Bath To Bristol

It was that time of year again when a couple of hundred people descend on Bath to skate to Bristol in aid of charity for Macmillan Cancer Care, apparently this was the 7th year and my 3rd after a break of about 4 years or so.

It's The Bristol Board Meeting so business attire is encouraged, I picked up a nice M&S worsted suit in a BHF charity shop for £8, Jill converted the trousers into shorts for me.

I set off at 7:20 to West Byfleet to catch the first of 3 trains to Bath Spa, a gentle skate of 2.29 miles on wet roads/footpaths.  http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/299514411

Changed at Woking and Salisbury and arrived at Bath Spa at 10:36 where I was adopted by a couple of teenagers with longboards who felt sorry for the slightly lost old man with a suit and board. The start had moved from the station to Green Park since the last time I'd done it. A short skate to the start where we milled about chatting.

After a few photos it was time to hit the Bath-Bristol Railway Path.
It was wet when we set off, a bit of dazzle but luckily a lot of the route is sheltered under trees.
Vans Hi-Tops  with worn soles are not the best for pushing in in wet conditions or the best for foot braking in either!

I stopped halfway for a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows and a slice of very nice carrot cake, the nice people at Warmley Waiting Room did well to keep up with demand.

After a while we made it as far as Shiners warehouse for the finish/raffle/slide jam, really needed a "this way"sign on the path or it would have been missed, luckily I bumped into a group who were lost(ish) and showed me the way.

The slide jam and were raffle were great, good to meet too.

Picked up these in the raffle…

and these  from one of the sheds at Shiner.

before a skate back to to Bristol Temple Meads with Dean & Keith…

total distance skated 19.4 miles, http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/299548717 I got home at 21:40 after a lot of waiting around for trains at Bristol and Salisbury. 

£90 raised, it's not too late http://www.justgiving.com/lushlongboards2013

More Big Wood

Well out came the chisels and Captain Woo Hoo and I managed to remove the block of wood only minimal damage.
Will be okay once it's sanded.

Big Wood

Well it's been a while…

Another project, big deck, arrived at work yesterday.

Looks like a normal deck, right?

Dimensions in millimeters, that's about 45" x 9.5"

Top, metre rule for scale.

Bottom, yes, a big lump of ply has been glued to the bottom, apparently was gonna be a camera mount.
Tried removing it with Acetone to dissolve the glue but it's not shifting just yet, might have to break out the sander.

Also notice it's not drilled, been a long time since I've had to drill a deck from scratch. Will probably measure the nose and tail on the Z36 and use those measurements.
It's a similar shape and fairly flat concave.

Drift Away

Trev drifting the BDS Danger Board through a damp corner at Ash Ranges

First Skate Of 2012

Haven't been feeling it recently (oo-er missus)

Anyway I was out with the current Mrs Mullet today doing a bit of shopping when I got a text from Trev about a session over at Ash Ranges, why not she says so I got a skate pass.

I managed to get a few shots of Trev slaloming but failed miserably at getting him cornering on the longboard. Should have taken my fisheye with me.

I did manage to take this with my Christmas present Flip camera.

More Spooky Tweaking

Finally got around to putting the Spooky back together after the recent repair.

I'd also recently ordered a drop through mounting kit from Octane Sports which contains some thin rubber shockpads which sit between the baseplate and the deck, in fact they are so thin I don't think they'll actually do much and some funky rubber backed washers for the underside.

Whilst I was at it I also installed my new carbon fibre baseplate covers.

That griptape and sticker job is still bugging me though.

Project Spooky

The Spooky had a small chunk out of the tail when I bought it.

now thanks to one of my mates at work it doesn't, carbon fibre implant bonded in.

thanks Russ.

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.