7. Exist Skatepark, Swansea.Thursday 15th November 2012.

Dark mini ramp run from Jono on Vimeo.
Pretty regular Thursday session at Exist...still sticking to skating the miniramp. Jason caught this for me...it's dark in there this time of year.

3/4/5/6.....Cuckfield, Shoreham, Hollingdean and Hemel Hempstead

1. Newport skatepark. 15th September 2012 and 2. Porthcawl skatepark, 16th September 2012

So the year ticked over on June 20th and as i'm now 43 it's 43 spots before 20th June 2013....1 more than last year so i'd better get back on the road. I wasn't sure how to approach it this time as far as revisiting the same spots over again from last year....there are a ton of new skateparks popping up all the time at the moment so it could work as total new spots if i could travel every weekend and had nothing else going on in life. This would be impossible so i'm going with a same spots as last year are allowed policy....with the added turn up the tricks clause. I will not allow myself to turn in the old frontside grind at every spot this year so it's try new tricks at every opportunity or at least regain a few from my pre- break days!
The last weekend was a special one as it was the almost annual K-Boys trip to Wales...i say annual but it was actually over 3 years ago they last made it down here.
I missed the chance to go and meet them at Churchdown in Gloucester but made it to the new Newport park at Tredegar Park. It's not officially open till Friday but as Ally is good friends with Youngy who is doing the build then we were welcomed with open arms. It's all done apart from the landscaping round the edge and the fencing....amazing park and number one for this year. It might be a little busier next time i get over there but i'm hoping the pool's size will deter most and i can get to grips with it properly. I did manage to drop into the 6ft shallow end which is well tight and i got over the light too which is in fact a concrete skull set into the transition 3/4 of the way up the wall of the 10ft deep end....carve over the steps next time maybe!


Then it was time for a quick drive back to Porthcawl, a very short visit to the bowl and a night out in town and crashing Harvey's hotel room. Back to Porthcawl bowl in the morning with slightly fuzzy heads. So i'm putting Newport and Porthcawl as my first 2 spots of the year. Porthcawl is a regular Tuesday so a few pics from last Tuesday too and maybe more tomorrow...different tricks to follow someday!

Another Costa Rica post inspired by a visit to Subway.

So in 2005 me and Siobhan spent the whole year travelling from Mexico City to Sao Paulo...mainly overland by bus and the rare taxi...i had my skateboard and was always on the look out for a spot or two. I had no idea Costa Rica would have some perfect concrete parks hidden away in some unlikely places. We arrived from Nicaragua by bus and the first town we hit was Liberia. Just off the town square we ran into a little skateshop. Asking about parks the guy in the shop handed over his two shop copies of Blast Magazine and pointed out the photos of the parks in Costa Rica, then it was down to us to locate them and decipher the directions. First to the coast and the surf town of Tamarindo and then on to Lake Arenal and the legendary Tilawa hotel bowls. Here are the magazines and the articles that led us to some amazing spots.






So massive thanks to the guys in the shop in Liberia and Blast mag for showing us the way...the Subway bit in the title is Charlie who works in Uplands...this is how we found the parks!

Over Ply Wood trailer

The last 2 days of 4242

London trip 18th June 4242 last day from Jono on Vimeo.

Spots 35-39 and an extra Porthcawl bonus last day in the sun. A day in London to finish the year and a meet up with Styley at Bay66...which is in it's last week before it shuts for an 8 week complete refit. Got a couple of old classics in there...Meanwhile and a damp Kennington. So i made it to 39 if i include the skating around London between spots. I'm not stretching it out to get the last 3 so i'm straight on with 4343 Spots 35-39 and an extra Porthcawl bonus last day in the sun. A day in London to finish the year and a meet up with Styley at Bay66...which is in it's last week before it shuts for an 8 week complete refit. Got a couple of old classics in there...Meanwhile and a damp Kennington. So i made it to 39 if i include the skating around London between spots. I'm not stretching it out to get the last 3 so i'm straight on with 4343. More spots, more tricks and of course many more frontside grinds.

