New England -- September 2002
a page of words by -jp-

The crew assembled at my apartment between 7pm and 9pm Friday night. There was Adam (Tex), Matt (Yula), George (Draguns), Trout, Andrew (the lurker), Ryan (DANGER!), Nick (Tague), and Sarah. 2 cars, 1 pickup truck, 9 people.

Danger's car was acting funny after the bumpy cross Bronx expressway, we pulled off. George found a loose hose and tightened it.

Around 5am Jamie Mac dropped his keys out the window, I caught them, and he went back to bed. The kitchen smelled of rotting garbage. There were 3 lonely souring jugs of milk in the fridge. Papers, boxes, and crap covered the floor of his office. He woke me up with a gentle kick to the ribs at around 7 or 8am. He confirmed my suspicion that he hadn't been at his apartment much, working 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, for the past 3 weeks on the Fitchburg skatepark. He told us to meet him there after dark, after we'd rode some vert, to skate with lights. He gave me Doug and Felipe's numbers and that was the last we saw or heard of him for the rest of the trip.

The Cambridge pool was empty. Wasatch led the way through the fence. Morning dew did not hinder us, it was a beautiful day, and it wasn't even 9am yet. First time there for everyone but me; Tex did a backside disaster on the facewall, Danger destroyed himself grinding over the box, then he pulled it, then he rolled in backside (read: bomb drop). Tex grinded over the box also. After a little coaxing and his own brand of humor, George dropped in!

We went to a mechanic to make sure Danger's car was okay. I spoke with Felipe Vega, he damaged his wrist the night before in Fitchburg, but he directed us to an IHOP and Newburyport. Doug called me back midway through my country omlette, he advised us not to miss Attleboro, he couldn't skate with us that day but he wished he could have.

We were all snaking each other in Newburyport. Most of the people who were skating before we got there just sat down. A couple of little kids were fully ripping. Kevin "the Victor" Day called me back between runs, he insisted that Rye, NH is better than anything we planned to skate but conceded to meet us in Nashua.

When we unloaded, the Victor and the Alien were getting prepped in the bubble. Upon seeing Nashua's awesome kidney, Nick and I felt we could have skipped Newburyport altogether in favor of tile and pool coping. We had what was probably my favorite session of the trip. Kev fell in to the parking lot vortex after some mute airs. Draguns did a hat trick of 50-50s and a slob fast plant over the box. Geoff (the Alien) was grinding switch and blasting frontside. Trout took off all his pads and helmet, dropped in right on the deathbox, and went straight to his head. Concussion. Amnesia. Black eye (actually green and purple). Nick was getting too drunk to drive and Trout needed to chill, it was time for a hotel. When we left Nashua, a bunch of local teens had set up lamps from their parents' houses so they could continue ripping. They told us some bmxers had cut the park lights.

We went to the new park in Fitchburg but found it abandoned, plywood skate-stopping barriers, and no lights. We must have missed Jamie Mac. It looks like it's going to be good though. I wrapped Wasatch in a blanket and "snuck" him into the "no pets" hotel.

The next day Nick and Trout headed for home. The rest of us saw the new EB store and went to Attleboro. ZT Maximus wood went to a good cause. Killer backyard bowl complete with tree house turntable?!? Hughes, Jolt, Collette, and Davey were all there, killing it, among others. When it started raining, the 5.9 brethren headed for the bar, and we hit the road bound for home, Pennsylvania. | previous | next |