TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

West Beach Ramp and TET with Flitt Selfie Drone. I previously visited West Beach Skatepark in the middle of a super hot weather day so didn't stay that long or film very much. This time I got there just before sunrise at the tail end of Winter (but on the beginning of a very nice day). Flitt Selfie Drone (Affiliate Link, Click to support the site). Not only that, I also came prepared with an extra skateboard, better suited for bowl riding, and I brought my Flitt Selfie drone (Amazon affiliate link - support the site by clicking here if you plan to buy this drone). I've written about my Flitt Drone before. It's a great drone for beginners and for taking selfies. It's got a pretty good camera and is able to hover on the spot, even in a slight breeze, relatively stable. I've even been able to walk along and have it follow me from behind (manually controlling it to follow. It doesn't actually have a follow function). In my latest video you can...

Future Soldier design by TET. Continuing on from my last post about the value of drawing without purpose , my latest video unintentionally demonstrates the point again. I set out to try and come up with something to draw for my next skateboarding/art video but didn't have any ideas in mind so I just started drawing faces. By the end of the session I had six very different faces drawn on a page in my sketch book.

TET skating Gawler Skatepark. Gawler Skatepark, South Australia is almost literally at the end of my street yet I don't skate there very often because it's a very busy park, or I just can't get there at times when I know it'll be mostly empty. Skating  Sketchy Girl Popsicle  Skateboard See more  deck shapes As a park it's not too bad for intermediate to advanced skaters. It's not that large so when it's busy you tend to get in each other's way a lot. It could be improved by adding some kind of mini ramp section as the current configuration favours doing lines of tricks from one end of the park to the other. There's really no section that can be used as a mini ramp. When I get there I do enjoy skating the few obstacles that aren't too far out of my skill level, and just rolling from one end to the other and back again is pretty fun too. Anyway, I made a special trip to Gawler skatepark at 6:30am one morning just so I cou...

I watch quite a lot of artist channels on YouTube and one thing that is common to many of them is that each new video sets out with the goal of creating a piece of finished art. Even if the artist is just doing something 'rough' in a sketchbook, by the end of the video that 'rough drawing' will look like a finished artwork ready to be framed and hung on a wall. In my latest two art videos I unintentionally demonstrated why not sitting down to create a piece of finished art every time is also an important part of any artists practice.

New Art and Designs by TET. Demon Skate Popsicle Skateboard See more deck shapes Back in the late nineteen eighties I was creating a very different kind of skateboard art that tended to feature skulls and skeletons quite a lot. No doubt my art was inspired by Bones Brigade graphics of the time it still had a unique look that didn't really borrow much from Powell Peralta graphics . In my latest video (below) I look back at some skeleton graphics I drew about thirty years ago, some of which I'd still be happy if I had drawn those images today. I was also inspired to create a new skull demon skater graphic which you can watch me draw as I talk about my old art. When it came to adding text to the graphic I was inspired by a Revive, Shredquarters T-Shirt that lists 'Skateboarding' three times and then finishes the list with 'Tacos'. Revive's Tacos T-Shirt. To my mind, in my design, I'm thinking, what if you were confronted by a d...

Following on from my previous post, Peter McKinnon, and Learning to Love Creating Video Again , I spent some time giving my YouTube Channel page a minor makeover to better reflect what my channel is about ( art and skateboarding ) and what my video release schedule is (aiming for a new video every Tuesday and Saturday ). Most of that is reflected in my channel art based upon tips for designing your YouTube channel that I got through being subscribed to Roberto Blake's channel . If you're trying to start, and/or grow a YouTube channel, or just trying to find a way to earn money online using the skills you already have, Roberto gives plenty of useful free advice, as well as linking you to resources to help you out.

Regular readers of this blog and viewers of my YouTube channel will know I've been working my way through Braille Skateboarding's Skating Made Simple Volume 1 . Currently I'm up to learning heelflips and kickflips - but mainly heelflips since I'm trying to learn the tricks in order. Heelflip Skater Popsicle Skateboard See more deck sizes My problem has been not being able to get the board to flip much more than a half turn on a heelflip if I'm lucky, though it usually doesn't flip at all. Then I had an epiphany based on something Aaron Kyro had said about why he placed heelflips before kickflips when he made Skateboarding Made Simple. His reasoning was that heelflips were most like ollies. Up until recently I didn't see how that was possible but he's actually right. I was thinking about that and thought, what if I just set my feet up on the deck, as you would for a heelflip, then just do the exact same actions as if I was doing an oll...