Sunday, 31 May 2009

Skating Bay 66 with the Etnies Team

I been waiting for this moment for a long time, the chance to get to meet Ryan Sheckler, the most hated guy in skateboarding. I needed to find out if he really was a twat that everyone claims him to be. The answer is no, he really isn't. The guy is chilled and relaxed, offering to give autographs and take pictures with everyone that asked, even staying behind when needing to go to try and make as many kids happy as possible. Rest of the team are cool too, Malto got a bit of attention and when I chatted to Bledsoe and Davis Torgeson they both seemed really nice guys.

The skating was pretty sick, Davis was by far the best performer and little Axel came back to Bay 66 to skate amazingly good. Sheckler and Malto skated well too and the rest of the team didn't catch my attention because they were either injured and not skating or on the other side of the park where I couldn't see.

I had fun skating the park before people came, landed a Nollie 270 Heelflip over the pyramid after 30 or so tries and came close to a Switch FS Heelflip, just couldn't get enough rotation. I was skating the pyramid with Mike who I had never met before and had only spoke to online, meeting on Sk8UK's forums. He was a nice guy and I only just managed to beat him in a game of skate, he's definitely a much better skater than I thought, improving in leaps and bounds everyday.

I got pissed off when I left the product toss to go put my camera in my bag quickly to find my bag was no longer there. After asking at the entrance and giving my details I went over to the guy with the microphone who gave an announcement to which a few kids came over with my bag saying they found it in the games room. Unfortunately for me my wallet was not there so I had the kids come back over and ask them if they knew why and they seemed honest enough to have not taken it even though I must admit looking back on it now I am slightly suspicious. Why? Because soon later I get a phone call from reception saying they found my wallet, when I get it back I see £20 is missing so the guy lead me out of the park to the woman who handed it in. I do still believe it was her or her kids that took the money as the woman got all defensive when I confronted her (guilty conscience I personally believe) and there story of finding the wallet behind a planter just doesn't seem believable. Makes me think that maybe the kids who gave me my bag back kept the wallet and then disposed of it when leaving the park but I'm not sure, don't want to try and think about it really because there's nothing I can do.

Afterwards the park closed and me and my mate Alex (who came with me) when street skating. We found a 7 set which I skated and..... not going to spoil what happened there. ;)

End of the day it was worth going, even though I did lose £20 and spent £32 getting there. Glad to have gotten my picture with Sheckler and Malto as well as getting to talk to the team. Good memories.

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