After running around DC for a bit we hit up the new park on Rhode Island. I got a look at this park earlier and wanted nothing to do with it but Matt insisted we check it out. The park consists of 2 quarterpipes, 2 bank ramps, a pyramid with a hubba, a very skinny spine, a fun box, and some rails. To top it off they are arranged horribly. I took some runs on everything but didn't do much. This is totally the kind of park you hurt yourself doing dumb stuff because there is nothing that you want to skate.

We left Sayreville for Title 10 in Philly. Unfortunately, Title 10 seems to have modeled their sessions (and their prices) after Vans. Its about $13 bucks for only 2 hours. A pretty hefty price but the bowl is awesome. We got our 2 hours in during a decent sized session. A pretty nice day trip. Next time we will probably replace Sayreville with FDR, but Sayreville was worth hitting once.

Hitting these ditches today made me realize that a Maryland ditch tour is very doable. My tentative plan would be to hit Pot Springs, Whitemarsh, Arbutus, Riverdale, Shady Grove, and Germantown, in that order. Matt and I have also heard something about a ditch in the Annapolis area but have not been able to confirm it, but if we could that would go in between Arbutus and Riverdale. It would seem that the best time to do this would be in the coming months, maybe for my birthday next month. Actually, that sounds like a kickass birthday.

We got a pretty good session in at Mason before it got too dark. This park is a bowled area with some street opsticles on the deck. There is also some walls with very small tranny, one with concrete coping, tile, and stairs. There is a tombstone wall and corner with tile and concrete coping in the bowled area. This a Team Pain park and it shows. There are some nice lines and no sketchy parts. We skated until dark and got a motel room. We came back the next day for a warmup session and to take some pics (they should be up on criticalthrash.com soon).

From Mason we headed to Lansing, another Team Pain park. This park was built much earlier than Mason and it shows. The park has an egg bowl and a street course with some corners. There is a vert wall in the street course with concrete coping but it is placed in a strange spot. It is relatively easy to hit with some speed but its placement makes it a prime spot for collisions. The park overall is pretty fun, not as good as the newer team pain parks but definitely worth hitting.

We headed out from Lansing towards Grand Rapids, and a new indoor park with a concrete bowl. The bowl was built by Team Pain and is sick. Nice clover-like shape with tile and concrete coping in the deepend. The rest of the park is pretty rad as well, with some sick wallrides. Nice miniramp and vert ramp as well. The bowl is really the highlight of the park though. It has a great finish on it so it is not slick like all the vans bowls. Its very fast and has tons of lines. The park has sessions, but we were lucky enough to arrive just as one started. We skated for the duration of the session (3 hours I believe). It was pretty empty but we were there during a weekday afternoon. After Grand Rapids we headed down to South Bend, IN. We arrived at the park at 5 of 9, 5 min before it was closing. We were pretty bummed until we remembered that Indiana is one of those weird states that doesn't follow daylight savings time, so it was actually 5 of 8. There was a pretty good local session going down. The locals were really nice, which made this the best session so far. The bowl is a weird shape, similar to Waldorf but not as deep and with a spine instead of a tongue. The bowl has some nice lines and seems to flow a lot better than the Waldorf park. Both bowls are designed by Wally Holiday. We skated the park until it closed and then headed for Chicago.

We arrived in Chicago pretty late and got a room. The next morning we hit the Burnham park for a warm up session. This park is pretty small. There is a right hand kidney that is about 3' and 5' and a strange bowled section. The park is extremely poorly build, with kinks and sidewalk style gaps all over. The kidney is still pretty fun and is worth hitting up if you are in Chicago. Its free, so it is a good warm up to the Wilson park.

After the warm up session at Burnham we headed down the shore to the new Wilson park. We didn't really know what to expect by this park since the pictures we saw online were pretty crappy. We were presently surprised with a large bowled area and a sick ameoba bowl with concrete coping. The bowled area was pretty rad, but the bowl was too good to bother with anything else. There were so many sick lines and the bonus pocket was awesome. The coping had a great grind and there was vert in the deepend (about 10'). We skated for a couple hours and then headed to Hot Doug's for some lunch. We got back to the park and skated another couple hours. This bowl is so sick. We skated until it started raining in the midafternoon and then headed to 4 Seasons in Milwaukee. We arrived in Milwaukee in the late afternoon and found 4 Seasons pretty easily. The bowl here is incredable. It seems I say this for every bowl on the trip but I really mean it this time. This bowl and the Wilson Park bowl in Chicago were by far the best 2 on the trip. This bowl is wooden with metal coping in the shallow and pool coping in the deepend. The bowl is very fast and is quite a piece of carpentry. Its a 3 sectioned bowl that is about 4', 5', and 8'. There are infinite lines in this bowl. This is the bowl that I can't stop thinking about.

