After a day of skating, driving, and a night of playing music I should say that I was tuckered. But I didn't have to worry about finding a place to stay, Brent's couch did just fine! I woke up early and headed down to the skatepark in Missoula. It was really easy to find, you just get off on Orange street (off of I-90) and take it all the way down to the river and just past the bridge you take a right and you are there.
I love these Montana parks, none of them were very far off the Highway. Even though they are lie 1500 miles away but what can you do... So I stopped to get coffee twice at two different gas stations out here. SOCK JUICE! They suck. But Missoula does have good coffee shops, which I am finding out now and WiFi. Thanks much. And they are playing blues in here too! I may never leave!
Getting back to this morning, I arrived at the park with no problems and sat at a picnic table, drank my sock juice and ate a bagel.. I was happy to see that these park worker dudes were totally cleaning out the bathrooms. Yes, they have nice bathrooms here and clean too!! It is such a luxury. We have a bush at Wilson in Chicago that I have become well aquanted with over the years. But it only has leaves about 6 months out of the year so...
I roll up to the park and to my surprize there is a fellow old dude sweeping the place out. Sweet!! His name is Barry, a very cool guy. He is gonna be in Chicago in Oct. so maybe we'll all get to skate with him at Wilson. So anyway we enjoyed the usual old guy skater pleasentries and reminised... More on the park:
The skatepark is situated next to a river just outside of downtown Missoula. The design is cool and the pour is smooth. The street course is what it is and the flow bowl is what it is. The flow does feature a big as oververt thing and a wierd deepend. It is almost diamond shaped or something so when you carve into it you hit three flat walls and very tight corners. I am sad to say that I was not too stoked on on the flow bowl, but I never really am, they always have too much flat, crash up derby factors and lots of metal coping. It is just not my personal preferance and I am definitely not dogging the park because it is amazing.
I spent most of my time in the kidney. I am too dumb to know if it is right handed or left handed but what I do know it is the one that discriminates against goofy footers. I have never really ridden a true kidney yet. I rode Powell skatepark in ohio which is kind of a kidney. Missoula's kidney is big and has a lot of flat. It is good though because you do have time to correct and set up. The transitions are tight but not as tight as Powell but maybe more so than Butte, MT. I am not sure but this thing took me a while to get it. I was kind of fighting the whole goofy foot thing and trying to backside carve on the wrong wall so I would get thrown into the coping...
The other problem which is more of an observation is that the surface is slick as hell here in Missoula. Once again, it is a dust factor, my wheels were instantly clogged with dust. I expect this at Vans park or Modern at Grand Rapids, indoor concrete. We just mop that stuff and it is fine. But here, I really needed a mop. I flat-spotted my only set of Rainskates sliding out in the flat in the pool. I was sooo pissed. I never flatspot Rainskates but in Missoula, it happened. I was even more pissed because you can't just roll up to a shop and get them.
I was double triple pissed because I gave this grom from Wilson "Eno" an older pair the week before I left. I had them in the car in case of something like this. But who would of thought?? I have a special T-shirt Idea for the grom begger problem that seems to be escalating back home. These kids are cool but they are just getting too overbearing with the whole begging for product thing. I love to help them out and give them what I can spare or don't use anymore. However it is getting to the point to when I pull up the park they come up and get in my car or look in my trunk for wheels, bearings, decks, gatorade... damn kids.
Anyway, I was pushing down too hard after the tight drop in and sliding out in the flat, then I did a backside fourwheel slide up the freakin' wall when I was carving into the face wall... the place is slick man. I got over it and tried to be more light footed and got lines, got my slashes and carve grinds in and I had enough. I just didn't want to die yet... But the bowl is rad and I am glad to have been there.
I should also add that Missoula is also on the Indy video. And once again after riding the park and seeing what those dudes did there, damn. It almost makes me afraid to go to Oregon. But I am gonna keep going. The level of parks and skating is just different out here. Makes me learn though and learning is good. Challenge is the best thing and this is a challenge.
I am going to head out to Sandpoint, Idaho this afternoon. I keep getting nervous every time I embark on another milestone in this trip. The unknown is a bit scary and where to sleep is the real kicker. Lets hope I find camping as I have been..
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