Motherland Stomp Day 26 - The Drive

Forgive my lack of pics for now, (Updated) I am without laptop and am sneaking Interturd at an Outdoor Tradeshow. I hope to use Calabro's laptop soon. Anyhow, yesterday was a big driving day. I had to meet up with Mike Calabro in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before I was to leave, I had planned to have Dim Sum with Wendy and her Aunt.


I unfortunately hit a curb in one of those poorly and over designed California malls. The parking lot was really odd and I hadn't had my coffee yet. So as I was pulling into the parking spot, I tagged my tire on the damn curb. It was a very sharp edge and just cut the sidewall like cheese. I was so angry at myself. So after I ate Wendy and I found a tire place.


I should say that I had just put a set of tires on the Fit before I left. I wanted to avoid any problems. I somehow destroy tires so quickly, ugh. When I had the Mini (fav car ever) all I did was replace the tires... I bent rims, blew out sidewalls - Chicago potholes really are a drag. I just couldn't use it a daily driver or as a good skate trip vehicle.


Wendy hooked me up with some pork buns for the road. I think it is safe to say that this is the best road food I ever had!! I ate one about ever 2 hours and they lasted me the whole 10 hour trip!! Thanks Wendy for everything, as always!!



I did see an excellent travel trailer at this trade show. It weighs about 800 pounds, had two beds and folds up into the top of the trailer with ample storage below and on top. There is room for surf boards, canoes, bikes whatever on top and all the gear and luggage on the bottom. Although, I doubt that the fit would be able to pull that thing. It is basically a tent on top of a little trailer.

But anyway I had luckily found the same tire store and they replaced the tire! I had purchased an evil warranty which I am kind of against. But with my track record of rips, bubbles, bent rims, and blow outs, I figured it was worth the 14 bucks. And this time, it was!!


So I was delayed a bit to say the least but I was back on the road by 12:30pm. The drive was about 10 hours and I lost an hour getting into SLC so I did not arrive until midnight MT time. The drive was interesting, I went on I-15 the whole way, through Barstow, Vegas, Arizona and up into Utah. I had many cups of coffee on the way and made it safe.


Needless to say there were a few close calls!! This guy in a silver Sprinter came up on me out of no where, almost rear ended me and then cut me off. I was in the middle lane and the left and right were both open?? He had no plates and when I caught up to him he just looked at me like, what>? Then I saw him do it to three more people. You never know I guess who you are dealing with, especially on the way to Vegas, so i let it go. I stopped in Barstow because I noticed a Vans outlet store. I couldn't resist. I got some slip ons for the school year. But most of the skate shoes were purple or snake skin or camo... Not my style - black and white..



So off I went, I had originally planned to stop at Chino or Fontana and maybe Upland and the Pro-Park in Vegas. But the downtime resulting from the dead tire, the 105 degree heat and the near death exp's on the highway dissuaded me from stopping. I just wanted to make it in one piece.

I have never seen so many roll over crashes in my life. I saw fatalities on the way into Cali and on the way out. Just terrible stuff. I tried my best to drive safely, set the cruise control to the speed limit and watch out for psychos!! As I entered Arizona some guy decided it would be a good idea to flip an illegal U-turn on the Highway, during the 6% grade going down the mountain!! He came out of the right lane, swerved in front of me, hit the brakes and did his little U-turn. I caught it at the last minute, hit the brakes and sess slid out of his way! I got sooooo lucky, I could have been rolling down the mountain.


Maybe the brandy new tire kept me on the road. I guess it all happens for a reason. Just after that I saw an unfortunate accident with a truck and camper. He must have lost it in a wind gust or something? The truck had rolled at least 3-4 times and the camper was in splinters...


On the upside, the landscape is amazing!! I was happy to be back out in nature and to have the opportunity to see all of the amazing sites. However, the first leg was the desert - I don't think I would ever want to live there!! But I still want to do a ride through the desert, on a quad or bike or VW!! They supposedly do rentals for the Baja 100 or?? That is on the list!!

Calabro and I will do the rest of the stomp together this week. We plan to hit Moab and do some hiking, climbing, and possibly an ATV trip. Then on to Colorado for a couple days of skateboarding. We are gonna stop in Iowa on the way home. My great old friends Pat and Yayoi are there and I haven't seen them in quite a while!! So I can't wait! Hopefully this will be a good descent from a long amazing trip of a lifetime!!



