56 To
ENTRY TEN-2/10/96
Today is the last
day of the trade
show and after
scamming our way in yet again, we decide that
the entire day will be spent fucking with people.
The afternoon is spent wandering around film-
ing Jimmy as he tries to get people to fight Oz
(who is over six feet tall and 200 lbs). Jimmy
just keeps screaming, "100 bucks! Knock him
out in one punch! 100 bucks!" Nobody takes
the offer, and we all begin to feel dejected when
lo and behold, a fight almost breaks out
between Oz, Jimmy and a sunglasses vendor!
Eventually, though, the fight ended in a stale-
mate, and we went on. We caught the last vert
demo, which featured most of today's pros,
and then we headed for Splitsville. Downtown
LA was sought and the City Hall banks were ses
sioned until an LAPD helicopter using infrared
spotted us and sent a patrol car to evict us. So
much for downtown LA.
ENTRY ELEVEN - 2/11/96
Armed with a map provided by Jeremy
Klein, we head off to San Pedro to sample some
school yards. 7th Street and Beryl School, both,
of which have great banks, are sessioned until
we are pooped. Beryl was skated at night, so I
had to drive the space pick-
le into the playground
and shine the head-
lights on
the bank so we could see. Afterwards we head
to a coffee shop in Redondo Beach where Jimmy
hits it off with some girl. Then we point the
space pickle north and head
to San Francisco.
ENTRY TWELVE-2/12/96
After arriving in San Francisco at
5:30 in the morning, we cruise around and end
up at Ghirardelli Square and decide this is as
good a place as any to sleep. We are aroused
from our slumber by the parks dept, apparently
because they thought Shark, who was lying face
down on the sidewalk, was a vagrant. We split
and bead over to Thrasher HQ where Jake gives
us the grand tour. We hook up with Bryce, who
takes us to the China Banks where we meet up
with Matt Pailes, Dan Drehobl, Phil Shao and
Greg Carroll. The banks are put through the
paces by these guys, that is, until Drehobl loses.
his board over the side and hits some old lady
in the neck. She won't give back Dan's board and
calls the cops. We head to Ft Mason minus
Dan for a quick session before heading to the
Daily Grind Skatepark in Sacramento.
ENTRY THIRTEEN-2/12/96
After an hour-and-a-half of playing
cat and mouse with Bryce on the highway, we
get to the Daily Grind. This is a great park that
features a good street area, huge vert ramp, and
a seven-foot horse shoe shaped howl that is
hard as hell to skate. The locals are all really
friendly and have
good attitudes,
which makes for
an enjoyable ses-
sion. That night
we stay with
Jason Case and
catch up on old
times as most of
the residents of
the house are
from Connecticut.
ENTRY FOURTEEN-2/13/96
Another late start due to it's hard as
hell to get eight people up at the same time,
and we head to San Francisco for more street
skating. We end up at Ft Miley for most of the
afternoon, either skating or taking in the view
of the Bay or the nearby nude beach. After
fighting over what to do next, we split up and go
skate downtown in separate groups. Later that
night we head to Santa Rosa to stay with our
longtime friend again from Connecticut, Brian
Gaberman, and his roommate Charlie Watts.
ENTRY FIFTEEN-2/14/96
Today we skated the famous Santa
Rosa Skatepark and were not disappointed. The
park is directly across the street from a high
school, and I can't imagine how any of the kids
get their work done knowing that a stone's
thrown away is this concrete wonderland. We
spend all afternoon frolicking in the bowls and
discovering new lines with every run. Today is
Valentine's Day and I have found my true love.
There were quite a few people skating (about
thirty), and I found out that plans are set to lay
more concrete in the summer. Yippee! We skat-
ed until darkness fell upon us and the bowls
disappeared.
ENTRY STEEN-2/15/96
Today is our final day in California
and it rained. This foiled our plans of going to
skate the avenues in San Francisco. We stopped
by Thrasher to say good-bye and then headed
to EMB to check out the rain-soaked "Gonz." Oz
kissed one of the ledges saying, "This place
brought street skating out of the dark ages."
With that, we loaded up and headed home.
51 hours, 3,111 miles, 4 fights, and 2
snowstorms later, we were home.
Final Entry-2/18/96
Here are a few stats from the trip:
Total Miles: 9,132
Total Days on the Road: 17
Number of Seats in the Van: 7
Number of People in the Van: 8
Average Time Spent in the Van Each Day: 11
hours, 47 min
Fun Had: Much.
Worth It: Every minute,
Spread: Pulling into Dallas, searching for Southside Skatepark and a place to sleep.
Above left: Jim Grees punches out of SF's China Banks.
Above center: Dong Switelski alley-oop nallie heriflips, landing them every time at Southside Skatepark.
Above right: Big Dan Drehabi 50/50 the tap of Chine Banks before he killed an old lady Gnarburgers.
MELE