LA Story

4/27/04
It was Wends day morning and time to get back on that skateboard. We headed back to Glendale. The parking lot was clean and the dust was gone and we settled into a good session. I was finally getting my concrete legs back under me and was having a blast in the snake run. The pool coping on the 3/4 pocket was killer. A bunch of crazy old timers with 11" decks were carving like cutlery around the kidney pool at speed. James was doing frontside tail slides in the 3/4 section of the clover bowl. That thing is about 11' deep and goes to about 10 o'clock. Radical Mon. Glendale is definatly one of the best parks in the US. After working up a good sweat and a powerful thirst, we headed for the Santa Monica Pier for a bev and a little sight seeing. On the way out we checked out the Feed that Homeless day down on Venice Beach. Lots of bums and freaks down there. Later we linked up with some friends of adams and went to have diner and watch the Hockey game on TV. Don Maddog showed and we went to another local dive bar for a few more. Then it was back to Adam's crib and the couch.

4/28/04
The next day it was back to Chino. I had a blast skating the snake run and was getting some good fast carve lines going. Adam was sessioning the Clover pool with some grinds so I joined in. Louie was doing some hot b-side early grab crave airs. Then we were on the road again and headed to legendary skate spot, the mt. Baldy Fullpipe. I had seen pictures of this place since my first Skateboarder Magazine, and it was like going to hollowed ground. Mt. Blady is a run off pipe for a large water reservoir above the pipe. You have to park up on the end of this little neighbor hood and the walk about a half mile to the pipe. As we entered to restricted area, adam was in the lead, going down a pile of rocks, when I hear him exclaim"HOLY SHIT!!". Right at his feet, and nestled in the rocks is the biggest rattlesnake I have every seen. Way bigger than that shit on the Discovery channel. Need less to say, we avoided the snake and continued on our way. After successfully getting past security, we descended into the "line" which leads to the pipe. As you approach the pipe, you have to get over a pit containing more runoff tunnels, that is about 15ft deep with a bridge made of a metal highway guard rail. This hole lies about 30yds down slope of the pipe, so if you lose your board, it's gone to the bowls of hell. Someone has put some quickcrete mix along the bottom of the pipe, making it much smoother that it was before (or so I am told), Everything was quiet, and all you could hear were the echo's of lour soft wheels in the pipe. It was like crazy graffiti strewn cathedral to skateboarding. After a quick little session, we left, and snuck past security once again. To avoid the rattler, we took at different path out, only to be stopped once again. I was in the lead this time, and right before hitting the street our car was on, "HOLY SHIT!!" There was that snake right under my feet. The gatekeeper to Baldy was once again avoided, and we continued on to the most dangerous part of my LA Ad venture... The Upland skatepark. We arrived at 2 in the afternoon, and the park was still locked up. This place is surrounded by a fence that would make the federal penal system proud. No way to skate, if they don't want you to. Radam got on the cell and called the city. "did they forget to unlock it again?" was the reply. "I'll send somebody over" the city official proclaimed. Sure enough, about 10 minutes later, a guy in a truck pulls up, runs over unlocks the gate, jumps back in his truck and takes off. Time to sesh. There is not much at this park. A little street area surrounded by some nice banks, and one HUGE, FAST, SLICK, FULLPIPE. The fullpipe connects into this really deep bowl at the end. The whole run is one a down hill slant, making for max speed when you hit the fullpipe. Although this pipe is smaller than the pipe in Louisville, I think it is gnarly due to the speed, slope and lack of flat at the lead in. It was also inc readably slick, and you had to be on it at all times. I am sure that this place is extremely rad once you skated it a few times, but my hick ass was scared shitless everytime I dropped in. But I did get over vert. Maybe 9:30. Not bad for an old man. Some 15 yr olds showed up and started going about 11 0'clock, Time for my old ass the go home. We hit the road back to hollywood, and to some place named Barney's Beanery for dinner. supposed to be some famous hollywood spot. They had Hot waitresses.

4/29/04
For my finally day in the land of surf and sun, we headed south toward The O.C. First we stopped at Bellflower for a little warm up session. This was a fun little public park. No attendant, and no pads. Nice street area, and a fun but weird little bowl. The bowl started at nothing and ran down to about 5' deep. Pretty cool little place for a mellow laid back session. After about half an hour of hard skating, we moved further south, to the Etenies park in Lakewood. This place is unbelieveable This is the only other park that I have seen that is on the same scale as the Louisville, KY park. This park is truly a must skate destination. To one side there is a tremendous street area with banks, curbs, ledges, rails, stairs and other fake street stuff. This area is about the size of half a football field. Enough to keep the kiddies happy all day. The street area connects into the freeflow area. This part is about the best freeflow area I have ever seen. I asked Adam to show me the line, and he replied, "You just kinda dive in and let it happen." He was right. More lines are possible at this place than any other place in SoCal. The flow area goes anywhere from 10' down to 5', and is HUGE. You don't ever have to stop. Next to this is a killer clover with a 6' square entrance into about a 9' kidney shape. Just a little vert and steel coping. Next to that is perfect keyhole pool, 6' to about 10' with real tile and pool coping. We skated long and hard in the blazing California sun. The only downside to this park is the no camera rule. I whipped out my vid cam to take some footage and was nagged on by the attendant."Only from outside the fence", he told me, "Because of insurance". Later, I stuck my arm through the fence, to take a still shot (body outside fence, Camera inside) and got yelled at for that one also. They are the same about pads and helmets. Even though you have to put up with the Nazi attendants, the park is definitely worth it. After skating for a couple hours, it was time to head back North. We had a link up to go check out the making of the "Lords of Dogtown" movie set, but heard that they were not shooting any of the skating, and Tony and the boys wouldn't be there, so we blew it off. Next we hit the Pedro Project. this is a small community skaterbuilt park, under a bridge a la burnside. It was small and rough, but it looks like they were building more stuff. We didn't stay long. Bake to Hollywood, and ordered a pizza.

4/30/04
The next day I flew back to K-town, was picked up at McGhee-Tyson by Nate, who took me straight out for a Sat Night in west Knoxville. After a week in LA, it was culture shock all over. It had been a killer trip to skate SoCal, something I had been wanting to do for 25 years. I realized again how much fun skating can be. With more parks being built everyday, I might have to go back, soon.

Upland
Adam, 9:10
jcab
Rippin kid #1
Rippin kid #2
Rippin kid #2
Rippin kid #1
Baldy
up the line
it's a long way
but well worth it
Adam
jcab
 
Bellflower
jcab, disaster
local punk
Adam, Grind
jcab nose pickin'
 
Lake Forest
local kid ollie
local kid ollie 2
local kid ollie 3
jcab 3 in the Key
jcab kiwi
adam, backside layback
 
Pedro Project
local kid, kiwi
flying burrito brother 1
flying burrito brother 2

 

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