L'ville in this month's Thrasher

The latest Thrasher mag is a photo edition. I was thumbing through it and noticed a pic with our signature full pipe and the grassy hill leading up to I65 in the background. It was Dane Warner and he was sticking a wicked sad plant in the 14' 12' (or 11') bowl. It was a great shot, but knowing how deep that bowl is and seeing no pads on him (or maybe he was wearing his Vonder Voman Invisi-Pads™) made my jaw drop.

Yeah, I know, of all the Concretins I should be the *last* of us to be looking through Thrasher. Shut up, Nikoli!

But thanks for the pads, man :)

Where in the world is Skidzilla?

Yet another BUSINESS TRIP. Uh, huh. Yea, right. Sure.



Gettin' his gnar on, over the loveseat. (Thanks to MC at H.O.M.O.S. for the pic.)

Who Knew?

The OBX story continues

Sorry for the delay... no, not really I'm not. But Gimpy posted up almost immediately after the OBX trip, and Skidzilla posted his vacation report before he even got on the road back home... And the Kooks bug me about it... Nag nag nag! Anyway... here's entry #4 of 5 regarding the OBX trip that happened well over a month ago... YES, someday I will get to last years Arizona footage and creation of the "Concretins - Sessions & Roadtrips 2008" DVD... someday... but for now...

OBX Headquarters

Epicicity DefCon 4

After the Crawdad Hole session we all headed east... but somehow at VERY different times and paces. (We stopped for lunch and ate in, rather than drive-thru...) But anyway, we were the ones on the rental agreement, and we were bringin' up the rear, but only by about 15-20 minutes. I ended up missing a turn, so add 20 minutes, then a panic stop for gas (the gas guage dropped to empty, with a half tank, but in swampy "bear country" I wigged out). So add another 10 minutes... then we got caught on the "drawbridge" for one lone sailboat... add 15 more...

The bridge, right where we got stopped... I'm lame, I din't slap a Cretin sticker.


So eventually we end up in Kitty Hawk, and what do I see ahead of me, but the ass end of Gimpy. Well, the skate gods were watching and finagled the wrong turn, the gas guage, and the sailboat all so I would end up with Gimpy and his GPS. While I was about to point out the insane traffic ahead(it was BikeWeek), he said the GPS chick (of course) was demanding that he turn right... I was about to lead us up the wrong side of the sound! Thank you skate gods, and thank you Gimpy's co-worker for loaning him your GPS. "Geepus Saves!" And 5 minutes later, we were at the house.

And WOW, what a house.


It was huge, but I didn't bother to go in. I knew everyone would be out back... and it was indeed beautiful.




A session was already goin' down. I hurried off to the surf shop to pay the homeowner the rest of the fee, feeling awkward that people were already IN the house... but he was so cool. If you are ever in Duck, NC, for any reason (With this audience, is there any other reason than to skate?), please go to Duck Village Outfitters and buy/rent any gear you need there. Bob is the man, and Tanya is the wo-man. They were so gracious and laid back and as Gimpy said, we had access to any rental equipment we wanted, included with the house rental, for the entire week, and the house was already chock full o' bikes and kayaks. I immediately snagged two jogger strollers for the kiddos.

Duck Village Outfitters


Everyone but me, Paul, Jer, and a local had taken off to skate the "Egg Bowl."
Zach over the Lil' Tony in the Deathbox in the Egg Bowl


Turns out, it was just a mile or two away. WTF? 2 backyarders, with full access so close together? Turns out, Gimpy hadn't stepped foot in the house yet either and already had 2 local pool sessions(3 for the day) under his belt. Yea, this was gonna be a good week.

Meanwhile, back at Cretin/Kook OBX Headquarters...

OMP with the pool skills, Jer with the photo skills.


We settled in, and got to it. You'd think the first full session would have been tentative, but not from what I witnessed. We were all pushing it from the get go. The pool was filled to the brim with stoke. And no matter how short your run, your heart pounded just a lil' harder each time. The smiles on deck and on faces climbing out of the bowl were wide and cartoon like.

While exploring the nearby beaches, and discussing the conspiracy of the skate gods, Jon and I took the same sunset photo...


and then we found THIS...

A downhill sidewalk "chute" that is nearly a half-mile long (I measured it on Google Maps)... The pic above is the "outlet" at the street in town, looking back up the hill towards the beach. It was another blessing from the skate gods, one we did not take advantage of I'm very sad to say. Though I did go back before departing to self-shoot a run(that's REALLY difficult and time consuming). Our 'discovery run' was the only full on run ever attempted, and it was crazy. We didn't know if we'd come over a small hill and have a 6 stair gap to clear or what. My heart was pounding and I couldn't wait to tell everyone about it. It WILL get abused next trip, for reals!

