S.E.D.J. Day 27 - A Return to The South Bank

I'm putting Day 26 behind me and moving on.  Parking my bike on SOHO square was the first step in avoiding any repeat performance of getting blocked in. Knowing that I had to pop over the rive to the South Bank was another source confidence that Day 27 of SEDJ would go off without a hitch. Today was going to be a bit of a re-union with one of my oldest mates Howie.  We used to skate together back when we were about 14 onwards and the South Bank was always the first spot one on our regular trips to London with the rest of the Wokingham crew.  So skating there with Howie again, even for half an hour, was going to be good lunch break.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is the bit were I start telling you how it all went wrong and how I'm on the verge of murdering the bastards responsible.. but not this time.

Howie sampling the new-ish offerings

 Ten minutes over Westminster Bridge and I'm underneath the Royal Festival Hall, Howie is already there and Martyn turns up seconds after I've said hello to H.  Bikes locked, helmets and jackets stashed and off we go.  I was all about the banks, they're are definitely my favourite thing about what is left of the original undercroft.  Martyn was hitting the blocks and Howie was sharing it out all over the place.  We were all loving having the undercroft almost to ourselves with only another four guys skating and was starting to bring back memories of the first time we ollied the seven, not that I was bout to throw myself down them on this visit.

Martyn shows how nose-manuals should be done.

As with all these lunch time skates it was all over too quickly but after this there is only one left on Monday so I could handle going back to work: plus the fact I was going to be skating with Howie again on Day 28 at Tolworth.  Thanks to Howie and Martyn for coming out and keeping me company.

[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.

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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.

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Lunch-time Spot Check - S.E.D.J.

On the ride into the office this morning I wanted to check out a potential spot for some lunch-time S.E.D.J. sessions.

I'd ridden past it a couple of times and it's just as good as I thought and only a 5 minute skate from the office.  With time being my most precious resource it's nice to have options. I guess we'll soon see what the "bust" factor is soon enough.
[LILAC]

The Curse Of The Skate Dimension

It's happenned to all of us, thousands of times, it's a gift that only skateboarding can give you.  Either from a bus, a train, the back seat of a car.  That hint of a spot.  The angle of a wall, the top of a handrail that looks the perfect height, or the transitions at the bottom of a wall; all of which make our Skate-sense tingle and make our eyes dart around looking for land marks so we can figure out how the hell to find that place again, to see what it holds.

More often than not there are problems. Some can be overcome with a little ingenuity,others need a bit of heavy work and the rest are just not what they seemed in the first place.

This week I had one of the later versions.  I'd seen this giant flower-pot thing a couple of times, I'd google mapped it's location and the other day I finally got the chance to ride over for a look/skate.

Bollox to that then.  Oh well, I suppose I could always just saw the nose off my board.

[LIALC]