More Frontside airs and fun times. Here’s the wrap up of my East Coast to West Coast trip.

Photos by: Brooks Fritz

Doesn’t Pierre Luke De Gay Won look like he’s having a super fun happy time?

Captin Booh Jah doesn’t like his neck getting sun burnt. It Uneven’s his sun tan when he has his shirt on so he brought his camel jockey hat along with him on this flight at Orcas. I’m pretty sure Ryan has never put knee pads on in his life. Why would you need to nanny up if you don’t plan on bailing?

Life is what you make of it..

The pond in the middle is fun but the salmon run is the reason why you go to Orcas Island. At least that’s why I do. Ryan with a gap to lip slide.

Forest has hit his head so many times he has to wear a helmet full time these days. Pretty gnarly if you think about it. Not thinking about not being able to take any more to the head Forest does a front side air off the hip into the pocket.

Obstruction pass ( the camp ground on Orcas ) became Destruction pass one night after a few bottles of asshole gasoline. Tables were burned, wrestling in thorn bushes and Kyle single handily offending everyone outside of our campsite were the highlights.Kyle was yelling till his voice was gone. Families, Kayakers, hippies, everyone was bummed when we were around.

This picture needs a closer look.

See those marks on Jamie’s face? He took a beer can to the face when we were having a super happy fun time.

After some time on da island we left and headed back to the main land brah. The town Mcminville has really fun Grindline park. Feels like 3 separate parks in one good park if that makes any sense. Here’s Booh Jah with one of those front side airs.

Ryan’s friend Joe the Jeweler with a 12+ block front side double trucker.

I remember Ryan saying something about hating this photo since he had his shirt off. So I decided to draw one on so you could see this speedy smith.

Ryan bailed his board on one of these alley oop 360’s right onto my head. It’s pretty awarding shedding blood pushing a button on a plastic box.

whats next?

Port Angeles - Another great park. Cousin It was there doing crail airs

Everyone was gone by this time of the trip. Where else better to go? I guess back out to Orcas again. Why not? I had a few more days till my flight home. Seriously why is this place so fun?

maybe this has something to do with it

This is a nice place to have a couple cold ones.

For the last few weeks of my trip it was pretty much just me and Ryan cruising around. Thus the abundance of photos of the guy. gap to 5050 at Arlington

STREET SKATING?

Tired of always being in front of the lens. Ryan shot some photos of me “street” skating.

Took it to another level with this back tail!

Then Booh Jah stepped it up even harder with ORV 4WD pillow line!

HAVE A SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME THIS WEEKEND….

Tags: bainbridge island, northwest, orcas island, road tripping

Photos & story by: Brooks Fritz

I used to love flying. I’ve always been fascinated with it. Still to this day I trip out that we can herd people like cattle into metal tubes with wings and wheels and fly anywhere on this earth. The airplane is amazing thing. Too bad the beginning of my excitement for flying all ended when I had to fly from New York to Portland, Oregon. Here is part 3 of my East Coast to West Coast trip.

I was stressing on getting to the airport on time in the first place since I was already lagging getting back to NYC from Philly and then when I did get to the airport the first thing I saw was how long the line was to get your boarding pass/check in…… Those Arabian people sure get hassled.

When I finally got to the front of the line the Jet Blue ticket doosh bag was trying to tell me I was going to have to check my tripods and skateboard in since they were weapons. Yeah weapons. This was pretty much the first time I really had any problems and I explained that to him. He said good luck getting through security and when they turn you around you are going to have to go to the end of the line where it just took me over an hour to get through. I took the risk and for once the people at the security check point didn’t take me into secondary to harass me about the quantum battery pack.

With that all said in done I barely had enough time for one quick drink and the plane was boarding. When I got on the plane and disassembled by bag so it would fit into the overhead I looked out the window and saw a shit load of airplanes. Way more then usual. Picture it backed up like freeway traffic.

What happened next was just beyond retarded.

On both sides of the plane as far as you could see there were planes in a row waiting to take off. I was so over it I didn’t even get my camera out. The pilot said we would be taking off shortly. No drinks or food were handed out and six hours later the plane took off. Jet Blue rules.

Like I was saying in part one about saving your time & money with direct flights; here is a perfect example why to besides spending all your money at the bar. So the plane was 6 hours behind schedule. That means my connecting flight in Georgia was fucked too. By the time we landed in Georgia my flight was long gone and there were no more connecting flights for that day. It looked like I would be getting comped a room at a local hotel by the airport or something right? Nope. Sorry. I Don’t even want to try and explain.

The next day I got the hell out of Georgia and made it to Portland finally. Friends Ryan and Luke picked me up at the airport and forty five minutes later I was listening to Sleazy Steve talk about some crazy ass shit while shooting these photos of Drew Potter trying to do this 50/50

and Peter Gunn Slamming….

and Peter getting back up for the make that I managed to fucked up.