34. The spot. Swansea. 12th June 2012

Finally got to have a bit of a skate down at the spot. Solo trip down between the days of rain. Plenty more building to do and a few tweaks. More days of mixing cement and carrying rocks. Looking forward to the first bowl corner being finished....then onward to the next and the next. Better get used to the transition though....a smooth wooden miniramp it isn't!

Wet for weeks.....9 days to go and 9 spots to skate!

A tall order i know and the weather is rubbish. Off to London a week today though with a few Westway based spots in mind. In the meantime an indoor ramp is on the horizon for tomorrow. Cranking up for the start of 4343 too!!

33. Singleton park hill. 24th May 2012.

So the skatepark shut early due to the sunshine and no takers for an evening session indoors. Me and Jason headed over to the hill at Singleton park and met Ric, Evs and a few others for the long hill that runs from Sketty down to Oystermouth road!! Could be one of the highlights of the 42...then it was pub darts where i hit my first 18o....what a night!

Robbo's secret gnarly corner...day 1.

If this beaut is done in time it will be one spot closer and with the June 20th deadline i need all the spots i can get.

32. Cardiff Plaza. 21st May 2012

Almost a sweeper on possibly the smallest bank in the world. Cardiff plaza in the sun.

Porthcawl bowl....nearest concrete, could change!

29. Victoria Park, Swansea 14th May 2012

It seems looking back that i have neglected number 29 in my quest to skate 42 spots so here is number 29.....the missing spot. Also i have been trying to do something other than a frontside grind variety in my posts! I managed a few janky kickflips but they just don't cut it so i have captured a kind of nocomply variation as a last resort, Spencer named it a Cheese curl....and forgetting all that i obviosly had to do a frontside grind. So there it is with just over a month to go....29 at Victoria park.

Swansea Doc progressing.......

Did a long interview with Skin Phillips yesterday by the power of skype....stoked on what we came up with. I feel a big edit session coming on tonight before the Protec pool party webcast later on. Saturday night in Swansea!

Exist on a Thursday.....10th May 2012

Dylan Hughes knows every blunt variation possible....the miniramp at Exist on a Thursday night always sees some action.

31. Shoreham skatepark, 4th may 2012..wet weekend in Brighton.

Seems like the weather is refusing to be kind for trips to the south coast. Got to Brighton on Thursday and the rain was coming down. By morning it had stopped so tried a couple of old spots....Cuckfield was dry on the transitions but wet flat bottoms. Had a roll round in the water and drew a few lines. Crawley was drier but the bottom of the bigger section of the bowl was inches deep in water. Managed a roll around though which is more than i got on the last trip with Matt. Rain was forecast again so i headed down to Shoreham later in the day and it was dry. Got well over an hour carving round the clover bowl pretty much to myself. Stayed clear of the lip but there are some real fast lines around the bowls. More time needed down there i think...roll on dry weather.  

•  Shoreham Skatepark.............

  ....and a skateboarding dog in Brighton.

Wet day in Wales....old pictures time.

This is a spot i wish i could go back to. A pretty gnarly bowl in a gnarly spot. Rio de Janeiro, November 2005..a quick walk through a sketchy tunnel from our hostel in Praia de Botafogo and this bowl is in the middle of a traffic island. Good fun but edgy. Here's how it's really done.....

30. Market Harborough redux. 22nd April 2012

A very fitting 30th skatepark in my year long mission to skate 42 different skatespots. Market Harborough in it's old incarnation was pretty much the first skatepark i ever saw. It was where i learnt to balance, to ride banks and the very limited and rough transitions that made up the old place. The park has been transformed into an almost perfect bowl which is built on the same site as the old one. Lines, hips and corners for miles and perfectly smooth concrete. Perhaps 20 years too late for me as i now live 240 miles away....luckily mum lives round the corner so i can grab a few trips down there when we are in town. The reason for this weekends visit was the christening of Victor Stewart Charles up in Leicester so an added importance to the visit to the park before the service. This entry and the trip to the park are dedicated to Stoo Charles who I spent a lot of time with at the old park, he would be stoked to see what has happened to the place and i know he would have been down there at 7am too!

