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Weekend Skating in Birmingham - 04/12 and 04/13
Saturday 04/12/08
Started the day bright and early with a fun little session at Homewood park. The day was sunny and beautiful, but slightly chilly (55 degress) with a weird cold front and VERY windy! I had fun skating the little mini-ramp again, and was pleasantly surprised to see Peter Karvanen and Ben Gilley show up. I hadn't seen Ben in about 8 months. We caught up on all he as been up to in his life as a pro skateboarder. haha He is home for a short while but then off again to travel and skate all summer. Rough eh? Peter and Ben were playing some games of SKATE. I was just playing around, going through my tricks just to make sure I had them still, and teaching a LOT of the little kids how to pump and/or drop in. It's always fun to teach the next generation. Around 2 PM, I headed off to Vets skate park. It was PACKED! Along with the usual 20 or weekend locals, a church group from Cullman showed up with about 25 more kids! Eddings and Spinosi were holding court at the bowl. I jumped right in and had a blast. Great day to be skating. Too bad we don't have the other old regulars showing up. Maybe that will change soon.
Peter tranfers over the hip with a nice ollie as the kids look on
Peter tranfers over the hip with a nice ollie as the kids look on
Peter pops a sweet backside ollie to tail
Peter pops a sweet backside ollie to tail
Unknown transfers over the hip into a frontside 50-50
Unknown transfers over the hip into a frontside 50-50
Peter midway in a nice ollie
Peter midway in a nice ollie
Ben Gilley pops out of an ollie blunt
Ben Gilley pops out of an ollie blunt
Ben pops another ollie blunt
Ben pops another ollie blunt
Peter follows up with an ollie blunt too
Peter follows up with an ollie blunt too
Peter and Ben...old friends
Peter and Ben...old friends
Ben pulls a tip-toe backside ollie to tail
Ben pulls a tip-toe backside ollie to tail
Skaters and spectators around the bowl
Skaters and spectators around the bowl
Not much unused space in the street section
Not much unused space in the street section
Line up to the bank and rails
Line up to the bank and rails
Busy bowl for once
Busy bowl for once
Eddings in the thick of the crowd
Eddings in the thick of the crowd
Jason learns double truck carve grinds in the shallow!
Jason learns double truck carve grinds in the shallow!
Line up in the street section
Line up in the street section
Mark hucks up a frontside air
Mark hucks up a frontside air
Jason hits another double-trucker as Eddings looks on
Jason hits another double-trucker as Eddings looks on
Another shot of Eddings in a frontside air
Another shot of Eddings in a frontside air
Gonzo from Cullman ripping the bowl
Gonzo from Cullman ripping the bowl
Ground level as Eddings takes to the sky
Ground level as Eddings takes to the sky
Eddings plays king of his kingdom
Eddings plays king of his kingdom
Scott rides a 50-50 down the 5-stair hubba
Scott rides a 50-50 down the 5-stair hubba
Jason Green's company gets represented!
Jason Green's company gets represented!
NO SESSION SUNDAY! 04/13/08
The idea for this session started with posts on the SkateAlabama.com forum. Someone mentioned getting folks from Huntsville down to the park. I quickly reminded all that every time we plan a session, no one shows up...so maybe the reverse was true....if we didn't plan a session, everyone would come? So I dubbed this "NO SESSION SUNDAY". I showed up at the park a little after it opened at 1 PM. Quite a few kids were already there. It was also chilly again and much more windy than yesterday. Maybe that's why the session curse struck again. It ended up that only Tim Spinosi and me showed up to skate. The Huntsville guys had last minute changes in plans. We made the best of a beautiful day regardless. The sun was out, and we were riding skateboards. What more could you want?!?! The wind made it tough at times to skate. It was just that windy out. With only Tim and I skating (along with the local kids), it gave me a lot of time to work on whatever I wanted. I had fun actually trying some new tricks out there and working to get others down even better. It was a good day.
Michael hits a nice smith grind down the hubba ledge
Michael hits a nice smith grind down the hubba ledge
Michael in a smith grind from another angle
Michael in a smith grind from another angle
Solomon learns a new trick...and no it is not dropping in! haha
Solomon learns a new trick...and no it is not dropping in! haha
Solomon doing it again with some style haha
Solomon doing it again with some style haha
Scott flips the bench (1.38 Mb video)
Scott flips the bench (1.38 Mb video)
Solomon gets another one
Solomon gets another one