We left Milwaukee around 10 and got back to Chicago in time to get some dinner. We then headed down to Champain, IL to get a room and then skate the local park. We got down to Champain very late and all the motels were full. It was pretty hard to believe but we couldn't find a room anywhere. We kept going farther and farther east until we just decided to drive home. We got home at about 6, making the trip about exactly 3.5 days. We hit 8 parks in 4 states. Pics of the parks should be up on Criticalthrash.com shortly.

After getting home Matt and I hit the ditch for a quick dusk session. Frontside grind anytime.

We ended up getting to Kona around noon. It was incredably hot out but we were on a tight schedule so we couldn't wait for it to cool down. The old snakeruns here are fast and fun. Nice large banks on the turns and some huge roll-ins that we decided not to test out. There are some concrete bowls/pits that are pretty fun, one with a large vert tombstone. What I was most interested in was the kidney. After taking a run or two I was a little disappointed, however after a couple more runs I really started to feel the bowl and liked it a lot. The shallowend was pretty steep and fun to carve up. The deepend had a couple lumps but nothing too bad. The coping was concrete and felt a lot like the Ocean Bowl. Kona has a lot of new facilities, included a 13' vert ramp which we checked out. There was also an old concrete vert ramp which seems to be around more for the novelty. After a pretty long session we took off and headed for St. Augustine.

St. Augustine is a free concrete park that is pretty well layed out. The bowl is the same shape as the ocean bowl but is steeper in the shallowend and has a little more pronounced hip. Unfortunately, it had a couple inches of water in the bottom so we couldn't get many lines in it. We managed a couple carving around anyway. The street course is pretty fun with lots of bowled corners and speed humps. We didn't stay too long, mainly because of the water in the bowl and because we wanted to hit 1 more park before the day was through.

From St. Augustine we headed down to Orlando and hit the new Ovieda park. This is a Team Pain park and just opened up last week. There is a big street course, a sick bowled in section, and a killer bowl. The bowl is 4' and 8' right hand kidney with vert all around and a deathbox in the deepend. Nice pool coping and tile as well. The bowled section was pretty rad but we couldn't stay out of the bowl. We skated until the park closed (they don't have the lights working yet). I got wrecked trying to go over the deathbox b/s, but made it over f/s. Steve went over b/s and mikey went over both ways. Marc through down just about every trick in his book here, including my personal favorite - the texas plant.

After leaving Oviedo we headed down to Boca and spent the night. We got up early and picked up the kayak and then headed to the West Palm Beach YMCA. This park has 3 bowls, all with tile and concrete coping. It was insanly hot out but we skated regardless. All the bowls had pretty mellow tranny, especially after Oviedo. The coping was similar to the Ocean Bowl - painted concrete connected to the deck and set back too far (or grinded down too far). If it were cooler out I think these bowls would've been a bit more fun.

After leaving West Palm Beach we headed back up to Oviedo and skated another session. This bowl is just really one of the best bowls I've ever skated. I can't wait to go back. We skated till the park closed again and then headed up to charleston, SC. We arrived about 5 AM and crashed.

We got up around noon and got something to eat. We hung out for a bit waiting for the temperture to come down. It started to look like rain so we headed out to the Hanger in hopes to catch a quick session before the rain, but it started pouring before we got there. When we got there Hank and Crazy Joe were hanging out underneath the bowl and we went inside and waited for the storm to finish. After the rain stopped we got up on the deck and got our first real look at this monster. The deepend was huge. We tried drying the bowl up a little but the sun quickly fell behind the trees and we knew the bowl wouldn't be skatable today. We took off at dusk and drove back to Newport News, picked up the car and got back to DC around 8 AM.

On Friday I had a good session to start the day. I skated the punisher a bit and then hit the new pool. The pool was seeping some water up from the ground due to the intense rains this month so we had to clean it up every couple runs. This bowl is great. Steep trannys, vert, and great coping. People were tearing it up too. Sarge from New England was destroying it. Later in the day there was some nice rallying going on at the top of the hill. Psycho modified a car and then had a great demolition derby with camp keystone. After both cars were inoperable Psycho returned in the bulldozer and made short work of both of them.