Monday, we took full advantage of DVO's generosity and hustled off with 4 surfboards and full wetsuits. Patti declined to ride with us, and instead hopped on a bike and pedaled herself to the beach. AND later, pedaled to a local eatery to get lunch for us all!! Patti, you ROCK girl!
I can surf! Who knew!? I certainly didn't!






Which of these things is not like the other...


And after every side adventure, we'd come home. And skate. In the backyard. It was just stoopit(TM Travio). Alice and I went out to dinner on our anniversary, and I was dead from surfing and the morning session, so I passed out fairly early Monday... and I am deeply saddened that I missed the Kouch Kooks Session. You KNOW you wish you could have been there for this...













After taking our vitamins each day, we'd skate/surf/eat/drink/bullshit/skate/chill/play pool/bullshit/hangout/skate/rinse//repeat... Enjoy these highlights...



Jer - grindage...


Zach- fs airage...


- and fs grindage


Patti - fs speed carvin'


Gimpy - fs tile ride


Rusty - bs grindage

- with a lil nose grabby


Lil Tony missed you Skidzilla








Had enough? Is DefCon 5, maximum Epicicity, even attainable? I'm here to tell you, yes. Yes it is.
*whisper like the wind* Wanchese...

Patience punk... there is STILL more to come...

Hangin' Out in Milton, Fl

You may remember Mr. Nikoli's post about Milton Skatepark - two gents getting hassled by The Man for dropping in on this insanely steep, insanely quick-transitioned wall.



Well, me and Steve-o hit it on Wednesday.

It is a bad-ass Team pain Park. It looks like one giant bowl with some wonky chit round the outside; the aforementioned wall, a clam behind a clam(!), an asymmetrical (5 feet one side, three feet on the other) spine. All this stuff looked random and oddly placed until two yokels showed up and showed us that the whole park outside the bowl is carve-able and chock full-o-lines in and out of the bowl.

It was 90 degrees at 8:30 am when we got there, but we toughed it out for over an hour and a half. My only real accomplishment was a carve over the love seat in the deep end. Although, I am also proud of the obligatory shot with me climbing on the wall flippin' the bird. Steve-o was carving much higher that pics will show. It was a rockin good time! Wish you coulda jammed on it with us!

TMWII, Barnacle, WHATEVER you call it, IT'S THE CHIT ! ! !

TMWII - Fully Operational!

The ramp is complete and ready for some full on ripping! The final screw was put in on Wednesday the third, June 2009 around 6pm. It was a Zen moment as everyone contemplated the gleam of this wooden wave. Interrupted by the chill that crawled down their forearm, the gathering quickly began shredding the newness away and pushing the limits of the eight foot wall. This ramp rocks, this ramp is fun, this ramp is good times.

I have to say thanks again to Kyle for being the motivating factor here and bringing this mini beast alive. Also, a big thanks to Skidzilla, Nik, Josh, and Bill for donating a lot of there time as well.

Looking forward to many more sessions…see you there,

Travio

Get a grip on your holidays...

With all the focus on *ahem* wood lately, it is absolutely astounding to me that we, The Concretins, let this glorious holiday *ahem* come and go.

HAPPY BELATED PENIS DAY! (click me) <--Not pron, but not really SFW.

(But really, EVERY day is Penis Day. Especially if you have one.)

I hope my wife doesn't have a headache, I need some help celebrating...

(Thanks to Terry at BentObjects for *ahem* raising this to my attention via 'the book.')

So Close!

We made one hell of a run this weekend. On Saturday, Kyle, Dave, Josh, Bill, and Nick showed up completely ready to role. We knocked a huge chunk out but it was looking like we were going to have a couple more heavy days ahead of us. Then came Sunday and I’m pretty sure everyone was feeling the pain from the day before. I was dog tired and wasn’t expecting much to get done on Sunday, but then Kyle, Josh, and Dave, the truly insane, showed up and between the four of us made a huge dent. The way things look right now, I’m thinking one more good day of work and we’ll be skating…barn style.

I want to say thanks to the entire Skidzilla family and Mofo family for coming out and enjoying a great day at the farm. And most importantly thanks guys for all your help and for a great weekend. Definitely looking forward to that first session.

Travio