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GALLERY
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©2002 Team Ping All rights reserved.
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A skate park in Milton, Florida?!?! Who'd have thunk it!?!? Well, of all places, yes, the small town of Milton got a very nice, Team Pain-built, skate park about 2 years ago. I had heard
all about it but had not had the chance to make it there. It's only slightly north of Pensacola (about 20-25 min) which is only about 40 minutes from my family in Gulf
Shores so no excuses. While visiting the family for Thanksgiving, I thought, why not finally go check out Milton myself? But if I was going to do that, I wanted to make sure I did
the tour right! To do so, I needed the help of the ESB crew out of Gulf Shores (Pete "Tater" Ledlow, Rob "Boob" Andrews, Tom "Baller" Ball, Tim Malkoskie, Jason
Bean, Cridge, Steven, Bill Bradley...just to name a few). Tater and Baller skate Milton so often, they are considered locals, so I knew they had to invited along! I had put in calls before getting down there on Monday, and we
made the plans for a Tuesday morning session. At 7:30 am on Tuesday, we all met up over at Tater's house where Tom Ball is renting. I haven't skated early in the morning
in a long time....thank God for coffee! We had a few stragglers and some no-shows (most notable being Steven...who as Tom said "fell victim to the titties", ie. his girlfriend! haha), so we got a bit of a late start. Around 8am, Tater, Baller, Tim, Bean and I headed out
for the 1 hr and 15 min drive. With pit stops for drinks, we pulled up to the Milton park at 9:30 am.
I circled around checking the whole place out and snapping pics as
the others got down to warming up. I was very impressed with what I saw. In roughly a 7000 sq. ft. area, they had put in a helluva nice park. In fact, this is truly a
"one push park" which is rare enough to find as well. Sooo many lines there to keep you busy forever! Team Pain had done a nice job. I watched the others and
tried to figure out some lines all around the park. It took a while to get use to it all. Like I said, so many lines!...it can be a little overwhelming! haha I don't think
you can go there with the mindset that you are going to rip that place right off. It will take you at least one session to just get use to it all. After about
an hour or so though, I had found about 3 good lines I really liked and just worked on getting those down faster and faster. I was having a blast! Tater and the guys
kept commenting on how lucky we were that a lot of kids were not there yet (they had been there the day before and were swamped by the kids who are out of school all week).
We pretty much had the place to ourselves for the first few hours. However, Tater must have jinxed us by saying it too much. Around noon, the kids started showing up in
2's and 3's. I had been warned beforehand by the guys....they said that some kids are good about watching out and skating the park right but then there a lot that are clueless
and you must be on guard to watch out for. Even that warning was an understatement! There were kids just dropping in whenever, launching decks into the bowl and then laughing
about it with no apparent rush to retrieve them, "butt boarding" nonsense, laying around on or in front of obstacles, and much more. Now I understood why these guys get over there and session so early or
when school is in! By about 1 PM, not only had we all had enough of the kids, but we were beat from skating too. But we were far from done....the crew wanted to show me their
post-session tradition....all-you-can-eat sushi and beers!
Apparently they found a sushi buffet place in Pensacola, and had talked the owner into letting them bring their
own beers in (since the place does not serve alcohol). The owner lets them bring it in, but he has to pour it for them into glasses. What a deal! We headed back to Pensacola
and made a stop by a place they went on and on about...Wine World. It had the most insane selection of beer I had seen in a long time. We grabbed our "lunch beer"
and went literally right around the corner to the Nippon Buffet. They weren't kidding about the owner hooking them up! This guy loves seeing them come in because they always bring
a good crowd along too. I got to meet the owner, Chuck, as we got in, and they took us to the "special" table....or as Baller called it the "mafia section". haha
Skating for 3+ hours had worked up an appetite....we dug right in and just gorged on all the great sushi, seaweed salad, miso soup, etc. It was awesome!!!
But again, the day was not over yet. My great tour guides wanted to take me by one last place. A good friend of theirs and ripping local skater, Greg,
had moved his skate shop to the Cordova mall....which just happened to be right across from the sushi place. Although they all have their "issues" with mall
skate shops, they still support Greg and wanted to introduce me. Greg's shop is called Klik, and is laid out pretty well. Of course, being in the mall, it does cater to a
different kind of crowd (read as "non-skaters wanting to bogart the skater style") so the shop was heavy on trendy clothes and the flashy, limited edition skate
shoes. But as Tater and them said, if they need anything not in there, Greg is great about ordering it and giving them a good deal. We bullshitted with Greg for a while
as we looked around. Tater ended up buying some wheels, and Baller bought some new 187 park pads. Mission accomplished. By now, it was 4 PM and time to head back to Gulf Shores.
I was so tired and worn out after the long day, so thankfully it was a quick ride. We all unloaded back over at Tater's house. I thanked the whole crew and said my good-byes. We
planned to get up early and do it all again the next day, but I had family things to do and missed out. I am sure I will be back to Milton VERY soon though. A BIG thanks to the ESB
crew for playing great hosts and tour guides as well as including me in their "secret spot" after session activities. haha Till next time.... |
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Photos |
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Bright and early at Baller and Tater's house
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Tater's latest home set-up
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First look at Milton skate park at 9:30 am
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Dems da rules
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Memorial statue and Team Pain sign on back of the vert wall
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Official plaque
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The whoop-de-do to spine and vert wall combo section
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Checking out the small snake run-ish section to the mini-pocket
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Getting ready to get down!
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view from the back right corner
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Looking down the small street-ish section
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Baller on the tities
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Checking out the little corner
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Little corner into the whoop-de-do
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view from the back left corner
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view from the front left corner
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Tater getting to the lip backside in the pocket
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Tom Ball warming up
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Tim gets speed over the big titty
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Tater pushes a BIG carve around the over-vert pocket frontside
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Tim Malkoskie zips through the corner
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Tater backside grinding the over-vert pocket as the crew looks on
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Baller getting up in the pocket
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Bean making noise backside
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Looking from shallow to deep as Tater works the lines
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Tom Ball flaps his wings frontside
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Baller backside double trucking over the hump
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Solomon rocking out on the deep end face wall
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Tater over the love seat
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Baller pressure ollies over the hip
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Tater hucks a fronstide air
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Tom Ball gets high on the tombstone
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Local ripper frontside boardslides the tombstone
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End of the session as the kids start to show up...and lay around in front of obstacles
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Pit stop for beverages
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Hitting the after session spot Nippon Buffet
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The whole gang settles in for sushi
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The owner Chuck pours up the suds
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This is how to end a session! All you can eat sushi!
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Checking out Greg's new shop at Cordova mall
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BS sesh with Greg
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The Crew heads into the sunset
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Video |
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Solomon plays in the little pocket (1.14 Mb WMV video)
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Solomon rockin n' rollin (3.19 Mb WMV video)
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Tater shows how locals do it (3.36 Mb WMV video)
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Solomon takes a run WITH DECK LAUNCHED IN ON HIM! Hint: Look under the love seat on the second pass.(2.51 Mb WMV video)
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