STILL DEW'n it in DaVille
Dew Tour Day 3
Day 2 was pretty damn cool. But Day 3 stepped it up! Our Buckeye 'Cretin Jon rolled in E A R L Y for a downtown park session with everyone but OMP - just had to go camping didn't ya? OH WELL, sucks for you! We met Carla who is in town from VT workin' for the tour. Very cool chick and she invites us up for a New England park tour. We were all having a great session - it really is true, the more you skate, the better your next session will be. I was feeling confident and decided if I never try 50-50s in the bowl, I'll never learn them... So I attempt one and lock one in on the first try! But, it being 8ft to the flat as opposed to 4', I wig out and step off... but I know I can do it now... (Of course everyone was playing in the deep end and saw nothing...) I get Dave to watch as he was the inspiration for the attempt, as he just learned them a few weeks ago and do the feeble grind bail... hate those... but on my 4th try I lock in a short grind and then drop in perfect!! HOLY CRAP! I know pedestrians don't care, I know most skaters don't care... but man that has been tough to learn and not be afraid of (wait, it is still scary)... Progression. It was cool at 18, but it's SO MUCH cooler over 30. I think all 'Cretins will agree.
That session was enough to make for a good day, but of course Jon and I still had pros to hang out with... ok, just watch, but still... We get there in plenty of time to see practice for the skate vert prelims, and with our VIP passes from Tom, our seats are RIGHT behind the pros!! "Dude, Shaun White is RIGHT THERE..." just 4 feet away. Front row center at the ramp... INSANE! We have that same revelation about 20 more times with other pros like Bucky, Bob, Andy, Mathias... ALL of them! I just can't believe it. Tom, you rock! (My camera batteries die, and I apparently brought dead spares... and Tom stopped on his way in and got me more batteries!! Very generous and I owe him much thanks. I do believe he understand that he gave passes to someone who REALLY appreciates them.)
We watch the prelim runs and the skating is C R A Z Y! Switch boneless, super high airs and 540s(frontside, backside, pick a grab), no handed kickflips (ON VERT? What?), rodeos, I think every heelflip and/or kickflip variation that has been done so far, a samba flip, channel gap lip slides and blunts galore... and watching it all RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU is just so incredible. The contest concludes and afterwards I hang around like a little grom fan to wait and to talk two of the biggest inspirations in my life, Bucky and Bob. I congratulate them on making the finals and give them the newest LT video, and a Concretin t-shirt for the hell of it. I always try to be brief and not hold them up or be that weird psycho fan, but if you listen to the other 'Cretins, it's too late, I've crossed over to the dark side. I can only hope the pros don't feel that way, and they do SEEM to like my "Creative Fan Appreciation." I imagine it's at least amusing. "Aw crap, it's that weird Lil'Tony dude again. Smile and nod and he'll go away soon." :)
We head outside, hook up with the Tom's and watch some more craziness at FMX. More insane pics, including one just before Twitch ejected at around 35 feet up. Get well soon Twitch. There isn't much I can say about these guys... The pictures say it all. They're not insane. Yea, RIGHT!
Salute!
Kickin' Air!
Yep, he pulled it!
No big deal? YOU TRY IT PUNK!
This is gonna hurt... Get well soon Twitch!
The SkateParkFinals were up next and they all were just so good. Sheckler was on target and almost looked bored, but you could tell he was amped when he landed that last trick of his run. During the JamSession "finals," it was hard to watch a trick because you knew you were missing a big trick by someone else. And the traffic was stupid! It's hard enough to make a kickflip out of bank alone. But imagine a tre-flip over a 6' euro gap, with 8 other people trying a hard trick only 3 or 4 feet away, all the while everyone is moving at Mach2!! Ryan, 16, and Nyjah, 11, were the clear contenders and I couldn't believe the two youngest guys held up under that jam session better than anyone. Not that everyone else wasn't ripping too though. It was just really hard to watch sometimes. Ryan had 2 or 3 fewer bailed trick attempts than Nyjah and pulled off the win(again). Congrats Sheckler! But props go to Nyjah as he was around for 45 minutes longer than anyone else afterwards signing autographs, while the park was being dissassembled! I was stoked to get a mention from mic master Dave Duncan with my "Animal Chin, He is Here He is Proud" sign. Thanks Dave!
Yep, he pulled it.
Makin' it look easy.
Have you seen him? I have.
Double D! Daggers Represent!
Jon and I hung out a bit longer to watch a bit o' BMX dirt jumping... those guys are insane too, in case you didn't know. (I think it's required to be on the Dew Tour.) Tailwhip Backflip... what? No Handed Front Flip... Double Tailwhip 360... Huh? I mean, come on, you have to make an 8' gap just to drop into the course! No thanks, I'll keep my 4 urethane wheels. We see Carla there in the VIP tent and invite her to another morning sesh on Sunday.
Droppin' in with no parachute!
That closes ANOTHER great day in my skate life. And my skate life is only made better by a woman in my home life that not only enjoys watching me go crazy with it, she does it without hesitation, without a bit of resistance! Alice, I love you. THANK YOU!
