skate journal: downtown LA #cali4niahotstubborns day 4 (sept 4, 2017)
So stoked we waited a few days for the downtown push day, because it was the coolest day of the trip and it was bearable to go without water for awhile. We left from our apartment and ended up at the spot above pretty quickly. Dave and I spotted it first. It had a bunch of 2 stairs in a row that were really fun to ollie down. I think Dave had some 180s thrown in. I tried too, but never linked multiple ones together. Jack ollied up all of them. Carleigh either ollied or firecrackered (maybe both) all of them. Did I mention this was a police station? So cool that they didn’t care. The only thing they cared about was Fuzz standing on the ledge when he filmed. I had told Rob if he landed the back 180 I’d get his back which I did with a kickflip off the bump then front 180 the stairs. I tried another line of halfcab flip then front shove, but never committed to the front shove. Jack had a rad ollie off the bump over the grass.
Then we hit this spot which was one of the main destinations. It was of course way harder to skate than we imagined. Dave reigned king and put down a lot of tricks. The pivots both ways on the edges were sick, front disaster kind of. Jack had the lofty ollie shown above and a one foot or two as well. I had back and front rock, but they were more like under rocks since I didn’t deck them at all. Fuzz had big goals and was disappointed with himself, but still put down rock fakies, rock, fakie rock and maybe another trick or two. Carleigh was decking her front rocks so good, but didn’t quite get it before we got the boot.
Some of us skated a little brick bank briefly. Just some stalls. Nate was going off trying a boardslide transfer on a legit flat rail. He would get it. Kind of hyped that when Nate lands tricks he might even look more bummed than me. It was so sick though. Off we went. Jack did a gnarly hippy jump while I found a fun ledge for people to sit on. Then some Glen shenanigans where I took way too long to land a kickflip, but slammed into a sign rather well. Definitely my favorite clip of the trip. While I was doing that Fuzz had some steezy pops onto a curb cut and front 180 off. Dave was trying to manual into a bums house. We stopped by the Kirchart hydrant for Jack. He wanted ollie over to manual which he would have done had his bushing not blown out.
Then some wallride time here. Fuzz had a couple unreal wallrides. I had a couple insanely fun wallie nollies with some fun powerslides down the hill after. Dave went for front wallride. Not sure if he got it. It’s kind of a blur after this, but we saw so many cool spots. Dave and Fuzz 50’d a little marble ledge. Rob ruined a curb while security swooped in. We found this super rad black granite ledge that could have become a full session. Rob had done halfcab noseslide and front noseslide. Carleigh was doing noseslides, Dave boardslides, Nate boardslides, I was almost getting crooks. But there was a weird scene with some cops pulling over a lady and some security guards lurking by the ledge. I tried to crooks while they were there and apparently got really close to their bike (I must be completely unaware of space because I didn’t know I was close) and we got the boot. Such a bummer, we could have posted up there for a long time I bet. Next up was a sick hill bomb that Rob wallie/nollied into first try. Dave got it too. I think all of us bombed the hill and it felt awesome. I don’t recall any more skating after this. What a blast, skating downtown with friends rolling from spot to spot is my favorite thing. Especially with this crew, downtown LA and nice weather.
(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)