E.M.

Took a trip for the weekend to Michigan with the likes of Isaac and Joel. We perched up at Sir Ben Schwandt's place and had a grand ol' weekend of shredding. We also met up with Justin Bohl and Joe Ferry. It was a little exhausting doing two days of hard skating in a row but the pay off was great. Everyone got tricks, had fun and even learned a valuable lesson about dealing dope and how to not get set up. This blog is for the dope man of Eastern Market that once was up but now is down!

The gays came to invade America.


Stretching, or something.

Ben "One More Try" Schwandt,
biggie boardslide pop in.


Back ups. Isaac lipslide 5-0 down.


Joe, front smith.


Dudes hanging out in Eastern Market.




Isaac, front nose fakie.





Discussing tricks at Cass.


Ben, gap out crooks at Cass.


Beaters + asphalt


Tuesday.

Don't mind me, only here to pillage the scene.

*I lied a little. This post is not from Arizona but in fact from a day trip to Hamilton consisting of Byron, Zach and Hamilton locals Sam Fidlin, Garret Gardiner and Brandon Sheppard. They were kind enough to risk their lives in the hot hot heat and show us around for the day. We checked a few spots here and there, got a few flicks and clips and then decided to pack it in due to the heat. 35 degrees celsius due to humidity really isn't that fun so either stay inside or do some real skating and skate the park all day. Check the photos below.

Yeah, really.


Malfunctions. Dopest setup.


It was hot.


It was hot.


Byron, switch o.


Sam, nosebonk.


Sam's van is a limited edition collab between
his mom, AWS, Satan and Deathwish. So hot
for summer '09.

*All pictured above is not real skateboarding.

Filthy.

Well, I think it's safe to say that summer is finally here. The days where you're constantly stick and uncomfortable are unavoidable and it's in your best interest if you don't get the middle of the back seat while riding from spot to spot. This past weekend I had the pleasure of skating three different cities. Each day was productive and fun and with that it reminded me of the good times to come during the summer. Exams are over, school is out and it's time to fucking shred!

Victory dog.


The sombrero sold us on who we should have
bought 'dogs from.


Isaac, nose manny 5-0 on a steep bank.

REALLY?


Just filthy.


100 blog posts deep AND 12 days until I'm in the hottest
place in North America...yayuh!

London Falling

Byron and I headed to London to meet up with the usual suspects for the day last Sunday. On this particular day everyone's skateboards decided it'd be cool if nobody rolled away from their tricks. Road rash(on the ass, I might add), wooden planters, shitty boards and skate coach dads were some of the numeral factors involved. Contrary to the negativity of this post, we did get some photos! Feast your eyes below.

If I had paid attention this sequence would
be shot and laid out properly. Byron, nollie
biggie.


Tim did not land his tricks.


Colin, switch ollie over mother duck.

Diiiiiirrrtyyy D!

This past weekend I took a trip down to Michigan to hang out and skate with some homies that I met up with last summer. Friday night Justin and I just took a cruise around downtown Detroit for spot ideas and to get a look at all the freakin' weirdos down there. It all came back to me how much I really loved the place!

Saturday was a bit of a change from just cruising around. Out at noon and in by 2am, it was a shred mission! For the most part, we stuck to downtown Detroit with Dave, Adam, Tony, Daryl and Ben. The day went pretty smooth seeing as there wasn't one security guard interaction the entire day, it was a nice change.

On Sunday we kept it a bit more mellow with pretty much the same crew. This time we stuck to the 'burbs and actually had more problems with superhero-citizens and police than we did downtown. Bummer. Regardless, we kept on with our day heading from spot to spot. Soon enough the day came to an end and I had to head back to good 'ol Canada. It seems like there's never enough time to stay, skate and hangout with all the Michigan dudes.

Adam, tre flip to the skinny.


Ben, ollie up backside flipper.


Adam with a pretty-lookin' front shove.


Dave, nose manny around.


HOT OFF THE PRESS! Justin with a casual
back tail.


"Look Ma, no hands!" Justin again with a switch
crook pop out.


Adam, backside flip at turbo speedz.


Chris came through with this gnarly back
50 and popped back into the bank.



Seems like the minute I get back from Michigan
I'm making more plans to get there again.

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.