S.E.D.J. Day 29 - Day of Falling Over at Stockwell

What a perfect day for falling over.  If you ride a skateboard through the winter there is a temperature barrier that once colder than this arbitrary threshold, slams hurt at least 25% more than at warmer temperatures and concrete is 10% harder. FACT!

Johners on a One Foot Manual Beer-Run

Zombie after a nice impersonation of a sack of spuds.

Weirdly it seems you are also more likely to fall over, at least that was the evidence gathered from Day 29 of Skate Every Day in January at the hallowed Stockwell Skatepark.  It seemed like everyone was hitting the deck, and some were awesome. So much so that I missed one of Alex's because I was picking myself up off the floor at the time.  It wasn't quite carnage but more a skateboarding comedy of errors and I'm pretty sure nobody got hurt, badly I mean.

Jack tweaking over the Sausage

Zombie popping EARLY!!

The thing that struck me on my ride home was just how much worse it could have been.  I had at least two close calls with Alex, 2 with Martyn, 1 with Johners, Josh almost got me twice and Zombie only the once, it was like someone had sent the Red Arrows up pissed and blindfolded. The rest of the tumbles were self inflicted mishaps that happen when your having fun on your skateboard.

Johners Sound System, no D'n'B, alright?

 Between all the collisions and rolling around on the floor everyone seemed to be having a good laugh.  The crew at the park was a quality collection with appearances from types such as Johners, Zombie Stu, Will, Alex, Martyn, Ewen B. , Josh, Jack, Pete H., Jamie "Horse Zine" Hall and others.. and we even had food laid on buy Johners and Dave and helpers; BBQ's in January are awesome, if only for the ambient heat that's available if you hang out chatting with the chef.

Will just making sure everyone is behaving.

Martyn at High-Speed and Zombie going Low-Brow.

I had a great day down at Stockwell for Day 29, the last weekend day of SEDJ.  Great people to skate with thanks to Zombie for making the trip specially; and to everyone else who came down to help make Day 29 a really fun skate.

Day 30 is going to be the last of the Lunch-time Smash'n'Grabs: it's another Meanwhile Gardens if dry and Meanwhile II if wet.  I'll be at one of those places at 1.15pm. 

[LIALC]  

S.E.D.J. Day 23 - Stockwell Skate By Street-Lamp Light.

I'm going to be quick again tonight.  I need to get to bed before midnight for once.  I was knackered anyway but after only 2 hours sleep last night, thanks to a sick and yet strangely mischievous baby, I'm on my knees.

Today was a nice change from the last couple of Mondays' lunch time skates.  This time I met up with Adam (Johners) at Sockwell for an hour. We were the only two skaters there.  Adam and I share a strange enjoyment of skating Stockwell in the dark in winter; The Park is lit much better than you would think and it's always quiet.  The cold is normally the big problem but I think we all understand that you are rarely cold while actually skating.

Adam: Red-Eye Reduction ON

I love this section of the park. Plenty of opportunities to come a cropper.

If you look closely you can see the memory of a Johners shaped carve in the super tight pocket.

You may have noticed that I'd left my digital compact camera at the office by accident so was reduced to my phone. What a pile of crap; oh well.  I got the photo's I needed.  Day 23 was a good laugh. Hacking it around the park with Johners, having a chat and generally having a nice relaxed skate.  Thanks Adam.

Tomorrow is Day 24. Tomorrow is a Tuesday...... so that means a Kingston Car Park Training session.  Hopefully see you tomorrow from 10:00pm.

Now, I sleep.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 21 - Back Garden Skatepark Research - Sunbury

This was always going to be better than the last visit.  This time it had been dry for just over 24 hours, which at least meant the whole park would be skateable, so it would just be down to how many of the 2 wheeled plague were there by the time I arrived at 11.00am.  Happily it wasn't too bad at all.  It still made me realize that I'm going to have to get a big enough garden to put something similar to the Sunbury park in there, then I can skate the thing with five or six mates and get the best out of it.  A cheaper option would be to just skate Sunbury regularly and then when the long nights of summer arrive and all the little grotes are in bed, it'll be like the place is my own private park.

