Market Harborough update....29th January 2012

West Cross ramp jam, September 2009.

The year we got to Swansea and i wandered down to find this happening so i got home quick to get my camera. This is some of the result of my dad cam position. The music is the very great Young Offenders

Kieron went to Market Harborough in the wet.....

....we have all done it but it was totally soaked and well under way.

Should be done soon by the looks of it. Nice one for the pic Kieron. See you there!!

10. West Cross miniramp, Swansea.

A small gap in the rain and a bit of quick drying with my feet and i got the first skate this year on my local spot. Very rusty after the winter, me and the ramp but otherwise no real damage. Need to learn a few more tricks i think.

One of the reasons for pushing on with skating......

"Be wise with speed;
A fool at forty is a fool indeed." Montaigne.

It seems a lot harder at 40 to pick myself up and dust myself off and start again and maybe foolish to even try but being 42 i consider myself a little wiser than i was at 40....
So in 2008 i broke my leg pretty badly and i thought skating was over for me (for 5 minutes or so) it's taken/taking a long time to get things back to normal again physically and mentally.....aside from the physical aspect of getting my muscles back the fear when i actually did step back on a skateboard was and is hard to ignore. Getting things back that i used to be able to do without a second thought has been my goal so the 42 spots project has taken my mind off the fear a bit and made me go skating more than i have since my break....so on to spot 10 with no fear!! There are also the demon spots i have to go and conquer...Caldicot where i broke my leg, Dagenham where i broke my arm the year before, Worthing skatepark that was below my window at the hospital and Shoreham of course where i spent the last week of 3 weeks in hospital. Shoreham skatepark was just a dream in 2008 but now it's a solid concrete reminder of the miserable hospital i had to plead to leave...can't wait to get up to that pool coping sometime before June to excorcise those demons!

9. Uckfield skatepark, Friday 20th January 2012

Uckfield is just north of Lewes in East Sussex...Vost's favourite spot i think...heading back in the next few weeks i think as it was muddy, windy and that on Friday....the mini ramp section is nice and whippy with concrete coping, brick banks are very mellow but cool...the whole thing is a big oval shape with the miniramp cutting through the middle. Skate without stopping for as long as legs can keep up....more laps next trip, maybe tricks too?

8. Aberdare, Blue Monday , 16th January 2012

The wet weather has finally gone for now so blue monday wasn't so gloomy in Aberdare today. The smallest hip in the world maybe...the bowls were wet and full of all kinds of stones and muck so having the place to myself i rolled around the rest of the park for a change. The Blue Monday moment comes with the news of the place being knocked down in the near future along with the entire leisure centre so i'd better get over there more often....the park will be replaced apparently but who knows what will be put there instead. Next time i'm taking a brush.

A newish spot in Cardiff Bay

A whole list of places to go when the outside world dries up....the music of "The Hangmen" and the sun drenched Cardiff Bay of last year...the sun will shine again!

An old spot in Mumbles.....

Another park waiting to dry up on the list.

Metal ramps take forever to dry......

Still waiting for the West Cross ramp to be dry, this is Tim last year so can't wait for a good weather day. This is the nearest spot to my house apart from a crumbling kerb out in the street.



But then i think wooden ramps may take longer to dry...this is the old West Cross vert ramp on a sunnier day in 1986...

Damp start to 2012!

Time is limited from now till June and the weather isn't playing...constant rain, storms and high winds. Luckily we have Exist just down the road so skating continues but the wheels are itching for new terrain....dry up!! In the meantime i have been checking out spots and plotting routes and road trips with skating in mind. Long dark nights also lead to the inevitable reminiscing about past sessions and spots visited...this combined with Google maps is taking up my time right now....plenty of video clips and pictures to add to the map. The system is this....blue marker pins are spots which then become red pins as i finally get there. This is made a bit more complicated with the introduction of the yellow marker which is an old spot, a historical spot that has been demolished. I have a few of these to add along with video and pictures to attach. Messing about with computers may stop as the weather improves, maybe.



View 4242.....the map. in a larger map

First skate of 2012...Exist Skatepark

Got in early, Styley took some pics for magazine and we skated the miniramp for an hour. Good start to the year.

7. Cuckfield in the wet, December 27th 2011

6. Aberavon, 14th November 2011

5. Desborough skatepark, 22nd October 2011

Desborough skatepark is wooden on a tarmac surface, pretty big area but the ramps are pretty worn out...holes on the transitions, holes on the platforms, fire damage inside the ramps and missing coping....still there is always something good to be found at every spot, struggled to find it here though. Needs a good fix up Chilli!

4. Porthcawl Skatepark, Wales, 16 October 2011

Had the place to myself for well over an hour. Carving in the bright autumn sunshine and i got this self portrait with my fliphd on a tripod in the bottom of the bowl. Need more days like this to find the lines which seem to be endless.