Concrete D. Skatepark Blitz #5

… wife’s minivan loaded to the hilt with beer, chips, Red Bull, water, skate gear, CDs, and skate DVDs. We don’t fuck around when it comes to road trips and the comfort of the passengers is always a priority….

Here we go again. The Concrete Disciples broke in the new year with a fine road trip that featured perfect sunny SoCal weather, two of the newer parks in the area, and a backyard pool party thrown into the mix. I was too busy skating and slamming to really capture the true essence of the entire day, so this report lacks a broad perspective. Take it or leave it!

My fine day began in San Diego with the wife’s minivan loaded to the hilt with beer, chips, Red Bull, water, skate gear, CDs, and skate DVDs. We don’t fuck around when it comes to road trips and the comfort of the passengers is always a priority. I picked up Emmy-D in Del Mar, Swellbow in O’Side, and we were off to the races. A little bird told us that the famed Five-O (or is it the O-Five?) ditch was clean and dry, so we decided to take a minor detour to check it out. The ditch was spotless but overflowing with water, so we left unfulfilled and disappointed yet anxious to hit the first official stop of the day – the Etnies skatepark.

Traffic up the 5 was rather light, and we got there almost an hour ahead of schedule. But wait! For some reason the park was open early, so we were happy to gear up and get going. The road sign said “Skatepark Parking” and the sign at the etnies skatepark entrance read “Welcome Concrete Disciples” – is this a dream or what? Within an hour, the park was packed with Disciples, their friends, families, personal photographers, hair stylists, etc. Too many folks to list, so I won’t even make an attempt . . . you know who you are and this write up is all about me, Mark Takahashi, anyway! Where was I? Oh yeah, skating – although most of the action was centered around the lovely yellow-tiled skull pool, random swarms of skaters also buzzed around the open flow course, the clover bowl, and even the massive street area. The skull pool became a bona fide standing room only snake session, so some of us decided to instead work on our switch tre-flips before leaving for the Chino skatepark.

The party skate van absorbed three more passengers (MattB, Nate, and Dales) and we hit the road with Fruit of the Vine providing the entertainment on the DVD player. About an hour later and sniff, sniff . . . the unmistakable stench of Chino air welcomed us to one of the best new parks in SoCal. Also welcoming us was a pack of BMXers, a random assortment of rollerturds, and a few scooters – GET OUT OF THE BOWL! The number of Disciples had decreased quite a bit since some folks decided to remain standing at the edge of the skull pool trying to get a run in, some decided to go straight to The Milkman’s birthday party thrown by Team Goon, and some decided to end the day with a relaxing crocheting session. The truly hardcore sessioned the hell out of Chino’s clover pool, vert bowl, and flow bowl for about an hour or so. The anticipation of beer, punk rock, burgers, pork product, and a backyard pool was too much for the Disciples, so we headed out to the Milkman’s party to recharge.

Even though the party van was equipped with a college professor, an engineer, a couple of maps, written directions, a few cell phones, and a GPS device, we still managed to get lost on the way to the party. “Yeah, I used to live here, I know where to go. Turn right . . . no, left . . . shit, we passed it. Make a U-turn. Look for streets that end in “wood” . . . are we heading east?” Whatever, we got there in time to drink beer, eat some food, watch and participate in some skating, and listen to the opening band. Be on the lookout for a detailed write up of the party from some other drunken bastard. We cheered, we cried, and we threw up the horns after MattB finally squeezed in a run in the backyard pool (he had to snake a couple of the 8-year old kids, but all’s fair game in a raw backyarder). Then the party skate van sprouted its pool hunting antenna – an invaluable factory option.

Sidebar – we went searching for some pools, found a decent one, caught some grinds before dark, then headed out to the Fontana skatepark.

After feasting on some tasty tacos and tortas, we rolled up to the dusty Fontana parking lot and noticed J.ed and Bozie skating the bowl. Nice. That there bowl is fast and smooth. Period. Some good skating went down, even after a long day of eatin’ and drinkin’ yo. Good thing that we are all law abiding helmet-wearing skaters because some cowardly types lurking in the dark fields decided to throw rocks at us. After almost getting pelted a couple of times, we formed a posse and ran out into the darkness armed with our skateboards, pointed sticks, and rocks – we were ready to rumble! The helmets and pads made us look like knights in dull stinky armor, and our decks served as our trusty shields! Long live King Jeff the Disciple! We are The Knights of the Round Wall! Enough of the written pageantry, we didn’t find our prey and were instead left foaming at the mouth ready to devour more PBR and Red Bull.

Well, that’s about it from my perspective. All in all, it was a very pleasant day. See you all at the next sanctioned event.

PS – special thanks to Team Goon for throwing one hell of a bash, and special thanks to DODC for the etnies hospitality.