figure I will try to take advantage of a situation when I can.  Since Collins is out of town for the week the skateboarders of Louisville need someone to shoot photos.  So if any sessions go down hit me up.

A somewhat-impromptu session sparked at Phil Roth’s miniramp last night.  Apparently, Dane can kill that ramp, no matter how much or how little light there is.

Dane Warner, frontside tailgrab from hell.

Show up to a spot with a bruised heel and tweaked back and warm up with a 50-50 on a tall, sketchy bar out of a steep bank.

Cole Wilson, 50-50, SFCA.

Less than hour off of a 4-hour flight, land two kickflips in a row over this quick ollie up to flat gap, sit down for 30 minutes, and then one-up yourself.

Cole Wilson, East Oakland kickflip.

Most of the blood had been cleaned off of him by the time I shot this, but you can still tell that the situation was less than awesome.

 Cole Wilson, last day in town blues.

Nights in theCity can tend to get out of hand kind of quickly.  I have no clue what the name of the song is, but we quickly adopted a random Lil Wayne song as our hype song of the trip.  Car parties ensued and several rap videos worth of footage was logged.  Ridiculous.

And of course you’ve gotta show the new guy all the famous spots.  Ballard points out the Bay Blocks while hanging out the window.

The city of SF thought it would look way better to cut gigantic grooves in the blocks at Pier 7 than to have skateboarding marks on them.  Wrong much?

They cut the grooves because their previous efforts to skate proof the spot were easily debunked.

 Cole still managed to get two tricks though:  one on his skateboard, and one off.

 The next day started off with a trip right up the street from where we were staying to this amazing and seemingly untouched spot.  This is just one example of the sick spots that exist in Berkeley.
 

Then back into theCity.  Treasure Island is a gold mine for amazing spots.  And the view’s nice too.

theBallard and I had been exchanging emails with Ando and Leiland at FTC and they told us to stop by once we got out here.  On our last visit into the shop, they hooked it up with a grip of product. 

That being said, and completely aside, the cats at FTC are some of the raddest dudes I’ve ever come across.  They welcomed us with open arms, were amazingly hospitable, and basically held it down on a level that I’ve come not to expect from skateshops around the country.  Let it be said that a shop I previously believed to be a high-class and snooty boutique is one of the realest skateshops on thePlanet and not once in the time that we spent in the shop did I see a single person get vibed, hated on, or made fun of.  Top form fellas.

Ando.

The shop.

As we were loading up the car to head to the next skate spot, there was a large commotion in the street.  I looked up to see hundreds of naked dudes on bicycles chanting “Less gas, more ass!”  San Francisco is just like that.  As we were driving to the next spot, we saw the dudes gathered in the park just standing around, sipping drinks, and hanging out, still naked and still wearing their helmets.  Ruling?

We hit a few more spots, got some footy and photos, and called it a day.

The next day, I woke up and went out to start loading up the van.  You can always, always tell where Ballard’s been riding.
 

We met up with some locals and they took us around to a couple of different spots.  Just as a session was brewing at the Bay Blocks, Cole was dorking around and caught one of the gigantic skatestoppers on the ledges and ended up cutting his head wide open.  Pictures coming soon of the mayhem that ensued, but I will say that I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that much blood come from a person before.   So, with the day temporarily on hold, theBallard took Cole to the hospital and me and some friends took in a street fair on Haight street.  More SF insanity.

Cole got stitched up and was ready to rip straight out of the hospital, so we hit a few more spots and then dipped back to Berkeley.

After a long and trying trip, we’re boarding our planes tomorrow at noon and heading back to the greater Louisville area.  Bummed that I’m leaving all of my friends here, but stoked that I’m going back home, this trip has been full of the highest highs and the lowest of lows.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

These are all from a couple days ago because I’ve been lagging on posting.  You may have noticed.

We were based in Sebastopol but we skated all the little northern California towns in and around the Bay Area.  There are some gems tucked away in each town.

Example:
Petaluma…

…is home to this.

El Caballero!

Later that day, Tony got served up on a rail and ended up breaking his collarbone.  With 6 days in theBay left, we thought we were out of luck.  But, you’ve gotta learn to be flexible and we pulled some strings and hooked up with Chris Renfro in theCity and moved our base camp to Berkeley.  On our way there, we stopped at Tony’s studio to shoot some portraits for the article we’re working on.

Tony and Cole were instant homies on this trip. 

When an area is populated along large spans of water, you have to building ridiculously huge bridges.

Yesterday started at a bump to hydrant in Sonoma.  The spot was right beside a horse’s field.  Pretty rad.

Then we drove around from small town to small town hitting up some spots here and there.  NorCal is beautiful to say the least.

Backseat who-ridin’ with Cole Wilson.

We ended up in Benecia waiting for Tony’s cousin to show us some spots around town.

He took us to this crusty burger on the water.

It’s not hard to get sparked on a spot when has a view like this.

 Tony got some tricks and flicks and we headed home.  California is truly beautiful.

I broke the point and shoot digital camera, so I don’t really know when these are from for the most part.  I’ll do my best.

 The house we’re staying in isn’t small, but it ain’t huge either, so sleeping situations can get tight.

And with these two around…things can get awkward.

We’re staying in Sebastopol, which is a bit out in the cuts from the city, but on Saturday, we drove back into the city to shoot some bangers.  We didn’t have a plan for any spots, so we ended up driving around a bit aimlessly and the crew’s spirits declined.

But, not to worry as the homey Matt D!, store manager of DLXSF, is always down to hook it up.

He ended up letting Mike Bowman off of work to be our tour guide.  I’d met Mike previously when he went to Louisville to skate.  His dad lives there and he visits sometimes. 

Coconut popsicles from the ice cream cart?  Step one to getting sparked.

Step two:  Head into the hills and peep the views that you get at good spots.

The newly-famous downhill double set most definitely sets the men apart from the boys.

 In SF, once you have a parking spot, you don’t give it up unless you absolutely have to.  What this means is that you skate or walk from spot to spot.  This is actually some of the most fun you’ll have while out here.  It means hill bombs and tweakers and lots and lots of culture.

Street gaps are pretty much a staple SF spot.  There are tens, if not hundreds, to be hit here. 

More tomorrow.  Or the next day.