battle of the week

the classic camp battle is the highly anticipated skater vs gymnast dodgeball showdown. as in most battles, they are won or lost on the3 degree to which one underestimates his/her enemy.

in the case of the skaters . . . . they forget that these girls have spent half their waking lives working out their upper bodies and body coordination. they have arms like cannons, and they do not throw like girls. surprise !!

the gymnasts, on the other hand have an undeappreciation of the inherant anarchy ( read; willingness to cheat ) within the very definition of skateboarding.

mayhem ensues.


in the event they get over - payback for the skaters comes friday AM, when the even MORE highly anticipated "Skater's Rules" match takes place between the skate staff ( who have put up with these rambunctious punks all week , and the skater-campers. the skater staff have a decade of that aforementioned prepensity to anarchy on the campers . . . . . . . . . . . guess who takes the beatdown ??

anyway, 40 miles or so of pristine aspahlt, and free hot breakfast waiting for me when i got done at dawn. nice.

out-marketing notre-dame ??

yeah yeah, MK is goin to ND. but no - i have not gone ND-parent-mad, despite my ever so stylee NDish plaid knee warmers you see me sporting here. i dunno if they make them or not ( tho based on this pic it obvious they should ). no indeed. instead i came to the northwoods where i ride at 4:45 in the AM before camp opens, and forgot my knee warmers/tights. oops. a kwik trip tp the lost-and-found, an even kwicker modification on a long sleeve shirt with my bangage-scissors netted me these hi-end warmers.

and yes, a normal shirt-sleeve does hang loose on my chicken leg.

suffering vs pain

bike racing is a sport of glory, exhiliration, thrill, skill and daring - but mostly about suffering. if you are not suffering, you are not bike racing. skateboarding, has all the good stuff too, but instead of suffering, skateboarding substitutes outright pain as its constant. if you are skating, you are in pain - it is not an avoidable thing. witness, for example, this small feature pictured above, known as a "euro-gap". the idea is you pop your board either up or down off this little gap at the top of an incline, adding fun and difficulty . . maybe slip a fancy little extra trick into the opping of the board and so on. today, i was gonna get a pic of nicky going into the giant foam pit. problem being, the launch ramp into th foam pit is very steep, and 2 srories high - so, i was trying to match his speed with my own for a clear shot, ya know? i was pumping downwards 2 levels of the park after dropping in and i . . . forgot . . . the euro gap was on the last little decline. i went off the gap going fast, looking the otherway. my board stopped, but i proceeded downwards and forwards. i met the ground very quickly indeed !! that hurt. but, it is aslo skateboarding . . . . writh around a bit and walk it off is the preferred post-bail action. hello, pain.


slightly shaken after that, the best i could was this lame pic of nicky on his way into the foam pit after a a sweet grab. the ceiling above him is plastered in stickers, from him and guys before him. foam pits are cool.


on a brighter note - there is a bird's nest right outside our office door. the eggs hatched yesterday, and here are the little birdies taking a nap - or maybe closing their eyes from an electronic flass 2 inches from their little baby birdie eyeballs. hope i didn't blind the little guys.

sick ?? this where you will find the nurse. the bowl- brand new!! - sweetness !!






the kids can do all that flippy and railslide bizness on this stuff. the park is super-modern-sophisticated in that everybody can ride most everything and have fun, like a modern mtn bike trail. too cool.

making it look easy

to the untrained eye, it may appear that being medically responsible for the well being of 250 hi-performance gymnasts and skateboarders is easier than it sounds - such as pictured here. the truth of course, is that we are just that good. it is a living hell - - - - - - - really.

camp ride

miles and miles of this:


traffic was heavy:
digs for the week:

the quiver - well part of it . .

i am not much on regrets, but one is this: i wish to god i'd have held onto every skatedeck i ever owned. an original fibreglas z-flex, my powell/peralta beamer. . .etc etc worst part is i dunno what even happened to most of them. . . damn.

anyway, nicky and i am getting ready to head off for one of favorites weeks of the summer - CAMP !! i think i briefly mentioned the place in the early months of the blog. we have been going for around 8 years. i am camp nurse with one other poor sucker ( 250 gymnsatics and skaters killing it 8-10 hours will lead to a lot of injury ). we do it because we love these young people. we often sleep like 3-4 hrs a nite on average. we deal with all the usual camp stuff like bee stings, swimmers itch, hoemsickness, puking from eating nerd-ropes all day . . . . . but with the added trauma that comes from 13 foot vert ramps, and national ( and even olympic )-level gymastics, which quite frankly have to be seen up close to be believed. also. we deal with comple wack-job parents that leave us and the hosp staff astounded in their ( near lack of ) parenting approach to their young "protoges". the camp itself is beyond professional. it is an amazingly smooth and positive environment - staffed largely by younger college age kids that give me great hope for the future and are great fun to be around, headed by the most can-do adults i have ever worked with. tho i am very near dead when we leave, i still miss the place and its energy.

but i digress - and more importantly i do get to skate and the skating is very very good indeed. here we see my quiver, in various states of readiness. this is not a trifling quiver of decks my friends, no indeed. in cycling terms any one of these sticks could hold its own with a pegoretti. so then: left-to-right:

1. duane peters model from beer city, his best ever ( yes, in milw ). duane's nickname is the Master of Disaster. he was and is the baddest ass skater who ever lived. tho his era was a bit past mine, his influence and energy and attitude are undeniable in popular culture even today in so many area's, for which he receives nothing. without duane peters, freestyle motocross would have ended with evel kneivel, for example

2. original santa monica airlines longboard, from the man skip engblom himself. you are not gonna find one these, anyplace. if ya don't know who engblom is, go watch the z-boys movies, skip was the founder and soul of the youthful z-boys, who invented action sports. it is the coolest longboard ever made and ever will be. perfect for cruising camp - gotta get the big 70mm 78 duro krypto' wheels on there.

3. later alva pool deck - after TA obtained his company back for himself. if ya look careful, you can see he signed if for me. it really belongs on a wall.

4. my custom designed and built factory 13. this thing kicks ass. it is everthing - long old-scool wheelbase, narrow thin light chassis, takes modern low/fast-turning trucks . . . . it'll go anyplace. plus, do yourself a huge internet favor and go bump around the facory 13 website, this guy is one of us. if it is not the coolest websites you see this week i'll buy ya cup of coffee at the cup. or, i may decide to have nicky kick you shins for being such an idiot and/or liar - we would be doing you favour either way, so you are welcome.