S.E.D.J. Day 7 - Tolworth Bowl Sunshine Session

The world is turning upside down, it's official.  How can I be so sure?  Here's how... when my neighbour, David, and I arrived at the Tolworth bowl we were less than pleased to find the place being used by four little kids on micro-scoots.  Nice enough kids if you overlook the diabolical choice of past-time, so obviously I started winding them up about needing to graduate to skateboards and here's what they said back:

"If any any of our mates saw us riding a skateboard they'd never stop taking the piss"... WHAT!!  No kid, you've got that the wrong way round!   This kid was implying that there was more street cred in riding a bloody micro-scoot-thing.. like I said... upside-down.

Bowlworth!

By the time I'd picked myself off the floor and pulled myself together after hearing such madness David had already started to get acquainted with the bowl.  Next thing you know Jeremy arrived and all of a sudden you've got enough of us there skating that the kids and their contraptions disappear,  leaving us with an empty bowl for an hour or so.

Jeremy with a Rock'n'Roll in the capsule.

David has always been more of a street skater so toward the end of the session our attention turned to the block that's tucked away by the path into the park, I've always thought that was a nice touch.  I opted for camera duty rather than getting all tech on the ledge.

One of David's solid nose slides.

This wasn't the longest session but definitely a fun one. I've always liked Tolworth - it's close to home, it's normally quiet and it's got pool coping.  I was lucky again to have two friends to skate with and weather that was more like April than January. Not a bad way to round off week 1 of Skate Every Day in January.

Jeremy going up and over to 50-50.

Tomorrow is Day 8, the first day of the second week of S.E.D.J. and this time it's street spots.  The plan is to meet at 11 am on Westminster bridge with board and bicycle and start seeking out all those spots we should be skating in this amazing city. If you fancy it, you know where we'll be.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 6 - Victoria Park Smash'n'Grab Session.

 

Things don't always go plan. today was no exception. I was due to meet up with Kev at Victoria Park to skate that beast of a bowl that's arrived there in the last year.  Only problem was that Kev got caught up in a house-key and flat-mate debacle which meant he couldn't leave for the park until his flat-mate got home.  Kev truly is a stand-up guy?  I've had a few flat-mates in my time who would have made me wait until they got back from skating.

It turns out that Kev got to the park just after my half our skate had to come to an end.  Luckily Jeremy had come over to have a roll too. Seeing as he's the guy that designed the place it was fitting that I had my first skate there with him.

Another bit of luck was having a bit of a skate with Horsey and Rob Smith who had also come down to skate the park for the first time with a car full of Death boys to hook up with Kev.  The worst part of today was dragging myself away from there knowing that those guys were just warming up for a friday afternoon session in perfect winter sun. 

It took me nearly half an hour to get there and only a little less to get back to work, so I doubt this place is going to work for these Lunch-time skates, more traveling than skating.  But wow, I'm really into that bowl, for some reason that cradle just makes me want to go upside-down.  Next time... next time.

Day Six is all about keeping it local, Tolworth Bowl at mid-day for an hour or so's relaxed concrete therapy. As usual it would be great to see some faces, so far I've been blessed with good company.  Thanks go to Jeremy for making the trip today and to Kev too, sorry I couldn't hang on mate.

Have a great weekend and maaybe see you out there.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 5 - White Grounds - The Forgotten Park

Admittedly by that I mean that I'd forgotten it was still there.  Mainly due to the fact that every time I've been there it's been locked up, forcing us to climb over the fence.  Of course there are advantages to that, you get the place to yourself.

Today I was accompanied by Martyn Thomas who took time out out from running his business to come and have a half hour skate with a deluded mate. After scaling the fence it was soon apparent that we'd made a classic mistake and arrived without any clean-up equipment, and to be honest we wouldn't have needed much, just something to clean up the puddles at the bottom of most of the banks.

We both tried riding just riding through them but the concrete is here is nice ans smooth and so deadly when wet. That left us with the option of skating around the water, we didn't really have time to waste on mopping up anyway.