That night we stayed in Portland at our friend Jamie’s house where there is a bar 1 door down. In the morning I had to piss so I went outside to pee in the alley. Some how the door shut all the way and I was locked out. So there I was in just my boxers yelling upstairs for someone to open the door. No one could hear me so I had to walk down the street and find Ryan’s car where I could at least curl up in the fetal position and lay in the front seat to wait for someone to wake up. Later that day we drove out to the Coast and met up with my friend Alex wells. Here’s his dog SA.

This shit was pretty crazy.

The only kind of fly out allowed: Kyle Gallagher with a roll in off the back of the cradle to disaster to roll in at the downstairs of Lincoln City.

It’s a long way down from the top.

Angle two of Ryan Williams back smith grind.

Flashes in photos are making a come back.

We stayed on the Coast for a few days skating Lincoln City and the few surrounding parks in the area. Then we made our way north. This photo reminds me of the movie The Goonies

Speaking of the movie The Goonies. The town Astoria is where they filmed most of it. The helmet law is strict here. Kyle takes a quick run with a grind in the deep. Think it’s 11 with 2 ft of vert?

Mandatory lame nature photo

Captain Booh Jah with a almost pad-less front side air in the big boy zone of the Astoria Dreamland park.

After a quick session in Astoria since we only had one helmet between the four of us we drove to a place a little more adult skateboard friendly. Bainbridge Island.

Here’s Luke Girling with the best move in the history of skateboarding. The frontside grind.

I laugh now because I consider these people my friends.

We first thought they were Canadians and after hanging out with Ryan a little too much I started not liking Canadians for no reason. Well at least I have no reason. I’m still not sure why Ryan dislikes them so much. Maybe because he lives so close to them and they are notorious for the fly out? But what I was getting at is we were kind of avoiding these guys thinking they were Canadians. We seen them at a couple other parks but always when we would be leaving or vice verse. Here at Bainbridge was the first meeting and we we’re relieved they were Australians.

Here’s Dorfus with a first run frontside air from shallow to deep.

Definately not from Canada. Not even sure if he’s from this planet. Skateboarder of the millenium Dorfus with a hefty smith grind…

and a lien to tail

Luke wishes you a good weekend…. See you next week.

Photos & story: Brooks Fritz

Did I mention it’s hot and humid on the East Coast in August?

What’s good when it’s hot out? Something cold to drink right? When we first arrived at Sperm’s house in Philly off the Greyhound that was our first agenda; some cold drinks and of course he didn’t have any. He said to skate around the corner to the bar and pick up a couple 40’s. I replied with, ” What? The bar sells 40’s ? ” Maybe you already knew that but me being a So Cal barney bro I am not used to that kind of stuff. So off to the bar I went to buy some beers…. When I walked into the tavern everyone at the bar stopped mid drink and looked at my white ass walk in. I guess they weren’t used to strangers. Especially thirsty white ones. The bar tender lady, a nice 400Ib black woman said ” What the fuck do you want? ” I replied with, “two 40’s please?” There was a moment of awkward silence. The bar tender didn’t say another word. She just took my money and handed me the two beers. Everyone went back to their drinks and I was on my way back to the house knowing Sperm had just done that shit to me on purpose. I loved it!

Damn, I suck. I can have the worst time remembering people’s names sometimes. I cant remember the guys name right now who had this great ramp in his backyard. But I do remember him being cool as hell, having some rad job building movie sets, crazy record collection and having seriously one of the funnest ramps I have ever had the opportunity to skate. John Doe took full advantage of having a backyard at his place and made a ramp with half a sheet wide of flat bottom and tranny straight up to the cinder block wall. Who needs decks anyways? Truly world class… Here’s Sperm with some maneuvers. The frontside hack.

Tailblock

Lien to tail.

On one of the last days I was staying with Sperm he decided to take me to this infamous barrier spot. This as with most jersey barrier spots was really fun to skate. I was pissed I didn’t get the chance to skate here more. I asked Sperm why he waited so long to take me to it. He said he was sick of it. Thanks Dingus… at least you took a photo of me doing a shitty lip slide and this wack ollie.

After the barrier we got on the subway and headed down to FDR for the rest of the day. Sorry I didn’t take any photos. I decided to skate the whole day not breaking out the camera until….. (below)

The Confessor was calling out this 6′8″ jock bmx tool and the bmx giant backed down. The bikers know they are stuck with early morning scraps or the night time shift. Take that bullshit back to the dirt.

Later on that night after the biker heckle session we went to this undisclosed backyard Gem. People on the East Coast got heart. I don’t know too many people with a ramp like this. It had it all and it wasn’t funded by some energy drink company or some stupid sunglasses company. By the way, The Confessor fucked it up.

