Way old school skateboard......

Here is a very low quality video from my phone of Christian dropping in on a plastic skateboard with open bearings that has to be over 30 years old.

Go Skateboarding Day 2009

Go Skateboarding Eve and Day 2009 I rolled around shooting a bit of video. I caught the bowl jam on Saturday at the O'Fallon park which was pretty cool actually. It was a jam format for 35 minutes. Bob Mechtly more than deserved to win it with inverts and big airs. On the actual GSD I checked out the newly reopened Mills skate park which I guess is now the Plan Nine skate park. After that I checked a couple of DIY spots. Skating is skating and will happen every day but a fake holiday for it is always cool too.

Here is a bit of video from the two days that my brother put together....

New batch of shirts have arrived....

I have a new batch of Skate Louis shirts. I have them in sizes down to youth medium and large as well as adult small. I also did a limited run of gray shirts.

Go Skateboarding Day eve.....

I'm actually talking about Saturday being GSD eve. The first day of summer is still the 21st. Why move the holiday? Sure, it's a made up event created by the retailers and manufacturers but still, stick with the first day of summer and lets not make this like Memorial Day or Washington's Birthday. So yeah, go skate every day anyway.

I had heard that the city might demolish the DIY spot from my last post but I checked it out today and it was still there. Not only was it still there but the city seems to have dropped off a dumpster. The area was very clean and they had added a list of rules which deny graffiti, breaking things and littering. I thought at first it said no loitering when I read the list. That seemed like it would be hard to do since hanging around is sort of part of the process of skating a spot.

I'll have more about the GSD 2009 later. There are lots of GSD eve events. The O'Fallon park with total chaos, Plan Nine's new Mills park opens for more chaos. Beyond that I think Ramp Riders is free too. You should double check that since I'm no John Auble. Anyway, I hope to have some video and photos from all the GSD eve events that I make it to. Remember, go skateboarding every day, but GSD is still on Sunday, not Saturday. Call me a stickler......

More DIY......

From the folks that brought you the "tennis courts" and other DIY spots around St. Louis is this latest creation.....There is a lot more there and it looks like even more to come.

Three things......

The first thing is that I found this yesterday......




I was just killing some time skating random things and did a little driving around behind some obvious buildings. I first spotted the facing banks then I noticed that someone had added a bit of quick crete to one of the banks. It was fun....

The second thing is that this weekend is the annual slalom race in Tower Grove park. Go here for info....http://www.ncdsa.com/contest_registration.asp?ContestID=427

This isn't from Tower Grove but it is John Harms....



Tight slalom at the Texas Sizzler, March 29, 2009
Photo: Eddy Martinez

And the last thing which is probably old news by now, the Mills indoor park is being reopened by Plan Nine skate shop. It's been closed for four years now if I remember right. They'll have it open June 19th just in time for "Go Skateboarding Day". You can get the info on their website. I'll see you there over the winter......plan-nine.net.

Oh, and I can't figure out how to make those links to....link, so just copy and paste...you know how.

The whole Hermann's Hole Story....

When the skateparks of the 70’s started closing down in the 80’s the solution was to build halfpipes in backyards across America. But now that we are into the end of the first decade of the 21st century a new version of the back yard ramp has come into being: the purpose-built concrete bowl for skating. It might look like a pool but it’s never had water in it for swimming. This is of course a more West Coast trend than any place else but here in the Show Me state one skater with a lot of help has created a place he calls Hermann’s Hole.

The force behind the creation of Hermann’s Hole is JP. He got his first skateboard for his tenth birthday from his dad in 1986 and, until a move to Phoenix at age 19, it was just transportation or something to do. But after the move and being followed out by his friend Deaf Brian (deafskateboards.com) he met up with the Cow Town crew and it was on, skating 24/7. JP said at that point he was “Busing tables for money and breaking myself off for fun. I learned to film, travel, and a whole lot more stuff college would not learn me. I moved back and forth here and there for a while always skateboarding and being reckless”.

After he landed in San Diego for a while, he watched the start of Washington St grow from a small hip and rail to what JP calls the “best skate park in the world”. It was during this time in San Diego that JP also made it up and down the West Coast visiting every piece of concrete park he could find including the now famous homegrown Burnside. All the while he was there he had a mini ramp in the backyard just two blocks from the ocean. I think this is what is often referred to as living the dream. It was during this process of living the dream that he conjured the idea of building his own concrete bowl after being inspired by a bit of traveling to “Cholos bowls in Hawaii, SK8Goa in India, Cuatros Casas in
Mexico, and Zarosh's Place in northern California…I'd have to say
those four and Washington Street SD are my key inspirations for Hermann's Hole.”

In October of 2005 he left San Diego because as JP puts it, “I always felt like I was sitting talking about it but not actually doing it in California. The norm for most of us oppressed skateboarders hiding in the shadows huh”?

JP landed back in St. Louis for a brief time until he decided he was “Off to skate the world! India to build some concrete skateables the hard way, Germany to skate with Grobowski at Minus-Ramps, England shredding with the Death Team and the Wada Pirates. After a while of that I came back and got a job with California Skate parks. Built a bowl in Greenbelt, Maryland in 2007, skated FDR, and the Green Lab bowl in D.C. I came home again and dabbled in DIY stuff around St. Louis with Deaf Brian and Soup but we always got harassed by the cops. That’s when I decided to stop my skate travels for a while and concentrate on building something Missouri needs!!”

At first JP said he was just going for a “mini ramp then it turned into hand poured half pipe with parking block coping”. But after deciding he had the money and crew to do it the plans changed and it became “Hermann’s Hole.” Since it was started last spring he has since added decks and the beginning of a flow bowl with some street obstacles. JP said, in the future “hopefully with the help of some STL and Midwest skaters, we can make a crazy race track go 360. Then some landscape later, and along the way I’id like the place to be in natural surroundings, but on and around the ‘crete it’s gonna be a grand work of art—a monument for Missouri bowl skaters.”

JP would like to thank a few of the people that made up the crew. “Chris and
Michelle, Deaf Brian, Soup, Pat, Terry, Kyle, Mute Weddle, Hollie, Dega,
and anyone else who helped... It wouldn't be possible without ya!!”

There will be a one year anniversary weekend party/camp out May 8th through the 10th. See the flyer for info, it should be one rad weekend.










Hermann's Hole part 1 "The Awakening" from Hermann's Hole on Vimeo.

More photos and contact available at http://www.myspace.com/jpmonkey or click on the flyer at the top of the story.