Is Your Skate Ramp Being Invaded With Termites?

What are the signs of the presence of termites in your wooden skate ramps? If you notice tunnels in the coping, there is a big risk that you will have a termite infestation. They constantly leave clues to their presence, including dry or wet mud trails in on the plywood and the support legs and garages. Another clue: deformed, stained, discolored, or striated wood. If, when you knock on wood, you hear a hollow sound, this is also a sign that termites may have damaged your home.

What Types Of Ramps Do Termites attack?

Underground termites build four different types of tunnels: working tunnels, displacement tunnels, exploration tunnels, and descent tunnels.

Work tunnels

  • Connect the nests in the ground to the timber frames.
  • Visible on concrete or stone foundations.

Travel and exploration tunnels

  • Emerge from the ground.
  • Are not connected to wood frames.

Descent tunnels

  • Go back from the wooden frames to the ground.

Why Should We Worry About Swarmers?

In the spring, termite colonies give rise to winged or swarming breeders. These winged adults resemble flying ants and live away from the colony. Swarmers are breeding termites whose goal is to establish a new colony. If you are not vigilant, you could end up with more than one colony on your property.

Swarming usually occurs after a downpour, on a hot day. It is that termites love moisture and light. The presence of a single breeder can mean that your home is infested.

What Steps Can Be Taken Before Termite Treatment?

Before you call the best San Diego Termite Inspection Company for a check, you can conduct your own little survey. Our Friends in San Diego, CA|Turbo Termite will tell you to have a screwdriver and flashlight on hand. The inspection consists of identifying exposed tunnels and damaged wood.

Squeeze your screwdriver on pieces of the frame and inspect the surfaces of your home’s foundation, inside and out. Focus especially on areas where the wood is in contact with or close to the ground. One of the clues that there are swarmers in the vicinity is the presence of wings on the ground.

You will have to go to the most remote corners of your basement and into the crawl space. Exercise caution to avoid injury. Keep in mind that points of contact between wood structures and concrete (such as steps and balconies) can also be infested. As a preventive measure, you can also scrape off damaged wood, remove old coping, and replace old support posts.
If you are wanting to know more about these gnarly little critters check out Turbo Termites Info Page By Clicking Here!

 

How to Heal a Sprain

A sprain is a tear, strain, or overstretching of a ligament (a tough band of elastic tissue that joins bony ends at a joint). It occurs due to a sudden movement, fall, blow or a strong torsion of the same, which makes it exceed its normal amplitude. It is also called a “sprain” in common parlance.

Types of Sprain

  • Grade I or benign sprain:
    It is a distension of the ligament. This one is intact but has been stretched beyond its capabilities. There may be swelling and pain, but it is distinguished from more severe degrees in that there is no bruising, since the ligament has not been torn.
  • Grade II or moderate sprain:
    On this occasion there has been a tear in the ligament, so there is bruising and inflammation.
  • Grade III or severe sprain:
    The ligament has been completely torn. There is bruising and swelling. This severe sprain may hurt less than a moderate or mild one, so don’t be too confident. If there is a hematoma, it is because the ligament has been torn, and it will be necessary to go to the traumatologist for a proper diagnosis and treatment.

The treatment, whatever the severity, is always conservative, that is, it is treated with immobilization with bandages (grades I and II) and even plaster  in the most serious sprains. In very specific cases, surgery is used.

Common Sprain Symptoms

1) Very sharp pain that prevents walking.

2) After half an hour the pain subsides and allows walking.

3) At 24 hours, the pain increases sharply, preventing night rest, due to an increase in inflammation.

In general, if the pain does not follow this evolution, there could be another injury apart from the sprain.

How to Act

  1. Rest: It is necessary to avoid supporting the foot under load in the first days or weeks (depending on severity).
  2. Immediate ice: 20 minutes every 3-6 hours.
  3. Elevation of the legto 45º above the horizontal.
  4. Compressionthrough a bandage performed by a physiotherapist or qualified personnel.

To return to sports, it is generally recommended that there be no or minimal swelling or pain. If the pain is minimal, it is best to put a bandage to better secure the affected area. In more severe sprains it is a good idea to protect the ankle with an ankle brace or brace to reduce the chance of further sprains. Take into account the recommendations of your doctor.

How To Maintain Your Skateboard

Whenever someone starts skating, and does their first ollies, their pops and their tricks, they see the wood wear down, the bearings get dirty, etc. and he worries because he thinks it’s a very bad thing. Well, this tutorial will explain how to keep the board in good condition, and also, it will explain what defects you should be aware of, and which ones you shouldn’t, since they are normal in all boards.

