On February 19th, our friends at Purple Skunk in San Francisco put on a Skate Jam with SK8KINGS. It went off really big. Here’s a report from our guest correspondent, Maria Carrasco.

"Richy and I packed our bags in the O.C. and headed to the City by the Bay to have a skate shindig with our northern California pals. We landed in town on Friday and were greeted by a ton of rain and freezing temperatures! We tried to stay positive that, by Sunday, the clouds would clear and the sun would be out and we were not disappointed."

"We started the big day as planned: at Purple Skunk Boardshop for continental breakfast, a prize raffle and schwag throwout. Lizzie and the Skunks were top notch hosts – with a great spread of breakfast goodies on hand. Earlybirds, Gary Holl and Jon Bunn busted out some freestyle right there in the store while we waited for our guests to arrive! Just before noon the raffle started with tons of product donated by:

ABEC-11, ALL STAR SLIDERS, BELL, CONCRETE WAVE MAGAZINE, FLOWLAB, GF HURLEY, GIRO, KHIRO, LANDYACHTZ, NSS, POCKET PISTOLS, POWELL PERALTA/SKATE ONE, PURPLE SKUNK, ROCKET RONS BEARINGS, SEISMIC, SK8KINGS, S-ONE, TRACKER, TUNNEL, VOLCOM, VOX/INNES, & Z-FLEX. Huge thanks to these sponsors and to Purple Skunk for the awesome hospitality!

From there, the party moved to nearby Golden Gate Park to run a hybrid slalom course set by the Brown Bomber on Conservatory Drive West and then to finish with a freestyle jam, lead by SK8KINGS team members Richy Carrasco, Gary Holl and Jon Bunn. Richy brought a loaner AXE and other racers lent out some gear to help the newbies get a taste of what slalom was all about. Big props to a lot of experienced racers who showed up – Bruce Brewington, Norski, Judi Oyama, John Ravitch, John Kim (all the way from Korea), Mark Johnson, Drew Lunsford, Slim and even Gary Holl, who made his slalom re-debut. NCDSA founder Adam was there with his two darling girls, too. A good number of local kids showed up and were having a ball trying to make the course on their street boards. It would be great to see the Sunday sessions at GGP become a regular occurrence and a breeding ground for new local racers once again! This is actually where some of the early racing in the recent rebirth of slalom took place. Golden Gate Park on Sundays is closed to car traffic – making it a great spot for skateboarding.

After the running of the cones -- a freestyle session got underway around the corner with the famous Victorian Conservatory of Flowers as a backdrop. Joining the SK8KINGS team were Wally S., Jimmy, Mark Johnson, John Ravitch, Rodney from Purple Skunk, and two other local kids who were killin’ it! Each skater took turns busting out tricks in a jam format, drawing a nice crowd of cheering park goers who appreciated the skills of the skaters. The freestyle session lasted about two hours, until the grand finale of Richy breaking his kingpin while spinning 360’s and Gary Holl space-walking through close-set slalom cones. It seemed like everyone was having as much fun as Richy and I were and we can’t wait to do it again! Super stoked that Purple Skunk is so supportive of the scene. The Bay Area locals are lucky indeed! "