I'd ridden over from Soho on the motorbike in about 15 minutes and needed to get back roughly on the hour so it was half an our of skating what we could. For the first Smash'n'Grab session of Skate Every Day in January (S.E.D.J.) I was happy.  I had a good friend to skate with and I figured out a few things that will get me out of the office and back a bit more smoothly next time. 

Another bonus was rediscovering the White Grounds, next time I'll just throw a copy of the metro in my bag and we'll be rocking. It's actually a great littel park with quirky lines and some properly challenging bits.  Who knows, maybe this one will last beyond S.E.D.J., I hope so. Thanks to Martyn for suggesting the park and heading out to skate too.

 

Tomorrow is another Smash'n'Grab, this time it's Victoria Park to hook up with Kev McKeon and any of you lot who fancy heading down for a skate at about 1.15PM? Com on, have a lunch-time skate, it's great for your digestion.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 4 - Playbox-Baystation66 - Old Faithful

Can someone please explain what the hell I was thinking when I decided to cycle to work today? I can still hear that bloody wind out there.  To be honest the ride to work wasn't so bad.  The ride from the office to Playstation/Xbox/Bay66 was as bad as it gets.  I was completely soaked by the time I arrived.  My shoes were the worst, you know when you can actually judge the water level inside with your toes, no?, just me then.

The ride home was even worse. 10 wet miles into a bloody headwind after a bit of a battering at the hands of the new slidy version of the mini and a "no-pads" mini-session on the vert, was not what I needed.

What I had been in need of was people to skate with.  And wouldn't you know it the Stockwell contingent of Matt Gold, Jim Thompson and Dave Reading turned up. Love it. As did Marcus and Kev McKeon, but he was working in his shop which is in the skatepark so basically he took a tea break to come and skate with us. I still appreciate it.

Most of the night was spent skating the mini which is always fun, unfortunately tonight the ramp's surface was so slidy it taking people out left, right and centre, with no warning what so ever.  People were sliding out of stuff so much that new tricks were get done completely by accident.  I blame the bladers and their wax covered wheels.

Mat and Jim, Jim had the essentials covered then.

After a while everyone got acclimatised and we ended up having a good session with a few more of the Kingston crew, Jeremy Jones and a lad who's name I always forget (sorry dude), total rippers!

My thing tonight was just to skate everything on offer so it was a case of mini for a bit, a few runs on the vert, off to the midi-ramp, cruise round the street course and repeat.

All in all it was a good night.  I didn't go to the pub afterward as I wanted to get home a get warm again, so there was no point in being on the bicycle anyway... you live and learn.

Dave giving it a bit of the old 5-O.

Jim with some text-book front rocking.

Matt busting out the one footed ollie.

Marcus was riding his new DEATH wood.

That he'd bought from this bloke at Stand-Up Skateshop.

For Day 5 tomorrow it's a lunch-time quicky at White Grounds SE1 from about 1.15PM for about half an hour.  I haven't been there in a long time and almost forgot it existed to be honest. I'm also back on the motorbike tomorrow.

Thanks to the lads for their support tonight.  Who can tell who I'll be skating with tomorrow?

See you out there.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. DAY 3 - Kingston Car-Park Curb Session

Today was the first day of this whole Skate Every Day in January that I've managed to keep my board from getting a soaking. Not that it matters, as the last two days have taken their toll. Puddles are shit.

Marcus was first on the scene.

It's strange that on a day that the weather was so extreme that it killed two people, had wheelie bins , discarded Christmas trees and fully grown trees flying around everywhere in freakish storms; that I manage to have my first dry skate.  It was also the first skate that wasn't at a purpose build park.

And the nose wheelies did come.

Tonight was the first of the smash'n'grab sessions, as I'm going to call them.  I didn't leave the house until 9.45PM.  Most nights it wouln't cross my mind to go at skate at that time of night but that's partly why I'm doing this.  It got me out on my board.  It got me skating a curb with two mates, and that is what it's all about.

As did the manual variations.

