The roller-coaster of flairs with Jared Eberwein
No matter how much I try, I seem to always have a struggle with flairs. I guess I can’t exactly say that though, because, in fact, if I truly did got at it more then I could gain better experience like anything. I just seems literally impossible while being in the moment. This is on my mind because I just went through another flair 101, with Ricky Moseley the other day. I learned flairs a long time ago, maybe about 12-13 years now. I technically learned them before flips; meaning I landed a flair on something real first before flips. For some reason they seemed less scary at the time. Boy did that change after a couple of years. Doing flairs often after learning them, I probably should have done more to be honest. I slowly started to lose them, my issue was, not getting away from the quarter enough and hanging up my back wheel. Like a disaster if you will. During this time, I finally pulled my first ever flip on something real, a set of trails that Nasty and Luke Parslow kept up. Blown away and extremely excited about flip. They slowly took over and filled my struggle for flairs, soon enough I lost flairs and was terrified of them.
Always sad to think of the fact I couldn’t flair with confidence like when I first learned them. I always wanted them, and would once in a blue moon send one and give it a try. Obviously still struggling with them and not trying again for a while. And it was like a remind every time I tried one, “oh yeah, I’m not very good at these, and they’re scary!” It wasn’t till about 3-4 years ago, I started trying them again more often. Thanks to a certain friend for the push and motivation, and the certain setups at hand. Doing shows a lot as of late, the ramps are typically bigger, taller, steeper than most quarters at skateparks. I started to flair big things, which worked better for me, because it wasn’t as hard to get away from the quarter because its easier to pull to flat while riding a bigger quarter. My confidence began to come back, and I start flairing in ever show, and now at skateparks I would ride, as long as I found a decent steep quarter. Then when I’m around friends, who more than likely flair pretty damn good in general. I see them flair anything they feel like, which makes me want to try on certain setups. Then quickly turning into a class from my friends on what to do, what I’m doing wrong…
I sort of always leave the session telling myself, “I’m just going to get it out of my head that I can flair mellow quarters.” Every now and then I find myself back in that same situation of trying, trying, trying, and leaving disappointed. Fact of the story is I should just stick to what I know, hahaha.
-Jared Eberwein