Dad would take you to slalom because he told me that it was in you.
One other thing... historically, fast slalom racers tyoically came in pairs, Hester/Skoldberg, Piercy/Ryan, Ransom/Evans, One thing I shared with your father was not having someone close by to skate with- so like your Dad I typically skated alone (still do) - looking forward to the next race where all my friends would be, dropping in on little pockets of slalom here and there. It's easier if you have someone to skate with regularly (Safer too) so if one of your brothers is up for it at least you won't be chalking every circle yourself.
There is something very tranquil though... about walking up a chilled piece of fall blacktop with the sun setting all alone after a super fast clean run...you wonder if anyone saw it.
Somebody post up the Red Clay Cup footage..I think there is a final between Vlad and Troy. This is Troy's race page after all!
***Somewhere I think I have some footage of you and your brothers flying this Kite Surfer trainer on the beach with your dad. email me at johngilmour atttttttt rocketmail dot com and I'll send it to you when I get a new computer.
