Day 1: Michigan U-Turns and White Castle

So far I have been pretty impressed considering I basically got off the bus and already shot some gnar. Anyways, this morning I got a wake up call from a friend I hadn't seen for a while...Garza! It was a bit of a bummer he was just in the area and didn't bring his board to skate.

Moving on, Daryl thought it would be a good idea to go warm up at a gap with shitty ground and a switch trick. Wind and a run up full of dips and waves only brought out the frustration in Daryl. We all agreed on a new spot which just happened to be a busy daycare. Luckily Dave had a good eye for a fire hydrant at the same spot and was feeling a trick from the moment he laid eyes on it. We got there, got a trick and got out.

Daryl and Dave had to jet to work and other errands so it was just Ben, Justin and I. Ben wanted to show us this cool spot I had seen in the Shred Til Yer Dead promo and it ended up being pretty awesome. Ben threw down pretty quick with a pole jam and a frontside flip. Next spot, ledges. I got a fun line while Justin and Ben just messed around on the ledges. Ben got a dope sequence and we were off to the next spot...more ledges! Now these ledges...not ledges I would take just anyone to, these things were huge. Both of the guys didn't seem to have a problem and I ended up shooting a roll of film there. Unfortunately I shot Justin's trick only on film so I've got nothing to show for him. Ben on the other hand got super gnarly on the giant hubba there (see below!)

Things we were winding down and I was getting stoked, it was time to go eat at White Castle. Let me say, horrible idea. Anything I had ever imagined about that place was totally destroyed after eating the four burger combo, I regret every part of it. Besides the shitty food we met up with a guy named Chris who was killing this flatbar spot when we got there. We decided to head to the library to shoot some things Chris had previously done which turned out nice. After that we had a (quick) game of S.K.A.T.E. and everyone was ready to go home. Overall, super productive day.

The Good Morning Garza show


Stretching, warming up.


There are a lot of lights here


Dave, frontside 180 switch manual with
Ben trailing behind.


Walking to the next spot...in the forest?


Voila! Ben busting out a
frontside flip rather quick
on the forest gap.


Next spot. DIY Ledge spot, fun time! Before
we shot this Ben asked me if this trick would be
"okay" for a sequence. Front Smith Kickflip Out,
the proof is in the puddin'.


More ledge spots, more Ben.
This time back tailing through
a curve and lots of chunks.


Michigan's hubba hide-out, Ben
getting gnarly.


Time for food and meet ups!


We didn't shoot any photos at the yellow flatbar
but Chris and I made up for it with this front
blunt pop out at the library.



I'll try and update this thing everyday with photos and all that good stuff but if I don't, forgive me! Over and out for day one.

My Arrival

So here I am, sitting in Daryl's living room recounting the amount of awesome that already filled my first day. Actually, I wouldn't even count this as my first day considering I only arrive at my final destination, Southfield, at about 5 in the evening or so.

Ah yeah, the seven hour plus bus ride. I'll be honest and say I didn't mind it that much at all, just a lot of sleeping, text messaging and snacking out. Met and saw some interesting characters starting in London. Some people (in London) had lost their luckage and were not stoked. A result of paying the extra $10 luggage fee and it being lost these certain people decided to attack the mail cart. Their trip ended quick. On to the actual travelling. I never realized how many broke-ass towns there are in between London and Windsor, the whole time I was just sitting on the bus being thankful I had never grown up there. Anyways, arriving in Detroit I learned that their “accents” were something I would have to get ahold of real quick; I had to ask four separate times what time my bus showed up because I couldn't understand the first three people. Movin' on! Finally arriving in Southfield I called up Daryl to come pick me up, no sweat, he'd be there in 20 minutes. Turns out the bus station was a lot further than he figured, the station closed at six and there was a thunder storm moving in fast. So now I'm waiting outside, the station is closed and the rain starts coming down colder and harder than ever. Thankfully Lowepro bags rule and have their own separate rain coats but for some reason I had a blue poncho in my actual luggage so that came in super handy. So now I'm not super bummed, just soaked and freezing my ass off.