Problems you need to worry about

  • Dirty bearings that do not roll:
    It can happen that our bearings get dirty, and stop rolling as well as they did before. The best solution to this is to remove them (Be careful with the grease!) Pour them 3 in 1 oil to remove impurities, and take the opportunity to give the wheels a little clean and put them back in their respective places.
  • Wobbly trucks:
    The screws that hold the truck to the board are loose or missing. Once tightened, they must not be uneven, that is, the axes must face exactly the same place. If they don’t, it’s a manufacturing defect, go to your skateshop to have them changed. When skating, the board will roll back and forth instead of going straight, and it will be too soft. The solution is to loosen the axles, carefully place them in the correct position and tighten them again, so that they both fit.
  • Non-rolling wheels:
    This could be because the wheel nuts are too tight and have no room to move, washers need to be used between the wheel and the nut, or the bearings are dirty. The solution to this problem is to loosen the lug nuts a bit, until the wheel can move a little bit, so that it has room to move. If the bearings are dirty or one has broken you can go to your nearest skateshop, they usually sell loose bearings.
  • Stiffened board:
    This means that the board has air under the sandpaper, the sandpaper gets stiff and rises, and the skate stays wet. This lowers the quality of your tricks and height, and also influences the duration of the board. This has no solution, but it happens when the skate gets wet from the rain, and we leave it in the sun to dry, for example. It’s like your board goes soft. To find out if your board is stiff, you can also look at how it sounds when popping. It usually sounds different and it shows in the tricks.
  • Loose pieces:
    If the pieces of our table are loose, we can earn a good fall! We must try from time to time to check the stability and support of the pieces of the table, to avoid any piece falling off, or that we fall because of it.

Problems you don’t have to worry about

Despite those drawbacks, there are other things your board will go through, but you don’t need to worry about, for example:

  • Worn Board Pattern:
    ALL boards have the board pattern worn underneath when doing tricks, grinding, etc. But nothing happens, that is something VERY normal to which you should not give importance.
  • Chipped board edges:
    This happens when we skid and we don’t get a trick, but it’s just from hitting the asphalt, and at first it doesn’t matter, unless your board starts to creak.
  • Pieces of sandpaper torn off:
    This only becomes a problem if too much sandpaper is removed from the board, but if only a few pieces have been torn off, it is due to some minor blow, and should not bother at all.
  • Dirty Sandpaper:
    This can only be a problem with the appearance of the board, or at most, that your feet do not grip the sandpaper as much. If you want to clean it, you can do it with a damp clothes brush, and a bit of fairy, but then remember to dry it with lots of kitchen paper, and a rag, and don’t even think about letting it dry in the sun if you don’t want it to get stiff . Even so, I would not highly recommend doing the latter if it is not absolutely necessary, it is better not to bring water near your board.

I hope it helps you a lot and that you don’t worry anymore about things that are not important!

How to Play a Game of Skate

In this article we are going to teach you the rules of a game of skate.

The Game of Skate is the most typical game in Skateboarding, go to the country you go to, you know that everyone can play a SKATE, since it is known worldwide.

The dynamics of the game is very simple, although depending on the geographical area it may vary a bit, normally it is as follows:

One person does a trick, the others have to do the same, if one of them fails, a letter. Once one of the participants completes the word SKATE, it is eliminated. The last letter gets a second chance. The last one left wins.

If a trick doesn’t quite work or almost works, or you step on it and then can’t keep your balance, it’s repeated. This is decided by those who play the Game of Skate or the jury.

Normally, to choose the shifts, some kind of draw is made, or simply by their own decision. A common game is a Rock, paper and scissors, whoever wins has the privilege of being the first and choosing a trick, then it is repeated for the second, third place and those that are needed. When a skater who has to choose a trick fails, it is directly up to the next one to choose, without putting a letter. When he gets to the last turn he touches the first one again.

There are many variants and rules specific to each group of people, for example:

  • Grab tricks are valid or not.
  • Value or not all those tricks in which you have to put one foot on the ground.
  • To repeat the trick you have two attempts.

All these internal rules are usually agreed upon at the beginning of SKATE to avoid misunderstandings.

Another modification or variant is usually the following: to prevent a very good skater from doing tricks without stopping and without failing and eliminating the others all at once, the turn changes whether the trick falls or not. In this way, opportunities are given to everyone equally.

There is always the typical skater who doesn’t leave the rest a chance. For example: One person does a 360 flip, the rest have to do it, when everyone tries, it’s the next person’s turn to put a letter, it doesn’t matter if the one who did the 360 ​​flip did it. So, whoever sets has only one turn to set, whether the trick falls or not. (Remember that this is just one more variant of the game, it doesn’t have to be played like this).

Logically, not only do they have to be trick SKATE on the ground (Flat), they can also be on a module, ramp, stairs…