Best skate memory of the summer so far? Best answer WINS

[skategeezer]

Ok folks,

here's the first question of this forum...

What has been your best skate memory of the summer so far?

Best answer wins a CW DVD (best of season one of the tv show)

cheers,
Michael

[Metalhead8290]

Gettin my First longboard. the Gravity Hyper-carve. The first time riding it cant be beat.

[revelation2]

Hanging ten for a mile or so downhill...arms eagle spread, the wind flying through your hair.

Best non-skate related memory was hang-gliding in kitty hawk. There's nothing else like it.

[Bam Bam]

mine has been aranging BeatsWalkin, This whole thing has seriously changed my life. I can't wait to set off around Europe, and i can see myself doing it every year (in different places) for the rest of my life!

[ryan]

Working at Starbucks for a year and a half and then finaly quitting and buying myself the board of my dreams and a set of leathers. Then beeing able to take part in the King of NOVA race and blazing down the hill three wide into a turn that could barely fit three bodies. Towards the end of the turn I got knocked from behind and flipped off my board. I made it out unscathed thanks to the leathers I had worked so hard to get. Then driving home sharing stories about the perfect longboarding day.

[Rabid Skunk]

Summary of what I'm going to write about
Thursday: Brooklyn banks on my humu with nervous ned and mike d(pyrate)
Friday: Skate around Manhattan and then Friday night rip with the earthwing guys, also got a new sliding board, earthwing 35.5
Saturday: Skate 22.6 miles to the Farm on 4 hours of sleep with my friend and help cone marshall. Later that night, they gave Ryan and me each a new board. Also got pink gummies and ned let me borrow some trucks and wheels for the earthwing.
Sunday: Eat as much as possible and sleep the rest of the day after getting home
Monday: Get a huge fairfield crew together, do some slides and some downhill.

Great week. Best of the summer.

[Tyco]

[pithaya]

Riding a skatepark for the first time and watching someone skate a pool for the first time. I went to YMCA mission valley skatepark. Pumped up my first transitions, learning the rock and roll, dropping in and carving around a corner, I was in extasis. I met Annie, a S9 sponsored rider she showed me pool skating, I never thought it was such an extreme thing to do. I was amazed. Now my goal for next summer will be riding up to the coping.

[Andrew in Ontario]

i've had a GREAT skate-related summer.

Firstly, i got sponsored by Gravity.

Back in May my friend Robbie and i went to Toronto for Ben Jordan's Final shred before he left Toronto to start Push for the Cure. There must have been almost 50 boarders skating through downtown traffic stopping at garages along the way.

I also went to Ottawa to watch my first race, the 3rd annual Dovercourt slalom championships, i didnt compete but i got to see my friend malcolm, who came from BC to race. I also met up with some of the Ottawa crew for some good sliding, and 70k downhill in the Gatineaus (my first time really BOMBING a nice hill).

After that i went to Montreal to meet with Fabrice Gaeten and the Montreal crew. I skated down the top challenge course, and did some downtown riding. (The streets were packed because France had just beat portugal in the World Cup). There was also a slide session on the side of Mt. Royal.

But most of the time we spent at F's chalet about an hour north in the "mountains". I had never been surrounded by so many good hills!!
again there were probably about 40 skaters for the Chalet Freeride, speeds reaching the mid 80s for standup, and the few lugers and buttboarders probably 90k.
Once again i got to push my limits in DH, and there was some really sick sliding.

Skating has brought me so many places. Before this summer, the farthest i had been was muskoka, about 4 hours away for vacation with my parents, but i went 13 hours to Montreal by myself for a week to skate with people i had never met!!
it was incredible.

[worldridr768]

dude. that was like...beautiful. well, mine's not as good as Tyco's but here it is.

When I ordered my second "board", a 1970's scamp. I have a blast on that thing. the wobbly, loose trucks give you such a rush to ride. there so old, you can loosen and tighten them by hand! well, I was just carving down the road, after watching Lords Of Dogtown, and had some ideas. soon enough i started busting out those 70's style slides barehanded. It was amazing. I still do it!