Daryl finally shows up and the sun decides to come out at the same time which we're both stoked on. He tells me he wants to show me this flatgap he's got some stuff on before. We roll up, the thing is huge. Daryl claims backside flip as soon as we get there. “I've done it before”, he says. Okay, cool, I set up, 15 tries later he's rolling away from the trick and “cleaner than before.” I'm pretty hyped because I didn't even count on skating on my first “day” in let alone the first half hour. We decided to head over to the local indoor park to meet up with Justin and the rest of the crew. Everyone here was super dope and welcoming which I was hyped on. I get told we're just going to run an after hours session instead of trying to maneuver through a bunch of the not-so regulars. Some fun skate times were had and I even re-learned a few new tricks.

Aside from the first day ruling from skating alone I also got some Michigan knowledge dropped on me. Number one, dill pickles in bags are sold at every gas station here and are apparently a hot product. Number two, everybody's favourite pop here is called “Faygo.” I'll be honest and say I was pretty stunned but the black cherry flavour is actually damn good. Number three, the band “Insane Clown Posse” is from Michigan and can always be found getting stoked on their Faygo.

That's all for my arrival, take a look at Daryl's pretty backside flip.


Faygo!




Eating before our after hours session

Plywood and Water Don't Mix

The past two weeks have been filled with more rain than the entire summer, it's insane! Houses around here didn't have power for a few days and I was beginning to wonder whether this was going to be another summer black-out marathon. Aside from that, all this rain makes skateboarding no easy task. The weather man is not as accurate as he should be and this creates a lot of improvising in terms of skate trips or a regular day out. Flash rain storms are even more common than these huge thunderstorms. Super wet and windy one moment and blazing hot within the same hour, nobody knows for sure what's going on up there. A good example is this, when I started typing this up it was pouring rain, thundering and my lights were flickering, now this crappy piece is done (as well as an episode of Family Guy) and the sun is already shining. There is hope for us skateboarders!

Without further a due, I bring you all the dudes skating between those sun breaks and huge thunderstorms.


Aaron pulling out a wallie
backside 180 and quite possibly
getting the last trick at this spot.


Isaac, backside flip.


Isaac, frontside noseslide drop
in.


Joel, wallie wallride at a gritty Uptown spot.


Joel, front board pop out.

As of Late

I've been working what seems like everyday and shooting almost not at all, I think I'm in a slump. Over the past few weeks these are some of the best flicks of the bunch that I've shot. One more week of work and I've got two weeks off in which time I'll be heading down to Detroit to shoot with some rippers down there, stoked!

Josh poppin' an ollie at city
hall. Flannel in 30 degree
weather? Sure why not.


Aaron Wynia coming through with a
winner for the first time in about
15 minutes.


On a totally separate day, Isaac
trying something new with a
wallride nosegrab out.


New dude in town, Ryan. Came from Orangeville
and we took him here, almost came through
with this kickflip before he got a full on
ass-ripping when he slammed.


Erik and I took full advantage
of golden hour with this hippie
jump. Erik contemplated
sending this photo in to get hooked
up by this store.


Byron busting through one hell
of a gritty backside noseblunt.

When things don't go according to plan

Every skateboarder has their good days and their bad ones and they also know that some tricks just work better than others. Too many little things can happen within a session that hinder or completely stop the skater from getting their trick. Angry pedestrians taking the law upon themselves, cracks in the ground, soggy boards, rough ground or bad vibes all around, sometimes you just can't help these types of things from happening. If you can't tell by now then you can welcome yourself to the very first bail post on this site!

Surfs up on the axel nuts, brah.


The not-so-purposeful manual tricks



Ah yes, when something just doesn't feel right
you've gotta kick away the board.


Boards and lenses don't mix.


Tuck and roll


Young ones have ankles of
rubber, what's the deal?


Shoes and lenses don't mix
either.


"Just abouts" tricks


Wheels apparently don't roll
on grass...


or through cracks


Feet are a love hate relationship in
skateboarding. Yeah, they do pop that board
but that sticky rubber on the bottom is perfect
for gripping on to the ledge when you're only
trying to move forward in life.


Ah, round ledges.


