The Apprentice in Mexico

It's been awhile since there's been photos uploaded from the camera of The Apprentice. The latest has just been uploaded and this particular shot intrigues me the most. I am not even 100% sure what's going down here, but The Apprentice was on the ball and grabbed the shot!

Coming soon...

We've obvioulsy been compiling a mass of photos of our skateboarding adventures and beyond while enjoying our visit to Mexico City. When we get back, we'll be posting the low-down on the never ending world of skateboarding in this awesome place!

In the meantime... hang tight! Here's a quick highlight from a couple of stops today. Johnathan with a smith grind.

We get around with a little help from our friend...

Yesterday we hit the streets via foot, bus, metro and taxi with our new pal Pily. We tried to cover a lot of ground from tattoo shops to skate shops and skate parks.

One of our first stops was the tattoo shop/art gallery/skate shop/street wear shop LAVAMP STORE where we checked out some of the skate art.

"Will skate for food"

Pily at La Fuente

We made it inside in time for the late afternoon rain to skate again at Fishbone indoor skate park.

It was a great day and that's that.

Todos los caminos llevan a la Roma

So there's that.

The new four F's

My favourite gym teacher used to tell us about the the four F's. "Fitness, Fairness and Fun...the fourth F I never want to hear in my class!" he'd say. We had a "four F" day yesterday of another kind...Flashes, Falafel, Facts and Fun.

This particular day started when our new friend Pily came to hang out. The one thing I've come to terms with is that Mexico City isn't the most vegan friendly place in the world...but lucky for us it turned out Pily was a friendly vegetarian...so she knew the good spots. We started our day at Falafelito. Why have falafel in a pita like back at home when we can have it in wrap! They make and cook the falafel balls to order. It was a delicious treat!

Pily simply offered to take us to some more skate parks during our stay. We threw on a handful of small requests on top of going to the skate parks and our new friend was more than awesome when making all our wishes come true and more. All I needed was a new flash from my camera as on of mine broke. When I say "new", I mean a used Vivitar 285HV to be exact. Low and behold if there was one of these in all of Mexico city the queen of radness helped us find it.

There was quite a bit of driving involved in our adventures yesterday. While I drove I not only had a navigator, but all questions regarding our surroundings were answered and interesting facts about the city were slid in as a pleasant bonus!

Bona and Pily, post skate session...

We'll be covering everything about skateboarding in Mexico City when we return home, but in the meantime we'll keep posting the highlights and teasers. Yesterday's skateboarding highlight was the 14'9" tall x 45' wide vert ramp!

Robert with a front side slash.

A trio of pics from day three.

We returned to Lira Park yesterday to skate as this obviously didn't happen the day before due to the contest.

Local ripper Jhosan with a stale fish.

Too much fun in the sun? This kid has been know to nap anywhere, so this is no surprise.

Last night's dinner was the best meal so far since we arrived and this was just getting started!

That's that.

South of two borders

The first shot of our adventure when we arrived at our destination Saturday night.

Distrito Federal Hard Core!

Sunday a.m. No rain...check!

First thing to do Sunday morning was to find the first person that looked like they knew their way to the closest skate park. Introducing Osiel.

First stop happened to be hosting a skate contest. We showed up when the girls division was getting underway.

Laticia with a rock fakie

Bona with her frontside rock

Veronica rock fakie set up...

Blunt...

Guy's warm up...blunt...

BLUNT!

The rain started shortly after this picture was taken during the warm up...

Gerardo...

...Gerardo's friends.

XALPARK SKATEKRW represent!

Second stop was amazing fun.

Osiel tail slide under the bridge.

Day one skating in Mexico City comes to an end.

We are not here...

We are not here either...

...we were there however Saturday morning after brunch before setting off on a new adventure. Stay tuned...

Shoes optional

Mike Sudoma edited this enjoyable little clip of footage he grabbed of our friend Grady ripping it up sans shoes. Enjoy!

Simple Things

Sometimes the simplest of things can make any day a touch better than it already is. FedEx left a surprise on my door step. The decision on these C1rca brown denim kicks was obviously far past due.