Marcus tipped me off to the spot in the first place so I was pleased he was up for a skate tonight.  Sam missed out at Sunbury and is coming back after a bit of a hiatus and curbs are a great rehabilitation tool as I came to discover myself; that is if you ignore the double hand-slap after zooming a backside-tailside.

Front-shuv-manuals even made an appearance.

It's getting late so I'm not going to on for too long.  It was fun skating with Marcus and Sam. It was also a good feeling to be ticking off Day 3, having someone to skate with is definitely helping so if you are up for a skate at the Playstation/Bay-66 Wednesday night session, you know where to find me tomorrow.

Thanks lads.

Where the magic happened.

Right, I need to stretch and get to bed. Hopefully see you tomorrow!

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 2 - Sunbury Skatepark... well, a bit of it.

So today I skated alone... I skated Sunbury...alone.  This will not be the last time this month I skate alone, I'm sure of that.  Rach and Harper were there for moral support and Sam arrived toward the end of my skate, none of them felt the urge to shred, probably due to the dangerous amount of standing water in the park.

I don't care what you say, the wet-look is so NOT hot right now.

I had my broom with me but it was 9.30 in the morning, with a low winter sun not even able to see the bottom of the bowl sections, so I had to make do with the flat bank facing the quarter of the table top. After  a good clean up even here I had to be super careful to hit the flat going nice and straight, any amount of turn and I was sliding out. But what was I going to do.. give up?

This is the bit I was left to skate.

Not likely.  It's only day 2 for Christ's sake! Anyway, I rarely skate banks so figured this was the perfect opportunity to get acquainted again.  This maybe one of the great advantages of doing this whole thing.  If this park had been dry there's no way I would have skated that bank, so already it's changing how and what I skate.

The long view from the bowl

Had the park been dry I would have had a fucking ball.  I had the whole place to myself and two other kids and the layout of the park really lends itself to cruising about and hitting the hips into the bowl, back out and head up to the quarter at the back, down past the fun looking low rail an hubbas that lead you back to the entrance to the bowl again.  I can't wait to get a dry morning down here to take advantage.  One thing to note is that scootergits are early risers and they had started to arrive in groups of three by 10.30am.

This section looked really fun.

It's far too early in this endeavor to start getting upset with the British weather, there'll be plenty of time for that.  As frustrating as it is to have this park at my mercy, covered in water on what was actually a dry bright morning I can't help feeling positive.  I snatched skate of over an hour, I didn't get rained on and I now know where to park to get to this little gem.

From the far end looking back at the bowl.

Tomorrow will be different. Tomorrow it's going to be curb skating special.  Being back at work means time is tight and being married with a little girl means the only time available to be is to grab an hour of skating about 10:30PM.  The Kingston curb is going to get it like it's 1991. If you know it then you'll know where I'll be.

Hopefully see you down there.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J Day 1 - Off and Running.

Day 1 of Skate Every Day in January and it's probably a taste of things to come but getting a session under my belt was a great way to start the year.

If you want Stockwell to yourself, you when to go; January 1st, 12 noon.

I made it to Stockwell for touch after mid-day to find Johners already there.  Considering we had both been out celebrating the New Year , me pulling a 4.00am and Johners about 5.00am, I think we did pretty well to get out in time. It was good thing too. The park was still damp with the usual puddles but enough dry park to have a good roll, but that wouldn't last.

The gregarious, camera loving, socialite known as Johners

Johners even bought lunch. If he hadn't turned up, it would have sucked.

I know better to trust the weather-reports but when your planning on skating every day you have to get a bit of guidance. Today's weather was for rain in the after noon, at 1 it tried, and at about 2 it finished the job off good and proper. Maybe I should keep reading the weather forecasts.

Not the first time and it sure as hell won't be the last.

I'm going put today down as a success. I skated outdoors at my favorite park with a really good friend, skated my hangover away and made it home, if a little damp, just in time for a Sunday roast that Rach had cooked. Stoked!

Let's see how it goes tomorrow at Sunbury Skatepark, this one's going to be a flying visit at 9:30am for an hour. If you're in the area... you know what to do.

Hope to see you out there.

[LIALC]