How Sunbury looks in the wet.

Last time I was here I was the only skater in the park but today I had company in the shape of Mikey and Macey. These two were constantly winding each other up the whole time in the way that good mates can. Really funny to watch.  As the first skaters I've met down there it bodes well.  I mentioned the S.E.D.J. thing and the blog to them both just as they were about to leave an manged to get them to agree to a photo each for this here blog.

Fakie ollie from Macey in the Bowl.

Mikey boardslides

By then my hour was up and time to get moving.  Day 21 was a pleasant surprise in that I got to skate with other skateboarders again.  Thanks go to Mikey and Macey for helping out with photos, I'll hopefully be skating with those two guys again.  It was also a far less stressful operation, 5 minute drive from my house is much more like it.

Next stop, Day 22.  This one is back on the bike an heading to the streets of South London: Elephant & castle and Kennington to be precise.  I'm meeting up Johners and a few other at noon and see where the mood takes us.   Maybe we'll bump into you.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 16 - Meanwhile Gardens Hump Day

First off, let's clear-up any misunderstandings about the title of this post.  The S.E.D.J. bit is obviously Skate Every Day in January, Day 16- again obvious, Meanwhile Garden - Meanwhile I/Meanwhile Bowls and "Hump Day" - The middle of a work week (Wednesday); used in the context of climbing a proverbial hill to get through a tough week. - But I have of course appropriated it to mean the day slap bang in the middle of this 31 day long mission.  That's right I'm now over half way through S.E.D.J., it's all downhill from here.

After the weekend's two sessions I'd woken-up feeling a little battered and in the mood for a nice relaxing skate.  Thankfully the British  weather was on my side. Despite having to ride to work in -1˚C on a motorbike that was so cold the foam in the seat had frozen solid, by lunchtime the skies were still perfectly clear and blue and the sun was out.  For a lunch-time skate in the middle of January I was skating bone-dry Meanwhile Bowls in just T-shirt. It would seem some-one up there like me.

Bathed in Winter Sun!

When I arrived at the bowls there two other guys skating there who I got chatting with, mainly about the state of the park, cracks, uneven slabs of transition, that kind of thing.  One of the guys, called Tom, works down in Ladbrook Grove so he can cycle up to the bowls in about 5 minutes. Imagine having a spot 5 minutes away from work, especially one as fun as Meanwhile, both of them.  So I'm going to have to get a bit mathematical about this and figure out which spot is actually the closest and quickest for me to get to, right now of the top of my head I think it might be Meanwhile II/Royal Oak,  mainly due to fast roads. What I really need is a secret spot that's somewhere within 2 miles of Soho or for the Supreme store to install a min-bowl downstairs... that would be alright, I could walk there.

T-shirt weather at Meanwhile, in January.

Until either of those options become available I'll just have to keep doing what I'm doing and riding for half an hour minimum to get a half hour skate, maximum.  Hey, I'm fully aware that it could be worse, the fact is I got Day 16 sorted on my lunch-break, in the sunshine, at a quality park with sound people. Today was a good day.

Day 17 is another Car Park training session, in Kingston from 10.00pm.  Depending on how my ankle feels this may be a nose-wheelie only session.  If your about, give me a shout.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 15 - XC Park Hemel.

I've been meaning to get to this place for a while now.  And so it would seem have a few other people.  Johners, Martin and I set of in the car at around 9am and were at the park bang on 10 for the start of the 10.00-1.00pm session.  Justin was meeting us there a s he only live around the corner... lucky fucker.


We were were there for one reason.  The Pool.  And we were not disappointed.  The transitions are authentic without being completely unskatable, the surface is perfect and it's skateboards only, how sweet is that?

