S.E.D.J. Day 28 - Damp Concrete and Other Old Friends

 It's often counter productive to be too picky about things especially in the world of skateboarding. Spots that aren't perfect can be written off by some, missing out on all the fun that conquering unskateable terrain.  The skatepark that is notoriously busy at weekends can be sometimes be surprisingly quiet or made to be so if enough of you turn up en-masse. And in this country the damp skatepark or bowl can be shunned when a bit of ingenuity and effort can get you something skateable.

Damp Patch.

Arriving at Tolworth for the skate for Day 28 of Skate Every Day in January brought back all those memories of old soggy news papers, sacrificed t-shirts, DIY cardboard squeegees and wet feet trying to get places dry enough to skate.  On this occasion it was just a case of a bit of damp at the bottom of the bowl and a couple of puddles. Nothing the broom couldn't sort out.

Rock'n'Roll from Howie.

The choices for this skate had been narrowed down to either Sunbury or Tolworth based on location, the deciding factor was purely how busy they'd be. Tolworth won out purely because it seems to be the forgotten treasure of South London Skate Spots; I've only ever arrived there to see other skaters there on 1 occasion and the scooterists and BMXicans are few and well behaved. If you've only got a window of an hour and a half this is the shit you have to take into consideration. A month long of daily skate logistics takes it's toll just as much as the actual skating believe me.

Day 28 was the second one where i was lucky enough to be skating with Howie who was down from Liverpool.  Me, Sam and Howie had made it to the e bowl and after a quick sweep we decided it was just about dry enough to skate although one of my lines into the capsule section was wet enough to make me skid out a couple of times, Howie had a few twitches too but we got away with it.  Howie was another first time visitor to Tolworth who left with a good feeling about the place,  I'll have to get him back in the summer to skate it properly.

Day 29, the Last Sunday of S.E.D.J. is Stockwell (Today - you may have noticed having a house guest has affected the blog timings a bit).. was Stockwell, you'll be reading about it soon.

[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]