S.E.D.J. Day 25 - Snakes on a Ramp, Must be Wednesday Night at Playstation.

Come on brain, don't let me down now.  I can handle the physical knocks and and aches but if the brain goes then I'm sunk.  All it will take is for me to get my days mixed up, think that I'm skating that night, miss my lunch-time window and that Rach is out past 11 meaning I can't get out to skate before the clocks strike twelve and I turn to a pillar of salt and the S.E.D.J. dream comes to a rather pathetic end.

That is one possible outcome and there are thousands of versions similar.  Tonight was just one such version.  Unfortunately you, dear reader, are the unsuspecting victim of this cerebral meltdown.

Earlier today i needed to grab some images off the Lumix for the last blog entry, I managed to leave the camera on after downloading the shots.  So when I reach into my bag while a t Playstaion/Bay66 tonight I spot the battery is already dangerously low. So low in fact that i get two useless frames before it dies.  See, nothing groundbreaking, just forgetting to unplug the bloody camera.  As a result YOU have to put up with these shockingly bad photos to the guys at the session, who were: Johners, Irish Steve, Jamie, Alan, Jack, Awadh, Jotham and Kev.

Alan, Steve, Jamie (hidden) and Awadh ready for snakeing.

An out of focus Jotham.

A badly lit and red-eyed Jamie, and Alan were both on fine form

Adam was being all shy again.

 We spent the first half of the session having a Wembly Gap session over on the street course and then the obligatory snake session on the mini.  I couldn't shoot any actual skating as the HTC Phone I've got is worse than useless in that regard.  Despite the camera fuck-up I'm happy with Day 25, I had a good skate, got backside 180's up the gap again and it looks like I'm going to get to bed before one o'clock.

Day 26 is another quick lunch-time visit to Meanwhile II/Royal Oak, aiming to be there for 1.15pm for a half hour skate and then it's back to work.  You know the drill, if you are about....

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 22 - South London Street Skating Eutopia.

I don't see myself as a worrier.  I'm generally pretty good at figuring out the stuff that is out of my control and letting fate or the universe or whatever, sort things out.  Planning where to skate over the last three weeks has affected my sleep, being able to squeeze in the lunch-time skates has definitely affected my heart rate and blood pressure.  Now that I'm only 9 nine days away from the end of Skate Every Day in January I was starting to get a bit obsessive. As with many things in life, sometimes things just happen for a reason. Like today.

We had no real plan other than meet up at Elephant and Castle and go find some street spots. On my ride to E&C the sky looked a little dark and for a split second I thought rain was going to stop play but that feeling passed.  As soon as I hooked up with Adam, Ivan, Jamie, Alex and Martyn, any stress-head tendencies disappeared and all I had to worry about was staying on my board, shooting some crappy photos, missing Alex's make on his blunt-slide transfer to grind while on filming duty and laughing a lot.

Martyn going high at E&C wall.

Ivan got the grind, but preferred this shot.

This was the second time Alex made this bluntslide-transfer to 5-0 down the corner.

Refreshment break.

I don't really know what to say about this shot.

Johners' frontside bluntslide transfer close-up.

Alex Wallies over.

Work continues on Jamie's Planking Documentary.

Johners styling out his Front-Rock pop-out.

A blurry compact digital shot of Martyn's Front board.

You don't need a blow by blow account of what happened.  It's getting late, I'm completely done-in and writing this is sapping the very last remnants of energy from my brain.  Let's just say that Day 22 raised the bar.  Skating a real street spot that was so much more fun than it originally suggested and doing it with some of the best people out there.

Day 23 is going back to Stockwell.  It's an after work visit this time, from 6.30pm to 7.30pm. If you are around I'll hopefully see you there.

[LIALC]

Video Evidence of The S.E.D.J. Day 8.

Adam "Johners" Johns has just posted a video of some of the Day's skating from Sunday.  As with my post, Jamie "Harry" Harrison is all over the edit, he was on fire that day, and I know that he was paying the physical price for it yesterday.

One to watch out for is Johners very own ollie into the banked wall from the boat-bench, Alex was on filmer duty at that point.

So now enjoy the experimental film making stylings of Johners and co.

S.E.D.J. Day 8 - Out and About in Old London Town.

It would seem that the cracks are starting to appear. Organisational and physical.  Something on the right hand side of my abdomen decided to go "Twang" while trying to skate a boulder at Tolworth.  It wasn't until Jotham, Johners and Jamie got to the warm up spot that I realised it still hurt like hell.  Anyone know any good stomach stretches?

After the warm-up spot we crossed the road to the temporary driveway spot that is getting skated while it lasts.  It's a weird little spot, not really steep enough, the run-ups a bit crappy and a nasty lip at the bottom that all add up to make it a bit more of a challenge and actually really fun.

Jamie, straight ollie over a FULL SIZE cone (Honest).

My disastrously timed shot of Jamie getting the spot's first wall-ride.

Alex and French arrived before we set off for the next spot over on the south side of the river near the Fire Brigade headquarters.  The banks there are covered in a kind of pebble-dash that serves 2 purposes; to destroy the nose of your board and to shred your hands if you make the mistake of using them to steady yourself.

French.

Johners

...and from the rear

We bumped into Fos, Rogie and Questions, who were doing a bit of filming at the spot, which was handy, because it meant that Fos managed to be filming when Jamie zoomed his board over the wall into the slip-way on the other side.  A packet of baby wipes later and Jamie had the board rideable again  - he's never one to give up our Jamie.

Jamie's board went for a beauty treatment at the next spot.

Questions was on hand to mount the rescue operation.

Fos documenting with full death leans.

I proceeded to completely fuck the nose of my board thanks to the bank's surface, Johners and Alex sessionned the boat shaped benches with Jamie and Rogie until it was time to move on again.

Johners ollied into the rough-as-fuck bank.

off to the next spot.

The final spot of the day was a beauty.  Another bank/wall-ride spot.  This one had railings to save Jamie from a more permanent board disappearance.  We all skated the corner section, I ended up on the floor more than a couple of times, great fun though.

Another shot of Jamie.. this time front-side wall-ride round the corner. 

Jamie was going to a front-side grind but was getting tipped off as soon as he made contact so he had to make do with a nice carve front-side wall ride instead.  Next time it just needs a bit more wax and he'll have it.  I can't wait to go back to this spot.

Day 8 was another success on the skateboarding front.  Three good spots, a really good gang out skating and a lucky encounter with Rogie, Questions and Fos, the weather was on our side too, until I set off to ride home, of course.

Tomorrow it's Day 9 and a lunch-time skate at Royal Oak. I'll be getting there for 1:15pm, if anyone is in the mood, let me know.

[LIALC]