Joey P with a Mach 5 5.0 grind

The dog was on point. You really had to mix your lines up or he would catch on knowing where you would go next. Unknown avoiding the dog with a lien slide.

Joey P doing some fs air calculations.

Where you gonna go?

To my surprise later that night the crew took me to Tony Luke’s cheese steak shop. I cant explain my excitement with words…

Check: A Philly cheese steak in Philly. Damn I could go for one of these right now…

I spent a few more days in Philly after the cheese steak and then it was back on the Greyhound to New York so I could catch my plane to Oregon.

Stay tuned for the West Coast part of this trip next week.

Happy schralping this weekend! - brooks

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Photos & story by Brooks Fritz

Don’t ever try to save money by getting a indirect flight to anywhere. If you are anything like me you will end up spending the money your trying to save at the bar inside the airport…

4 Bloody Marry’s + a few beers + a couple shots = the money/time/hangover you could of saved yourself just flying the direct flight in the first place.

My host: SPERM

Not too long ago my friend Sperm was living in Philly with a few friends for the summer. He called me up one day in July knowing that I was leaving for Oregon soon and said I needed to come out and visit him first. Something about experiencing skateboarding on the East coast in August. It sounded good to me, not realizing at the time how hot and humid it was on the East Coast in the summer. Plus I’ve always wanted to eat one of those philly cheese steaks so going to visit my friend was a perfect excuse to get me my cheese steak!

The real reason to visit the East Coast: The Cheese Steak!

Before I met up with Sperm I spent a few days lurking around New York checking out the city and it’s interesting characters..

Frank Gerwer’s got nothing on this tranny… This was my very first experience in NYC besides getting off the airplane realizing how humid it was. This was the first morning right around the corner from where I was staying. I snapped this photo and “it” freaked out on me when “it” heard the shutter click. For some reason “It” couldn’t get up so “it” proceeded to throw it’s high heel at me. Then this newspaper seller guy wanted to fight me because he said I was exploiting the city. I was cracking up…

Concrete Jungle Cowboy

New York city Nomad.

So I’m down in one of the subway stations about to catch a train uptown when I go around the corner and see this going on. A fucking midget Michael Jackson impersanator! Just imagine that song “Billy Jean” and this guy going to work. Seriously, the guy was killing it.

Hoooooooooooo!

My friend Sean Shouldis lives in New Jersey and I figured I’d give him a call since I was pretty close by. Sean answered and said he’d come pick me up. I thought he was going to drive over. I thought wrong. Nope, Sean got in his boat told me to meet him at the NYC Yacht Club and made me run out on one of the docks jump in his boat and try to get out of there before they stop and hassle us. The key word is “try” and sure enough they had the harbour blocked before we could get out. A little sweet talking and we were on our way. Yeah Sean! that was the best! Cruising around the city by boat.

After Sean’s boat tour we went back to his house dropped off the boat and drove around some neighborhoods where the drug dealers make crazy ass faces at you to show that they got what you need. Sean told me that he got pulled over there not too long ago because the cops thought Sean was trying to buy some drugs. When Sean explained that he just likes to drive around and check out all the spun people the cop asked him if he wanted to die and said get the hell out of there and never come back.

A couple of street spots

Sperm arrives! My few days in NYC were fun but I was ready to skate. Doing that solo with a 60Ib bag kind od sucks. So that night Sperm showed up we didn’t sleep since we had nowhere to stay. So we just skated around the city waiting for the Greyhound to show up in China town in the morning.

Pillar yanker…

When we got off the bus in Philly we felt like piles of shit. The bus ride was hot as hell and took forever. On the bright side we did get to see a man riding his bike on the side of the road. Now that would of sucked if that was the end of the story right? Just a guy riding a bike? Boring…. That’s why life is so great because I couldn’t make this story up if I had to….. So there was this telephone pole on the corner of these two streets. The telephone pole had these metal cables attached to it helping to hold it up. Know what I mean right? Big ass cables all taught into the ground? Well this guy on the bike couldn’t see the cables for some reason and rode his bike right into them getting closed-lined immeditately and thrown from the bike yet wrapped up in it all at the same time. It was quite amazing he didn’t loose his head. You should of seen the look on his face. It was like this what the fuck just happend look but on a higher level. You think people would be concerned but it was the exact opposite. I’ve never seen so many people laugh at once. Seemed like everyone on the bus somehow witnessed it. Just picture a greyhound bus full of black people besides me and Sperm. Too classic. Later that day we went to FDR and I shot this photo of J.R. Neeves. Yeah it is crust. but not as crusty as Brian Patch was crying about.

Sperm’s roommate the Confessor. This guy is awesome. Cant explain his skating in words. You just gotta see it.

