Session: February 9th 2019

The session from last Saturday with Mike Talecki, Nate Brown, Jason Liette, and Danny Mcquate.

Mike Talecki told me to come by around 11ish at his place. Mike is the one person who lives closest to me and who happens to skate. You would think we would run into each other more often.

Anyways, So I mentioned to him that I got a new bike that past Friday.

So I rode my new bike over to his house.  
I had a bunch of trouble loading up my skates while riding my bike. It felt funny but maybe I just need a bike lock and ride it here and there to work. Now that would be fucking rad.

So anyways. I rode my bike over. I see Mikey and surprisingly, Nate Brown. Mikey told me there was skating involved but he did not mention who would be in attendance. I was pretty internally pumped to skate with Nate. I did not say it but you know…. Why spoil what your experiencing. Or something like that.

So, We drove to a parking lot near 52^nd street and Washington. The guys mentioned that that Dan was coming out to meet with us. I was under the impression that It was Dan Howard but I was surprised to find out it was Danny Mcquate. So we strapped up and honestly had nowhere specific to head towards. We started trekking west but stopped on the first light and started to head south on this industrial road.

I felt bad for the guys because I was the only guy riding 80 mm sized wheels. I mean Mikey rides flat with his Aeon Skates, Oh and also Jason as well but Nate and Mcquate were trekking on anti rockered frame set ups. So we reached a dead end, heading down this industrial looking rode. Nate suggested we take this cement canal path…. So we went.

We skated around and trekked down this canal path. It did not look finished yet but it was new and mysterious. We hit a dead end and jumped on a crummy asphalt road and trekked back to Washington Street. We were already getting closer to Tempe.

We made it to the cross streets of Washington and Priest.

We skated over to these ledges and the guys did there thing.  

We got kicked out and it was funny. This security guard was no joke.

We skated over across the street to some different part of this business complex and we stumbled across this sweet drop in to sidewalk gap that I tried.

We went back over across the street and skated to the SRP building. Nate did a few grinds on a loading dock ledge before being kicked out. We then went back to the original building but behind it and Nate skated this perfect ledge. We then trekked back over to the front end portion of the SRP building and Mikey did some sweet lines over a triple set.

We trekked back down to Priest and Washington. I began to get hungry so we stopped at a strip mall to get some food.

I jumped on the light rail while the guys trekked back on the skates. and ended up going all of the way to 44^th street. So I had to back track a bit towards them. They were skating under this bridge, specifically the bank.

We slowly trekked back. A few of us got on top of the castle roll ledge/walls and were filling them out.

We cut thru this gym or work out area for guys and gals who are handicapped. We saw a whole window of guys having lunch. I gave my peace signs and my heart began to ache. I feel like my fucking able bodied self should just keep working out because some of these doods I saw wheel chair bound does not fuckin stop them. It is fucking inspiring, Rollerblading / Inline skating is what dreams are made of.

So we got back to the cars, loaded up and went back to Mikey’s place.

When we got there. We chilled for a bit and then walked over to a bar.

Jason departed so he can go hiking, so it was Nate, Mikey, Mcquate and myself hanging for a bit.

We talked about this, that and a little bit about skating. After a few slams of some orange juice. I was ready to call it a day. We walked back. I got my stuff and rode home on my bike.

The day was fun overall day. Days like these can not be repeated.

Thursday Night Skate: February 7th 2019 at Thunderbird Skate Park

Thunderbird skatepark has always been a spacious area to host a Thursday Night Skate for inliners. There have even been a few major competitions that were held at Thunderbird skate park such as two years of the A.I.L. from 2008 to 2009. It is amazing that there were two separate occasions of the same type of comps hosted at that park.

So Thursday Night Skate… Who was there? Who did what? And what is the point of even writing this down?

Who was there….. Now that I think about it, I should write down some notes as I am their and just do the name and number of attendees at the skate park. It would be interesting to look at and to comparatively observe by this time next year.

I left my house around 7:00pm. The rush hour traffic was dying down so by the time I got to the west end of town.
So I got to the park. The first Inliners I saw were Beno and Mike. They were stretching….Great role models for sure.

