This is the alley behind my house in Ybor. Geared up to get down. I had no idea what was ahead for me
That’s the mileage I started with as I hopped on I-4
This is SO Florida...just outside of St. Augustine off of I-95
Total outlaw biker somewhere in GA off of I-95
I got used to this quite a bit considering I only get 100 miles per tank out of the Sportster. Small bikes on long trips will kick your ass
After driving solo for 540 miles I decided to call it a night in Florence, SC. Ironically I stayed at a hotel across the street from one Rob Meronek, Scotty Conley, Sean Albright, and I stayed in a few years back. We actually skated this bank-to-curb on that trip. Cheers
The next morning I rode 150 miles to Raleigh, NC to meet up with the crew. Andrew Reynolds showed up first and got a late birthday present from the Emerica family...a 45-year-old guitar. He was very hyped
This is the scene out front of Endless Grind in Raleigh where they did a signing
That’s Fat Bob Reynolds. I had lunch with him and Will Campbell at Vertical Urge (killer name) in Raleigh
The rest of the team ripped the street course while Spanky did bonelesses in the bowl at Vertical Urge
They were throwing out these weird objects in the product toss at Vertical Urge
Emerica Team Manager Jeff Henderson goes the extra mile by filling up Braydon’s and Brandon Westgate’s tanks
Green Acres campsite in Williamston, NC
The Boss likes onions. Thanks to Mark Waters and crew for cooking out
Jerry Hsu, KSL, and Sean Eaton enjoying the campsite
A group at another campsite dropped off a bunch of crawfish and Marquise Preston went to town
Figgy is extra-stoked on the burgers
Marissa del Santo about to melt some marshmallows
This is what my sleeping arrangements consisted of while camping
The next morning Ben Gilley was up early and packed up before anyone else
Patrick O’Dell had never ridden a bike prior to this trip. He learned quickly and rode this loaner-hog from Williamston to Virginia Beach
Of course Heath Kirchart was there. He keeps a low profile
This dog belonged to another campsite, but he took advantage of our big crew’s willingness to throw pinecones for him. He was relentless
Sean Eaton went from little kid a few years back to grown-ass-biker-man and rides with the best of them
Remember Randy Browne that used to work the Shop at SPoT? He now lives in NC now and tagged along for a few days
We were 20 deep rolling through middle America
This is right when we rolled up to the KOA in Virginia Beach. The guy with the white shirt, I think his name was Harvey, is all the way from Vancouver, Canada and drove 2500 miles to join the group. He and I have the same bikes with small gas tanks, so along with Joey Tershay we had to leave everyone, gas up, and then catch back up. I took the Sporty up to 110mph at that point. It was sketchy…that bike isn’t supposed to go that fast
Suski showed up in Virginia Beach and TM Jeff Henderson greeted him
On the right is Kyle Berard posing with his boy Paul under the “no cursing” sign on Virginia Beach. Berard lives in VA and met us down at the touristy spot
Berard and Paul took us to a decent Mexican joint and the rest of the crew met up with us shortly thereafter. The place went nuts when Bryan Herman “won” a lobster. See that machine in the background? Well, it’s like one of those games that kids play to try and pick up stuffed toys, but instead you pick up live lobsters. Herman walked to the bar with it and they promptly cooked it up for him
Randy and I cut out early and went to the biker bar right by the KOA. I think we went to bed at like midnight, but it got really loud at our campsite in the wee hours of the morning. This dude didn’t quite get his tent posted!
The next morning we left the KOA and got breakfast down by the beach. I shot this photo of Rick Eusey at about 60mph on the way back. He’s another dude that went from am-status to full-on grown-all-biker-man. He’s a badass
Then Emerica took the ENTIRE tour on a trip to the local water park in Virginia Beach. Were they giving free swimming lessons or something? This is right before we got kicked out
Joey Tershay from ACE Trucks doesn’t get out in the sun too much. He lives in NorCal
I took a photo of Jerry Hsu taking a photo. The cut-off jean shorts are the new deal
Randy Browne is next to one FULL ON AMERICAN
John Minor is the Emerica filmer and not really that into water parks
Leo “totally over it” Romero and Marisa del SOCK-to at the crazy-ass go-kart tracks
Joey Tershay on the left and Jeff Henderson on the right are totally killing it on the sprint car track
This is Dustin giving the peace sign. He’s a super-nice guy and on the trip to take photos for Harley Davidson
Listen up ladies...this is Kevin Spanky Long hanging out in his underwear
Looks like the Kiddie Course isn't going to be done until tomorrow. Here's some photos from our first session on the main course and some random bar antics at Skateboard Industry Night in St. Pete: A New Course and a New Bar Scene.
