4 days, 6 parks, 8 sessions.... or Skatefest 2003.

So I left California for the second time in a week last Thursday to fly to Arizona to go skate with one of my best friends and mentor Dylan the Destroyer... yar... twas a grand time at sea to say the least. 4 days of skating, 6 of the best parks I have ever skated, good friends and great times. By far one of the best trips I have ever gone on. Thanks to Dylan for getting me out there, and to Sara for letting me crash at her pad.

Day 1: Woke up at 5:30am to catch a flight out of San Jose to Arizona. It was way to early and I was way too tired but somehow I managed to get checked in and somehow I made it to my plane. I arrived in Phoenix at 9:50, got my bags, and headed out into the warm winter day. This is where I met the crew: Dylan the Destroyer, Kyla the Ninja Killer, and Sara the Shred Dog. Once I threw my bags into the super packed trunk, it was off to the first park (minus a few minutes at the local Whole Foods to get a quick snack). We started the day at the Mesa Skatepark, a huge park with not much to offer in the way of bowls or lines. There were some fun ledges though, and we had a good flat bar sesh for a while. Mostly the park was a waste of space... but that being said, it was much better then most parks here in California, so I was still pretty stoked. If you wanted to try to do a long multiple ledge line this park would be perfect. There were tons of perfect sized ledges everywhere... but as a whole, the park wasn't all that rad.... So, after a nice warm up sesh it was off to Sara's house to chill and kick back for a few hours while we waited for Dylans friend Kevin and his girlfriend to arrive from Southern California. We played a few games of pool and watched a couple skate flicks to pass some time and wait out the Arizona winter heat. Once Kevin and his girlfriend (whose name totally slips my mind... erf...) got into town it was off to the Paradise Valley Skatepark. This place was amazing... huge layout, smooth ground, good transitions, and it had every kind of prop you can think of. One of the best parks I have ever been to. We all had a super good session there. I learned 270 cabalarials on the pyramid, skated the spine/bowl with heshin' steeze, and basically just had a rad time messing around doing silly tricks. It was one of the best sessions I have had in a long time. Kevin and Dylan were boosting some serious airs that night.... Kevin also did this crazy blunt slide transfer/gap thing from the top of a 7ft quarter pipe to the transition of an adjacent pyramid... it was super hesh and super sick. After the 4+ hour sesh we decided to go pick up Kevin's girlfriend, (who would normally have skated but had a head ache so she stayed at their hotel) and then we headed over to T.G.I.F. for some food and beer. Man, I don't think a Black and Tan ever tasted so good. The service at the restaurant sucked, but we got a free dessert out of it... so I guess that is cool. After food it was time to go back to Sara's parents house. I went to bed super early, I was beat like tha brat.....

Day 2: I woke up and was sore as hell. The Crew got motivated at about 12 and drove out to the Chandler Skatepark . Kevin and his woman met The Crew there since they were coming from the other side of town. This park was pretty fun, not as good in my opinion as the Paradise Valley Park, but still a pretty fun park. They had some kinna crazy quarterpipes with no coping on them which were fun to do slides and raw bs 50/50grinds on. Most of the transitions were smooth and they had some pretty fun props there. Dylan and Kevin were rippin that place to pieces.... I didn't really skate well there till after I got my second wind, a good 2 1/2 hours into the session..... I think we must have skated there for almost 4 1/2 hours.... it was super fun. I did a few hesher tail slides that felt pretty good, the kind of slides where your wheels make all kinds of screaming noises and stuff... it was cool. They had these fun ledges that you could grind up and on top of with out even having to olie on to them (sorta like doing slappy grinds or something...). I sessioned those a bunch until I fell on my ass trying to do a slappy backside 50/50 to backside tailslide... haha.. I guess that is what I get for trying a silly trick like that.... All in all I would give the park an 8 out of 10, I probably would have liked it better if I had felt like being more hesh that day. I had a hard time getting hyped up to shred that day. After falling quite a bit and finally landing some good tricks we all decided to go get some late lunch at Baja Fresh... man that was some of the best food ever... I don't know if it was just because I was starving, or because it took us almost an hour and three phone calls to find the place, or if it was because the food was really that good... but man... it tasted better then anything I had had in a loooooong time. Once we were sufficiently stuffed we decided to head out to the Gilbert Skate Park. The sunset that night was amazing. It was so rad that I had to just kinna chill for a while and enjoy it. I don't know if it gets any better then it was that night, full from good food, chilling with good friends, at a perfect skatepark, watching a beautiful sunset, in perfect weather. It was the closest thing to a "spiritual experience" that I have had in a long time. It was a great feeling. The session was super fun that night, everyone was ripping it up and having fun. As far as ratings go, I would give Gilbert a 9 out of 10, it was a really fun park to skate. After a long and super fun sesh it was time to head back to Sara's house to meet up with her parents for dinner. They took us out to this reallllllly good restaurant that was sorta like PF Changs. The food was excellent and it was super fun. Sara's parents are rad. Went back to Sara's place and crashed out... twas a great day o' skating...

