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Approximately 20 days ago we returned from our adventures in Mexico City. Issue II of P/S Zine is almost ready for it's first test press and will include an in depth photo feature of our time in Mexico. In the meantime...here's the lowdown on eight days of skateboarding in Mexico City!
Let's go skateboarding!
Cesar from halen ropa tries to help speed up the drying process so his friend Damian Avila has safe landing.
Damian with a 360 flip at secretaria de comunicaciones y transportes
The halen crew!
From street spots to more skate parks than you can shake a stick at Mexico City has so much to offer for skateboarding.
This ditch in Centro Medico has been modified by skateboarders in years past.
La Fuente Skate Park (a.k.a. Bal Skate) was a bit older, but had lots to offer from a skateable ditch like wall surrounding the park, a number of mini ramps, banks, quarter pipes and other obstacles.
Kimik with a front side ollie.
Number one son taking a break with the locals in between giving them a demonstration and doing his best to teach them a few tricks.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Fishbone Skatepark houses a 14'9" tall x 45' wide vert ramp!
Robert with an invert.
Fishbone also houses a mini ramp, banks, quarters and a nice sized wooden bowl.
Local skater Seck with a high speed 50-50 around the corner of the bowl.
San Joaquin was the name of a nice spined mini ramp nestled up against some train tracks between two sections of apartment buildings.
Santiago with an air transfer.
Unfortunately despite being under a bridge, when we got to Fray Servando (aka JFK) the bowl had too much water in it.
Everything else was dry and ready to skate!
There are two things you can count on in Mexico City. A high chance of afternoon rain showers in July and August and...many sightings of the VW Beetle. This of course is due to the fact that the production of the Beetle carried on in Mexico until 2004!
When it does rain; San Cosme is a refuge of dry concrete banks, rails, quarter pipes and multiple bowl areas to skate.
Johnny over the hip.
Broken rail? No problem. Make sure you look away while the welder fixes it up on the spot!
Eventually with all the touring of many of the skate park offerings in Mexico City you're bound to get hungry. Fortunately for us, our friends helped us track down some of the best restaurants in the city that had some delicious vegan offerings.
One of them was Corazon de Arbol (Heart of the Tree).
Lunch specials!
One of the lunch specials.
A tasty vegan pizza with soy chorizo.
I noticed someone working at this place is fond of flies.
With a population of over 21 million people Mexico City has it's fair share of skateboarders. With so many skateboarders there is bound to be loads of skateboard shops. Unfortunately we only got around to a few of them.
First stop was Destructible.
The owner of the shop wasn't around, but he had a personal collection of skateboard photo books laying about the store as well as some Rebel Eight gear that showed he had some great taste.
A little bit of in store fun and some art.
This place had some class.
One of the common themes you can find in Mexican skate shops is the offering of Mexican skate brands such as Copal and Aztlan Skateboards.
This series of Aztlan boards featured art from Tono Camunas of Spain.
A sampling of the Copal brand.
One of the two walls covered in shelves made up of complete set ups.
Up the stairs from Destructible was HEADQUARTER.
A street wear boutique full of high end clothing, toys and art with location in both Mexico City and Vancouver up here in Canada.
Not too far down the street in Col. Roma was the street wear/skateboard shop/art gallery LaVamp Store.
Plenty of custom deck art on display.
More Aztlan boards on the walls of this store as well.
The art.
The fun!
Harmonica Skate Shop was closed most days that we were there. When we finally caught them open we learned that they were closing their doors for good within the month.
Some people say Mexico City is full of "mean streets". I couldn't say that is true, but "green streets" on the other hand...
Waiting...
Marketing 101.
Some wall art in city centre.
More of the vibrant colours of Col. Roma.
The area close to La Fuente Skate Park is surrounded by a market, playgrounds, soccer (football) fields and more art!.
This was one of my favourites.
When it comes to playing games, things like language barriers don't really hold much weight.
Number one son got in on the action whenever there the opportunity arose.
There is one thing I took notice of in Mexico. Aside from the handshakes, hugging and polite kisses on the cheek when greeting new and old friends there was a lot of romance abound! People were kissing in the parks, in cars, on the metro train, at the bus stops and just about anywhere you could stop long enough for an embrace and a kiss!
Kissing often leads to other things...
The art on this wall could only mean one thing...
...It's tattoo time!
Juan from A Toda Madre working on the sketch.
A Toda Madre was full of character...
skate art...
skateboards...
good times with good friends...
...and hardcore music loving, clean, professional and friendly rad dudes like Gustavo (aka Rash) and Juan (aka John)!
The original reason for this adventure was a promise I made eight years ago to my good friend Monika to take her up on her offer to come and visit! I always keep my word!
We made some great new friends! Fabi and Ossiel!
Our number one favourite vegetarian, thrash metal loving, skateboarding Mexican...Mini Pily!!
A few of our plans to get out and document more street skating were foiled by the rain, so on our last day out we stopped by La Rosita to grab a quick sequence of halen's Johnny.
Until next time (and there WILL be a next time) ...that's that!.
For more P/S highlights of Mexico City click here!
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