I walked in and I first saw Ian and Andy from Boston. Then I saw Andrew Heath and Ty Davies.

I made my way to the east end of the park. I saw Luke Kimberly, Andrew Scherf, Chad Hornish and Ben Poling.
A few moments later I saw Andrian Pimentel and Justin Magdaleno I remember about ten years ago. Justin killed it in a Prescott competition. I should just post the edit.
Anyways. It has been years since I have seen Justin and it was great catching up with him. I hope I see more of him.
Sam Giese came in, he brought his camera and made a sweet edit.

Mike Talecki and Jason Liette came flying in too on their skates.

Kenny Scherf came zooming by as well.

Ty Davies was working on a Fishbrain on the long part of the launch to ledge.

Ian was working on a Negative Makio on the same ledge.

I remember seeing Andrew, Kenny, Dan H. Ben, and Chad skating the long extended quarter pipe.

Andrew was doing lines.

Kenny was doing or did a 270 counter clockwise topsoul to front savannah. I think he also tried a front savannah (Approached coping from his left, Savannnah Right leg in the back with the left foot crossed behind the right leg).

Dan Howard -  Cross grab Fishbrain

Dan H. was doing a Fishbrain,

I think I saw Ben do a alley oop top acid or top porn on the quarter as well.

Chad was doing lines and did some grinds on the quarter.

Beno - Mizou

Kenny- 270 top Soul to front Savannah

Mike Talecki - Toe stall 

Big Heath on Campus

Talecki

Beno

Kenny's calfs, Sam's clips, Chad's smoke

At some point, Beno got in this skateboarders face because he was giving Beno shit.

I gave my farewells and was going to follow Andrew Heath to this Bar where the session was going afterwards. I got lost so I just went home

Next Thursday looks like it might be at Tempe Skatepark. 

Session:January 27th 2019 at Prescott

I drove up to Prescott with my wife Alyssa and her friend Michelle.

Michelle was going through a major break up with a long term boyfriend so stepping out of town with Alyssa seemed like an experience that would soften the blow of the final departure. We left  town around 10:30 and got to Prescott skate park by 12:15pm.

I changed my socks, grabbed by skates and backpack. Alyssa and Michelle went thrift store shopping as I was going to hang at the skate park and interact with my inline skate friends, peers and associates.
Before I even went into the park, I had to piss like a busted fire hydrant.  I made a peripheral glance at an individual. I gave a subtle nod of acknowledgement as I made haste to the pisser. I ended up meeting him a little bit later and his name was Scott, one of Erik’s skate buddies.

Dan Howard

Ben Poling

I guess now is my cue to bring up the occasion for the skate session anyways.

The Session was in recognition /remembrance of a person by the name of Erik Kapec.

I have not made any new skate friends in Prescott about close to 10 years.

The only ties I have with any Prescott skaters was with Nino (Armillio) M. So today, I just met 3 people who were friends with Erik K. These 3 individuals were Brent Trinidad. Scott, and Austin. 

I started recording and Brent began to say something about Erik and about the session. The speech was heartwarming along with sincerity of health, happiness, and celebration. After that the session continued. 

One of the bladers I met by the name of Austin was asked by myself about what happen to Erik since I had no idea how he passed away. Austin processed the question and redirected me to Scott. I figure to wait and ask.

Scott was setting up Erik’s skates. There is nothing more unsettling than knowing that a pair of inline skates belongs to a dead man. But it was not unsettling, seeing the image of Scott taking his friends skates and skating them; It was almost a transference from one being to another. It was like Scott chose to continue Kevin’s skate legacy by being the vessel for Kevin. It was like the skates and the movement that Scott did on those skates were a symbolic meaning which represented celebration of life. It was like Scott was saying 'Erik, don’t worry man, I got you.' Or 'Erik, don’t worry man, you got this'.
It sort of reminds me of Michelangelo Antonioni’s  film 'Laaventura'. Inn the first third of the movie, the story is focused on one character until that character goes missing. The friend of the missing character becomes replacement of this friend. Almost like this friend character took on the missing friend's character. Almost like all of the materialistic of surroundings, from the missing friend continues with the friend who is now in searching for the missing friend. I guess that is applicable to Erik’s family and friend to a degree; We must continue to be a little bit like Erik so he can continue to exist through the people who are currently living now.