Indy air into the over vert…

Stand up 5.0

Sperms other roomate, Joey P. What can I say about this guy? High school math teacher that rips….

fs air

50/50

5.0

Sperm kept taking me to these ridiculous street spots in Philly. Here he is trying to 5.0 and 50/50 the loading dock from the metal ramp and pop out before running into the steps. Almost had it. Then the place opened up. I was kinda glad. I think I was laying in piss. That’s it for now…

Have a good weekend. Go shred. Stay tuned next week for part 2….

Tags: east coast skateboarding, FDR, NYC skateboarding, Sperm

My days at SkateboardRevoultion have ended. That means my cute little blog days are over. Stick around for more extreme Mtn Dew coverage of your two favorite skateboarders: P rod and big sheckler dog. Oh and of course Good ol Bucky……. It’s been fun.

Questions or concerns feel free.

Brooks Fritz

brooksfritz@yahoo.com

In the distance….  You will see a pool.

Wheels & bearings let you roll

Trucks are made to grind. Especially on painted curbs and parking blocks.

Indy’s for life…

The king pin and bushings lets you turn

Grip tape gives you traction

And hardware keeps it all together

Which completes the skateboard essentials 101

Justin Hindery demonstrating a proper frontside air at the Dreamland park in St. Ignatious, Montana.

Hey at least I told you this time it would be a few days before I would post this part two from go skateboarding day.

So after the blow out at the Pier, I was pretty much over it. I was going to call it a day when Nate Sherwood called me and said we should meet up and have some actual fun. Just some classic curb skating. So we decided to meet up at the infamous Road Runner curbs.

Go skate day can be argued in both a positive thing and as a negative thing. Personally I am for it, yet I kinda despise it at the same time if that makes any sense to you. I will try to explain.

I do like the idea of informing the masses that we as skateboarders aren’t fooling around and won’t be going away. I’m not sure why it’s so hard for people to realize that this skateboarding thing is not a fad or just a phase in our lives. Don’t you just love it when you get ridiculed for still riding this so called toy? Maybe it is just a phase or a toy to you, but seriously how do you quit skateboarding? Maybe if you can’t walk anymore. but even for some people that doesn’t stop them. Or how about that one blind kid doing back nose grinds? So in all actuality quiting is out of the question. So if that message can get across to the general public maybe we could actually get something decent to skate. Like really decent. Actually good. Like a park that’s more of a ride instead of these uncreative auto-cad designs that every town has. Yeah, great another kidney bowl with a death box. Super, another shitty street course. Wow, another cradle. I mean really is that it? Doesn’t anyone else want to skate a racetrack course style park? But then in the other direction go skate day pretty much just blows out street skating. Informing everyone about skating just makes more people realize to skatestop everything. Isn’t that why everyone has to go overseas to film these days?

You can ollie over a trash can here in the USA and it’s worthless. Go some where foreign and do the same thing and it’s a cover or a double page spread. So what would you rather have? Skateboarding blow up? Or skateboarding blowout? I guess only you for yourself can decide that.

The Coors Light airplane was a sign….. We needed some refreshing curb sodas for this hot ass day.

two wheels

fs nose grind

Grab grind

I hate computers. They are a great tool but I still hate being in front of this screen all the time. What I really mean is I cant learn this stupid animated giff seq thing you all crave for with out it looking like crap. Or all the photos come out backwards. I’m no computer nerd. I don’t know all the key commands or how to make photos look like they are from 1801 or 2090. So this is what you get. A 360 pressure flip Coors light manual that is too small to even see. Kinda reminds me of a old video grab sequence you would see in 92′.

first try and not a sip spilled….

Frontside beer block

Backside beer block

Krooked grind to fakie

The following words below are Nate Sherwood’s brain on Go Skateboarding Day:

WELL We all know about Go skate day. it is the biggest marketing scheme I have ever seen. I skate everyday. Why have a day for it. It is like A go beat your wife day or go shit day. or go jack off day. it is lame to make a day for something as normal and as common as skating. a true skater thinks of skating as breathing. “LETS HAVE A FUCKING having A go breathing day”. My good friend Sean said to me 2 years ago when the subject at hand was brought to the Table. I love skating and I love the shops and everything in it. but I hate over popuSKATEtion. loads of kids getting in my way. pissed off pigs with rubber bullet guns. cigarettes in my face and having to shake hands with germ infested cock suckers who could give2 shits about my life or health. . So This go skateboarding Day I decided to separate from the heard with my boy Brooks after dealing with the o side police sucking at life and filling my day with much strife. We went to my old work and hung in the abandoned building till the coast was clear of pigs and then we went to a local school yard and skated and slammed some nice cold brew from Brooks ice cold fishing cooler. The day was rad and I got a bit lit and so did Brooks. next thing I know we were sun burnt and beat up and ready to call it a day…. Nate Sherwood.

Nate’s first annual jack off day

The END