a history lesson:
i love when i get to skate some skateboarding history. skateboarding has given so much to me and brought so much love and so many extremely awesome people into my life. if it's just something you do, maybe you should just go play tennis or golf because we need more love and less bla bla blaise. skateboarding is not here to make you look cool or feel like you are better than someone else because you're holding a skateboard as you walk through an airport or because you have skate shoes on. anyone can do that. ride it like you own it or die trying...forever.
just feel like giving thanks to everyone before me who made something extremely rad for skateboarding and constantly gives back instead of take take take. if you are concerned that this might be directed at you well it just might be. i'm going to keep rolling towards something better in my life. and hope to roll back towards KONA in the near future. words can not describe the positive vibe eminating as soon you pass through that front gate. a place where you can camp, leave to skate something different and not worry about leaving your belongings behind because nobody is there to fuck with you.
we headed out on thursday afternoon from a beautiful sunny day in a bunkass town where the park is always empty. spring break, you'd think someone would be out shredding and we drove by just to see and nope, it was empty. thank gawd we were headed out of town for the weekend. florida bowlriders was happening and toast skateboards sent us some gas money to hit the road in support of wrex who was showing some gratitude back to toast and representing them in one of the funnest events we've ever been to. thanks again toast skateboards - for not only providing some sick wood to ride but also supporting those who bring positive things back to a world that every one of us owes thanks for allowing us to be a part of it - skateboarding.
hammond from trife street and altown concrete addict trekked along with us. he's a great travelmate. nothing better than looking in the rearview and seeing a smile everytime. adam also hopped in for the adventure and we were on our way. we saw a lot of hilarious things but we were so excited about getting to our destination, we laughed and kept rolling. no time for pics.
hammmond said we must stop in columbus georgia and trusting the dude's opinion, this is what we did. wrex barfed up some handy andy cheeseburger first thing then commenced to shredding. hammond got sick grinds over the stairs in the pool and wrex got sick grinds over the deathbox. they were killing it. the park was pretty fun but i would have added some waterfalls to the amoeba-ish type bowl that had a twinkie in it. the trannies were mellower than expected and the flow snakerunthing could have been funner if it were designed a little better but that's what you get when california skateparks comes to your town. but nonetheless skateboarding is fun and we can have fun wherever we're skating with friends.
we skated for a couple of hours then hit the road in search of a manger to rest our bones. heading out of columbus, which is home to some sort of military base, every exit was blocked off so we made it farther to richland i think where found a place to crash.
up with the sun, we got our things together and headed back out for the last leg of the trip. we rolled into kona about 3 in the afternoon and spotted jean rusen, queef candy ripper friend from arizona. ah it was a sight for sore eyes. we go in, get wrex registered, sign our waivers (hammond was already on file because dude loves kona and goes there so often). we then picked a campsite, chilled for a lil bit then hit the park i think. can't remember, things get hazy here. this was before the ohio crew showed up. quite, calm, relaxing.
we hung out and skated. most of the park was pretty empty because everyone was at new smyrna getting in some licks for the next day's competition. that's ok, we were one of 5 or 6 tents... some crew from ohio showed up and barged our front porch. that's ok, they were entertaining til the one loudmouth hula hoop gypsy fried from acid raver showed up. not much sleep but who cares, it's KONA.
nothing can quite describe the snakerun other than well it's so fucking fun. you can go as fast as you want, or faster. faster than you ever wanted to but with the squirrelyness of your board, just hang on. i kept telling myself, it's the concrete, the ripply concrete, you're not getting the wobbles, just go go go!!!
the next day we got up kinda early, took some runs, stopped at the gas station and guessed our way to new smyrna with jean in tow. this park looks super fun. team pain not only designs with creative flow, they got a nice finish going on. here's a few pics from the park and competition. my battery was about to die so it didnt' make it past the first heat of the masters' division.
they had these classy cabanas that were perfect for the florida breeze in the shade
after the masters' announcements, we headed back to jacksonville with a quick stop at a taco stand. i had a chimi and a modelo, everyone else had either fish tacos or cuban sandwiches... mmmmmmm with skate videos on tap, it was a much needed bellyfillin break.
we got back to camp, took cold showers and more runs down the snake. it was quite an eventful night and everyone was excited about tomorrow's event. we skated til 1 in the morning. damn how time flies when you're having fun. i think hammmond didn't make it back to the tent until 3 or so.
here's a few highlights from the next day's event at the kona bowl
i was so proud the moment they called out "and from oxford, mississippi", i looked at wrex and he was like WHAT!!! despite the thousands of face breaking speed runs down the snake the past two days and catching up with him, he rip roared and slashed and as the judges said "rode the bowl like a pool instead of a miniramp". take note, kids.
curt baker and jean rusen watch and listen for the results.
josh mattson kills the bowl! he is an all or nothing kind of skater, does whatever it takes to make it out alive. someone even ran over his head as he was rolling in fakie, he got up and kept ripping. later he said "i might need stitches, should have worn my red shirt".
jean is the only female to ride in the masters' division with all the men. here she is getting some speedy front side carves. rip it queef candy!!
sky siljeg has a fast smooth style - as someone said "he's fully embraced the northwest"
pedro barros - there's nothing i can about this skater you don't already know.
brad mcclain
greyson fletcher - the future of smooth style
pedro barros tweaks out this huge air
tyler martin - super nice ripping fella from the northwest. he's got good genes.
hammond's favorite girl ripper - julie
nora - vert skater smooth style
well all of my awesome event pictures from kona are on my real camera for which i can not find the chord (yet). so as soon as those get loaded i will finish this gigantic epic post of the blog. until then, remember why we do it. i'm already planning our next adventure.
skate or cry.
