Last weekend my friends Ace Kieffer and Dustin Watson came to visit Toronto to skate, hang out and enjoy all Canada has to offer.

This was Ace and Dustin’s 4th trip to Canada and on this particular occasion we decided that it was necessary to document the whole event on my handheld Flip Video.

Our first day of skating began at the Weston and Major Mack skatepark at approximately 11 o’clock. After stacking up a bunch of clips in less than half an hour we decided to go to York University to skate a fun out ledge and get a wallride picture.

Our day continued with a session at the Milton skatepark with Aaron and Boyle. Unfortunately the flip video died so we were unable to document the amazing session that went down there.

Schools Out Flip Video Edit from erik burrow on Vimeo.

Our day of skating was followed by an intense night of partying and sandwich eating. Although the party we went to had a 9 foot it was not even half as entertaining to Ace and Dustin as the glowing blue electricity ball? located at the front of the house.

On our final day of skating we made an effort to hit up as many low impact street spots as possible in order to get some sweet facebook p file shots.

Although Dustin and Ace’s trip ended on monday afternoon the flip video documentation continued for the rest of the week. I made it my goal to ensure that Stuart Campbell and Bernty Isopp would have clips in the edit which led me to a session at the local park near Bernty’s house and the Cj’s very ramp.

Alot of skating went down last week and I was lucky enough to document it all. Special thanks to everyone who helped film and the boys for coming down and helping me celebrate my freedom from school.

Skaters in this edit include – Dustin Watson, Erik Burrow, Ace Kieffer, Stuart Campbell, Guy Crawford, Blair Loughead, Mike Lukewich, Bernty Isopp and Johnny Hoerman.

All pictures by Dustin Watson

All in all I just wanted to share some of my great times with good friends. Browse through the pictures, and look out for a killer edit from our journey to Kamloops that will appear on the Shop-Task Blog soon.

The weekend began in earnest on Friday night as Wheat, Taylor, Celso and myself took a leap of faith to Iceland skatepark in Mississauga. Would the lights indeed be ‘on’? Would we end up driving all the way back into town to drown our sorrows instead? Fortunately as we dipped under the highway we caught the glare of the floodlights on the horizon and our hopes were revived! Some areas of the park still had small piles of snow in, but I’d say at least 80% of the park was exposed and our session was good to go.

Huy arrived after about an hour (Blädr messageboard working its magic once again) and took some photos for us.

Saturday was my 1 year anniversary! Julie and I were married a year ago. I love you honey.

Sunday lunchtime was clear, crisp and begging for a skate session. Mobilizing the combined powers of Facebook, MSN and cellular service, assorted troops were directed to the LE62 ledges. How was the weather so perfect? I have no idea… but the ten degree weather and incredible downtown backdrop made for an exciting hour or so of back and forth tricks.

Mark Benic and Jong were both nailing true top acids. Hans stomped a sick ao top acid to 540 out and Taylor warp 9′d at a true top mistrial, the first time I’ve ever see him do that- I guess the Aragon 3′s are working out for him!

The bright sunshine also attracted the lesser-spotted Jay Smith, one of the rarest creatures in the Greater Toronto Ecosystem. Known for its feathered appearance and outrageous trick vocabulary, the Jay Smith is seen here in bright shiny new boots grabbing a front torque.

Dan took some brutal falls trying some new stuff, but came through in the clutch with a slick true mistrial. Good looking trick, man.

After that it all got a bit messy. We moved as a unit to the nearby Ashbridges Bay but with the park full of Sitdown Skateboarders™ our spirits were waning. Messrs Petrov, Benic, Krizzle, Hans and Jong chose to stay and make of it what they could, while our carload decided to head towards Dave’s new puppy, Jean Claude Van Damme. We stopped at Erik’s insistence to skate a grotty little flat rail near Sherbourne station, where Erik, Dave and Jay feigned enthusiasm but we all knew that futon time with the adorable puppy was fast approaching.

Erik capped our weekend off with a well-held negative acid.

This weekend made me so excited for our coming summer. With a little luck we’ll have Kevin back, our video game will be so far advanced it will be unrecognizable and we’ll see a return to form for the Toronto skating scene! Good times, everybody! Thanks for coming out… the rest of the photos are on our flickr, as always.

