Following on from my challenge to skate a park a month for the whole year, Brendan put together a little something visual in the way of inspiration for me and jealousy for those of you not here.

Behold the skatepark advent calendar. Each month will be replaced with a picture of me shredding (or lying broken) on the various concrete delights. For now you get to drool….later you can laugh.

advent calendar

In an effort to get my wooden legs and gracefully ageing ass back on a skateboard, and reclaim a small bit of the glory days, it was suggested, and of course by suggested i mean i was challenged, to do a skatepark a month. Actually here in Blighty there are so many skateparks i could probably do one a week a for a year, but i thought i be realistic.

Brendan is of course the main instigator and together with Andy over at Lowbrow Obscura, who i might add has cleverly tucked himself away in the San Diego sun so he does not have to endure the winter skate, they threw down the challenge card. Who can resist this manly duty, to heed the call, take up your sword and attack, fall, rise and attack again. Oh and i’m quite sure there will be a lot of getting up again required.

So a list was drawn of 12 visions of concrete awesomeness, they were ordered from ‘your granny’ to ‘fist of God’ in order to show progress but i threw caution to the wind on month 1 and opted for ‘small walking child’, otherwise know as Finsbury Park.

It was cold friends, probably to cold for Andy, but we went anyway. There was nobody, then there was a very angry portuguese guy that shouted everytime he bailed a trick, then there came small children that did not know the meaning of shut up and skate, but it was worth it and no i was not the angry portuguese guy, not this time.

I carved and slashed and fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes in Brendan’s words and i laughed and got up to do it again, but bloody hell do i hurt right now as i sit here typing this. Thank the good Lord for inventing wine.

Brendan once again has volunteered camera duty, being the best one at knowing which end does what. On with the show.

Mr Smith

Frontside Rock and yes i did roll

5-0 with my sex face on

Tipping the hat to Neil Blender

This is an another awesome vid featuring some old schoolers. This time Vans Tour to Brazil featuring Steve Caballero, Jeff Grosso, Omar Hassan and a few friends. Everything in Brazil is MASSIVE!! All the bowls in this video take serious kahuna’s to even drop i reckon. Enjoy. Thanks to Andy over at Lowbrow Obscura for the heads up on this post.

Vans Brasil Tour from Vans Skate on Vimeo.

One day when i build my pantheon these will still be my gods
Thanks to Ruhan VV for this link. Old school throwdown in Florida by my hero’s on a 90′s size vert ramp.

So here it is, proof positive good doubters that

a) i still own a board and
b) i am able to pull the tiniest of board slides (hey it’s about knee height at least)

So this is the first time back on board in a year at least and let me tell you it was bloody disheartening. Of course it was the busiest day i have ever seen at that park thanks to Mr Sun putting in a whole day. I reckon at least 100 skaters in a park designed for 10 hahaha on my perfect skate days. It’s absolutely amazing how crap i have become, but this has filled me with great hope for 2011, surely i can only get better, surely.

Two very important things i learnt

a) ollie pop has gone away
b) black is not slimming

Bring on 2011 skate days. Watch this blog for some serious improvement.

Massive thanks to Brendan for crouching in the cold through the 30 takes just to get these 2 gems on film