The Day They Raised The Thames Barrier (And I Surfed All The Way To California)

The Beach Bums, one of the major Berkshire surf bands of the 80's.

Their brilliant (imho) track "The Day They Raised The Thames Barrier (And I Surfed All The Way To California)" featured on the 1985 Cherry Red compilation album "Hang 11 (Mutant Surf Punks)"
An album which also contained the obligatory cover of "Pipeline" this time by Agent Orange. The Bob loves those Pipeline covers...

I think I might have some photos of one of the Beach Bums performances somewhere, probably from one of their many support slots for The Surfin' Lungs at the Cellar Bar in South Hill Park, Bracknell.

Kook Helmet

My mate OJ from Springfield , Missouri decided to decorate his helmet.

I like it.

It's Frothy Man...

...Oh hang on no it's another charity shop snapper purchase.
Not to be confused with a Vauxhall Cresta, the Cresta Run or the 70's soft drink...

...it's a Kodak Brownie Cresta II of 1956 - 1959 vintage.
Cost me £1.50, needed a quick clean up, got a film on order from 7Dayshop who seem very reasonable for films (I'll let you know how their service pans out) as it's a medium format camera and takes 120 film.

Sunny Sunday Morning

Had a good time this morning, up early and off to Kookfield.
Met SNAKEBITE from MAS, then that hippy fella DTB turned up followed by tv star BigWaveDave and some guy from Brighton who's name I didn't get. He was pulling airs over the hip and sweepers and the like.
John Langton was passing on his way to Haywards Heath and saw us from the road so stoped to skate. Then Ricardo turned up followed by another couple of Brighton skaters.

The local kids on BMX's in-lines and scooters were outnumbered but were very polite and didn't snake us or get in the way.
A great liitle session.

I tried to do a fillum of DTB doing one of his 50:50's almost the entire length of the coping in the shallow end but I failed, here's the result.




I couldn't see the screen on my phone to see what I was filming and thought I'd filmed Dave and then turned it off, but it appears I hadn't filmed Dave and then turned it on.

Greetings Pop Pickers

I just came across this newspaper clipping from either Sounds or NME (can't remember which), it's a Surfin' top 20.

I believe that it was sent in by one of The Beach Bums who hailed from Ascot which is why they feature heavily in it.

Think I'll try to track down the ones I haven't already got. (not sure that all of them were actually released though).

I was in Ikea yesterday and there was a bloke with an ironing board under his arm, got a bemused look from him to my comment of "Surf's up dude!" whilst giving him the Shaka.

Didn't we have a lovely time...

...the day we went to Romford.



Me in the snake run at Romford
(photos by Andy Turner)

On Saturday I headed over to Chez Bass in sunny Dartford via The huge shopping emporium that is Bluewater to drop off Mrs Mullet and her sister.
I arrived to find young David running up a number on his Bernina sewing machine. We had a cuppa coffee and a natter before heading off to Rom.

A good session, Gnardog didn't make it though which was a disappointment for me.
Good to see Jonno founder of Decent Hardware back in the country and sporting a natty pair of his new shorts that will be hitting these shores very soon.

My big toe on my left foot was still giving me a lot of problems, it hurt just to kickturn. I had a couple of runs in the pool though but after a run out I decided to steer clear of it for the rest of the day and leave it to the big boys.
I didn't fair much better on the mini-ramp either. A knee slide left me with even more pain as I hit my toe on the ramp as I slid.

The most fun was in the snake-run which me and Dave ripped a new arsehole (once we sussed the tricky 3rd corner).

I was a bit disgusted with the general lack of maintenance and amount of rubbish liberally strewn around the park. They are keen enough to take yer money but not keen enough it seems to spend any of it on upkeep of the park.

No wonder the place is closing down soon according to the bloke down the pub...

And relax...

Marathon Report

Well, I made it, just.

I got taken out by a rollerblader about 30 seconds into the marathon. She stuck her foot in front of my front wheel causing my board to stop dead, momentum meant that I didn't and ended up sprawled across the track.
Grazes to right knee, belly, cuts and skin missing from right hand and left elbow and bruises to left hand and my left big toe which I stuffed into the ground.


(^^My toe lastnight - dodgy camera phone quality^^)

It's my pushing foot so every push was painful.
I decided to try the pumper out so made a quick pitstop and swapped boards.
Pumped one lap, it felt a lot slower but looking at the laptimes it wasn't my slowest of the day.

Finished in 2hrs 58 minutes, 13 minutes faster than last year so not all bad.

Snickers

Just about to set off for the Roller Marathon.
Got some new (to me) wheels yesterday.
Seismic Speedvents, 75mm, 79A Black Ops formula.

Goodwood Roller Marathon 09

This Sunday coming, 9th of August, I'm taking part in the annual race around Goodwood motor racing circuit.

11 laps = 26.62 miles against the clock.

Goodwood Roller Marathon

This year so far there are 448 people signed up, 21 of us on longboards the rest on quads or in-lines and a couple of roller skiers and the like.
Serious lycra clad speed skaters, fishnet clad roller derby birds, fat blokes on skateboards.

Last year I hit 'the wall' and lost count of how many laps I'd done and finished in 3 hrs 11 mins. This year? Well we'll see how it goes.

Don't know whether to push it or pump it...






..so I'm taking two set-ups.

L-R: Cut down mountainboard deck with dropped through and lowered Tracker 184's, 97mm Abec11 Flywheels. Subsonic Pulse v 2.0 with my modded Randal 150 up front and Tracker RT-S on rear, 75mm Orangatangs all round.