Scott - Assembling Erik's skates.

I have my deepest sympathies for the family and friends who are now with out an important person in their lives. And I have my deepest empathetic attitude to everyone out there who has suffered the trauma of losing a loved one. My wife lost Two very important family members from the past few years and I would truly be less of a human or more apathetic of the understanding of loss, if it was not for those traumatizing experiences.

So the session continued. I recorded quite a bit. The memory on my portable camera got filled pretty quick so I caught some shit video on my shit phone. I was pretty pumped it was sunny because the footage is even worse on my phone with low lighting. 

Nate Brown - Alley oop X Grind on the quarter pipe

Just on memory without looking back on pictures or video.
Nate did some noticeable maneuvers. I really dug Austin’s Alley oop grinds on the bank to ledge. 

Scott had super solid soul grinds.  

Dan Howard took some sweet grinds on the bank to ledge along with some noticeable falls. 

Mike Taleki is always entertaining to watch, even if it is him cruising around and not really doing anything specific. Lady Bird, Mikey’s Dog was great company and enthusiastic as well..

I got to formally meet Ben Poling’s girlfriend (Amy) who moved down to Arizona a few months back. I did not realize they had such a cute poochie.

Ben did some sweet grinds on the bank to ledge. At one point he was trying grinds from ledge to ledge. I am not sure if he got the trick with satisfaction. (Edit 02/06: He did, you can see it below in Danny Mcquate's Edit)

Ian was trying a fakie to clockwise half cab negative makio on the bank to ledge. I have seen him do that on a few obstacles but it sweet he just keeps working on them.

Dan Howard - Bank to True spin Mizou

I also got to meet Nino’s girlfriend Serina. What champ for coming out. Brent had a gal in his company as well but my shyness overshadowed my introductions since I just met Brent for the first time at that moment. I think Austin had a girlfriend in attendance but I chose to not introduce myself for the same reason as prior. 

I am trying to think of anything else that stood out. Oh I had some little shaggy haired teenager ask me if I had permission to take pictures of people.  It is good to know that I could hold the image as the skatepark creep.

Alyssa called me around 330pm and we departed the Prescott area and headed home.

Alyssa and I gave her words of encouragement when it came to her choice of moving forward with her break up.

 Mike Talecki catching some air Jason Liette doing an acid grind

Here is Danny Mcquate's Edit of the Session. Enjoy 

Thursday Night Skate: January 24th 2019 at Freestone

Chad Hornish and Ben Poling 

Driving anywhere in the metropolitan area of Phoenix to the fucking suburb Gilbert is the worst!  Especially during the afternoon/evening rush hour traffic. I had the biggest fucking headache driving on the freeway. I ended up stopping at a grocery to change my socks and shirt. I was so irritable. 

Anyways, I got to the skate park around 6:30pm. It was already dark, and it was getting bitterly cold noticeably fast. Josiah Jones and Andy (I don’t think I caught his last name, he is from Boston.) were skating around. It was good chit chatting with those guys.

A few minutes later, the procession of the inline homies started strolling in.

I was so fucking unfocused on taking sharp or decent pictures. I realized I should just put the effort in and that I could fiddle with the footage or photos later.

Overall, everyone skated and had a fun time.
I want to state the MVP award goes to Dan Howard at this session. I noticed he put some effort into lacing some long overdue tricks he has had brewed in his mind.
Noticeable mentions are Ty Davies doing sweet back backslides, Fishbrain to left foot mistrial. Kenny and Luke were doing these farside grinds to cess slide spin transfers.
Sam was on fire going from one side of the park to the other.
Stephen was looking extremely buff and his wheels/bearings sounded so fucking cosmic.
Ian was doing his thing too. I noticed Stephen and Ian share similar attributes to almost call them each other’s doppelganger.
Nate killed it as usual. He always locks his topsides perfectly.
Chris Parks was in the mix to cruising around lacing grinds here and there.
Andrew Heath looked like he was really putting in the effort into progressing his skating.
Chad Hornish was there as well. His skates look incredibly cool, he laced as well.

