This is pretty much all related to my recent trip to San Francisco, apologies it's too Live Journalish (no particular order):
Not stoked on:1. Air travel. I have a flying phobia, and the only way I can fly is when I take the pills my doc prescribed. If I'm not asleep, I'm pretty much just sitting there quietly in terror.
2. Not getting to meet Vegan or Randozzi... I think I may have had a chance to meet Vegan when I went to Sacto, but didn't retrieve his phone number until after I'd already gotten back to SF.
3. Twitch and Schmitty were out.
Stoked on:1. Damon from Deluxe! Within an hour after getting off the plane, I was rolling through the streets with Damon, eventually meeting up with two of his friends. Super good guy, and he can skate his ass off:
2. Deluxe. Everyone over there is fucking awesome, and they bust ass over there. Everyone's super busy, and at the same time they're really proud to be there. If you go there, you can feel the work and skate ethic.
3. Jim and his family. He's possibly the hardest working person I know. Also, though me and the missus don't plan on having kids, watching Jim and Jack hype each other up during a session is just amazing. Can't say enough good things here.
4. Mark! Super nice, knows his shit, and was down to listen as I pretty much talked non stop (I felt like a little kid, plus I was about four cups of coffee deep). Gave me a tour of High Speed,
sat in Card's chair for a sec, reintroduced me to Phelps, showed me the guts of everything, then got to meet L Ron and the graphic designers at Hubba... super generous dude, and he kicks ass for paying attention to the time and getting me back to work right on time. There was just too much to absorb... really cool to see things from that side.
5. I had pretty much resigned to the idea that I'd never have one of these, but now I do and I didn't even ask for it... I probably watched Sick Boys more than any other videos combined... anyway, having this means a lot and it'll be on the wall soon:
6. Met Mayor Gavin Newsom. Stoked on meeting an elected official that I really like, and stoked on wearing a sweater because it was cold (it was in the 90's back home):
Dude's tall.
7. Stoked on Epic Skatepark in Sacramento. I skated that place until I puked, then I brushed my teeth, drank some gatorade & water and skated even harder. Two kids asked me if I was "grimcity from youtube" which was a mindfuck, and I met two ladies that were over 50 who were skating some really proper carve-lines in the bowl. The size of that place is just insane.
8. I'm forgetting a lot, but the whole trip was as sick as could be (except for not meeting Randozzi & Shawn).