Sunday, May 30, 2010

Skate 4 Cancer contest... before, during and after

More often than not, I run a handful of errands on Saturdays. Today's errands consisted of picking up some light bulbs at one place and then obtaining some fabric from the local fabric store.

I'm not sure how many fabric stores this town has, but the one I use has both interesting fabric on the inside of their store and interesting people hanging out just outside of the store.

The dudes I met today appeared on the surface to be having a rough day. Then I remembered some words of wisdom shared with me years ago "If you check the paper for your name in the obituary in the morning and your name is not in it...it's already a great day!"


This picture was taken 10 minutes apart from the first picture. Somewhere in between pictures while I was inside the store there was apparently some jacket sharing going on.


If there were obituaries for birds, it would be safe to say this bird was not having a good day.


So many colours...


...so many desicions to make.


Finally...on to the skateboarding...

The main reason there was a location change for today's contest.


Marky ran the contest today. I showed up when the best trick segment was underway.


Will ripped it up on the spine ramp portion of the contest landing a 2nd place.


Justin broke out stylish run after stylish run making it look so easy as always for 1st place.


The rain stopped twice during the day...but as you can see from the clouds rushing in...not for long.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Getting the word out...

TODAY'S SKATE4CANCER EVENT IS BEING MOVED INDOORS. The music portion will take place at the GARRICK THEATRE (330 Garry)and the Skateboard contest will take place at THE EDGE SKATEPARK (125 Pacific Avenue).

The bands will start at noon and run till about 8:30/9pm.

The Skate Contest will start at 2pm and go for a few hours.


More details Here

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Before the rain...

Before the long weekend ended in rain...there was time to squeeze in one last day of fun filled activities

Synchronized Skateboarding is the next big thing!? Stephan broke his ass trying this on the previous shot with Karl, so Cole filled in as a stunt double?


Fred was the one that insisted it was only "spitting" and I should get down to the park.


Karl with a front side board slide


Cole working on perfecting a full cab.


Bad kids...


...good kids?


Candid shot of the assistant.


Represent!


Secret projects on the go!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Long Weekends...

...are for beaches, yard work, spring cleaning, skateboarding, making out with girls and for some...the official launch of summer cruising.

I'm two turning signals shy of cruising so I will find something else to do!

My "brother from another mother" summer 2002 on our way to Niagra Falls


Whatever your flavour is...get off your ass, go outside and play!

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Summer 1990

Some trivia...Doug and his family ran a St. James skate shop called "A Little More Skate" behind their video store called "A Little More Video". In my eyes, Doug was always on top when it came to skateboarding. Here's a shot taken in the parking lot of the Vimy Bowl. If there was the smallest bump in the asphalt, Doug could turn it in to a huge ollie.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

We could start a fire

This is from a series of shots taken in Chornick Bowl one beautiful summer evening in July of 1990. The series has been separated and misplaced over time, but I came across 2 of the slides tonight. So I scanned one to share with the world. Enjoy.

Monday, May 17, 2010

a busy little Sunday

Sunday started before I even woke up. While I was sleeping...Ronnie James Dio passed away. R.I.P.

Due to the broken wrist Saturday's pancakes were put off until Sunday when "The assistant" was available to help in the kitchen. After pancake consumption we took off to skate Park West.

French with a frontside 50-50 over the kink in the coping on the mini.


French rocking both a Neil Diamond shirt and a frontside 50-50 on the quarter.


After the short session we headed over to the swap meet on the hunt for a few missing pieces from my Mercedes project. Finding European car parts at a swap meet dominated by domestic car lovers is like finding a needle in a hay stack.




In case you didn't know...


I may not have found the parts I need, but I did find clowns! It turns out the Circus was going down at the same location as the swap meet. We passed on the circus...too many better things to do.


Consumed lunch, picked up Miss "Wolf Pac" and headed east.

We knew we had arrived at our destination when we found Russel doing nose manuals down the centre of Main St.

Don't mess with Steinbach! (kidding, just go visit there and enjoy skating with the locals).


Russel doing a transfer at Steinbach skate park.


