The Ancient Aztec Civilisation

Wobbly blobby. This dinky hubba actually looks do-able? Got kicked off of here years ago. 1994? That's yer lot - these are the only skateable remains of the entire Mayan, Inca and Aztec civilisations...

Remember when...

...Thursdays were guaranteed skate nights, no matter what the weather?

Darwinius Masillae - The Missing Link?

News and pictures have been released of a 47 million year old fossil of a lemur-like creature (Ida!) which appears to have opposable thumbs like humans and fingernails instead of claws. A bit suspicious how the news has been released, book & TV documentary all ready to go, but still... wow!

More here: Wikipedia

and BBC News

Frankie's Dream "from the shitters"

Got an e-mail from the grandiloquent Lord of Amsterdam, Oz (aka David Nick-Nack, aka Cecil Cyclone etc) with a special request. He's spotted an amazing looking skateable roof, but unfortunately it's in Rome. Here's what he said: "I thought of a nice idea for your blog, it's called Frankie's Dream." The idea was that this was a bit of risky business that would've appealed to the craziness of danger-loving, launch ramp-assisted Frankie Hill.

He continues... "It's the roof of a company in Rome I visit every couple of weeks. I'd been meaning to take a photo for a long time, it was actually taken from the shitters.

It's looks like a right laugh to skate."

So, if he'd just pointed the camera in the other direction this could've been a great blog for the TURN OUT CLUB INTERNAZIONALE.

Here's the pics...












"There's also an amazing drop-in I've seen in Amsterdam, it's the roof of a kind of small house by the canal. I'll take a picture some time. I can imagine Wes getting pissed up and doing it."

I can also imagine Wes getting pissed up. I can also imagine Witty and Woodcock getting pissed up too, along with all the rest of the Fresh Air Crew scumbags.

El Diablo...

...or "The Devil".

Bollard Jam?

Potential for a line here: Up above this is a nice little slope, which runs down past 2 little curb/manual pads towards this load of bollards...

Planet of the Apes - Steve Caballero

Stevie Caballero? Cornelius? Planet of The Apes? Could anything be better? Cornelials and half-corns? Too many questions?

New Camera

Got myself a new Fujifilm S5800 camera - seems pretty good. Took a load of pics at Ella's 5th birthday party today and they all came out really well, then tested it tonight for a few night skate shots. Seems good enough for an £85 camera! The shutter lag seems good enough for skate shots, even at night using the flash. Check out the pics on the skanked up IBM banks...

















Wes was getting the blunts in...



















...more than once.



















And the back-tails.













The new camera can whirl a bit. That's Jam and Wes' brain waves swirling around. It was bloody freezing - hat and gloves night.



















I shunted a couple of ollies to tail...



















...and wafted some BS ollies over a crusty gap.



















Then Wes noticed the bit round the back had been spruced up a bit just as we were about to leave.

Filton Skatepark

Had a quick test-run at the new Filton skatepark. Seems pretty good - smooth concrete despite it being covered in dust, grit and leaves. The steep whippy tranny could be fun - concrete edge grinds well already, and the bowl seems well laid out for keeping a run going. Let's hope it gets operational floodlights pretty quickly!

DLH Funday Sat Sep 27th

NOTHING MEANER THAN THA DEANER...

Bournemouth HELL TOUR Video

Here's the video of the recent skate trip...

Bournemouth HELL TOUR

August Bank Holiday weekend. Sunday. Bournemouth area. First stop King's Park, followed by mellow session at Slade's Farm. Jam, Tim, Wes and I took a trip to Bournemouth over the Bank Holiday weekend. We met up with the Bris-Trowbz connection down at Kings Park. Bob, Dave, Wayne-ur and son Jack and Habgood - so you know there was a good bit of session banter and shouting going down. I can only imagine we missed the car-eoke on the way back - we had Buffalo Tom on - so we were sorted! King's Park was good for a lark - we had a rad old session on the steep bank thing. Then we were rained off for a bit, so we retired to the café for ice-creams, cups of tea and Dave's Malt Loaf. After a quick reprise at Kings, we scooted to Slades Farm - which is a lovely 70s relic. All wobbly bowls and rough concrete. Bob was gnarling the beanplants and "Bobby Jars", Dave was floating fs ollies and long manuals and me and Wes had a bit of a comp-off to see who could bluntlside or nosebluntslide first. Wes owes me a can of coke - but I took the easier trick! Jam drove the car with under-handle neons...





Wes and Tim bearded it in the back seat...





The sat-nav came in handy. Turn left...





Overview of Slades Farm. Bob about to bust a Bobby Jar, no doubt...





Wes - only bail of the day. Everything else was bolts. First go. And switch.





Oh - and guess what - after a drizzly day, the sun came out all guns blazin' on the way home. Oh well, we got a good skate in, in between the showers!





Look out for the Youtube / MPORA edit, coming soon! If you wanna see some much better pics you wanna check out the Ward-a-Mercy blog or be friends with Tim on Facebook!

Skate Spots on the LOPE Radar - Underpass Wallride

Finally checked out this wallride I'd spotted a while back - it's better than it looked! I think the concrete was added by some BMXers - but it's perfectly skateable. The tiles are nice 'n slidy so cess slides are on! Now we need to get down there with a proper video camera...

Twat Nav / Skate Nav

Finally got a sat nav - £55 bargain from eBuyer. Came with TurboDog Sat Nav software, which seemed OK, but I've now got TomTom installed - which seems far better. I've now programmed some favourites in - Bloblands, Slades Farm etc. Looking forward to testing it for a skate trip! TomTom for £55 ain't bad!