You can get a fisheye's view of the completed street course on the SPoT Facebook Page. If you're a fan of SPoT on Facebook, you already know that we sometimes do special sales and give out coupon codes there. Maybe there might be a special just for Facebook fans next week? Who knows? Maybe. The kiddie course isn't done yet. Photos from that coming up in a bit.
On the Win an All Expense Paid Trip to Tampa survey thing, I should have added, "Stay away from the Skatpeark of Tampa Party Team" as one of the options to prevent your skateboard career from derailing. When you come to Tampa, it's easy to get spinning in the party tornado, especially when 200 of your homies are all in the Ybor hotels or the Ho Jo. If the sauce is not your scene or you're trying not to make it your scene, a nice hotel for a decent price just a few minutes up the highway from SPoT is Days Inn. If you're just looking for a lower price room, a cab ride from there to the tornado in Ybor is probably about $15 or so. There's also another Days Inn on Dale Mabry that's across the street from Mons Venus. They don't serve booze there, just boobies. Boobies never hurt anyone's career. Anyway, you have some time left to enter the Tampa trip giveaway which comes with a hotel room and $500 spending cash, among other things. Since you're not skating, we will see you at all the parties that you get passes to.
I went out to shoot photos of the Kiddie Course construction and spotted Kris Markovich hanging out. Here's what things look like as of now. Gotta go, I have a conference call with 25 people from Fuel TV. 25 people??? Yep, mindblowing. It's about the live HD webcast for Tampa Am. They should put this phone conference on live webcast.
If your company has products on our site, you're welcome to a free ad in our banner pool. On your company's product page, only the ad from your company will show up. On all other pages like articles, photos, and skater profiles, your ad will display randomly from the pool of ads. The size is 970x100 and no animation is allowed. You can update it as often as you want. Email them to me at rob@skateparkoftampa.com. Below are some samples from a few companies that have sent some in already.
The main street course is done and skateable today. The kiddie course should be done late tomorrow or Saturday. Check out some construction progress: Street Course Construction and Completion 2009.
If you're in St. Pete tomorrow night, join us at Durty Nelly's for an event that The Finest Skate Shop is putting on called Skateboard Industry Night, appropriately abbreviated as SIN.
The winners for the Globe Cruiser completes have been picked. I know at least one of them is a local - Yonis came out on top. See you on the Booze Cruise this Friday. The first $600 worth of sauce is all on me. The trucks on these boards are called "Slant" as in my eyes. Sick.
What song is this in this Tampa Am promo video? That one dude, you know, the guy who will be at Tampa Am 2009 on December 3 at SPoT then
on Friday, December 4, doing a show in Ybor for our 17-Year Anniversary Party at Czar. Yeah, him. Oh, and there could be a little bit of ripping skating going on.
Today the staff at SPoT got started on putting together all the skateboard parts collected in the Shop all year long. Through your discarded skate stuff and contributions from your favorite skate companies, we build as many completes as we can and give them away to as many kids as we can find in the underprivileged neighborhoods in our area. We call this charity Boards for Bros. Check out a few photos from what we did today: Boards for Bros November 2009 Assembly.
If you haven't entered the Globe Cruiser Board giveaway yet, you have one more day for that. Tomorrow, all the emails go into a spreadsheet and get sorted random. The top two get a Globe Cruiser complete. On Friday night for the Booze Cruise, the first $600 of sauce is paid for by eBay shoe nerds who bought some of my old Dunks.
One commenter suggested we change the website every year like we do the street course. As soon as we get one of me for every construction dude out there, we can make that happen. Check out some street course construction that just started. In case you don't know, we have completely changed the street course every single year since 1993 when this place was born. This is the first year we've had a slab of granite, however.
Stalker Steve took some nice chill shots at the Harvest Jam this weekend. The skate ones are sort of like the bennihanna of photography, not that mine were any good either. I know we both can do better than that. Check them out: Stalker Steve at the Harvest Jam 2009.
A known hater on the Skatepark of Tampa Facebook page also has photos from the Harvest Jam. Thanks Kirk Hallinan. I'm putting you on the next cover of Frontside Grind Magazine.