Next, I ordered my Landyachtz Bomber deck. I was anxiously waiting for it to arrive. days and days go by, and Sam from Landyachtz calls me and tells me there was a shipping error, but I was lucky because their machines broke down the day after I ordered my board. Well, their shipping is a bit difficult, so i decided to go COD. I had it delivered to my moms office. I was really getting excited for it to come. after about 1 week, I get a phone call from my mom. she tells me that a package arrived for me in the office. I get in the car and my dad drives me over there. I run inside, and see this long box waiting for me. I kiss my mom goodbye, and go to NYC with my dad to River Side Park. Now, that board with R2 180's and flashbacks with reds is amazing. my dad was walking, and i was skating. suddenly after going over the minor banks and smooth asphalt, I go down a hill, and bust a slide at the end. This woman is staring at me, and I was thinking "here we go. another tighta$$ who hates me for what I do." she gives me this look, and says "That was awesome!" I felt great. I rode all the way down from 110th street to times square, a pretty decent distance, to my favorite BBQ place, Virgils. It was one of the best days of my life, and I plan on doing it again on the 19th with some friends.

My last moment is when I started my first day of work. It was close to my birthday, today, and My mom saw me eyeing the earthwing superglider on their website. I get a call from work, and its my mom telling me she was in the blades on broadway, and she went looking for the board, without me even asking. She asks for help, and the guy says: "well who better to help you than Brian Petrie himself?" my mom obviously doesnt know who that is, but then Brian comes out and helps my mom with the board. So, i get the call, thinking my mom is calling to nag me, but instead she sounds psyched about something. I ask whats going on, and she tell me she's with Brian from Earthwing! Then, she puts Brian on the phone because shes too excited to talk and whatnot. He starts telling me some attributes of the board, and about his new superballs that are soon to be released. well, when my mom picked me up from work, i see that brand new superglider, reflecting the light in its woven material (I have no idea what it's called). I run home and set it up the next day with RII's and flashbacks from my landyachtz. Now, i have my Crail DH's on there instead of the Randals. Well anyway, this summer has been one of the best, and I want to thank Brian and the guys at Earthwing one more time for making my summer this great.

[doctor worm]

either sliding with chris dahl in the rain in NYC or skating at munnsville with the kebbek team, team streetmissle, racing my silverfish buddies all day.

[EBasil]

Mine is a simple, family skate down San Diego's north coast. My wife, son and I just cruised down the sidewalks and highway fronting the water for miles. Our 5-year old kneeboards a 48" Phat and managed to pickup a crew of of skaters to ride with us for a few miles, too. Perfect skies, perfect weather, blue ocean, a light onshore breeze and big grins. Not at all "epic" but entirely cool.

[WalkTogether]

Skating around in a parking lot and finding these desks that a friend and I busted open for quick ramps. After finding out balls, we barged and skated our first pool right next door to the parking lot. It looked amazing and was newly painted blue. There was a large patch of mosquito water at the bottom so I decided to try it out and took 2 carve runs. After losing our balls, we scaled the fence and took the makeshift ramps back to my place. They were too big to actually carry so we had to put them on our boards and skate them home airplane style. Good day of skating and the first time I had ever skated with someone else.

[Lenny]

My best memories of skating so far this summer are probably doing two slalom/longboarding demos (50 miles apart) on Nat'l Go Skateboarding Day to expose a lot of kids to the diversity within skateboarding. It was hot and exhausting, but all in all a great day!! I've since done a couple more simlar things, but that first day was awesome!

[Longbord1]

skating a hill that made me pee my pants from the first time i laid eyes on it. All everyone would ever ask me was " did you bomb liquer?" and i sadly would always say no. So after my 5 years of longboarding i finally just all out bombed it and the rush during and after it was amazing! Anyone who takes drugs should try longboarding!