A big thanks goes out once again to both C1rca and The Charleswood Agency for being the caring people that they are.

Simple thing number two for the day... Random palm drawing on the hand of the Best Buy cashier. This one's a Blackberry special.

After School Special

I'm still on the hunt for a single negative that just doesn't want to be found yet. In the meantime, I'm still coming across some classics. I can't remember why, but this particular after school joyride came up in conversation the other day. Shot on B&W slide film...here's the Golden Eagle.

One might say some way back Jack Ass type activity circa 1990...so don't be trying this at home!

The exchange

I've made myself a goal to wrap up the majority of all outstanding projects by the end of the week. One down... a handful to go.

After the goods were delivered, we enjoyed some pizza via Café 22 with Bob.

After dinner we ran some errands. One of the errands was to find out if the new Monster Children had hit the shelves yet. Check!

Change of plans

We had originally planned to start our day in Selkirk this morning, but that didn't pan out as planned due to an issue at the park. So we met up with our friends, continued north and headed to the skate park in Gimli. We had yet to check it out so we figured we've come this far...why not?

We knew there wasn't going to be much for great food options on our way to the beach towns so we stopped off at a place that wasn't scared to tell you straight up what they were all about...Salty's

For all I know "Salty" is someone's name or maybe a reference to the owner's personality? Regardless...we stocked up on the healthy stuff!

Side note to my friend (the PGF)...those weren't my French Fries! After "lunch" we headed to the park...

It was a short lived experience due to the heat so we fixed that problem and took a drive back to Winnipeg Beach.

The cool down commenced...

...then we returned to the park. We had a hunch our friend Brennan would be hanging out at the beach..so we met up with him at the park.

50-50 up the hubba.

Back tail with the sun beating down on his back.

That was a glimpse of Gimli in photos...here's a glimpse in words:

I made three purchases in Gimli today. Some drinks at a gas station, some food at the grocery store and some gas at another gas station. I know customer service is lacking these days in general in retail all over the place, but I'd like to make note... Not once during all three of those transactions did anyone ask how I was, say please when asking for the money I work hard for that I was about to give to them, nor say thank you when I handed it over.

Gimli...someone needs to teach you a lesson in manners and common courtesy. So there's that.

Skate all day!

When you live in a city that is under a blanket of white snow for more than half of each year, you better do your best to take advantage of beautiful days like today. It was 34℃/93℉ ("feels like" 40℃/104℉) with the humidity climbing all day...so you can hide inside with the air conditioning or get out and skate!

Our morning started bright and early at the Red River C.C. as we set out to grab some images of the now fully completed park for the landscape architect.

We snuck this one in for good measure and then we headed to The Plaza.

While we were at The Plaza at The Forks the sun came back out and we met up with Andrew from Barkman Skate Parks who was gearing up to head out to to take care of some business for the Dew Tour projects they're working on. Speaking of projects...we were fortunate enough to enjoy a session at a personal project he completed in his own back yard...

Andrew with a slick back tail on his concrete mini ramp.

5-0

Quarter from the back lane to help set up for...

...whatever you'd like to do on this deep three set out the back door!

Andrew's back yard set up was inspiring enough to make me want to take an axe to the deck and make way for our own little concrete paradise!

Lots of fluids and rest are important when the mercury rises!

It's also important to get some rest when you just finish your third session since 9:00am and you get invited out to a fourth at the mini-ramp.

After breaking out new tricks like board slide fakies and front side board slide rock n' rolls in Andrew's back yard, my favourite seven year old steps it up a notch and starts throwing down boneless after boneless on the mini in the late afternoon sun.

Sometimes you gotta pay to play. Ross told me he had an "orange in his pocket". That or he was hiding a tennis ball under his skin in his hip! Ouch!

What goes around comes around...Grady has been doing all sorts of great things for the P/S cause lately, so after receiving some Barkman decks as a bonus for an old job we did for Barkman we paid one of them forward.

Pay to play continued... shins are always so vulnerable to constant abuse! Ice can be your best friend at the end of a long day of skateboarding.

Gelati can be a good friend as well!

That's that!