a weekend in Detroit

I have not posted much in the last week. It has been pretty regular - a carwash sesh or two bunches of sessions on the Possum ramp and 1 day at Milwaukee. The holiday hang over is over and my Winter break is winding down. I have to go back tomorrow. But I am re-charged and ready for the semester!

I spent the last week researching for my new and current series of works. It is getting good now and I finally just took the time to do the research, writing, reflection and development of a theme that is sooooo important. For years, I have done this but in the end, I often felt slightly empty with content.... Or just did not understand fully what the hell I was doing. But it is coming together now. I have realized that the work I have made in the last many years has all led up to now. When I once thought that it was all broken and disjointed, it now looks to me like a linear progression of theme, technique and subject...

Anyway, back to skating and exps. Rather than fly somewhere and spend lots of $$$ Calabro and I went to Detroit for the weekend. It was kinda sketchy - we both agreed on the time and day to leave town and amazingly MC was into it!! He just got a new tattoo and was ready for adventure. It was supposed to snow pretty heavy on Friday afternoon so my plan was to make it out of the city before all of that came down. I looked at Detroit/Mi weather the night before and it just said snow...

So we made it out of the city and through the lake effect region of Northern Indiana - all was fine and good. But when we crossed the border into Michigan, the snow began to fall. It continued the entire trip! We got to a point of no return where it finally super dumped behind us so our only option was to go forward. The 4 1/2-5 hour trip took a good 7 hours but I kept reminding MC that we were on an adventure. The roads were gnarley and MC kept bitchen' "Oh real good idea - hey do you wanna go drive into a snow storm to skate???"


Despite the anxiety of the road, the 4 x 4's flying by us and the semi's cutting us off - we made it to Bill's house. Danforth was nice enough to put us up for the weekend! It was his birthday so we had to go visit the legend to wish him well. His wife Mary Jane made chili and we scarfed that up right away. It was good!! She had avacodos, cheddar cheese, onions, chips, crackers, all the good stuff for the chili - especially hot sauce!!




It was too late to skate so we just hung out with Bill all night. What better place could we have been than stranded in a snow storm than in a skateboard museum with a skateboard legend!! I didn't want to post any pics because this is his home, it is private and you need to respect these things... But all I have to say is Danforth is one of the raddest people I know, and a killer skateboarder. He has done more for skateboarding in the midwest and east coast than anyone else in the industry and continues to...

After a few beers the stories begin to fly and begin feel like I am 14 again trying to do a boneless on a bank with my Alva!! Freakin' rad!




The next day we spent mostly hanging out with Bill and Mary Jane and the cats ISIS and Darby and the Cassie, the nicest pitbull a friend of the family could ever meet. However, I would not want to be an intruder and meet this 80 pound pitbull in the dark.. I would not come out with all my limbs I am sure... But she is super sweet!!



We got to the new Modern Skatepark in Royal Oak Michigan around 6:30 Saturday night. It took us over an hour to get there with the trecherous road conditions. (It should have been only a 20 minute ride.) The park is RAD!! George the owner hooked us up and the shredding began. Well, kind of... When you get introductions by a legend and go in like a couple of bear cubs, well you know the deal... But F.U.N right??

Bill Tocco met us there and we had a good sesh. He shreds that bowl!! Let me just say - the man can still do things that kids in there prime can't do! The new bowl at the new Modern was built by Team Pain and I must say is a work of art!! It is a wood bowl that is constructed as if it were sculpted out of concrete! This could be the future, where builders are once again innovating. It is half flat wall/ half round wall and offers the best of both worlds.



I personally prefer round walled bowls with concrete coping but I must say that after two sessions - I am stoked!! There is a slight taco on one corner and the other comes out to a parking block like extension that stops just at a rounded roll-in/hip. Very unique. The design also features a love seat that is on top of a hip (also very unique). The hits in this bowl are endless.




You will probably get pissed off the first time you ride it. But once you slam a couple of times and miss the hip or get stuck in the flat walled area - then you learn how to get to that damb hip and put the smack-down on that coping (even if it is metal). You have to really cut back and search to double carve the round corners. It is possible and once you find those A-typical lines this bowl becomes your best friend. I had the most fun learning to carve corner on the love seat side backside (goofy) and then hit the taco front side. I am sure dudes will be doing corner to corner airs, mad fly outs and back in on the roll-in and just all the good shit you can imagine.

With another outdoor park near Detroit on the way - road trips are gonna be plentiful here!

We got back to Bill's with Pizza but Mary Jane crashed and Bill was ready for night night too. So me and Calabro tried to find the adult channels but ended up watching Adult Swim instead - belly full of pizza good skating and more to come the next day - life could not get any better.

But it did - I got to stay in the shrine! It is a room filled with all of Bill's pro-models from 30+ years of skating and a 20 year pro career. It was kinda crazy - you wake up in the middle of the night, surrounded by the coolest board shapes, the raddest graphics and a vibe that is just screaming at 11. I had a hard time getting back to sleep - I just wanted to go skate!

We got up the next morning and Mary Jane made breakfast and coffee again and more good skate talk. Bill hooked us up with some product - the dude is just rad and we talked until noon. It was time to get to Modern again for one more sesh so we said our good byes and Calabro and I got another good crack at the new bowl at Modern.

The drive home was better, we hit some nastyness in NW Indiana but made it back. His van was buried on my street - Pilsen got like 10 inches of snow!! The parking sucks in my neighborhood - that is gonna be another post...

But the Detroit trip was amazing and I am glad to have done it again - thanks MC for going you are the raddest skater in chicago - Thanks to Bill and Mary Jane for putting us up and being who you are!!!