Robbie Hollis strolled in to the park a few minutes before the session ended. No skates, but always the dude to come out and support. (Note: He mentioned that he had a friend who skates moving from California to the metropolitan area of Phoenix)

Ryan Buchanan and Dan Howard

After the session, we all went to go have some pizza and to talk the worst shit about one another. It is good to know that you can be fucking crazy with your inline buddies and know whatever shit you say or mumble is not too heartbreaking to hear. 

Thursday Night Skate: January 17th 2019 at Hermoso

Thursday Night Skate was held a Hermoso Skate park, located in the southern portion of Phoenix. The cross streets are 20^th street and Southern, I think. I left my house around 730pm and did not roll up until 8pm. I brought my ‘Rollerbalding’ fanny pack to stash the cameras I was going to utilize throughout the session.

Prior to stepping out of the car.  I was very enthusiastic to snap some pictures. The first few weeks of the new year, It has been a pleasure to be snapping pictures and recording video of my inline skate friends doing their thing.

I stepped out of the car and started taking pictures. The camera adjustments were not cutting it for clear pictures of the skaters grinding the quarter pipe so I decided to use some low light and zoom shots. I felt like some of the pictures came out pretty satisfactory. 

I focused mostly on Jonathan Reberts experimental foot placement and body positions.

 I was also pumped on Jason Liette cess slides from a bank into a curb. Other highlights were taking pictures of Zack, a newer inliner I met a few weeks earlier at KTR Mesa. I also tried to snap a few pics of Luke doing a tru top porn cess slide.

Another highlight was seeing Ben Poling at the Hermoso session. I have been out with been on a few good occasions’ street skating and what not and I find Ben’s skating to be talented and with some fucking technical foot and leg work.  He always does impressive spin to grinds, impressive grinds on rails and ledges.

Overall, the session was a memorable one. Inline skating is an extremely bizarre thing to practice but once you practice it around other enthusiasts. You feel the freedom of individualism manifest to a natural collective of peer cooperation and collaboration. With that said, It does take time and will power to step out but once you start growing that report and relationship with your skate buddies, the understanding of individuality comes in a form of ‘win, win mentality for each individual’.

I have always understood the imaginative urge to skate but sometimes it takes desperation to really make your inner fury turn into a euphoric sense of personal acceptance. Or something like that. After the session I met some of the inline buddies at a bar in phoenix. Coffee coffee coffee.

Sergio A. Ybarra 01/25/2018

Session: January 13th 2019 at Tempe Town Lake

I meet up with my blade buddies, Josiah Jones and Stephen Parson. We decided to skate Tempe beach park or Tempe Town Lake, whatever the fudge you wanna call it. The weather was perfect… Cool breeze, big cumulus clouds with partial sunshine.

Stephen surprisingly pulled out of his trunk a new pair of the USD shadow skates. Stephen highly encouraged me to try them out. I did not hesitate and started strapping them up. I would say I am more in favor of them then not. My feet started to feel cramped at some points but that only came in a few waves. I did loose a cuff bolt and a frame mounting bolt, but Stephen's sharp eyes found the cuff bolt on our way back to the cars.

So we went. we skated, we took in the day. On our way back to the car we ran into Devin Thomas along with his girlfriend.
Josiah departed to go meet up with his friend and former inliner Jon Mahoney.
Stephen and I went to Mike Talecki’s work ‘The Chuckbox’. It was cool seeing Mikey handle that huge grill. The onion rings were not too expensive as well.. At one-point, Mikey hooked me up with a burger on the house.

Stephen and I went to my house to meet my dogs before we trekked to Mesa skate park to meet up with Sam Giese, Ryan Buchanan, and Andy from Boston.We had a chill session at the skate park. My camera batteries died so I just goofed around skating and laughed a bunch with those guys. 

