Happy 50th Des Mondo

I made the long trek to the far north (of Essex) for Des Jam.

The old fella was 50 yesterday, showing no signs of slowing down yet though.
Good job there weren't candles on his cake...

I had a bit of a bad day photo wise, the battery on the Canon is shagged and went flat after only 4 photos. Looks like I can get a 3rd party replacement for under 20 quid mind.
I'm also still struggling to get the settings right with the K20d and my timing was a bit out too.

Managed to get a couple of ones I was semi pleased with.

This guy was crazily good or maybe just crazy, this wasn't a make. He did drop in from here though and made it half way across the flat.

Sean Goff was there too, good to see him enjoying himself,  Rock 'n' Roll in the big bowl. The only semi acceptable shot I took of him.

Jellyhead was trying to wear the coping out.

Dean was too, in the pool...

...and in the bi bo

I managed a few scratchers in the pool, but still struggle in there with the uphill to the deep end.
I did hear a rumour that phase 2 of the park is planned and Dreamland are building a clover and a snakerun, fingers crossed it's true (and that they aren't uphill)

I Want One

Wanted one of these for a while now after reading about it in a camera magazine.

The Kalimar Action Shot 16.

16 lenses take 16 small pictures on 2 frames of 35mm film over a 2 second period, originally designed and marketed for golfers to analyze their swing.

I've had a search on ebay going, I was excited when I saw one pop up, until I saw the price.
Action Shot 16 on ebay


A bit like my Lomo Action Sampler but with 4 times as many lenses.

Wiggle & Bomb

Had a text from Trev on Saturday inviting me along to Ash Ranges for a longboard session. Not the first time he's invited me to be honest, usually had family things going on or have used up my skatepass already in the morning.

Nearly didn't make it again as I had a house full of sister-in-laws, a brother-in-law and a nephew. Got rid of them in time though, that sounds harsh but needed a skate on the Spooky.

Met up in the station car park and after a short walk/skate reached the hills, some people already there including a guy with a Slick Willie's Pool Rider complete with some nice Trackers, I would rather have seen some period correct wheels, Road Rider 4's, Powerflex 3's or 5's or something along those lines instead of the Krypto Impulses.

So the slalom cones were set up and then after a while we went off to walk/skate the hills to the top.
Then set off back down avoiding the dogwalkers.

The last ride back to the cars was interesting as the light faded very quickly and it was darker under the trees.

p.s Agent Orange soundtrack as demanded by GoofyFootGray. 

Seeing As It's Nearly Halloween

I bought myself a Lush Spooky.

eBay (sort of) purchase, Lush team rider/warehouse manager Mark Penman's 2010 Spooky Prototype with Sabre trucks and Cult Death Ray wheels.

Those random stickers are gonna have to go. There's a small 2 ply delam chunk out of the back which I will patch up.

And There's More

Two photos taken yesterday with the Canon, I'm quite liking the shots taken with the zoom, makes a change to the fisheye shots.

Here's Paul on the miniramp...

And here's Des going over the deathbox...

More XC

Another day off and another trip to XC.
Trev suggested we take the 8 wheelers so we did.

Trev warmed up on the mini ramp

before taking it to the pool...

I hadn't skated mine for over a year, in fact it was the first skate on it since I redrilled it and chopped the nose off.

It was all coming together by the time I was too tired to do anything about it.

Des was there today and was doing his usual ripping, including this deathbox grind...

And an over the steps shot ended in a front wheel to fisheye lens incident...

resulting in a crack lens hood...

Things Of Beauty

All taken at Shoreham Old Skool Dayz 2.0.

Top - Bottom:
Tony Lords G&S Wonkers
Orange Star Trac Kryptonics
Paul 'Vilms' Williams Sims Woodkick with Gullwing Phoenixs
Sean Goffs Strokers on a Sims Taperkick.

XC

I finally got my arse into gear and made the trip up to XC in Hemel Hempstead, The Bob and Biffa were gonna come but Mrs The Bob is about to drop their first sprog so he decided to stay closer to home and I think Biffa was standing by with clean towels and hot water.

Anyway I went along and after a detour through some residential streets in HH due to my satnav not recognising the postcode finally chanced upon a sign for XC and managed to find the McD's where I had arranged to meet up with Trev, and Gray. Trev was there with Paul and Gray was on his way.

It's a big building, the skatepark is basically everything to the left of the big XC sign in this photo.

crappy blackberry picture of The XC

After filling out a form with name, address, inside leg measurement etc and signing that I agreed to abide by the rules which I didn't read I then had to fill out another form and show my drivers licence as proof of ID for permission to take photos.
Then after paying my money I was allowed through the electronic security door to be able to skate this.

An indoor concrete pool with steps in the shallow, proper coping and tiles and a bigger bowl and also wooden 4' mini ramp and street course.

It being a schoolday it was very quiet, a couple of the lads that got us into the tunnel turned up with 2 jump bikes and a BMX, a few random kids that should have been at school, a solitary scooter rat and some young and not so young rippers.

The pool is a strange thing, the transitions are eliptical, getting tighter as they get closer to the coping, a feature that had me bottling the drop in all day. The steps are in a funny place, well I thought so, being goofy and starting from the shallow to the left of the steps a backside carve in the deep took me back to the wall above the waterfall opposite the steps, a frontside here aimed me directly into the steps if I wasn't careful.
The surface is buttery smooth though, there was a hole in the miniramp but it looked as though the staff were on the case, also good to see a store of coping blocks hidden under the miniramp.

Anyway I signed the form to allow me to take photos so here are some...

Trev - FS grind in the shallow

and BS too

Over the steps

Not sure who these guys were, they were both taking their fair share of slams though.

Wheeler!

Boneless One!

I feel a bit bad about this last one, I made the guy do his over the steps run 3 times to get the shot, he was really chuffed that I'd got the shot and said he'd never had a decent shot of his skating. I then forgot to get his email address or name, so if anyone knows him let me know.

I've got some more pics on another camera but waiting for a CF card compatible reader before I can upload them.

Back there again on the 18th. . .

Old Skool Dayz 2.0

Had a rad day out at Shoreham today for Old Skool Dayz 2.0.

The weather was hot and sunny, the skating was hot too.

The Dread City Skates boys were there again, pictured is John Nicholas.

I bought a rad t-shirt, more about that another day.

The longest carve comp was great, Lee Tilbury walked away with the prize of a vintage Sims t-shirt.
Sean Goff did a great job of compere/judge for it.

Locals Only

Just over 4 years ago I was strolling through the North Laine area of Brighton battling my way through the hipsters and I came across a display of skateboard photos from the 70's.
They were by a photographer who's name I didn't recognise, Hugh Holland.

I saw recently on another blog that a book of his work had been published, totally awesome stuff, I treated my self to this book for my birthday with some money my parents gave me.

It's a big book, 16" x 12", there's an interview with Hugh about how he stumbled upon skateboarding in 75 in California and devoted 3 three years to photographing it. Apart form that it's big glossy photos all the way.