Day Three: I woke up and thought I might not be able to move because my legs and arms were so sore. It turned out all I needed was a nice warm shower to loosen up and not the entire body replacement that I was anticipating. Kevin and his girlfriend had to leave on day three and I for one was sad they had to go. It was a ton of fun skating and hanging out with them. We hit the road at around noon after a bagel and some soda, and headed out to the Casa Grande skatepark. Man, this place was sketch. The area around Casa Grande is worse then the ghetto. Empty houses and burned down trailers were strewn out as far as the eye could see. Wrecked cars, broken bottles, trash, and rusted metal.... it was very humbling to visit the city of Casa Grande. The locals seemed nice enough... they were helpful and gave us good directions to the skatepark. When we finally got to the park I was a little bummed at the sight of it. It looked pretty shabby, pretty abused, and pretty gross. It was the kinna park where if you fall on the ground you wonder if you are gonna catch some kind of crazy disease or something. Not exactly the kinna thing I wanna have go through my head while I am skating. There were a ton of kids on BMX bikes there too, which is not that big a deal for me because I am use to riding with bikes at Greer... but these guys weren't very good, and didn't really keep an eye out for skaters carving through the bowls... so it really kinna sucked. The session there was the closest I came to a Greer type carve sesh and the lines through the park were actually kinna fun, but over all it was a pretty crappy park.... one of those ones that you make the best out of while you are there and then don't visit for another couple of years.... But then again, I have to admit that the lines you could carve there were pretty awesome, with lots of possibilities. If the locals weren't so mindless and white trash it would be a rad place to ride. If I had to put money on it I would guess that 5 out of 6 kids there spent too much time sniffing glue and gasoline in their free time.... Glad I skated there, really glad that I don't live there. After about 2 hours there we were all thoroughly annoyed with the cracked out kids and the lame posse of BMX cromags. So with no love lost, we parted ways with Casa Grande and decided to head out to the Gilbert Skate Park again. But before we went to the park we decided to go to this crazy TV Sushi bar where we ate some pretty decent Sushi and watched two basketball games, two football games, a pool game, and a golf game all at the same time. After getting sufficiently stuffed with sushi it was off and running again, heading back to the Gilbert Skatepark. I wish there was a park as good as the Gilbert park here in the Bay Area.... I think I could skate that place for months and still would be finding new lines and learning new tricks. That park rules. We all skated super good that night. I think I may have had my best session of the trip that night. Highlights of the night include a smith grind on the flat bar across the big pyramid and cabalarials on the small pyramid for me, and an insane nose wheelie by Dylan across half of the park.... it was a great night of riding. After we were tired and broken from hours of skating, we went out for some beers, and shots, and nachos to celebrate Dylan's b-day. I had some really good nut brown ale at the place... I think it was called Alcatraz brewing co... or something... I dunno... anyway, their nachos were off the hook and the beer was great. After obtaining a sufficient buzz from having two beers and three shots within 30 min we walked over to the movie theater and saw About Schmit. That movie is weird. Well done with good acting... but fucking weird. Not very uplifting either for the most part... but still a good movie. After the movie it was back to the house for some much needed sleep.

Day Four: Dylan and Kyla had to leave back to Colorado early on Sunday because Dylan had to get back for work on Monday, so that put the crews number down to two. Surprisingly my body wasn't really that sore on day four. I guess it was getting use to the abuse. So at around 10ish with a stretch and a bit of a yawn Sara and I motivated over to the bagel shop and got a quick breakfast, and then worked our way through the northern part of Phoenix to hit up the Desert West skatepark. The Desert West skatepark wasn't much to look at. Lots of kids... lots of empty space.... a crappy pyramid.... no coping on the transitions.... and some kinna funky looing bowled out areas.... when we got there I was like "this isn't gonna be much fun"..... but three hours later we were still skating and having a great time. There were little curbs all around the park with metal edging on it and some kinna fun ledges etc... I messed around a lot and had a lot of fun dorking around on the curbs. Some kid called me the king of posers and then told me that I was "totally stoned". hahaha After I landed a mach 3 backside tailslide on the medium ledge I asked him to play me in a game of skate... which he declined, stating that he could hardly olie up the curb and then argued that I knew to many hard tricks. Kids out in Arizona need to be beat down severely... or something..... maybe they just need to stay away from the glue and gasoline. hahaha Anyway, Sara and I had a rad time skating at the park and after close to 4 hours we decided that it was too hot to skate anymore and opted to go check out the Vans park at the local mall. The Vans park looked like it could be pretty fun if it wasn't packed with 5000 little kids.... but since it was packed with close to 6000 little kids we decided to go catch a movie and rest before our next session. So we went and watched Catch Me If You Can, wich I highly recommend. The Nachos at the theater sucked but oh well, what do you expect from a theater..... after the movie we went to Baja Fresh again for dinner wich was grubbin as usual. After dinner we decided to go back to the Paradise Valley Skatepark for an evening sesh. I couldn't skate for shit at first, but by the end of the night I was finally getting my flow on. Most of the local kids had to go home early to go back to school on Monday so by the end of the night we basically had the whole place to ourselves, which totally ruled. That place was soooo rad. Super good park. I wrecked my self that night, hitting my elbow super hard and falling on my back brutally after tripping on a missed back side tailslide on this bump to ledge thing... ouch... can you say "swellbow"... oi... but I still managed to have a rad time. I really hope that some city in the bay area takes note of the parks out in Arizona... they are sooooooo good.... anyway, after about 4 hours of skating the rangers came to shut down the park and then it was time to head back to Sara's one last time to catch some z's and pack up for my trip back to reality and California....

Day Five: Got up, took a shower, hit the road back to San Jose. Man what a trip......