Savoir Faire

More Skateboarding Videos >>
Last night was the Savoir Faire premiere at Jester's in Bristol. The video was really good - amazing skating by Div Adam, Stephen Roe, Dave Snaddon, John Tanner and Chris Oliver - and really well put together by Toby Bachelor, Alex Irvine, Paul Sylvester, Ciaran O Connor, Morph and Kev Parrott. Ciaran's motion graphics were top-notch and really add a bit of snazz-o. Props also to Ciaran for stumping up for the event out of his own pocket. It was a good night out - support videos from James Guthrie etc. Guth's video was full of amazing skating too. Power. Loads of Bristol skaters and a lot of heads from the Sidewalk Forum. I've posted up Chris Oliver's teaser trailer, as his was the stand-out section for me. Click for more info on Savoir Faire's blog.

10 Minutes in a Fullpipe...

You wait almost 23 years to skate a fullpipe, get about 3 runs each, then get kicked out.

Iced Coff-o! Pann-o!

The weather's getting nice 'n hot - so it's time to break out the iced coffees! Plus a nice little pain au chocolat from the veggie bakers to complement the aisu-kohi, of course...

Skate Spots on the LOPE Radar - Rough Little Banks Edition

Me and Wes went for a skate last night. As usual it started raining so we went to check out progress on Horfield skatepark.

The rain slowed a bit, so we decided to check a spot I'd scoped a year or so back, but never investigated. Anyway as we approached, it started to look better than I remembered it. We drove round the corner to check another spot - a rough-as-a-badger gap (not great!), then back round to the little banks.

They're pretty good - a bit dark to skate at night - but no hassle from the locals! Rough-ass concrete, but goes all the way down as you can see in the pic and also all the way round the other direction, but too dark to skate there and nearer people's houses too. Anyway, I think we'll have to get a few sessions in here!

Skate Spots on the LOPE Radar 2 - Ice Cream Edition

Here's the new spot in Bristol. It's "skateable architecture" according to Wes's conversation with the architect - I like that kind of right-on attitude! It does actually feel like a street spot rather than a skatepark.

As usual, awful photo as I took it on my phone and didn't think to get a pic until dusk was turning to night.

The "ice cream scoop" bowl is a bit mad. Expect people will be ollieing over it soon. Ollie over to disaster or grind would be nice. Tim set his Salman Agah approved block at the top of the bank and the Warden and the Wezzer were whizzing wonderous whooshers down into the bank.

Horfield Skatepark Construction

Just checked the progress on Horfield's new Bendcrete skatepark.

Looks like a fair bit of work still to be done and is shaping up a bit meh to be honest. Although not as meh as it looked on the plans. Floodlit too. Fingers crossed 11pm. 10pm? Please?

Looks like half of it is a BMX volcano version of a spine ramp and the other half is a downhill round-the-corner skateboard ledge extravaganza.

More discussions on the Sidewalk forum.

Helvetica

Finally got round to watching Gary Hustwit's amazing Helvetica documentary last night. It was great!

Any film featuring Wim Crouwel, Herman Zapf, Neville Brody and David Carson is OK with me! Did I mention I met David Carson and chatted about the amusing font Hobo? No?

The documentary reminded me a bit of a typographical version of Dogtown & Z-Boys.

Oh - Die Neue Haas Grotesk was the original name for Helvetica. The original was based on Akzidenz Grotesk, and was designed by Max Miedinger for the Haas Type Foundry in the 50s. Even those who are peeved by the overabundance of Helv these days can't deny it's a classic!

Lack of...

I haven't updated this thing for a year?

Anyway - it now seems to be working OK - updated it to my GMail account etc. Getting behind the times. Maybe I'll retrospectively update it (cheat).

Ha ha! Cheeky bugger - I've retrospectively added The Ripped trip. Maybe more to come...

The Ripped Skatepark

The Ripped rules! Here's a video from my Youzetubes of Joe Habgood, Bobbinogs, Joxa, Wes, Ronny Calow, Gnarly Neil, Scott, Johnners (virtually invisible due to camera dodging) and me skating The Ripped skatepark. Concrete coping all round and a really interesting layout. Even the dodgy bits are quirky rather than crap. Joe's gnarly stunts - nose picks etc on a 4ft high ledge up and over the platform and Joxa's wallride rock fakie were highlights of a bloody good day's skate. 3 1/2 hours drive up and 4 1/2 back were worth it.

Skate Spots on the LOPE Radar

A sunken fullpipe... I'd heard about a skateable "pond" at Blaise Castle, and about 2 years ago I had a look to see if it was still there. There's a museum inside the big old house and inside was an aerial photo which showed what looked like a little blue paddling pool, next to the house. It wasn't there any more - I asked a security guard who said "Yeah - they filled that in a few years back, guvnor". I thought that was the end of the story. Anyway, we went for a walk up there on the weekend and I was strolling down a hill, when suddenly I saw a section of transitioned concrete! As I got closer I realised it actually was quite large and looked alright! So, here's some pics I took on my camera phone. You can see that even on a cold, rainy January day, after a week of torrential rain, there's actually a dry patch! Could be promising for the summer! I did notice that the pond is fed from a sluice gate a bit higher up - so I suppose if that is opened in the summer the whold thing could be full of water?

Finally Nailing it...

As it's Christmas I've brought the old cappuccino machine into work for some quality coffe. I think I'm finally getting the hang of creating a near-perfect cappuccino! My old problem was worrying too much about scalding the milk. I now steam & froth it for much longer than I used to, and add a bit more milk than I used to - so it's not so bitter! Maybe I overdid it a bit with the cinammon on the pic, eh?