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. 

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S.E.D.J. Day 25 - Snakes on a Ramp, Must be Wednesday Night at Playstation.

Come on brain, don't let me down now.  I can handle the physical knocks and and aches but if the brain goes then I'm sunk.  All it will take is for me to get my days mixed up, think that I'm skating that night, miss my lunch-time window and that Rach is out past 11 meaning I can't get out to skate before the clocks strike twelve and I turn to a pillar of salt and the S.E.D.J. dream comes to a rather pathetic end.

That is one possible outcome and there are thousands of versions similar.  Tonight was just one such version.  Unfortunately you, dear reader, are the unsuspecting victim of this cerebral meltdown.

Earlier today i needed to grab some images off the Lumix for the last blog entry, I managed to leave the camera on after downloading the shots.  So when I reach into my bag while a t Playstaion/Bay66 tonight I spot the battery is already dangerously low. So low in fact that i get two useless frames before it dies.  See, nothing groundbreaking, just forgetting to unplug the bloody camera.  As a result YOU have to put up with these shockingly bad photos to the guys at the session, who were: Johners, Irish Steve, Jamie, Alan, Jack, Awadh, Jotham and Kev.

Alan, Steve, Jamie (hidden) and Awadh ready for snakeing.

An out of focus Jotham.

A badly lit and red-eyed Jamie, and Alan were both on fine form

Adam was being all shy again.

 We spent the first half of the session having a Wembly Gap session over on the street course and then the obligatory snake session on the mini.  I couldn't shoot any actual skating as the HTC Phone I've got is worse than useless in that regard.  Despite the camera fuck-up I'm happy with Day 25, I had a good skate, got backside 180's up the gap again and it looks like I'm going to get to bed before one o'clock.

Day 26 is another quick lunch-time visit to Meanwhile II/Royal Oak, aiming to be there for 1.15pm for a half hour skate and then it's back to work.  You know the drill, if you are about....

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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.

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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.

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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.

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S.E.D.J. Day 11 - More Playstation Fun Times

Those who know me know that I'm a bit of a cycling fanatic too. Last night I was talking to Jotham about some of his physical repercussions from Sunday's skate, and it got me thinking.

In cycling the ultimate endurance races are the Grand Tours, the biggest and longest of which is the three week long Tour de France, which this year will cover 2,161 miles.  In the world of professional cycle racing they say that your legs and general physicality change once you've completed your first tour de France.  It's like you can't train for it, you just have to do it and having done it once your body will kind of know what to expect and will be somehow battle hardened from having done it once before.

Could this S.E.D.J. thing be my Tour de France.  Now I'm not doing the skateboarding equivalent of cycling 130 miles a day, but I'm doing over four weeks and those guys get two days off.  What I was thinking about was how skating Every Day In January is going to have an effect on my body, my fitness and leave me changed at the end off it. Going on a trip and skating every day in a week will hopefully seem like a walk in the park.

Or will I be so wrecked that I can't skate in February?  I think I prefer the version where I'm this new kind of battle hardened skateboarder who now has the ability to take on anything.  Unfortunately the way things are going there's a danger that my skating on the 31st could resemble an avant garde modern dance performance based on the last days if the Siege of Leningrad.

Day 11 was as you probably know a London Winter staple, the Wednesday Night session at Playstation/Bay66.  When I first started going to these the sessions I would mainly be concentrated on the Midi and the Vert.  I'd be padded up and helmeted for at least half the session trying to learn airs on the vert, or trying to get involved with the sessions that used to be going off on the Midi.

Kev and Alan ready for battle.

Ivan and Johners refusing to be photographed.

Kev Firth, Matt, Jim, Alan, Neal K and Jotham were all also in attendance with most of them getting involved with the mini-ramp session and having a proper laugh for the whole time.  So that was Day 11, one of the most fun sessions so far, even though my legs were starting to show a little fatigue.

This is actually Ivan bashing his nose on thee way back down.

Kev Smithing.

Johners still being camera shy.

Ivan turning up the heat.

I knew I should have worn my white Tee.

A photo of Kev having just let go of a melon. #instamaticskatephotography

Ha! Got him.

Day 12 is a lunch-time session at Stockwell from 1:15pm. Same as usual, if you feel like a half hour skate at lunch, come down to the beach.

[LIALC]

Up And Running

Yes, Yes!

Ok so it's finally happened, the Lizard Mag has moved the blog off MySpace and onto Blogger. I'm sure there will still be the odd MySpace Blog update but this is now the new spiritual home of the most individual UK Skateboard publication.

Just to keep you going for a day or so here are a couple of picture's from last weekend's Stockwell Jam.

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Johners getting in the way of some gritty social realism.


And here we have Jesus going for the extra big wings




I'm going to have to ask Biebel about this one?