Swansea skate documentary interviews......Simon Dark and Ric Cartwright.

The seemingly lifelong project to tell the story of Swansea skateboarding is getting a few steps closer to fruition. Delirious from the weekend away i met up with Ric and Simon at the skatepark. The plan was to go down to Castle Square and talk about their experiences of the legendary spot. I had Ione as my assistant and credit to her she got a few documentary pictures of the interview. It was a very anarchic interview but one of the funnest so far and some real good results. Feeling pretty good about the progress of the whole project....onward and there seems to be plenty to talk about and many more to talk to.

21-28...Styley and Andy show me the sights.. 14th/15th April 2012.

Saturday 14th....5.28 train from Swansea to Paddington and then headed up to meet Styley in Rickmansworth via Brick Lane for some breakfast bagels at the 24 hour Beigel Bake. Straight over to Andy's and down to Harrow.

21. Harrow skatepark





Despite being one of the oldest parks in the country Harrow has changed a bit since i was last there...a big bowl at the top has been dug out, a couple of wooden miniramps have been built and the tops of the banks round the slalom run and bollocks have been concreted. Great place to carve around and stretch my legs after getting up at 4.30 and being on the train for 5 hours.




22. Enfield skatepark

Super simple and super fun. A converted paddling pool with a slightly bowled quarter pipe at each end, a mellow bump in the middle and a block/manny pad at each side.



23. Waltham Abbey Skatepark

Great little park, Freestyle build i think so it's the fast shiney surface. A good windswept spot and as it was Saturday afternoon it was pretty busy. Andy couldn't face the crowds so we didn't hang around for long...it was cool just trying to get lines in the place and avoiding the oblivious masses...got out of there with no collisions which was amazing...highlight is carving over the hole!



24. Saffron Walden skatepark

Straight up the M11 for an evening at the ocean of concrete that is Saffron Walden skatepark. So good, 3 massive bowls that get progressively deeper, the "smallest" has pool coping all round which is where i based myself. It's pretty rad going to so many places and skating a huge variety of sizes and transitions. Almost nobody around which was a welcome change from the mayhem at Waltham Abbey. The bowls are surrounded by a circuit of obstacles so you can just roll around hitting whatever you like in a kind of infinite run....we were all weakening at this point though and a curry back in Ricky was calling! The end of a great day...curry, vodka, coke and Thrasher videos on a rather large internet ready tv.




Sunday 15th April........

25. Barn ramp

Feeling pretty wrecked from the previous day, more skating in one day than in the previous month i think, we headed west(ish) to find the secret barn ramp. Nice little mini with pool coping on one side, sofa on the platform and a tardis in the yard. Rad place to get the legs working again.





26. Dick's Bowl

Dick's house was a couple of miles down the road from the barn. He has a bowl in his garden built by Zarosh so as you can imagine it's pretty gnarly. Turns out it was the last real session there as Dick has to fill it in this week. There was a bit of a session already going on but i managed a few runs and even got up to the lip a couple of times!! Steak was obviously ruling as the pictures show, the shallow end is like riding into a wall. Dropping in was a fearful event but the place works pretty well straight off...wish i had one!




27. Ealing skatepark

Ealing has a great bowl that is smooth and a fun if a bit hectic street course....flows pretty well but like Waltham Abbey it was full on...had a good blast around the bowl until the wind blew the rain in.





28. Bishops Park, Fulham




Bishops park not only is now famous for it's mini bowl but was the scene of the infamous end of Patrick Troughton in the Omen...all good reasons to visit...Andy Vost met a grisly end there too.....



It took a couple of burritos to bring us all back to life after a hell of a weekend....


Thanks for a great trip dudes!!