[worldridr768]

"dude I bombed richards road with Fifi!" sound familiar?? haha

[SweetCatarina]

Best skate memory of this summer happened a couple weekends ago-- August 5th to be exact. After 31 years of skating on my 1975 Bahne fiberglass with the original Bahne trucks AND original Cadillac wheels, I entered my first slalom contest orchestrated by Jonny Miller and the Outlaw Ranch in San Luis Obispo. Up to that point, the only thing I had ever done on that board was skate the mountain roads of Wyoming, Rabbit Ears Pass in Steamboat, Colorado and a lot of steep streets around the Bay Area where I live now. I can't believe it has taken me all these years to discover slalom racing! My new friend, Jack Smith-- the ultimate skate guru, and just an all-around great human being, put some new-fangled wheels on my old Bahne. Woooweeehhh, them-there wheels were mighty fast-- a lot faster than my poor old Cadillacs! I took a few practice runs, falling on the last one and scraping ALL the skin off the back of my left hip-- it doesn't matter because I won 2nd that day, shaving 1 second off each one of my 3 runs. Ok, so there were only 3 of us in the "girls" division, AND the girl I beat was only 8 years old, but it was a blast! Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you-- I'm 47 years old and will continue skating until they pry my skateboard out of my dead, cold hands!

[Anton Milioti]

shreding with the earthwing crew. street skaters arent as down to earth as longboard/sliders, and there are no longboarders near me so skateing with those guys was like a dream come true. and meeting the creator of one of eathwing (brian) got me stoked beyond stoke.

[wreckreationalskater]

today was the first day i skated in 8 wekks because of my foot and wrist injury and i got to skate with my brother and neighbor.i grabbed my 56' cruiser and hit up my favorite hills from the old days(early june 06). i realize its not a memeory yet but in years to come it live on in my mind

[Joe & Nick]

Slalom skateboarding can be a religious experience, and when done correctly, a good race can be like a sacrament. The Farm can be the finest of these races, a renewal of vows for the initiated and a baptism for the first timers.

Our congregation is unlike any other group of skateboarders. It is perhaps unlike any group in any sport. Are there other sports where novice participants mingle with World Champions, receiving coaching, gear advice, and even loans of equipment mid contest? Where you can give your all to best your competitor and celebrate their victory, or yours together that night, unhygienicaly sipping from the same crock?

I work through out the year as a missionary planting seeds with potential converts, holding practices and smaller races before and after the big event to keep the fire stoked. Since there are no slalom stocked skateboard shops, I’m selling gear out of my garage and car to help build the scene. Safety gear is given away (thank you Fatboy), better equipment is loaned, encouragement dispensed liberally.

OK, lets face it. I flat out beg new people to come. People who have attended in the past do not need to be asked twice. I also solicit swag, find just the right accoutrement, My partners arrange caterers, trophies (crocks), and road closures. Then we hold our breath. Will it rain? Will anyone show up? Can we all skate safe?

This year, like every other year was successful. But this year was somehow particularly special. This year had the highest ever quotient of “who is that”. That is what a 40 year old guy sees a fast 18 year old for the first time. This year had a killer band that let me sing with them. This year had clear blue skies and crisp sleeping weather. This year had 17 tents and two campers.

This year saw the most racing opportunities ever. GS, DH (>48” & <48”), Dual Hybrid, and Vintage ( Plastic & Traditional). Crocks went to lots of new Farmers this year. Pirnack handed out splitfires to two deserving first timers. We gave a bitchin Bulldog super pig to the Canadian Ninja. We had 4 catered meals, a shuttle, a midget bartender, and a French Canadian guy that wouldn’t stop hugging us. There where more kids and women than ever.

And when the smoke cleared and we dragged ourselves from our tents on Sunday morning and stepped back into the light, our loyal participants found their faith in slalom rekindled and the newly baptized slowly woke to the realization that The Farm is a highwater mark where the stoke of slalom crests and falls back. A superlative yardstick that they will judge all other skating events against forever.

That was the Gdamn highpoint of my summer skating.