MI+CA do KW

This weekend good friends Justin Bohl from Michigan and Paul Kwon from California came up to Kitchener to hang out and skate. I was pretty stoked to host and show them around so we skated here for a day and then hit up Toronto. Lucky for them they got to see the type of interesting characters that the downtown core has to offer. We did the meet-and-greet deal with a bunch of dudes here and they even had the chance to skate the super-park known as the Kitchener Auditorium. Toronto was more of a day for spot checking and cruising around so we didn't get any flicks for Sunday but check out the goods below.

Paul, easy-peasy frontboard 270 out at
Southworks.


Justin, 180 nosegrinds for days.


Paul, switch crook.


More of these two to come in the future! In the meantime
check out Paul's blog(at the right) for another account of the trip.

When Henry's doesn't fuck up....

I get pretty stoked.

Here's a fine example of Henry's getting my film back to me in three days without destroying the negs or damaging them other ways. They even cut them like I asked too! Anyways, peep the shots below for some film goodness.

Sampson hates my camera and I but I still
love the dude. Look at that facial expression....
so stoked.


One of those days where the flash rain storms
roll through and swallow the sun.


Beans in Toronto.


Lucas rolling through.


Scott, front tail to fakie. Check a few posts back
and you'll see why film rules over digital.


Another prime example of why film kicks
digital's ass. Scott, frontboard pop in to regs.


Joel, a high switch crook and a nice haircut!


And now for a lesson in skateboarding.

Mad Dash

The weather lately has been in the same pattern as a crack-head's mood. One moment, the sun is the shining, the sky is blue, there might be a few clouds in the sky and an hour later the clouds have rolled in for a flash rain storm. Give it 15 minutes or so and everything dries up, humid as all hell. On this particular day I had met up with Kody, Damien and Luc while we ran back and forth between Kitchener and Waterloo dodging the dark storm clouds until they finally got the best of us and shut us up inside market square. Peep the snap on Damien's trick...zaaaammmm!

Lucas, kickflip in. The light was right.


Damien, nollie backside 270 heelflip.
(click for larger)

Nutty

Damien has been back in town for a couple weeks now but this was the first day we actually got out to go skateboarding. It was a treat for both of us since we went to check out/skate the new barrier spot in town. We dinked around for a bit and saw some interesting people before we got down to business. All in all, I guess King street does have a lot to offer when it comes to types of people...this is not always a good thing. Scott and Grant pretty much appeared out of no where so we zipped around the corner to try and get a trick at the mini hydrant. Between large busses, other traffic, different schedules and drunk natives getting angry at us, we had to cut the session short and weren't able to come through with a landed photo, but it's all good. Take a look for the flicks and an interesting story below.

Damien, front tail up.


Ah yes, this dude was not stoked
on us. He came over to me and
gave a good kick at my camera,
saying we were all pussies(with
some awfully funny gestures) and
that we needed to get real jobs.


Damien, the mediator and Scott in the back
being my camera bag protector. Thanks buddy.


Yeah, Scott didn't land this
but it's purrrddyyy looking.
Heelflip.


Gotta love the downtown Kitchener bus terminal.

A sight for sore eyes

Checked my email the other day and got a lovely message from a good buddy Matt Pancer. He's posted up in China right now after about two years of living in Australia. Needless to say, the dude didn't forget his gnar boots after leaving Canada almost three years ago. See you soon homie!

Matt gettin' buck in Shanghai
with a one-foot 14 stair
cracker.

If you're bored on this rainy night....

Here are a couple things to check out:

The guys over at Push.ca just threw up a Love Skateboards interview along with their full length video "Sextape". Check it out here.

Jim Tumey just got his new website going and loaded up his video "Shred Til Yer Dead" that they've been filming for over the past couple years. Most of them are based out of Michigan but have relocated themselves to AZ. Definitely worth checking out here.

Meds

This morning I woke up to wet streets and a sky full of dark clouds, I wasn't too impressed. As the day went on, the weather started to shape up. I eagerly watched the sun come out from behind the clouds through my classroom window with one intention in mind: skateboarding. I called up Scott and made the plans, we had a skate date. I met him and Greg downtown after class at the hot new barrier spot. Apparently the city can't do shit about building a good skatepark but they can provide great street spots. Anyways, a Friday afternoon in the middle of King street was a lot busier than I had anticipated. We met and saw a few usual characters you'll find on the downtown streets, got our photos and got out. Next, we headed on out to Waterloo to check out some ledges. The spot was great, two different ledges in one. Just like the previous spot, we got there, got the goods and took off. By this time the gray clouds had made their way back into our sky and a rain ensued. We packed it in and decided today was a good day for productivity. Amen!

