Up Close And Personal With Kingston Crete.

Today I decided to take an hour off to go see how the work on the Kingston Skatepark was coming on.

The short answer is.. DONE (but not yet skateable - I'll come back to this)

They are putting the finishing touches to one section of flat at the open end of the bowled section and the long ledge. After a bit more tidying up and painting it will be finished.

I had a chat with Duncan, the project manager, who explained that they were handing over the site to the council later this afternoon.  There are tiny bits to be done, all the rough looking bits you can see are to be painted green and everything needs to dry properly too (so don't skate it yet... you will fuck it up!)

I'm not going to comment on the design of the park just yet. I might have a few issues but I'm going to wait until I've skated it before doing that. There are a few things that I suspect might bother me but then, I could say that of almost anywhere I've skated.

Take a look at the pictures below and see what you think.

[LIALC]

The Use of a Skateboard for Classic Subterfuge.

Spotted in West London about 2:30pm today, one of the worst cases of flagrant use of a skateboard as a fashion accessory.

That's a Zoo York board he's carrying. The only reason I could tell is because I could see the top graphic thanks to the absence of any grip tape.

So now I'm starting to wonder how far this charade actually goes. Is there any beer in the Red Stripe cans? Are they even Red Stripe cans at all, they look suspiciously small, re-stickered iron brew maybe?
The fact is, it's all a sham a shameless terrible sham.

[LILAC]

Making Up For Smart Phone Misdemeanors

Last night's/this morning's post was, I have decided, a bit lack luster.

Even using some poncey vintage camera App, they are still just camera phone shots, that I new I could whack up on the blog right there and then.

Mobile blogging, hell yeah... I love the idea of it, but need to figure out a technical solution that means the quality of the images isn't dictated my my HTC Desire and it's terrible camera.

So, you lucky, lucky people, I've decided to do a double post day and upgrade the images to those from a digital compact.  I swear to god I'll get back into the habit of taking my SLR out on night missions again soon.

But for now, here are some snaps from the last couple of night skates at The Spot.

Get out in that sun!

[LIALC]

Martin boardsliding off to the top

Johners fronsite pivot inside a dust bubble

Will front disastering in the undergrowth

Johners thanking his lucky stars after narrowly missing a coxics smashing

Toby's foot and board, the floor... and a bit of the BBQ/Flatbank/Quarter

April 20th night session crew

The Hippy and the Hippy

Alex and Stevie don't look too sure about those sausages

Jamie and the sausages

BBQ

Johners' amazing BBQ an skateboard transportation system

Waiting For The Lights to Give Us the Go!

There is about an hour each night at the spot when it's dark but the lights nearby don't come on until they decide they feel like it.

At this point you skate in the dark and roll around on the floor a fair bit.
We are currently slap bang in the middle of that hour.

Tick follows tock.....

[LILAC]

A Sacrifice in the Name of The Spot

Martyn Thomas has just released a great little edit of a session at The Spot that went down a couple of weeks ago.

I've not managed to skate there since and watching this has made me even more determined to make time to go and skate the place that I had a small part in helping build.

Having often been the guy with the camera who ends up with no shots because I was having too much fun skating, I fully appreciate Martyn sacrificing his time skating to shoot this footage (He shreds by the way), and let's face it, this thing didn't edit itself?

So why don't you crack open a nice cold beer and spend the next 6 and a bit minutes watching some skateboarders having the time of their lives on a wednesday night in London.



The Secret Home Made Skate Park... from Martyn Thomas on Vimeo.

I'll be there tomorrow night.

[LIALC]

Some Inspiration for DIY Types Everywhere

A still from the Film.

Seeing what these guys manged to create is nothing short of inspirational. The technicolor paint party bit probaly isn't quite so relevent in the UK climate but each to thier own I suppose.

Thanks go to Matt Bain for bringing it to my attention.

Enjoy,

[LIALC]

Kingston Skatepark is Starting to Look Good

Not being at work today means that I hare the chance to take ride down to the site at the Kingston Skatepark.

On a day like today you just want this thing to be finished and ready to
ride but rushing and concrete do not go together.

So while we wait here are some snaps of the work in progress.

[LILAC]

New Edit from Marcus of the Lurkers

I met Marcus for the first time about three years ago, on a sunny day at the little bowl up at Finsbury Park.  He was totally into nose-picking  beck then, actually he's still into to them, and his open positive attitude was immediately apparent when he was showed me the scar from having his heel chopped off in a motorcycle accident, gave up football and started skating instead.

Fast forward to 2011 and he's got the cover of [LIALC] issue 3 all tied up (Just waiting for me to sort the rest of the issue out) and he's keeping the Kingston scene bubbling along nicely with the Kingston Lurkers and generally getting stuff done.

Once the new Kingston park is finished I think we'll be seeing a lot more of the Lurkers but for now check out this little edit of Marcus' exploits from the lenses of James Smith,Jack Maddison and Paul Labadie.

Tonight I'm off to The Spot/The Fox Spot, to skate some brand new concrete.

[LIALC]

Pouring and Steeling on a Sunny Sunday.

As a follow up to my last post I thought I'd just throw up some snaps from Sunday's build at the spot.  All camera-phone shots unfortunately (I know, should try harder).

BUT, then I got thinking.

It's amazing how your perception of a thing can change when you shift from spectator to contributor.  Besides the actual act of building, which can be fun and rewarding there's no escaping the fact that it is hard work.  There's also the time that people give, money to hire cement mixers, vans etc., money for building materials, food and beer.  It all stacks up and this is naturally where the feelings of ownership arise.

People who have spent their hard earned cash, and given their sweat and time to build what equates to a mini-skatepark, do own it. They paid for it, both figuratively and literally.

The people that have been involved in building this place deserve a huge amount respect. I won't name names now, they know who they are.  Even now they are trying to figure out how much time and money they can scrape together to continue building.  Are you?

[LIALC]