Buena Park

As a part of the surge, we've been consistently having official Tuesday missions each week. No more of the Whittier creeping we are usually confined to. JJ, in a matter of 15 minutes, landed a line on the benches: lipslide - smith kickflip out. I also got a sketchy boardslide front bigspin out as the sun was going down. Uncle Mike was the photographer for the day.

Long Beach

You probably don't like the commentary portion of this blog, so ill try to keep them short from now on. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you looked at the photos, watched the video, and exited the webpage or clicked back to MySpace (in which case you've reached this web page via bulletins). Either way I'll continue to give you the inside scoop of the day... Today, we were much luckier with the fuzz. We skated the best spot in Long Beach, which can be seen in the Berry video. It has gaps, pole jams, and an interesting manual pad. Scott Kane 360 shuv manuals it in the Berry video if you'd like to get a visual, since i forgot to take a picture of it. We got 2 tricks on the manual pad (ill leave it up to you to figure out who it was). On the 3 block at the next spot, Kevin stuck switch varial heel, Sammy stuck switch pop shuvit, JJ landed front pop twice in a row, and Mike had no luck with nollie heel. The End.

The Bust of El Segundo

Meaning "the second," the city of El Segundo lives up to its name in being "the second" biggest bust. Just below Brea, CA, almost every notable spot in El Segundo has a high bust factor. The city is home to the most perfect 4 flat 4 we've ever seen (this spot has been nollie inward heelfipped by Nick Trapasso in Toy Machine's, "Suffer the Joy"). But before we had the chance to film, a cop rolled up... The next spot we went to was the greatest high school we've ever skated. It's eccentricity of architecture gives existence to some very enticing spots, allowing the imagination to run rapid with tricks; you can't figure out what to skate first. But again, a cop rolled up within minutes and we had to book it. In search for the third spot we were pulled over by cops that had been following us for a few miles, waiting for me to technically break a law. The officer cited the reason of "driving past the white line" at a stop sign in order to interrogate us, or me as the driver, about skating. He even asked if we were skating the high school, hoping we'd say yes so he can interrogate further. We were told to go home and that was it, the day was a complete failure. Thank you El Segundo authorities, as well as the authorities of every city, for "protecting and serving" us. We really owe you one...

First Breath After Coma

This is the first of a line of entries to come from the previously discontinued 'Quest for Footage' blog... Ive decided now to continue posting because this is the most crucial part of filming. The last months of filming before a video deadline are the most intense and nerve-wracking; the soft comfortable cushion of time no longer exists. With that, we've implemented, as our president has, a surge. However, our surge doesn't involve an onslaught of troops, but rather an influx of footage. Thus far, we've been fairly consistent with the surge efforts. I regret that in the preceding 8 months of the surge our filming efforts were extremely low, sometimes nonexistent. These next few months of missions are the most dire of times, marked by renewed dedication, and is the ending to this epic quest. They are the first breaths after coma.

Fullerton Up Ledge

After a failed attempt at a San Diego trip, we settled for the Fullerton Up Ledge. Although a bit of a disappointment with how things turned out, the Fullerton Up Ledge is quite the veteran in giving its skaters a decent session. In order to complement his earlier nosegrind nollie front shuv (summer '07), Joe landed a 5-0 (regular) front shuv. Derek Spear also graced us with not only his presence, but some footage as well. Warming up he landed 2 muscly crooked grind pop outs. Derek also had a hand at some technical variations by configuring a backside 50-50 sex change to switch frontside 50-50 to fakie frontside bigspin out... an inventive imagination.

