Spott Dreams of Skate Parks: June 2013

Sunday, 30 June 2013

365 Project June extras.

June was super fun.

Flooding in the Ravine.

Brant Hills Skate Spot, Burlington, ON.

Kiwanis Skate Spot, Burlington, ON.

Dundas & Bathurst

Nelson Park Skate Spot Open House. So many negative comments from the community with no basis. I was happy to shut them down with logic, research and facts. They thought I worked for the City.

Hit Orchard afterwards with Sean.

Made this Bomb Deck.

Scouting of the RBBR.

The Transplants. Travis Barker is so great & he tries to get better. Awesome.

Photographing Photographers.

The next DIY spot???

Modular parks have issues.

Wicked graffiti by the Queen and Dufferin Toronto EMS stn.

Clam Slam roller derby.

Icelands

Drumming @ stone.

365 Project & the End of June.

Day 176. New deck looks good over the FirePlace.

Day 177. This book came in handy when I designed the mirco-mini.

Day 178. Seamus, our temporary cat.

Day 179. Traded "Art" for a skateboard.

Day 180. Mississauga, ON - Icelands.

Day 181. Markham, ON - Centennial Park with Garrett aka GTSK8S.

The End of June. Tomorrow is July 1. Day 182. The middle of the year. I've hit 48 different parks and 25 new parks since the beginning of the year.

Monday, 24 June 2013

365 Project: Way more than skateboarding.

I started the 365 Project as a new years resolution to skateboard every day for the year. With the micro-mini in the basement it should be easy. Pop downstairs for a few minuets everyday and call it or get out to one of the few indoor parks. When the weather gets nice I can start hitting outdoor parks. This isn't my only resolution. Here's the list.

1. Skate every day.

2. Learn to kickflip.

3. Lots o' parks.

4. Texas.

5. No Fries.*

6. Make a stranger remember me forever.

7. Donate Blood.

8. Rock out with the derby girls.

9. Laugh so hard I can't breathe.

10. Treehouse.

I've already done 3, 7,8 & 9. 4 & 10 may be postponed because of $$$. Don't worry about the rest(ask if your interested).

Somehow it's turned into way more than skateboarding. I've been to 42+ different parks this year. I've added to the life list in a big way. I've been involved in skate park design workshops and other community meetings. I'm psyched to have done first aid for Skate Elmira last weekend. Some how, to my astonishment, people have looked at this blog. (i set up the blog to have all the stuff online so I can pull it up to show friends)

China looked at the blog.

Well I'm not half way done yet and I feel great and there's more to come.

Day 174. That rainbow ends at my place.

Headed out and found this place.

Smithfeild Skateboard Park.

Then I went on another scouting mission to a ditch I want to put another DIY spot.

It's 25degreesC plus humidity & I haven't been there in a few years so it was a long, wandering walk through the woods.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak.

Deer

(sorry about the low quality, just using the iPod camera)

Then got to the spot. It's a series of concrete ditches. The lowest 2 both have water but the next one up is perfect.

Wet spot.

Dry spot.

See if you can find this little guy (snapping turtle about 2 inches long) in the top picture.

Scouting done, I went into Toronto to The Baitshop (http://www.thebaitshop.ca/gallery/ or @thebaitshop) and picked up more DIY concrete and got a cool deck. The guys gave me a T-shirt and I'm going to do a splatter art deck for them. The shop is really cool.

And that's Day 175.

Much more to come.

Saturday, 22 June 2013

365 project. Skate Elmira!

Today I had the privilege of volunteering my expertise( I'm a paramedic in case the pants didn't give it away) to the Skate Elmira Fundraiser Kick-off. Elmira, ON is a smaller town not far from where I lived when I was little. This awesome kid, Kyle, went before town council and made a presentation in favour of the town getting a skate park. I was at the first information session in February and was happy to help out. The rain didn't dampen any spirits.(How many times has that been used?) There was a skate competition, BBQ, raffles and a bunch of other stuff. I didn't need to do anything as everyone remained uninjured.....mostly.

Day 173. Skate Elmira.

John Deer presents First Aid!

Mobile Park supplied by Doon Skatium. More info can be found here - http://www.kitchener.ca/en/livinginkitchener/SkateboardParks.asp

Raffle prizes. I wanted the custom SE deck made by Nudecks (www.nudecks.com) so bad.

Info on skate parks and some concepts from Spectrum Skateparks. www.spectrum-sk8.com

Bouncy Fun.

Sweet graffiti artist on site.

Christine (fundraising overseer), Kyle (awesome kid) and myself.

Thanks to Christine, Kyle, Dave, Dustin and whole Skate Elmira Team, Emmanuel Mission Church,

Mayor Todd Cowan, Doon Skatium, the Nudecks guys for reading this blog, Everyone who came out despite the frequent rain (it all cleared up by the end) and Spectrum Skateparks who will put a world class park in Elmira.
Almost forgot Skate for Austin. https://www.facebook.com/skate4austin

Scott.

Some more.

Out of the rain.

Yay signs!

Comp in progress.

Friday, 21 June 2013

365 Project hits Go Skateboarding Day!

But first, the days before.

Day 170.

Two friends and myself trekked into the woods and lugged 9 bags of concrete and tools to the foundation of an old barn in Pickering. There we built a small quarter and slappy rail with stuff we found on the site. We did this for the Red Bull Playgrounds DIY contest. (www.redbull.ca/diy)