saturday 12 september - CJ's Birthday! ;)
South Coast Streetboarders expands
Back with a skate-heavy article - the South Coast Streetboarders collective has grown!
Been skating with Lewis quite a lot recently, and celebrating the return of ex-Flipside rider Josh Newman, who has returned to live in Southampton!
Mainly evening skates, and often in Prevail, we have been pushing each other to ramp up the tricks on the rails - the small "shotgun" rail at Prevail is a great place to learn new tricks - it's small enough to allow falls without worry of getting tangled in the rail, but long enough to know you locked and held the trick...
Everyone has different tricks nailed, so its great cross-training as we are pushing each other to improve our weaker areas! The training continues...
Crossways skatepark
 We have skated Crossways on the way to Dorchester a few times recently.
Close to Pat and nearer for Rob, it's a funny little park with only a few features - it's a place to session stuff rather than expect long flowing lines, but it forces you to vary your tricks and up your tech game...
I went there with James and Tim's friend Rob, and came away with some good media - Rob blasting some big backside 180s out the bowled quarter, and forging some strong combo's on the manual pad - including a cab smith revert 360 landed and ridden away so smoothly as to be the very essence of the trick definition...
The transitions are very tight, and you have to vary your riding style to accommodate the small size of some of the curves there - its a park you either love or hate, but it's a useful little addition to the collection of spots we have here to ride...
Sol Joel session with Colin Horan
I drove to Reading to hook up with Day One owner Colin Horan for a day's riding at Sol Joel skatepark, and though the weather was super misty, we both managed to get some decent lines down and get some pretty rad slomo footage!
A great day - despite the conditions - and thanks to CoHo on the Trigger for the edit!
New Poole skatepark - Bourne Valley
In news nearer home - the council has funded a park just around the back of me in the Bourne Valley nature reserve. Built by Maverick it contains a street section, transition section and bowl.
 Andy Garett came down to join me for my first visit there - we stuck to the steet section and quarterpipe extension in the bowl.
The street section with flat bar rail, C-ledge and hubbas, next to a transition section with spined mini and launch box, and a triangular bowl at one end Dorchester-style.
Unfortunately the launch box has the classic Maverick issues of inadequate run-in and being too whippy, and the triangular nature of the bowl means it is more difficult to get good lines there - and people randomly enter from the street section which can be hazardous if you are riding it already!
Its a slightly curious park which at first seems to not flow properly, but makes more sense when you hear that they received more money halfway through and tacked an extra bowl on one end - meaning that its current format was never designed as a single unified whole and this shows in the disjointed flow...
Overcrowded by kids from the local estates, I have had a collision with a mountain biker on another occasion - resulting in a leg injury that meant 3 weeks off skating - and this, combined with the average nature of the riding experience, means that although it is only about 500m from my house - I probably won't be using it that often which is a shame.
CJ's birthday
And last but not least - Happy Birthday CJ! 21 again today! :D xxx
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