skate journal: day 3 #cali4niahotstubborns brief paul revere, kenter and courthouse (sept 3, 2017)
Another warm day in sunny LA we took a very long drive to Paul Revere. The back area where the old Dog Town banks were was closed off. We were about to skate a smaller bank when we got the boot.
So we drove to a nearby school named Kenter. Fuzz, Dave and Rob engineered unlocking the front gate and we were in. The main schoolyard had banks all around it and plastic benches scattered here and there. We quickly moved one onto a bank. There was also a long hallway with a few stairs which made for a fun (I mean frustrating) warm up. I think I was the last of us to get the line, but I hit my hand really hard on a low hanging ceiling on one of the 3 stairs. By then Jack was already going to work on a bench. He would either lock into back nosegrind or hang up and slam super hard. It was a painful watch. He got the back nosegrind 180 and a kick back lip or two. I was amazed at how tall the benches felt. It was kind of depressing. I think I only got a weak noseslide on them. Dave and Rob had some boardslides. Rob might have done halfcab boardslide too. Nate was killing front smiths on the bank to bench. I wanted to film one of them, but he was trying to figure out a flip trick to do in a line. Rob had front noseslides in a line with bean plants on another bank. Dave was getting front 50s after trying various tricks on the other bank. I got a crappy noseslide or two and a good shinner as I complained to Fuzz about how hard skateboarding is. After awhile some people driving by gave us weird vibes and we ended up bouncing. Jack had gotten a sick sign ride, but Nate couldn’t get the front smith again and Dave couldn’t quite get the front 50 back 180.
Then we went to the Courthouse. I thought it would be total chaos, but it ended up being pretty awesome. A breeze had started and there is a lot of shade there. It didn’t stop us from all being sweaty messes, but it didn’t feel too hot. Pretty much right away I started trying the noseslide 270 shove and basically only tried that for at least an hour. The one above was the only “make”. Great, second trick of the trip that I had thought of ahead of time and wanted to do, but did it so poorly it’s not usable. I still had a lot of fun though. There was a really good vibe. Skating such a rad spot with such great homies is wonderful. Nate was killing the same ledge as me. Back 50s, back 5-0, back nosegrind and for the Stubborns .. back nosegrind shove! So sick. Jack basically tried manual 360 flip out the whole time. He got a couple, maybe not as perfect as he wanted, but he did it. I saw Dave do some long boardslides to fakie. Rob got the 4 stair line real quick. Fuzz had been chilling, but got going with some flatground until he cracked his tail on a fakie bigspin (I think). Carleigh would do lines through the benches after filming Jack try the manny 360 flip. She got a rad line doing 4 or 5 “basics” in a row.
After Fuzz broke his board we went to a shop that was literally next to the Courthouse. It turned out to be a rad shop and then we skated a mellow bank to wall after. Fuzz got a couple really good wallrides. Rob with the wallie nollie which I would eventually get too. I don’t remember who else got wallrides. Dave was skating so I’m sure he did. Nate couldn’t quite get it. Fun ender. Man my legs were beat.
(setup 8.38 null spanbauer deck, venture 5.8 trucks, venom 91a bushings, no bottom washer, spitfire f4 101a 51mm classic wheels, 3 washers on the outside of each axle, nbnumeric 212 burgundy, spenco 3/4 thinsoles and FP 5mm insoles)