Not long after we'd started skating Matt and Reuben turned up and all of a sudden it was a bit of a Stockwell re-union as well as being a mini TVI reunion for Me, Justin and Martin. Skating a pool like this with people you've known and skated with for years was a bit special.  We only had to share the pool with two other guys and a couple of little rippers who must have only been 8.

The best thing about this pool is that it's not too easy to skate.  You still have to think about what your doing, maybe because we don't get to skate proper pools too often, and partly because it's got the ability to throw you off and give you a nasty surprise.  The last time I skated the pool at Saffron I was tipped off the front when I thought everything was fine, got thrown into the opposite wall and got a broken wrist for my trouble, so I was determined not to get carried away to quickly this time.

Reuben didn't seem to have any such reservations.  He was like a kid in a sweet shop, he didn't stop grinning the entire time and decided that smiths in the deep end were the way forward.  Apparently that's the only front-side grind he does, not a bad problem to have.

It will come as no surprise to you that the 3 hours of that session were 3 of the fastest hours I've ever experienced, but I was fine with it as my body was starting to send me a few messages via the universal language of pain signals. Because of how fast the time flew I didn't put a huge amount of effort into shooting photos but did remember to fire off a few before we got kicked out.

Day 15 was awesome. It's that simple. All the key ingredients for a great skate.  Thanks to everyone for coming along, I am aware the pool probably had more to do with it but, it was amazing skating that place with good mates.

Tomorrow is Day 16, the halfway point in this 31 day skate adventure. I need to mark it by going to another of my favorite spots, Meanwhile Gardens.  I'm going to aim to get there for 1.15pm, so if you want to come and help me make it over the half way mark, I'll see you there.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 14 - Tolworth Return - The Local Gem.

After the fun we had at Tolworth last Saturday it was obvious where I was going to skate today.  The fact that Johners and Sam had never been to the bowl meant it was a done deal.  Having this place as one of my local skates is amazing. The fact that it's never really that busy, and even when it is the kids are all well behaved, means that you can skate it with impunity, the drain actually works meaning there are never any puddles, oh...and it's got pool coping.

 Adam had already ridden his tank of a mountain bike from Clapham to mine, about 10 miles, but was keen to see the bowl.  We picked Sam up on the way and arrived to a park with about seven or eight little scoot-kids and four or so BMXicans but we still got in all the skating we wanted, result. I even managed to talk Johners into skating the mini-full-pipe next to the park.

 

The rest of the time was spent having fun skating the capsule section and getting as many grinds on the pool coping as we could, there are few better feelings.   Once we'd run out of time I wanted to know what Adam made of the bowl... it was obvious from watching him skate it, he is now a fan.

That was Day 14 being chalked up as another success. A great spot with minimal travel and amazing weather.  Thanks to Adam "Johnners" Johns and Sam for coming along.

Tomorrow is an early start for S.E.D.J. Day 15. This time it's XC Park at Hemel to complete the double-header weekend of pool coping. We're going to the 10am to 1pm so I'd better get to bed.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 12 - Stockwell Lunch-Break Smash'n'Grab

I can feel it coming.  Impending doom, or at least doom laden skies... of course when I say doom I mean rain.

The first couple of days of this Skate Every Day in January were characterized by rain and puddles but since then, and boy does that seem a long time ago, we've had unseasonably dry weather.  Being British I know instinctively that this can't last but just for today I got away with it again.

God knows how many hours of my life I have spent at Stockwell over the years. When I used to live about 200 yards away I was living the dream and nipping over to the park to skate for an hour was all too easy.  Now that I live a good 10 mile cycle ride away skating for less than three just doesn't make sense so today has to go down as my shortest ever skate at Stockwell... half an hour precisely.

Even for such a flying visit I was lucky enough to find three Stockwell stalwarts.  James, Adrian and Jack were all there to guarantee I didn't skate alone.  I'm pretty sure James was unaware of S.E.D.J. but hey, I'm not proud.

