art and skatetrippin’

I'm back. __

So the semester ended two weeks ago and Summer semester has just begun. I am doing an online class so I am not obligated to be on campus until late August!! This makes me happy. In fact after Saturday all grown up obligations will be fullfilled and I will be free! I had teacher torture last Wednesday - uggg, but that is done and I actually learned something.

I judged an art show down in Kankakee, IL at the Gretchan Charleton Gallery. I had a great time, met up with old friends and made new ones! All in all, good stuff.

The art is still going slow but I hope it will soon get flowing again. I only made 4 pieces this year so far. But I did do quite a few T-shirts. I am still only stenciling though, and may never get the guts to screenprint. shit.

Skateboarding has been great lately. Our weather is still cold and I really am beginning to think we are in a mini-ice age and nobody wants to tell us. It was like in the 40s yesterday, May 27th??? But I think I can deal with 60s rather than 98 and humid as fuck... So, I'll take what we have for now.

So, I turned into a Wilson rat these past few weeks, driving up there every day. I figure if I keep this up, I will be spending about $400 a month on gas and my car gets 37 hwy. Shitbags. It just keeps going up too. I am really glad I bought that car when I did, even though it is not cool or fast, it does exactly what I wanted it to do, so I guess I chose well.

The sessions have been going off at Wilson, you might want to check suchluck.com for that info. My buddy Tim does a great job of covering what goes down over there. It is a bit sporadic though; we had much more consistency the past few years. This year spring and summer keeps sputtering so the skaters kind of come and go.

Jose is back for the summer, though I have not skated with him yet. I am stoked to sesh with him again; he is a happy, inspiring guy. He went off to film school and lives in Venice Beach, CA. Dreams.

So the official Road Trip season began Memorial Day weekend for me. I did a last minute trip with my buddy Calabro, who I must announce is back! We decided hit up Michigan and do a weekender bender. Good stuff. I actually have a whole list of road trip ideas for the summer here so check it.

Day 1:

Drove straight to Detroit - took over 5 hours with a breakfast stop... But when you are gonna hang with Bill Danforth, the trip is always worth the long drive. We arrived at the Huntington, MI skatepark to a big session going down with lots of Detroit area rippers.

The bowl was strange but interesting. Kinda radical, it was a three part peanut all connected. A 3' square dumping into a 5' square and then into a 5-6' round bowl. All metal coping with strange and inconsistent settings. The concrete was not bad but the expansion joints were annoying. The dudes were ripping it though and I took only two runs. It was time to go the next destination.

In the Detroit area lies a killer eggish egg that is 4-5' in the shallow and about 7' in the deep. I was so happy to finally get to skate this thing. Thanks so much to Davo for letting us get some of this rad crete. (You have to have permission there is an alarm - don't abuse the radicalness.) The session immediately got wild, rippers in attendance were Bill Danforth, Bill Tocco, Drunk ATM Steve and a bunch of young rippers that were destroying everything. It was a nice mixture of 80s pros and youth rip culture. So, these kids were doing tail slides, and frontside flips and you name it. I think that most of them never even rode a pool before. I was impressed, it was a lot of ramp riding but still I totally was into it. Danforth of course would get in there and blast front side rocks in the steep deep and get the raddest laybacks and sweepers front and back. Always, there to support and heckle. So cool~!

Tocco was on fire though, he was just blasting trick after trick. It was almost as if he would roll in, carve, remember a trick, blast it, roll out, remember something else and smack it to tail. Good times for sure. He especially impressed me with some crazy switch fakie sweeper that I have to learn asap.

ATM Steve was hitting big frontside 5-0s in the deep and Calabro was going for his signature mellon lean to tail. He even attempted a few of those frontside inverts. This mind you, was his first day back and he was doing well.

I kinda took my time on this bowl. The shallow and deep have very mellow transitions but the flat wall is steep as fuck. So when you are carving this thing, you can get caught between and kink out. Not to say that there are kinks, because the pour is near perfect, it is just the nature of a pocketless/hipless design. Very rad!! I figured out some nice lines after a toil period and had a really great time.

The Ruckus Machine (my radio) was in full form and our session was amazing. After many hours the sun began to go down and it was time to head back to Danforth's abode to chill. When we arrived at Bill's house the beer was immediately cracked open and pizza was ordered. His house is RAD, it is very museum like, pro models hang on every wall, lots of cool pictures and old skate posters. Bill and Mary Jane were kind enough to let us crash and give us the grand tour of Bill's memorabilia, trophies, and career history. It is pretty amazing to hang with someone who has done so much in and for skateboarding and who is generous, and all around cool to any kindred spirit. Many Thanks!!

Day 2:

The next morning we were off to the other side of the state to skate the year old wonder, in Grand Haven, MI. We were supposed to meet up with our hometown hero Mike Owen for some shred. It was kinda funny, we were about an half hour away and he called to tell us that a huge session with "a bunch of old guys like you" were there and "to get over here now!!"

So we arrived that afternoon and Owen was in full form. I had not seen this guy skate like that since the Scrap (RIP) days. You see the clover plus channel at Grand Haven is a mellow monster.

The concrete is flawless with no kinks or gaps. The coping is metal (not my favorite) and is well set. I went there last year just after the park open and was Ok with it. But after this weekend, I am totally stoked on this bowl. And we have hookups to stay. Very cool!!

So back to Owen and the sesh, there were something like 10 old dudes and Mike O just killing this bowl. Soooo fun, his airs were in the 4-5' range and just gong Mach 12 everywhere! Some of the old crew were pulling some serious shit off two, a few salad flip to tail, stailfish in the deep, etc.

Calabro immediately dived in and was getting the flow very quickly. We skated for like 6 hours or more, non - stop. I don't think I took a single break the whole time. Just getting lines at first and putting things together later. I did not think that it could get any better after the experience for day 1 but for pure skating , Day 2 was even better!! We ended the day with a cabin, good food, guitars, Cheryl's killer crepes and story tellin'. Truly an excellent day.

Day 3:

Recuperate, we woke up late, got a big breakfast, visited with family and had a relaxing lunch… Lots of bathroom visits and more sleeping. Lazy day. By the time we got to the park, it was hot, and the energy level was sooooo low. Calabro was doin' some down hill slides with this totally cool dude from G.H. and I was toiling in the bowl at Grand Haven. Dacia was getting lines, and was getting pretty gnar herself. Having not skated since February.. She probably skated 10 times and can drop in, carve, fakie, and kickturn. Impressive.

Mike and Cheryl did not arrive until 6:30 and I was done. I tried to skate but the energy was gone. Everyone was in zombie mode – we pushed it too hard the day before. So it was time to get back on the road and head home. Rad season opener. I hope to report on many more.

I should get a camera or a video camera because no pics were shot of this whole trip. Very disappointing. Ug Ug.