Ben Solt, winner of the Brampton Comp Amateur division with a brave safety handplant over the hip.

Stephane styling an alleyoop top porn around the bowled corner.

Parkour style!


Guy is staying off his skates for a while due to a shoulder injury but came along to document the trip. It was a tight squeeze in the back seat but there were multiple pit stops to stretch (ie. knock strangers over while they were peeing) and before we knew it we were in Montreal. The session itself was a lot of fun. Plenty of kids showed up to support the rollerblade only session that takes place the first Saturday of every month. The difference this month was the cash prizes being offered for best and weirdest trick. Dan Miller dominated these categories with a huge royale to drop and a sidewalk with helmet wraparound to solo roll down the kinked rail. I won a prize for best line and Jason won with a four-way switchup across and down the rail.

Six hours later.

SO JEALOUS.

Taylor with a halfcab back torqueslide. Taylor destroyed this box.

Guillaume and Stephane planning the event.

Dave, mute transfer.

Dan Millar wins best trick with a Royale to drop.

Dan is cash money.

Dave humors Guy with a hip transfer to topsoul.

Taylor back royales the entire spine from flatbank to flatbank to win best line.

The Winners!

We had a great time in Montreal. Thanks to Stephane and Marie for driving and an extra thanks to Marie for letting us crash at her parents place! Don’t forget about the MTL Classic coming up in South Parc on 29th of August.

—UPDATE—
There’s a video of best trick, by Positive Pictures.

So much about learning photography is hit or miss- I just hope I get less shit at it before my endlessly patient friends are completely bored of hearing “Can you do that again? I missed it, sorry”. Thursday Night Skates are a bit up in the air at the moment- nobody seems able to co-ordinate far enough in advance that we all move as a Unit, so we end end up in tiny little groups across the GTA, grumbling about how no-one seems to want to skate together any more. Not true!

From a Downtown perspective it is difficult to get to parks outside the city without a car unless Kevin or Dan drive (and now we have enough skaters downtown that we need both to transport everyone out there), and with our little scene blossoming again in the city we’re exploring and finding new things to skate every time we go out. I promise we’ll start to see more of a united front in the coming months; it just requires better planning and co-ordination.

Enough waffle! Last night we ended up skating a great ledge that Dave recently spent the time bricking and waxing conveniently over the road from St George subway station. Its an awesome spot and once we’ve finished bricking everything it’ll be great for some awesome lines.

Jay Smith, one of Toronto’s secret weapons.

Taylor Ritchie spent the last two weeks in Vancouver and San Fransisco and was itching to skate. Fresh from Kevin’s skate workshop and a lot happier with his skates after some Dremel action, hai Taylor.

Aaron Wheat, the original cool snake.

And of course, the kendama kids.

Now, some skating! A grabbed true makio. Fucking steeze.

Jay fishbraining in the first of three pairs of skates he’d try on during the session.

Wheat LOVES his new skates, and well he should; they’re awesome.

Happy with your wax job, Dave?

Some people just know that ungrabbed tricks are incomplete.

Wheat looks so much more comfortable on his new skates already compared to his old busted ass skates.

Continuing his smiley destruction session, TR with a sick (grabbed) front torque.

Dan loves switchups, and he should- he’s bloody good at them.
This true mistrial switched to alleyoop top porn, but I’m rubbish and didn’t sequence it.

“I think I’m gonna go try a true fish” -Taylor Ritchie

Kevin wiping the ledge down with a true savannah in a quick break from Kendama. Pimping ain’t easy.

Wheat is a sexy bitch.

Dan wants… “but in a size 9″.

I hate to finish on a blurry picture, but the rest of it was so good…
sorry Jay, I’ll work the camera out by next time!

All the photos are available in higher resolution on our flickr.

Back safe and sound from a two week vacation to Vancouver and San Francisco and ready to skate in Montreal this weekend at the TAZ- see you there!

Here’s a session that Taylor and I filmed one sunny afternoon at the Garrison Creek (/Stanley Park /Slaughterhouse) ledges.

Expect another edit of last night’s bike gang tour of the city. Oh yes, BIKE GANG. We’re THAT cool.

Jay ‘The Karate Kid’ Smith gets low on a backside unity.

Guy saw Star Trek before the session, and busted out this vulcanized 720. Come back to Earth buddy!

Ok, so I get mixed up with all the unity tricks. So here is Dub with a frontside savannah? Or perhaps an alleyoop unity. You decide.

Frans didn’t show his face today, so Hans had to ‘pump, pump you up’ all by himself. Front royale 540.

“Show a man a fishbrain; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fishbrain; and you have fed him for a lifetime” Jay Smith.

If Blair laced a full speed AO top porn, would you follow?

Maybe its not Karate, but some kind of zen state skating. My fav trick of the day, Jay with an AO fish 360 out.

Ever see a 40 km/h spike? Neither have I.

Second Spot, Garrison Creek. Dan with a styled out top acid.

Taylor is trying to steal this trick from me. Full speed mizou.

Dave will soul grind….your soul.

I don’t think I need to tell the story about the fish again. Blair fishbrain.

Taylor Ritchie footage from Guy Crawford on Vimeo.

So good. I, for one, would like to see more Taylor skating footage please.