James was on great form, flying around the park like a man posessed.  Adrian is back on his board after a 6 month lay-off, I didn't get chance to ask him what's new with his Done Video project, hopefully I'll see him to ask before another six months is up.

 

Jack was sporting his new knee brace. Not only does it make him look like some sort of robo-law-enforcement-android agent but apparently he's not quite adjusted to the extra width that the brace gives his leg and has been injuring people who come within striking distance, as well as destroying furniture and door frames wherever he goes. He made me feel a lot better about my ever present ankle brace.

 

Before I knew it my time was up and I had to drag myself away.  It's this bit that's going to push me to the edge you know.  Leaving these guys to enjoy the rest of the afternoon at my favorite skatepark is an unholy curse: and all the worse for being self inflicted... Aaah God what have I done!?!

I'm sure I'll get over it.  So that was Day 12.  Half an hour at a world class skatepark with three mates. Nice.

And now for Day 13, another South London lunch-time mission, Clapham Common.  This is an all new park that I have yet to skate, so should be interesting with only half an hour to sample it's delights.  If your about,  I'll be there from 1.15.

[LIALC]

S.E.D.J. Day 9 - West London Modern Classic

I have an admission to make, today was the first day of this Skate Every Day in January that I thought maybe it might be nice not to skate today.  I can qualify that.  I was back to work today so I had to timetable this skate around work and try to squeeze it into one hour.  That's travel time there, park bike, skate, get back on bike, travel back to work all in an hour.

Having been out skating yesterday for 6 hours finished off with a 14 mile ride home, my legs were definitely telling me to give myself a day off, we're only talking about day 9 here, not even a third of the way into S.E.D.J.

So with giving up not really being an option I was getting ready to plan my exit from the office when I get a mail from my mate Phil asking when I'm planning on getting there so he could meet me.

Prockie.

This news was music to my ears.  The reason being that this is the only skate spot I've been mugged at.  It was actually me and my mate Howie.  It was years ago on a week day and Howie was taking photos of me skating the old wooden quarter/bank set-up that used to be here.

Well, it's a flat bank yeah?

Next thing we know there are to lads with kitchen knives suggesting that it might be beneficial to our health if Howie gave the guy waving the knife at him his camera and my guy wanted Howie's camera bag, that I had.

Another shit photo of the park.  Can you tell I was in a rush?

The upshot being that not long after Howie and I are sitting on the tube on our way home, without camera or bag, and were going over what just happened, we notice that Howie had a couple of slashes in his sweatshirt and a cut about an inch long in the peak of his baseball cap.  It was at that point we both realized we'd made the right decision not to put up any more of a fight than we did.  To this day I still feel guilty for letting that fucker get Howie's bag.

What exactly did I think this shot was going to offer the reader?

For a few years after I gave Meanwhile II (to give it it's proper name) a wide birth, and if I did go I'd go when a bit of a crew was going down.  Of course these days this whole area feels far less edgy but that old incident still popped into my head a couple of times since last night, when I decided it would be today's skate.

You have no idea how offensive this photo smells.

One thing from back in the old days that hasn't changed is the smell.  The smell of Death!  This park has always attracted street-pissers who manage to produce some of the worst smelling puddles in the developed world.  Seriously, I'm not overstating the case here, the Smell Of Death comps that kept this place going for years were named after that aroma. I'd assumed it had gone, I was wrong.

I think I took this one accidentally while putting my jacket on.

Getting to see skate friends that I've not seen for ages is an amazing side effect of S.ED.J.  Getting a half hour skate with Phil was brilliant.  The fact that I skated like a one-legged scare-crow with inner ear problems is beside the point.  I still had fun skating with a mate.

Now I have Day 10 to look forward too, and I am: looking forward to it I mean. Tomorrow is another Car Park Training session in Kingston.  I'm going to be there from 10 pm, maybe a little earlier, so if you want to session front-side slappies with me you know what to do.

[LIALC]

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]