This lady was just going off about random
stuff. People across the street were gossiping,
telling everyone she had forgotten to take
her meds that morning.


Scott, a busy frontboard pop in.


Greg, boardslide pop out to fakie.


Scott, tailslide fakie.


Scott, warm-up gap back 5050.


Until next time...

Dev'd Up

A big reason I like going to London is because there's this camera store called Stan C. Reade that develops 120 film in one day for super cheap. Whenever I've got a few rolls of film that I need developed I never hesitate to bring it there. What could be better than dropping off film in the morning, heading off to skate and picking up your slides at the end of the day? Nothing! Anyways, here's some film clips from the past week or so, enjoy!

Isaac, ollie down on to the skinny block.


Colton, front blunt.


Scott, noseblunt.


Isaac, kickflip. A damn shame this spot is gone
now, it was dope!


Colton, backside 180 nosegrind.


Mack-dawg, lipslide 270 shove out.


I threw in a couple sequences for turbo enjoyment, holla.

It's coming...

Freedom...

GAMS

I headed on down(over? up?) to London Friday night with plans to get some good skating in on Saturday. A few people had wanted to shoot some things and best of all, Justin and Mike were coming from Michigan to hang out for the weekend. I was pretty stoked on that fact alone since I hadn't seen Mike since the summer and Justin since Cali so the trip to London was worth it just because of that. Anyways, Saturday morning we all warmed up a Vic and met up with some Kitchener and London dudes. The crew was fairly large so we all split up, going our separate ways. The weather was super nice, like 25 degrees Celsius nice. Anyways, we got the flicks and that's all that matters. Big up to Mr. Cameron Black for the hospitality, I'll be back soon!

Colin, warm up front nose.


20 minutes (including warm
up) was all Mike needed to get
this back smithers.


15 minutes after the photo of the back smith, the clouds rolled up and it started raining super hard. Driving on the 401 at night in the pouring rain sucks. Until next time...

STAY UP PLAYER!

My good homie Kody has been having a bit of a rough first month of skating. True, he has been killing as of late, but the other night he just happened to break his leg. Definitely a bumming way to kick off skate season but he'll be back in no time.

A few days prior to his accident,
frontside bigspin off the bump and through
the trees.


Hardest trick ever: staying positive.


Get better soon home boy.

ZING!

It was getting sort of later in the day and I had things to do later on so we really only go to skate two spots. At the first spot, I shot film so you'll be seeing that later, but for now here are two sequences we got at this flatbar. It was pretty much a strobe-light session with the flashes popping off but Luc and Scott got through it. In the wise words of Scott, "If you're going to shoot a sequence at night...just don't."

Lucas, frontside 5-0 front shove out.


Scott, boarslide 5050 on a zip-zinger.

Cali Memories

I had about four rolls of 35mm film in my fridge that I had shot through my AE-1, yet to be developed. I finally got around to developing and scanning the negs and to my surprise I had some snap shots from my California in January on there. Check 'em out below.

This shutdown school
had some cool architecture and
the most buttery curved ledge
ever at it.


San Pedro park


San Pedro park. Seeing these groms learning
to skate at this park blew my mind. Now I know
where all those teen tranny killers come from
in Cali.


San Pedro park


Nevada mountains. I was fucking terrified seeing
snow from the plane window, after all, I was
leaving that white shit to soak in some warm
rays.


Dan Cohen nosegrinding while his homie
watches. I forget your name, sorry dude.


Justin and Ben cruising.


The alleyway at Paul's place.


Paul driving down the PCH.


Paul, Brian and Ben pushin' around.


Scanning those on to my computer put a little smile on my face.

Ankle Destruction

It was just another day of skating with Lucas, Mack, Isaac, Joel and Graham. We went to check out this new stair spot that got the vote from everyone. It was pretty easy to skate so everyone got busy trying to get tricks. Unfortunately, Graham destroyed his ankle trying to get his. Get better buddy!

Next spot, Mack and Luc had some business they wanted to take care of at Seagrams so we headed out that way. In no time both dudes got their flicks and we were on our way to meet up with Scott, Josh and Grant. We tried to check a few spots but nothing was happening. Mack and Luc were still fiendin' to skate so we checked a few more spots and met up with some other dudes. It was getting late and chilly so we headed back downtown to check out some cemented up barriers. It was fun for the time being but the cops weren't feeling it. They even went as far to send a cop to kick us out with the name "S. Slaughter"...comforting. It was late and everyone decided to pack it in so we did just that. Pictures below, fool!

Isaac, kickflip.


Luc felt like hanging out in the shade, no biggie.


Lucas, front smith 180 out. Easy peasy for
this buddy.


Luc, Jesse and Mack.


Lucas, front tail.