Dropped of my son to attend a birthday party when we got back from the Steinbach park. Took advantage of this time to maximize efficiency of course and grabbed the groceries so "The Assistant" and I could move forward on getting the Mercedes closer to 100% road ready!


The end.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Skate and Destroyed

What kind of skateboarder would I be if I didn't go hit up a skate park less than 2 hours after having a brand spanking new cast applied?

We hit up Komenda and there was crew from Oak Bank ripping up the park.

After breaking out the camera to take a few shots of my son, the Oak Bank crew asked if I'd take some shots.

Everything was going well at first.

Shane pulled a nice ollie off a bank.


I shot some board slides,5-0's, 50-50's and Adam's nose grind


I started setting up for a new shot and I hear Adam yelling "No!" I turned around and this is what I saw...


No I didn't whip out the camera and start shooting. After taking First Aid/CPR 3 times over the last 10 years I finally actually have to put my knowledge to work, have someone call 911, have someone go wait at the end of the street for the ambulance, deny Adam his multiple requests to drink some H20 as he was no doubt in shock etc... I let him squeeze my hand, assure him that help is on the way and THEN ask him if he'd like me to take pictures of his arm for future reference and he agrees. Hopefully he doesn't have another photo op. like this again in his lifetime,


Help comes, morphine is added to the I.V. and off he goes to the hospital for surgery to have a bone fragment removed from his severely dislocated elbow with a broken bone. Can you say OUCH?! If you know this guy. Send him your get well cards now!

Skate and Destroy

ok...so it turns out the bag of ice wasn't cutting it. Apparently Mr. Clumsy (me) actually cracked his wrist Friday night. I always get confused with the phrase "Skate and Destroy". Is it destroy public property or destroy your body? If my hunch is correct ...bright orange casts will be all the rage this summer!


Photo credit - "The Assistant"

Friday, May 14, 2010

A Friday evening at Komenda

Sometimes I am clumsy when it comes to skateboarding. As soon as I finish this post...the bag of ice goes back on the wrist! Ouch!

I am definitely not complaining, just stating a fact. There have been some pretty harsh injuries this season. My empathy goes out to Jared Arnason and Ryan Anderson. Stories that make you cringe. Send those guys flowers, get well cards and skate videos to get them through through rough times!

Chaka with a smith grind


Not so synchronized, but awesome! Chaka, Karl and Steven


Karl. Always stylish.

Spine n' Grind

Jeff Hartsel Spine n' Grind indoor skate park Brandon, Manitoba late 80's?

Monday, May 10, 2010

Flashback to Saturday

Grady pulling large early grab backside airs at Park West.


Check this out and more local coverage on the Big Woop blog!

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mother's Day

Not all 24hrs have to be spent with your mom on Mother's Day. There's always time for skateboarding.

Darren transferring in to the mini.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Everything's Free...

Scratched, marked up and dusty...leave it as is I told myself. Enjoy.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Winnipeg Skate Parks

Life before the plaza...

This little ball of big ollie blur shot on Kodak 400 film in 1989? is Brent Baldwin skating the Vimy bowl.


My favourite photographer and yours... Jon Schledewitz himself with a frontside air at Chornick bowl early 90's


More Chornick archives coming soon!

Crown of Thorns 1989 Part I

I made a deal with my friend Lance to find some old Crown of Thorns photos and in return he'd hook me up with some mp3's of some of my local favourites, Mourning Sickness, Pipsqueek, Stretch Marks etc.... This is a good thing as I don't even think I have the old demo tapes from these bands in playable condition anymore if at all.

I did an initial search for some of these images and came up empty handed. Tonight I bumped in to another local photographer who has his own personal archives that outweigh mine in many ways. His include bands like The Dead Kennedy's, Stretch Marks and I can only imagine.

So thinking about his archives reminded me about my promise to look through my own again and voila. The scanning for Crown of Thorns circa 1989 has begun!

Original front man Dan Philipot


Lance himself. More to come Lance I promise!


It's a perfect time to get nostalgic writing about local greats like The Stretch Marks etc... cause The Stretch Marks just happen to be playing this Sunday with the Dickies and T.S.O.L.! Sorry people...in Las Vegas. I only wish it was in the cards to be at that show myself this weekend. You can't always say there'll be a next time for these sorts of events.