Friday night brought the rain so saturday morning was pretty wet. We got a nice session going in the pool before a downpour brought us all inside to hit up the punisher. I had watched the Governor's lines the night before and managed to get some new ones for myself. I also dropped into the deepend finally, which was pretty easy after the fullpipe dropin. Some sick skating went down this evening which will most likely end up on some various webpages around the internet.

All in all I had a bitchin' time. I skated far better than I've ever skated anything at skatopia. The rallying and insanity seemed a little less than last year, probably due to the combination of the rain and the fact that I'd already witnessed last year so things weren't quite as shocking.

Pics from the events: #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#

I got soem pics from the Moffer from a couple weeks ago - one, two. I also lightened up one of the pics from yesterday.

Tim got off work at 1am and he, Matt, and I headed over to the Germantown Ditch for a late nighter. We were all pretty tired from the earlier sessions but still had a bit in us for this one. The ditch seemed darker this time, perhaps because of the lack of a moon. There is a new parking block there that is way to overwaxed. Its so waxed you can't even tell when you get your truck on there. We skated until 4am and then headed home. Tim forced me to finish giving him a mohawk (I had given him part of one before we left). I think it came out pretty good for a 4:30 am rushed haircut... Actually, I think it came out good for a wide awake midafternoon haircut.

Jay sent me a rad pic today from the 4.14.03 session. I'm pretty stoked on it.. he takes some rad pics!

I metroed down to DC to meet the Moffer at work and then head over to the fountains. We called up our old friend Mike who met us there. We got in a nice long couple hour session without being kicked out. Mike was rocking an old McGill with soft wheels and he was really carving up some of the tighter fountains. I'm really starting to get up on my f/s slashers and getting some nice grinds. This is the longest I've ever skated here and definitely the hardest. After a heated session we swung by Asylum for a drink and ended up staying way to long and missing the metro. Good times....

After work Tim, Matt, and I headed over the Germantown Ditch. Matt and I had been here years ago when we were still in school. All I remembered was that it had some big cracks and I ate it pretty hard. Matt had recently located it again and took us over. This ditch is pretty rad. Its got some nice hips and is about twice as long as riverdale. Matt was tearing this place up last night. He was landing everything and skating hard. He pulled some sick bonelesses over the hip. Tim was ripping pretty hard as well, pulling frontside rocks on the only parking block there. I was skating OK, but just couldn't seem to keep my feet right on the deck. Every trick felt like I was sketchy. I was able to pull some small ollies over the hip and get some ok fs grinds on the parking block. We skated for about 1.5-2 hours without any hassle, except for the periodic drizzle. Here's a couple pics I took on the way there (number 2 by Tim) - #1#2#3#4#

On the way home we spotted an empty fountain. It was about 1' deep but looked fun. We stopped and walked over and say another 3' fountain with tile, but no lip. We skated both for about 5 min. We saw people coming to kick us out so we split. A great winddown session after a pretty kickass afternoon.

I think skating the fountains this afternoon gave me a craving. Matt picked me up around midnight and we headed down to DC to skate some fountains. They were about 3' deep with some steep transitions and a grindable lip. Matt has been here a couple times but I had never been. I took a couple warm up runs to get a feel for the tranny but Matt just threw his back truck on the lip on his first run. After get used to the tranny I was able to get some b/s 50-50s and some f/s slashers. We skated for about 20 min and I ended the night with a f/s disaster.

Made some updates today. I put up pics of Livingston, Scotland as well as a pic that Jay took or me crailgrinding the deepend at Vans. I also started to put captions and photo credits on pics. They're pretty tame now, but hopefully I'll get a bit more creative.

We didn't get too much skating in aside from the Livingston park. The next closest concrete park (that we knew of) was Perth, which is a ways north. On the last day we had some time to kill before taking the bus to the airport and found some nice steep banks in Edinburgh. We skated them for a bit before getting kicked out and heading over to the visitors center (which had been skate stopped) and skating some flat ground and benches.

At around 2:30am Tim and I headed up to the safeway parking lot to do some longboarding. We cruised around for about a half hour and then headed home. Right before we left Tim found a CVS photo envelope but there were no photos inside. Tim chucked it but I grabbed the negatives telling Tim "You know there's some naked chicks on here!" Sure enough, I was right. The strangest part is that almost every frame is double exposed.