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.

Inky Arm

I've been planning this for a few years, never got around to it, sometimes I amaze myself at my ability to procrastinate.

Anyway, today I finally got around to it, mainly because it was a birthday present from the wife.

Thanks to Clive at Tattooland in Woking..

Super 8

This just blew me away.

An eight wheeler based on a Sims Brad Bowman design.
The guy that built this has a great blog and is a very talented board builder.

Check out Under A Tin Roof in a Hailstorm

The Tunnel

Well I got an invite to the Nike 6.0 Tunnel in deepest darkest Hampshire, had instructions to meet up at a cafe where we would be met and shown the way there.
After paying a few quid each for fuel for the generator we set off in a convoy of cars the short drive down the road, we then turned down a dirt track which turned into a dis-used railway track before arriving at a very imposing looking bricked up railway tunnel.

The genny was fueled and fired up, the lights lit up and we saw our first glimpse of what was to come.

We set to with brooms as the place was very dusty.

It was very tricky to skate, the tarmac bottom was nice and smooth but the joints at the bottom of the ramp coupled with the rough wooden surface sapped the speed out of all but the fittest.

Trev managed to get up onto the brickwork...

And get some nice grinds on the copingless ramps...

So did Gray (slightly mistimed my shot here) after he switched to some softer wheels to soak up the bumps...

Thanks to the local BMX boys for the chance to skate it.

Chilli Banana Chips

A friend at work brought these back from his holiday in Mexico.
I liked them, a lot of people didn't.

Little Hondas

I went to the "Employee Motor Show" at work on Saturday.
Basically it's a chance for all the staff to show off their cars and motorbikes.

There were some exotic things there and then there were some not quite as exotic...

I'm in two minds over the Yoshimura pipe on the SS50 my Jock Kerr Racing pipe looked better imho as it went under the engine and exited behind the pedals. Also sure that 5 speeds came with the higher wider bars and not the flat bars, unless they are a retrofit for lower/sportier look.
Got the urge to get one again now

Cheap Beer 2

Got this in France recently.
€0.54 for a plastic 66cl bottle.
Not too bad, given that it works out at about 47p a bottle.

See my earlier post Cheap Beer for another from the same source.