The "what the hell?!" look. Most
commonly performed when the
trick just barely gets away from
the feet.



You didn't think all the tricks on here were first try or something like that, right?

In the event of me not updating...

I know I have done a serious update since the Detroit dudes came to town and started shredding shit but this is good enough! I did not shoot this but still thought it was rulin'

Behold, Peter Stankiewicz getting GNARLY!


This as well...


still pushing the Helvetica style more than ever, for sure.

Coming Together

You've heard the horror stories of people "meeting" eachother online and then deciding to meet in person and things go totally wrong. People go missing, end up dead, yada yada, the regular "internet horror story." This was something totally different though, that's for sure.

I am a regular lurker on the Slap messageboard and had happened to come across a post from a dude looking for directions to spots in Toronto. Initially I just wanted to see what was up but when this guy from Detroit had also mentioned passing through Waterloo I had to throw up the invite and show him and his friends around, I had no idea what to expect. Eventually Justin(our internet skate friend) told me that he just wanted to come skate London, Toronto and whatever else was around for the weekend, showed me some clips of his (really dope) friends and him and I told them I would gladly show them around for the day.

Saturday came around and we made the meet up point the Kitchener park. After warming up for a few we headed downtown. Turns out they decided to really kill it at all the spots we went to. I'm talking in the first 15-20 minutes just start throwing out bangers on the ghetto grays, gap to manny pad, etc. I was stoked! We went to all the regular spots that everyone in the city was over by now and like they say, one man's trash is another's treasure. Tricks everywhere! On top of the dope tricks they were the nicest people too. Good thing, I didn't want to end up with internet kooks for the day.

We skated long into the night, ending our skate date at city hall where we got a really nice cool-off session in, bust free! Like any other visitors, Justin, Daryl and Garza all got the classic downtown Kitchener treatment. Front row seats to a gang fight, the fine downtown lady meat, super drunk people and other fucked up people all the while taking it in stride and just trying to land some tricks. Mid-way into the night I was getting calls and text messages from people super worried because they had heard "some Detroit dudes" dumped me in Cambridge, beat me to hell and robbed me of all my camera gear, thanks Josh.

Big ups to Justin, Daryl and Garza! I was stoked to show you guys around and hopefully I can make it down there before the summer is finished.

Justin, first spot of the day and
having no mercy with this super
poked back smith.


Daryl, switch back tail, first try.
Yes.


I was super impressed, Daryl put this down in
about 15 minutes. According to Justin and Garza,
"it's normal."
Kickflip gap to nosemanual nollie flip out, chea!


Garza, backlip to the end.


Garza's kit. He might never do back lips on
ledges again.


A taste of downtown! From left to right:
Justin, Garza, Daryl and Downtowner. Dude
was going off drunk out of his mind about his
son being in jail for crack.


Keep in touch!

Funzone

The day started off in a pretty weak way for me: waiting at the park for an hour and nobody who said they would show up, did. I was over that quick! Plan B: Text message from Joel saying they were Uptown skating around so I went in that direction. I got there and Cameron was already hucking himself over a rail while Ryan film and Aaron took on position of man-cheer leader. Things weren't working out for Cameron and he decided enough was enough after slamming too many times. After we decided to head over to this little bump to manual spot where we met up with Matt and Dwight, another camera man on the scene. We dorked around at this spot still trying to warm up and decided it was time to move on, get some food and go to a "real" spot. Beh0ld, the ever so secret(not anymore) barrier spot! Some serious brooming was needed while all of us camera dudes set up. It was super hot that day so we all got drinks before we decided to really throw down. Joel had a great time trying to skate the spot, and by great I mean horrible time. Our friend Aaron on the other hand got a nice trick and had a somewhat easy time doing so. In the end Joel got his trick too but was disgusted with the spot and how hard it was to skate.

Dwight in full lurk effect and
fully unsure of me taking pictures.


Ryan Alexander: Next level
video camera shit. Ty Evans
watch your back.


"I get brain freeze so easy!"
Aaron proves his word is
always true.


If there were awards at spots for
the most improved skater, Joel
would have won this time. Just
playing!


A victim of peer pressure, Cameron ass-focussed
his board.