Murphy Ranch

In desperation to session on a rainy day, Juan, Mikey, and I lurked through Whittier rummaging our minds for a good spot to set up the box. Chiropractic college had a decent roof set-up, so we tried there first. Warm-up tricks were being landed and we started to feel the flow of the box's foreign position (we're used to skating it at ramp flat). However, that was diminished when a security guard, truly dedicated to his job, gave us the boot; we tried reasoning with the man but he wanted none of it. The next contender was Meadow Green, an elementary school down the road with a 3 stair. This would have been great for lines had there been no teachers there. Finally, we found sanctuary from the rain at Murphy Ranch, which holds the gap Tony Cervantes ollies in the Zero promo video (La Habra local Drew Khemtongpru can be accredited with ollying this enormous gap as well). The long awaited box session is as follows:

Mikey - tailslide fakie, wallride to back tail fakie line, fakie switch nose grind, fakie switch lazy grind, 5-0, 5-0 kickflip out
Juan - smith, nollie crook, half-cab crook

Big Lots!

Although no mission with the regulars, our new group managed a session out of a new bank ledge behind Big Lots!. Mikey began with a series of 5-0 tricks; 5-0, 5-0 tail, and 5-0 revert. Juan landed feeble pop-out but ate shit on a blunt to back 5-0.

Westchester Recreation Center

*Our apologies for the lag, but we haven't had many blog-worthy sessions since San Francisco.* With directions to another newly discovered spot, we ventured to Los Angeles to a nice rundown park called Westchester Recreation Center. These spots are always the best to hit up seeing as how no one with authority ever lurks the premise. This center holds the famous bank/slope to bench seen in nearly every skate video, including Transworld's 'A Time to Shine' (Paul Rodriguez switch heelflip crook). Although haggard and harder to skate than expected, like most spots, some were able to handle. The session was as follows: Cody - 5-0, nosegrind, lipslide, and tailslide, Tyler - front board, Garrett - back 50-50 and attempted back 5-0, Derek - crook and attempted kickflip back 50-50, Mikey - smith, and Joe - 50-50, tailslide (fakie), and nearly landed 270 shuv out. During the time Joe was attempting his tailslide 270 shuv out, Cody & Mikey hopped the nearby fence and sessioned an empty pool. There on an embankment dividing the shallow and deep end Mikey filmed no comply tailslide (fakie). After the secret pool session, they went to the famous V ledge (Paul Rodriguez switch back tail in Nike's 'Nothing But the Truth') around the corner from the bank/slope ledge at the rec center. Here they finished off the day with a boardslide fakie and a bail straight to the dome for Cody.

San Francisco - Return to 3rd & Army

With nowhere new to go and much time on our hands, 3rd & Army seemed to be the best contender. Before getting burned on the spot (we spent another 2 1/2 hours here), we at least managed some footy out of the sesh. Kevin and I were the only ones down for lines, seeing as how Joe was still battered from the hubba and Pork just wanted to chill. I landed a semi-sketchy switch flip - fakie front nose line followed by a close but never landed back smith - noseslide bigspin out line from Kevin. Afterwards, I had Joe nosebonk this little ledge for whatever footy, which Kevin and Pork became interested in. So instead we filmed a nice little triples nosebonk for the entry. After the bonking, Pork landed manual kickflip on the entire stretch of the manual pads first try, which was very impressive. Lastly, Kevin finished the tired session with a back smith stall on the man made quarter pipe for a picture. And that concludes the San Francisco trip! The remaining footage not seen in these blog entries will be shown in the video, so please remain patient. Otherwise, enjoy the last San Francisco entry!

San Francisco - Fort Miley

After trekking up a lengthy forest-condensed road, we arrived at the abandoned military base, Fort Miley. This is one of the best spots in San Francisco that we visited. It was basically a small tranny skatepark, like Huntington Park, with a banks, rails on top of the banks, and two different rectangular pyramids. The sesh was chill and we got some tranny footy while we were there. On the pyramid: Kevin landed nollie inward heel, Pork 360 flip, and I switch bigspin. Joe was drained from Hubba Hideout and didn't skate. On the other side of the pyramid, Kevin did switch frontside 360 and I switch backside flip. Kevin also 5-0ed and tailslid the bank (the waxed side). Since the pyramids on each side formed a large rectangular top, it was able to be skated as a manual pad. On this manual pad kevin landed nollie heel manual and later nollie flip manual just before we had to leave. The Fort Miley session concludes the end of the second and last full day of the San Francisco trip (but there's still one more entry). Enjoy the mini video!