Sifted through a bunch of photos from the party, and I’m posting my favorites below. Check out the rolltoronto flickr for the rest of the night’s pics.

Head here for the rest.

Wednesday saw a pretty large turnout for what might have been one of the last Iceland skates of the year. All of these photos were taken by Huy Le.

Kevin Chow with a grabbed fastslide.

Jonny and Blair skated the hard side of the rough ledge, Jonny back royaling through the corner.

For a change, I did a topsoul.

Lee powered through a back farv to fakie.

That’s it for this post; In the next week or so we have a new video edit from Dan and Taylor, Corey might have some clips together to post, Kevin is working on a review of his shiny new skates and Dave’s hair will get even longer. Stay tuned! Also, check out our friend Robert Guerrero in action… Dude is Top 5 best.

I wanted to let you know that after 33 days on the road and sleeping on everything from king sized beds to pavement I have started to head back east. My plan is to be in Toronto no later than Thanksgiving weekend. I am looking forward to being back in Toronto and skating with everyone soon.

Here are some of my favourite pictures from my travels.

This weekend is pretty busy for Toronto rollers, with our own Blade Jam in High Park tomorrow from 1pm. The turnout looks pretty amazing so far with Mike D booked in and ready to rock, Blair Lougheed and Taylor Ritchie representing a certain skateshop (oooh, gossip!) and some old school rollerbladers back from the dead. This incredible afternoon will be followed by MobbMedia’s Sunrise Skate Battle at Iceland skatepark in Mississauga, starting from 7am on Sunday. We’ll be there, but my legs (and liver) are going to be knackered!

I’ve been literally sitting on an awesome photo of Dave Ghent for a couple of months now, trying to decide what to do with it- but I’m bored of waiting for the right time to use it, so here it is… Dave Ghent, rugged topsoul on a joined wooden handrail with gravel runup and landing near Rosedale subway. Bloody purple pants… I blame AJ.

Since Shop Bladr sadly closed its doors and ceased trading in Ontario, local skaters have been asking themselves what’s next for the average roller? What is left to aspire towards? Fortunately for us all, original Grillz roller Leon has stepped up and offered potential spots on the Shop Task team to three lucky Ontarians, which including existing team members Mike David, Jon Craig and Aaron Mcinnis could take the GTA Task What rollcall to six… Good looking Leon, its great to see money being put where mouths are.

So who are these three illustrious skaters you ask? In no particular order they are Taylor Ritchie, Blair Loughead and Erik Foster. Jammy bastards! Good work gents, I look forward to taking awkward and out of focus photos of you soon, then apologising and asking you to do the trick again. Congratulations, friends! You deserve it so much. Now get to promoting!

Gatsby loves Hey Dude v3. He says that the Toronto section is the best section in the video, and probably the best crew section he’s seen since BMC2. He says all this while looking adorable. To pick up your copy of Hey Dude v3, bring $5 to the Blade Jam or the Sunrise Skate Battle and pester Dave Ghent for a copy. Five Bucks! Do it, or Gatsby will be sad. Do you really want him to be disappointed in you?

Dave Ghent made some alterations to his xsjados, adding Razor buckles to the cuffs for a little more support by drilling a new hole just forward of the xsjado cuff holes and shortening the buckle strap.

Dave says he’s cautiously optimistic; they’re a lot more supportive but he doesn’t know if they’ll take abuse that well, or missed soul grinds. They look like they’re doing a pretty good job to me, good mod Aslan.

Taylor borrowed my skates to get a photo- True Topsoul in skates two sizes too big. Good lad.

Last but not least, here’s a photo I took on Wednesday night at the waterfront, relaxing at the end of a funny photoshoot. Considering that I’m a complete novice, I’m really happy with how this photo turned out, and more than a little surprised!

That’s it for this roundup, I’ll see you all tomorrow afternoon!

From the looks of things, he’s been KILLING it- Mike Bennet seems to take all the photos coming out of Woodward East at the moment, so we’ll assume these are also his.

And finally my favourite shot- Total balls to the wall hardcore vert skating! Top Acid over the channel. You do good work, buddy.

Keep sending us shots, Erik! They’re badass.