After the session, Buchanan and I went to eat as some Asian noodle place with my wife Alyssa. The food hit the spot and the company was always pleasant. I did regretfully not ask Sam if he wanted to come out to grab something to bite after the session, sense he was around when Alyssa and I started dating, it would have been good for them to run into each other again.

Thursday Night Skate: January 10th 2019 at KTR Chandler

Ryan 'Blurry' Buchanan with the new 'Rollerbalding Beanies'

Jon Jenkins - dropping in

Jon Jenkins,( a person who was the videographer and editor for Revolution Skate Shop) called me to state that he is in town and wanted to skate. Jenkins has been living in New York for the past 3 years. Jenkins came to my house met my dogs. We drove out to Chandler from Phoenix. On the drive we talked about art, collaboration, networking and marketing. It was and still is interesting discussing these types of works and expressions with Jenkins.

Chris Parks

We got to the park and I was planning on taking pictures. I had fun taking pictures at the last TNS that I wanted to capture more tonight; So…. As soon as I walked up to the park, some teenage staff member told me not to go any further.... and as soon as I started responding, he said in a fucking smug way ‘Thankkkkk youuuuuu’ . So I abide to his request but shit, what a fucking buzz kill, I just walked in. Anyways I stayed in this little part where parents should stand.

Mike Talecki, Chris Parks and Ryan Buchanan

So, no skates and just my grandpa street wear: sort of an awkward way in giving greetings to some bladers I have not met before, not that I worried about it this time around. So I started snapping pics, I began to test the settings. Most of the pictures were coming out like shit. I figured to mess with the zoom on the camera sense I was so restricted to this one spot. Interesting stuff. Not really.

Nate Brown

The tricks were very smooth and stylish this evening.

Jonathan Rebert was whizzing by with his bumps, swivels and grinds, Jonathan wore his Black M12/V13 skates with Oysi frames along with kool green wheels.

Jonathan Rebert, Ryan Buchanan and Beno

Kenny was in performance mode and did this huge quarterpipe launch to wall ride transfer and the whole park was amped.

Kenny Scherf - Wallride

Chad's 'Roces' Skates with a cool 'clown lipstick red' soul plates.

Chad was doing this really cool half cab top soul to this extension to drop tru top porn.

I saw an inliner, who I have never seen before  skating these white M12s. He was killing it. Doing steazy top sides and other impressive movements. He had a pretty bad head slam that I completely forgot about until I saw Ryan Buchanan’s edit of that session not to long ago. Anyways, I met him formally over the weekend, His name was Andy and I think he said he was from Boston, Mass.

Jon Jenkins - Catching up on some hang time

Luke was doing sweet grinds on the bank to box, such as an alley oop top porn along with a killer misfit.

Nate Brown - Cess slide to wall ride

Nate was doing this cess slide to wall stall back to the bank trick that he kept trying over and over. I got some of the funniest pictures of him trying it and hopefully I can post them all here. Regardless, Nate killed it and always does, I definitely give Nate recognition for being so good on skates consistently.

Ty!!! How can I forget Ty! Ty Davies was on hot fucking fire that night. For one he did a fucking rail, and the grind and switch up were the shit. He did a makio up a rail to royal down the rail. I would have missed that makio foot every time because of my shitty precision. Ty also did this sweet soul grind on quarter pipe.

I meet a few new inliners, such as Donald, Nicolas, and Matt (cant remember his last name) and I also formally met Beno that night as well. It is always nice meeting new people thru skating.

Nate Brown - Front Savannah

Jonathan brought these new ‘Rollerbalding’ Beanies for Ryan B. They were a cool Pokemon Red and Blue version with a cool Alien print/tag along with the rollerblading logo on the other side. I give recognition to Jonathan for creating some variety and options of expression through his ‘Rollerbalding’ brand.

Blurry Business with Jonathan Rebert

After the session, Jenkins and I went to meet up with the rest of the bladers down the street to grab a bite and drink. Everybody was in good company and it felt good to continue this type of friendships and acquaintance with some blade buddies. Jenkins and I left as soon as we were done with our coffee and food. I dropped off Jenkins and went home.

Andy From Boston and Ty Davies

Thumbs up!