So we had some interesting weather on Saturday. I was up at Wilson finally getting smiths and then the weather just turned. I was done anyway and decided to head to Peotone to work on more T-shirts. I stopped in Matteson, IL to pick up some paint. It was raining really hard but that stuff really does not bother me if I am not planning to skate... I went in and they wouldn't let me leave the store! There were reports of several funnel cloud sightings and the storm was headed directly for the area where I was! I was like, cool!! So I stayed in the store for a while but it was still just raining, so I knew that it was not that close.

I eventually left the store, went out side and was like, oh, it isn't raining anymore. Cool. I went to the car, put on 780am and they were reporting that the storm was currently hitting Monee and Richton Park, IL. I was about 1 mile from the tornado... So I looked up (of course) and the storm was just east of where I was standing... Big huge clouds and smaller clouds that were circulating slowly... I waited for it to pass and then began to follow slowly. I know this was really dumb but it was far enough away that there was no real threat. (Like I actually knew that) (probably a very dumb thing to do).

So I followed the storm out to Hammond, IN. It was kinda scarey, but a big rush. Half of me wanted to see the big funnel cloud, the other half was thinking, people might need help... It ended up touching down a few more times in Lansing, Hammond and out past Whiting and then died at the Lake...

The top left pic is the storm from Lansing, Il. The others are the power lines that were knocked down in Monee, IL. It caused I-57 to be shut down for two days and killed the power in the area. That is not so fun.

Tornados and more great weather for skateboarding!!

Pics above show the storm over Lansing, IL, a ghost in a tree that got wrapped around itself and debris on the road... The one on the right is from Richton Park, there was an appartment building that had the roof ripped off. I could not get fuel in a 10 mile radius, everything was shut down. It was crazy! I was driving all over trying to avoid the traffic and all the fiefs out there that were "directing" traffic. Basically yelling at everyone. I drove out into a farm field road in my honda to get pics of the powerlines. Kinda dumb, but it was better than sitting at home in the dark I guess. I would rather be working on the 20 tricks I still can't do but when Mother Nature talks, we have to listen.

Overall, I am not sure if I would ever do this again. Crazy weather is not something to be messed with. It was pretty dumb to do but I really was never anywhere near the storm. I was probably close when i came out of the store but after that, no closer than 2 miles. When you try to follow something going North East and you have to drive on a grid, it just does not work... Just like on "Cops" when the helicopters always chase down the fugitives... Dummies, just hide under a porch for a few hours. Same goes for tornadoes, get in a ditch face down, cover your eyes. Or a cellar... Don't try to out run it in your car and do not get in front of the storm.

Wilson stuff

So I had some fun this weekend at Willis. Missed out on an Ohio trip and did not get up to the Damn Am (to watch). I did learn/get closer to a few things I've been working on so that was good. I have a few pics above from Friday. Mark Griffin with the big Madonna and Laidback Air proper. I forgot the dude's name that is doing the ollie over low-rider bike. The important thing is if you see the little kid that rides this bike, put all of your belongings away. He picked up some keys that we luckily retrieved later that next day. Calabro's keys dissapeared the day before and the kid was there too. I am not sure if he is just young and doesn't know any better or if his father/grandfather is running a car thief scam... Not cool.

I asked the kid twice if he picked up any keys and he looked at me all cute and said "no keys" in a high pitched voice. After about an hour of stressing, we were just about to break into the guys car and then suddenly the doors beeped and opened. We all looked directly over to where the kid and his father were standing. They got all shifty, Luis when over and asked politely in spanish and then got pushy and finally got them back... The two high-tailed it out and now we think it really wasn't an accident... Never a dull moment.

Skimmin' at the Lake

Yesterday was a perfect day for some skimboarding. It was sunny and hot with lots of humidity, one of the first hot days this year! I was being really lethargic on Calabro's couch and feeling the session from the night before... We were supposed to hit the new Dreamland park in Lake Delton, WI but the forecast read 100% precipitation. Our trip was of course canceled. It had rained here the night before which proves for sketchy skatepark conditions but really good skimboarding puddles!

So that is my theory for this summer, rather than being bummed out by our sketchy weather, just find a way to make it work. It is kinda funny that two related activities could need such opposite conditions. Puddles suck at Wilson Skatepark but they are a great feature at Wilson Beach! The beach does not get very good wash so skimming on the edge of the lake sucks at that location. However, after a good rain you can get 4-5 puddles that range between 20 and 50' long! Mike, Dacia and I had a couple of puddles going yesterday and had a blast!

After about an hour something strange started happening. The water began moving off shore like a tide or something. Captain Phil calls it sach or sache and this must not happen very often. It basically allowed for perfect skim conditions on the lake for about 4 minutes evey 15 minutes... The lake opened a 30' wide path that went on endlessly. Calabro was doing nearly 100' glides.

We had loads of fun and really hope to get some more of you all out there next time. Skimmin' is soooo fun and is especially nice in the hot sun when skating is kinda not so nice.

So I think I may have picked up the very last Fred Smith III by American Nomad the other day. I have been addicted to this deck for over a year now and this is my 6th or 7th one... I always liked Fred Smith when I was a kid and was soooo stoked to have the graphic come out again. I am kinda geeking out now but I did one of those graph portrait projects of him when I was in 8th grade. It was an add from Thrasher or something. I am totally intrigued by the shape. I went through so many decks in the past few years and never felt at home. I am not into round on round shapes and punk points kinda hurt when I do sweepers. I had a couple Deluxe flat tails but they were too wedge shaped for my liking. The tail kinda got real skinny. I had a rad mega 9 1/4" Five Points flat tail with 15 1/2" wheel base. That thing was just big and heavy but still fun to cruise on. I really hope I can get this shape again somehow or it will be a scarey adjustment time.

Skate News

So, I finally got a camera. I hope to include some pictures in this thing now. woo hoo.

We were planning to hit Lake Delton, WI today but the rain forecast was not very promising...

Mike Owen will be competing in the Damn Am Bowl Jam this Friday at 3rd Layer Skatepark in Minneapolis. I can't wait to see what he will do there!! Best of luck!!

The Bill Danforth Skate Camp will happen at Whiting Skatepark the week of June 15th. I'll be there helping out. I am gonna try to get some of you all out there for a sesh one night. I would say BBQ too but I don't cook. Maybe we can get someone to burn the dogs and cows during the sesh. Or better yet, I'll just get some Pizza or BBQ. More to come on that soon.

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.