Blog

Day 3
Phew! today was a long one. We started driving west yesterday and we made it to West Virginia around 4 am before we crashed out for the night. Then we woke up and started making out way to Louisville to the massive skatepark for the nights game of skate.

On the drive we stopped at Steak N Shake, which is hands down my favorite fast food. We dealt with some bad weather and a lot of construction so we ended up about an hour late. It was a bummer but when we got there non of the kids seemed to care at all, they were all ready to play.

There were about twenty kids yet again, and probably twenty to thirty others watching the whole thing go down. We even had a peanut gallery on top of the vert ramp. They had nothing good to say to anyone, so I made sure to remind them that no matter how much smack they were talking, none of them signed up to play.

It is rad to see all the guys skating against their friends and getting stoked on them landing tricks. Because yes, it is a contest, but it is supposed to be fun no matter how you slice it. The age range spanned from the early teens to the thirties. The weirdest trick of the day was an ollie to cross leg. that seems like a trick that could break your legs.

When it all came down to the final game it was Alec and Nick. Nick had some serious hardflips and landed his tricks with authority, and Alec who had big pop for a little guy and style to go along with it. In the end, it was a ghetto bird (hardflip revert) from Nick that sealed Alec’s fate. Everyone was stoked and we skated the infamous Louisville park for a bit before getting back to the hotel to hang with the gidge.

Day 4
Today we made a mellow 3 hour drive from Louisville down to Franklin Tennessee, which is the home of Franklin Skate Shop. This is a beautiful town. On the way we saw tons of big houses, one of which reminded Sean and I of a house from a Zombie movie. It had a roof on the top, so if there was a zombie attack you could shoot them without having to leave the house.

Anyway, when we got here we went and checked out the shop which was awesome. Donny, the owner, is super nice and was behind the counter gripping up a board when we arrived. The shop has a rad selection of skate stuff and two different Tv’s in the back. One had the Skate 3 game for kids to play, and the other was playing the new Emerica video, Stay Gold, which is awesome. We brought the Gidge (our dog) in and hung out for a bit before we cruised to the La Quinta to unwind before the awesome game of SKATE that was to come.

After I shaved my head and unwound, we headed over to the Franklin Skate plaza where we were greeted by a bunch of rad kids and their parents. Everyone was stoked and ready to shred. We brought out the Roaring Lion and after the sing up, it started to go down! It was close to twenty kids again, and things yet again got heated quickly. The kids were all gunning for the back to skate prize pack. There were lots of double flips, and some frontside 360 pivots, before we got down to the finals. The last two were Zac, who was pulling out pressure flips of all different flavors, regular, fakie, and 360 pressure flips. And then we had Myquel, who was skating mach 5 and had really smooth style. Both dudes really wanted to win but it was Myquel who took out Alec with a nollie bigspin heel flip. Thanks so much to Donny and everyone here in Franklin for coming out and having fun. Tomorrow we have a long 8 hour drive ahead of us, so It’s time to go to sleep. See you in Fayatteville tomorrow!