I can't wait to skate Wilson and Whiting when I get back!!

Motherland Stomp Day 25 - San Diego and skate camp

So moving on down I-5 I found that the San Diego area is really not far at all. I got to hit some pretty famous towns in skateboarding today. Carlsbad, Delmar, Encinitas, and San Diego. I decided to drive all the way down to San Diego first and then hit up the other parks on the way back. The directions to the park are soooo easy - drive south on I-5 and exit Washington St., turn right and got 2blks down and you are there. You can't miss it!!






Special thanks to all who were involved in making this DIY park happen!!! This is truly the coolest park in California. I mean, they have everything here, vert ramps, super parks, pools, surfing, great food, beauitful women, and lots of traffic... But this park is so cool just to look at and experience. I got tons of pics but will hold back a bit. However, after taking a look at this park, I may know now what my future holds.


I went out for some really good Taiwanese food (the real deal) last night. Very tastey!! After that Wendy and I relaxed a bit and headed out to the Yogurt place again. I just had to get some more of that. It was a good night, hanging out with a very special person in my life. Alas we are just old friends now but it is really cool to see her before she leaves.



I got another good night sleep and planned to head to San Diego today. It really is not very far from where I am now but everyone out here talks as if the next town is 10 hours away. I guess it is the traffic or they are content with their immediate surroundings. I never am and always seem to want to see new places, skate new spots..

There are many variables here but it adds more ingredients to my think tank on the way back home. SO, the park! Rad, the concrete is much smoother than Burnside but the speed factor still exists. They were doing work on a major section of the park so some of the speed was being cut down with that feature eliminated. I tried to tread lightly in here, I did not want to mess anything up for those who are building/riding this park so I stayed away from the construction area. I also stayed out of the pool that borders this area. Show proper respect...



But the place is rad!! The pool out back is tight and fun and the channel that runs along the back section is superb! I especially was into the parking block coping in the flow area and the totally amazing BBQ area. I will have something like that someday!!!! wow!



SO I skated for over an hour and was just having a ton of fun here today!! I started to get the travelin' feeling and was thinking about the other parks I wanted to hit so I was out of there. But I will come back someday!!

I drove around the area a bit and I think I really like San Diego - this whole place seems to be more laid back than LA. The drivers are even less crazy! I only had a day here so my time was limited but I wanted to get down even for a bit.


The next stop was the park in Clairemont, CA only a few miles north of San Diego. THis is a YMCA that has a vert ramp, street course, mini's and a pretty rad pool. This is the park that was used in that animation some of you might have seen with the kids riding the vert ramp.


When I pulled up, I couldn't help but notice the killer vert ramp there. I was already getting mentally prepared for it and thinking that today was the day for some late grabs. When I got out of the car and looked across the park - I then noticed a whole lot of groms and they were all wearing the same neon green T-shirt. Then I noticed the buss outside and asked a couple dudes about it "is a skate camp goin on?" the one guy just ignored me and the other one was like "we're from Escondido dude" and finally the third one said yes, the park is closed, we are helping with the camp". thanks.


So I moved on to the Encinitas YMCA. This is only another 20 minutes away. It is Chris Miller's home park, on any evening you can see Kevin Staab, etc. ripping the place. SO I was very excited to ride that kidney and the vert ramp there. But when I pulled up, there were even more groms with even more matching T-shirts and the office was closed. Skate camp all day again!! park closed. FUCK


Well, I did get to walk around and take pics through the fence. Fenced in parks, locked and dangling in front of you... Oh well. I'll have to come back again sometime. BUt all was not lost, there is always the beach. SO I drove around Encinitas and was trying to find a good skateshop. All I could find was some K2 cookie cutter thing. Free wi fi was also difficult to find.









I moved on to Oceanside. When I got into town I felt like I was in Miami or something, it is a really nice area and very clean. It is definititely not a dirty surf town that I was hoping to find... Anyway I did get to go to the California Surf Museum. SO that was pretty cool, they had lots of old surf boards and memorabilia with a great description of the history of surfing. I stopped at a couple surf/skate shops, trying to find a board for Calabro - still not.