Day 2 was pretty damn cool. But Day 3 stepped it up! Our Buckeye 'Cretin Jon rolled in E A R L Y for a downtown park session with everyone but OMP - just had to go camping didn't ya? OH WELL, sucks for you! We met Carla who is in town from VT workin' for the tour. Very cool chick and she invites us up for a New England park tour. We were all having a great session - it really is true, the more you skate, the better your next session will be. I was feeling confident and decided if I never try 50-50s in the bowl, I'll never learn them... So I attempt one and lock one in on the first try! But, it being 8ft to the flat as opposed to 4', I wig out and step off... but I know I can do it now... (Of course everyone was playing in the deep end and saw nothing...) I get Dave to watch as he was the inspiration for the attempt, as he just learned them a few weeks ago and do the feeble grind bail... hate those... but on my 4th try I lock in a short grind and then drop in perfect!! HOLY CRAP! I know pedestrians don't care, I know most skaters don't care... but man that has been tough to learn and not be afraid of (wait, it is still scary)... Progression. It was cool at 18, but it's SO MUCH cooler over 30. I think all 'Cretins will agree.
That session was enough to make for a good day, but of course Jon and I still had pros to hang out with... ok, just watch, but still... We get there in plenty of time to see practice for the skate vert prelims, and with our VIP passes from Tom, our seats are RIGHT behind the pros!! "Dude, Shaun White is RIGHT THERE..." just 4 feet away. Front row center at the ramp... INSANE! We have that same revelation about 20 more times with other pros like Bucky, Bob, Andy, Mathias... ALL of them! I just can't believe it. Tom, you rock! (My camera batteries die, and I apparently brought dead spares... and Tom stopped on his way in and got me more batteries!! Very generous and I owe him much thanks. I do believe he understand that he gave passes to someone who REALLY appreciates them.)
We watch the prelim runs and the skating is C R A Z Y! Switch boneless, super high airs and 540s(frontside, backside, pick a grab), no handed kickflips (ON VERT? What?), rodeos, I think every heelflip and/or kickflip variation that has been done so far, a samba flip, channel gap lip slides and blunts galore... and watching it all RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU is just so incredible. The contest concludes and afterwards I hang around like a little grom fan to wait and to talk two of the biggest inspirations in my life, Bucky and Bob. I congratulate them on making the finals and give them the newest LT video, and a Concretin t-shirt for the hell of it. I always try to be brief and not hold them up or be that weird psycho fan, but if you listen to the other 'Cretins, it's too late, I've crossed over to the dark side. I can only hope the pros don't feel that way, and they do SEEM to like my "Creative Fan Appreciation." I imagine it's at least amusing. "Aw crap, it's that weird Lil'Tony dude again. Smile and nod and he'll go away soon." :)
We head outside, hook up with the Tom's and watch some more craziness at FMX. More insane pics, including one just before Twitch ejected at around 35 feet up. Get well soon Twitch. There isn't much I can say about these guys... The pictures say it all. They're not insane. Yea, RIGHT!
Salute!
Kickin' Air!
Yep, he pulled it!
No big deal? YOU TRY IT PUNK!
This is gonna hurt... Get well soon Twitch!
The SkateParkFinals were up next and they all were just so good. Sheckler was on target and almost looked bored, but you could tell he was amped when he landed that last trick of his run. During the JamSession "finals," it was hard to watch a trick because you knew you were missing a big trick by someone else. And the traffic was stupid! It's hard enough to make a kickflip out of bank alone. But imagine a tre-flip over a 6' euro gap, with 8 other people trying a hard trick only 3 or 4 feet away, all the while everyone is moving at Mach2!! Ryan, 16, and Nyjah, 11, were the clear contenders and I couldn't believe the two youngest guys held up under that jam session better than anyone. Not that everyone else wasn't ripping too though. It was just really hard to watch sometimes. Ryan had 2 or 3 fewer bailed trick attempts than Nyjah and pulled off the win(again). Congrats Sheckler! But props go to Nyjah as he was around for 45 minutes longer than anyone else afterwards signing autographs, while the park was being dissassembled! I was stoked to get a mention from mic master Dave Duncan with my "Animal Chin, He is Here He is Proud" sign. Thanks Dave!
Yep, he pulled it.
Makin' it look easy.
Have you seen him? I have.
Double D! Daggers Represent!
Jon and I hung out a bit longer to watch a bit o' BMX dirt jumping... those guys are insane too, in case you didn't know. (I think it's required to be on the Dew Tour.) Tailwhip Backflip... what? No Handed Front Flip... Double Tailwhip 360... Huh? I mean, come on, you have to make an 8' gap just to drop into the course! No thanks, I'll keep my 4 urethane wheels. We see Carla there in the VIP tent and invite her to another morning sesh on Sunday.
Droppin' in with no parachute!
That closes ANOTHER great day in my skate life. And my skate life is only made better by a woman in my home life that not only enjoys watching me go crazy with it, she does it without hesitation, without a bit of resistance! Alice, I love you. THANK YOU!
posted by Nikoli @ 12:41 PM
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