The Grand Adventure

So, I headed out to Arizona last week to skate with all the guys from the Old Man Army. For those of you who don't know, Old Man Army is a skateboard company out of the Phoenix / Tempe area that caters to old dudes like me, that just can't seem to put down the useless wooden toy, 30 plus folks. Thats not really all that old but when the average age of a skater is around 16, then yeah thats pretty old, at least the youngn's think we're old, we wear (GASP!!!) pads and helmets, we've got families and jobs to think about here.

Got to Phoenix around 4, former Wilmington resident "Calamity" Jean and "Boise" Tom Kilroy picked me up at the airport, after a quick drop off of gear at the Hideaway Lodge we're off to the Tempe Skatepark to meet up with some other old dudes. Tempe is just mobbed with people, kids, old dudes, the works. I got in a couple of runs in the flow section and quickly learned that you just have to go, with this many people its kind of hard to be polite and take turns, you either go or get left behind. After Tempe we head off to the "Pool Party" at an undisclosed location. Some friends of Jeans were kind enough to offer up their empty swimming pool for folks to skate. Food, beer, skating and one hell of a honky tonk band called Flathead. Some of the most insane ripping I've ever seen, I held back and shot pictures, I'd be back here later when the session wasn't quite so heated. I was just in awe, one local guy slammed so hard he split open his helmet, not even fazed, he just grabbed another one off someones head and kept on keeping on. The Arizona people are true rippers.

Next day, we lead a seven car caravan up north, the goal is Wickenburg, Prescott, Chino Valley Private Ramp and Goodyear to round it all out. We hit up Wickenburg Skate Park first and meet up with some of the folks coming in from Northern California. Wickenburg has a great bowl, I could've stayed here all day, I really liked this bowl, but the caravan must march on. Right as we hit the road disaster strikes. Jean, husband Steve, Boise Tom and myself are in Jeans VW Van when we get rearended by an RV. I was showing Tom pictures on my camera when we got hit, one minute I'm in the back seat, the next I'm up in the front. We never even heard squealing tires, homeboy in the RV never hit the brakes, just walluped right into us at around 35-40 MPH. The van is toast, as well as the driver of the RV, he had no ID, no insurance, and the RV wasn't even his. Due to the Box o wine they found in his front seat, he got a free ride to the Wickenburg pokey. Serves you right buddy. We regather and regroup into other vehicles and before too long, we're back on the road, through dessert and hills and those crazy cactuses that you see in old westerns.

Onward and upward, he head up into yonder hills towards Prescott, great park. Everything here is twice as big as back home, it feels really good to be skating the big stuff. Next up we head out to Chino Valley to skate Tom's (different Tom) ramp, beautiful creation out in the middle of nowhere. A skaters dream come true. Finally get back to Tempe for Italian food and beers around 8ish. Its been quite a day.

Sunday was the actual BBQ at Chandler Skate Park in duh!! Chandler, Arizona. Eight states and three countries are represented, with Jonno coming in from Thailand and Paul coming in from the UK. Never in my life have I seen some much unity with skateboarders, it didn't matter if you were kickturning and flailing or if you were getting 5 foot airs with style, everyone was just as stoked. The Death Race was just a scarey thing, raffles were held, stuff given away, and lots of skating going down. Even Patti McGee showed up, Patti was the first ever proffesional female skateboarder, and even made the cover of a 1965 Life magazine. She's a legend and paved the way for all of this thing we call skating. I gotta add to that its pretty cool to see a bunch of skaters wearing my designs, and seeing folks come up to the merch booth and commenting on the shirts, it was a great little ego boost.

After a great afternoon, some folks headed off to Goodyear Skate Park, Jean and I headed back for food and one last visit to the Pool Party Pool. This is the first real pool I've ever skated and had an absolute blast, didn't quite make over the light, but made it over the painting of Mr. Rogers, and never bailed, so I was pretty happy.

Thanks goes out to all the Old Man Army guys for all the hospitality, Lox, Jean, Steve, Patti, Boise Tom, Chef, Lou, Jeff, Bobby, Dan, Old Man Mike, Old Man Brian (aka Grumpy Smurf), Chino Valley Tom, Hughes, Greg, Louisvilles 'Concretins' crew, the owners of 'the pool of make believe', skinner, andy, jonno, trev, dave, crash, and anybody else i may have managed to leave out, thank you all so much for such a wonderful time and such amazing hospitality. It certainly was a grand adventure.

you can see more photos here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/20736622@N08/