I walked around the beach and saw lots of bikinis - yes. The surf was not really happening, mostly beginners and no waves that were very good. SO, I hung around for a bit and took it all in. It was getting near traffic time so I decided to head back to the LA area. This will conclude my skatetrip in California. Good stuff and bad stuff - but mostly good. I think traveling here with a group is much better than solo. You almost need a crew to keep you going, motivate you to shred, etc. I just read a thing on Concrete Disciples about this Canadian crew that came through and got to ride Burgers and all these other backyarders and all that - they were all friendly... It would be better to come with a group.. enough said

Motherland Stomp Day 24 - back to the COmbI then to the Beach

Hey all, up for this one again. SO my laptop is officially dead to the world. I may have to do a hard drive rescue at the very least when I get back. Wendy has loaned me her laptop for the next two days so I will be able to keep up the blog. After that, I will have to somehow wrangle Calabro's laptop from him. This will be difficult!! I went out with Wendy for frozen yogurt last night. They sure do know how to do it out here Yogurt style! We went to this self serve place where you pick your flavors and how much and dump all the toppings you want! It is 30 cents per OZ? I forgot, it was about 3.50 for a good sized yogurt sunday. Delicious!! I got back to my new room and crashed out. I must have slept for 10 hours!! I needed it I guess and felt a bit better today. My plan was to get to Vans for the 10am session and try to ride the combi again. I got up a bit late (9:30) so I did not get to vans until after 10. When I got to the block I couldn't help but notice lots of little skaters hanging out and sitting around. Bad sign. When I walked into the shop, they were having skate camp. I talked to the guy at the counter for a bit and he said they teach them skate etiquite. Well, I sure hope so. After the Tuesday I just don't know what to think. SO, I went out to the car a bit dissapointed. I milled around for a while and decided that I really wasn't into the skull bowl at etnies and that was my only choice at this point. SO I went to find wi-fi. I may as well hang around and wait for the noon session. I updated my blog and chilled for a bit. I must say that my brain was a bit rattled again. But I figured that I have to do this, it would be my last chance for this trip. I did the wi-fi thing, cooled down a bit and noon rolled by quickly. As I re-entered the park, I noticed all the groms around. There were a few adult age skaters goin in so I thought that maybe it would work??? I got in there and no one was at the combi. I thought, yes! This is my chance.. As soon as I got my pads and helmet on, the minute I grabbed my board. The Grom Patrol came rushing in. It is like they have radar - look at the fat old guy, lets go bomb the combi so he can't skate!! haha I took a few runs and tried to take it easy. I let them skate for like 20 minutes at a time. Grom patrol:
I would get my 30 second run and then go sit and watch roll around and buttslide. I got a little footy of it for good measure. I then politely bowed out of the combi and told myself, I would be back with a group next time. My next move was for the beach. I hit up Huntington Beach first. I found a nice meter and skated up the walk to check the place out. This is a big mega beach and there is surfing along the pier! I got so good footy. It is cool, because you can just look from above at the surf action. Great spectator area!! Footy:
I then moved on down CA1 and drove around the Newport Beach area, very populated beach town. Lots of 1.8 million dollar beach houses all over. I was drooling - never for this guy. Oh well. Then I headed down to Laguna beach. These areas are very populated and although they are really cool and wonderful places, I miss the beaches in Oregon. They are very quiet and you can feel more in touch with nature. I checked out a few galleries and went to the great Taco Loco for fish tacos. I had a very memorable trip here 5 years ago. It was very nice to come back but reminded me of things of the past. So it was kinda wierd. I went down to the beach which was very busy so I left, walked up to the more quiet area and enjoyed the ocean for a while. I came up to the skim/surf area and got some footy of these killer skim boarders. Damn, now I know what Gordon was saying about actually catching a wave. These people were serious - doing carves, 540s getting air??

Footy:




wow SO the trip to the beach was cool but I must say that I am tired of the traffic and the drivers here. They will run you into the wall, cut you off, rear end you and this is on the side streets. Once you get on the highway it is go time. Once I got back into town I went out with Wendy and her Aunt for some Taiwanese food. I did a little skate camp with her young cousins and neighborhood kids. It was a busy day, no wonder I am dog tired.