The Big Crapple

I made the trek to NYC for Back to the Banks and Manny Mania. It amazes me how late everyone in New York stays out. I would be a complete pile of shit if the bars stayed open until 4 or later. It's not often that I hear last call these days but it's always a reminder that I should get home and go to bed. When that happens a couple hours later, that's ridiculous. My camera didn't make it out of my pocket as much as it should have. One of the major undocumented occurrences was seeing my old friend Tom Gilmour. Further weekend plans to meet up with Tom were spoiled by trying to pack too much into a short stay. Next time Tom! In summary, I saw a lot of skating, I pushed around the city a lot, drank some expensive cheap beers, stole Pat's bed, saw old friends, and went to a nice part of New Jersey (which I didn't know existed).

Pat's self inflicted mullet.

Fucking Yuji was there! That was a nice surprise upon arrival. The fact that he and 3 other Japanese dudes were staying at Pat's was not a nice surprise.

Just play where's Waldo with Yuji's hand. Nice work!

So many kids at Back to the Banks.

Benny signing autographs.

My new best friend.

Me and a bridge curtesy of Pat Smith.

This is a miss of a rad trick that Yuji was trying. I got the real deal on film.

Statue of Liberty = Freedom.

We came across these bagpipers while skating by Wall St. I was wondering what the fuck it was all about. It was a wedding procession! Damn.

Zach Lyons.

Zach and his homie Bobby.

Manny Mania!

Tim with awesome grip art.

Guest shots by Pat of our friends eating ice cream. First up, Mark Weeks.

Jerry Mraz.

Doug Shoemaker.

Game of skate with the weirdest tricks by the Japanese crew.

Out into the cuts of New Jersey with the O'Connor family.

Stefan likes No Comment.

No Comment and Diesel.

Time for a swim.

Tim has pirate ship with a mock crucifixition on it.

Japanese crew's last night to party.

Bonus shot - the one photo I took during my 24 hours in LA for the Transworld awards.

Since you've been home.

Back to summertime weather in Portland. This is what makes those grey, rainy, winter days worth it.

BB gun target.

Fill them up with water and shoot til it's all gone.

I wish I had a witty Toledo reference for this photo.

More bad tattoo ideas.

One-man assault vehicle Silas put on a demonstration of how to properly destroy the ramp. Back tail.

Vegetation in your trucks? Keep skating.

Benihana? He's got that.

Europe part 3

And finally to Berlin. I haven't been able to pinpoint what it was that I liked so much about Berlin. The city has a great feel to it, the locals are friendly, I could get by with my almost non-existent grasp of German, and there are skate spots all over. Maybe that sums it up right there. Those in our crew familiar with the city said it's one of the cheapest places to live in Europe but very difficult to find a job. We all stayed in one apartment building with a cafe out front and a communal courtyard through a hallway from the street. Mornings were spent getting coffee at the cafe and rallying the crew.
Another thing that I like is the vast amount of history and what the city has been through. It's interesting to contrast the remnants of the old East Berlin with the new, modern Berlin. And as a North American whose country has seen very little war on its soil, walking through a park that has a huge, old bomb crater in the center is mind bottling.
I know that I'll be visiting Berlin again. And hopefully I can do some tourist stuff and not have to drive the whole time so I can take in more of the sights.

Playing soccer in the courtyard.

Silas and Rune.

This is one of the main skate spots in Berlin. Apparently they don't mind skaters as long as it's past 6pm and they are closed. This spot has pretty much everything. Although on the night we were there they were setting up for movie so we couldn't skate all there was and eventually they kicked us out before the movie was set to start.

But now worries because around the corner is this awesome spot also with no hassles.

The next day it rained so everyone caught up on sleep, work, or drinking (or some combination of that). But later in the day we were able to talk the guys at Skatehalle into a private session. The park is really fun if you ever get a chance to skate there.

Back by the apartments Torsten was getting artsy in the streets.

Interesting neighborhood graffiti.

More awesome German beer. I had this at the great spätzel place.

Weird dog costumes in this German tabloid.

The same magazine also had this article about Obama products in Germany including fried chicken and this golden dildo.

Rune was pretty much the trip mascot.

Maxim showed us around one day. Thanks dude!

This spot was really fun and had a little skatepark just around the corner where I put in some time.

More German beer!

We went to skate this spot but discovered that the school had recently added those crappy grey cobble stones over there on the left ruining the landing for the ledges.

Contest day at Skatehalle.

Silas had a nice trick for this spot but the construction on the street kept more action from happening.

Another fun ledge spot. That is our guide for the day Yannick about to do something rad out of a tailslide.

Off to this interesting spot.

Someone said that Neil's sock/shoe combo looked like Christmas.

Those squares on the left are trampolines. I had the most fun on those.

Jody and Mick.

Premiere 3 at the Skatehalle. Nestor joined in after a trip through Eastern Europe.

Late night session at the €2 photobooth.

The Berlin TV tower. It seems like every city in Germany has one of these.

Petr liked this spot.

Just in case you need something that is really big.

Last spot of the trip. Everyone had something good for this.

Leaving Berlin.

This is the old Communist main street. It looked amazing from the street level but I was too busy driving to snap a picture.

The mountains of Greenland.

Almost home.

End.