_And the winners are…

No cops showed to shut us down. The rain didn’t rain. Nobody got (seriously) hurt, although Jong and Huy gave it a good try.

Your under 20′s winner is Jong Kim who kicked ass all day, was the first person to put some serious work into the Jane rails and survived a brutal 8 ft drop to face with barely a scratch on him. Congratulations, Jong!

The best trick was won by Mike David, with a soul grind/transfer to kindgrind 180 out combination across and down the Jane rails. Serious steeze! *Sequence coming tomorrow*

Finally the Over 20′s winner of the 2009 Toronto Blade Jam is Shop Task potential flow team rider Blair Loughead who tirelessly put in solid work all day, leaving jaws dropped and putting people off of going next.

Thanks to everyone who came out and got dirty, your support is very much appreciated. I’d like to thank Dave, Taylor and Wheat for all of their amazing contributions to our day, AJ for the live blogging (catch up on Blog Task), Leon for the generous prizes and support and the ladies (Julie, Marianne, Maxine, Rebecca and Cody’s ladyfriend) for supporting us and cooking the hotdogs.

A final thank you needs to be said to Jim and Lauren of St John’s Trophies LTD in Mississauga for hooking us up with the sweet silverware. It was really kind of you to help us out at the last minute!

The rest of the pictures of the event will be up tomorrow, once I’ve had a chance to get through them. They’ll be joined by some shots of MobbMedia’s Sunrise Skate Battle at 7am tomorrow morning.

Hugs!
-Guy

_Aaaaaand here we go!

Its 1.30am; Dave, Collin, Steve and their ladies are in the Green Room waiting for Boyle to show up with a couple of friends. I’m about to hit the hay after a long day of moving gravel around a driveway in the digger below (long, fairly boring story I’m not going to share with you), skating with Justin and Corbin at the Richmond Green curved ledges (which are my new favourite spot in the world) then hanging with TR, Dave, Marcos and Rob in High Park, setting up the first spot for everyone tomorrow… TOO MUCH! Its a good thing I like busy days : )

See you in High Park! For those that still don’t know, drive south down the eastern edge of High park from Bloor, and its a right hand turn into Spring.

_Badass Roundup Of The Week

Halfway through August already, and the weather is only just starting to show the kind of heat people tell me Toronto experiences every summer… hmm, did I break it by moving here? Personally I’ve loved the 20ish breezy sunshine we’ve had up until now, but I’d rather not deprive you all. I assume that this late bloom means it’ll stick around until October.

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!

_New Hans Edit!

Hans is STILL in Switzerland! Which means that although he’s yodelling, swinging from alp to alp and eating as much Milka chocolate as his tiny body will hold, he’s not going to be here in time for the Blade Jam, which is very sad indeed.

By way of apology, he made this latest edit.