It feels like this is becoming a somewhat regular thing but last week I went out to Long Beach to spend some time hanging out with the homies and catch some clips here and there. After flying into LAX around midnight Phillip Arellano picked me up and took me back to Hollywood where I passed out on his couch while watching This Is The End.
The first day into the trip we started out by heading to Long Beach where we met up with Antonyo Wothe and Steven Jensen. We then piled into Phill's Scion XB and headed to Temecula, CA to meet up with Zane Meyer of Chop Em Down Films.
After a quick warm up parking lot spot Zane took us to this sick down rail to long gap step. After both Antonyo and Jensen greased it Tone sized it up for one last gnarly banger. Right after Antonyo strapped on his helmet for the first time ever the principle of the school we were at came out and insisted that we stop. If you know Antonyo you know he's one of the nicest and most reasonable dudes, he was somehow able to reach a compromise with the principle allowing him to hit the rail if he signed a release saying he would not sue if he was injured on the property. Minutes later he was free to try the rail as much as he wanted, uninterrupted. unfortunately the sun had began to go down and the spot quickly became too dark to film any longer.
Once it got dark we dropped Zane off at his work and then headed to Costco for some cheap eats and prime lurking. After way too much Vine'ing we went by a bank that just so happened to have this over-bar height rail next to their drive-up ATM. Jensen immeditly eyed it and said to pull over. He hit it no problem of course. Phillip Arellano snapped a photo to be used in Jensen's newest Us Versus Them team poster. After some antics ensued such as a backwards circle competition and Antonyo in a Packers snuggie… although the technical term might be huggy, you'll have to check with the NFL merchandising department.
After the impromptu session we dropped Steven off at Zane's, so he could catch a bus leaving from Temecula to Arizona at 8am the next morning, and headed back to Long Beach. Once we got back Long Beach around 12:30 it got figured out that Steven's bus was actually leaving from Long Beach at 8am resulting in Zane driving him all the way back to the Fixie Factory at 2am and then me driving Phill's car to the bus station in the morning to drop him off. At the bus stop we met a women I can only hope Steven didn't have to spend his next 5 hours with back to AZ. Cruising back to the house alone in a semi unfamiliar place felt somehow soothing.
Later in the day Phill, Joe McKeag, Michael Penrose, and myself went to go check out the Tip Plus warehouse sale. At the sale I picked up the Deadline dvd which must have got Joe stoked because after watching it he cranked out a grip of clips, including this wheelie to 180 down the euro gap, at MLK skatepark just as the sun was setting.
Joe also found this dollar bill caked in the white stuff right outside the parking lot of WhackArnold's right before the cops told us we weren't allowed to ride bikes there, without any further explanation.
On Sunday I headed to Ktown with Phill to ride with Cole Ruffin and Michael Guntetong. We sessioned some warm up ledges at NBC Studios and then met up with Corey San Agustin and Elliot Milner at Radio Korea. Everyone got some clips that I'm pretty excited about and a bunch of other fixed gear heads ended up rolling through. While at Radio Korea and the surrounding spots I don't think I've ever seen so many people sessioning real street spots. The Radio Korea spot alone had probably 60 heads or more skating and a single ledge down the street attracted at least 20 including skateboarders, BMX, fixed gear bikes, and even a mob of roller bladers. This day I was pumped to not only see some legendary spots but to actually get to hit them (on my skateboard).
On monday Joe suggested a bank to wall ride spot in Anaheim that turned out to look like this. We were rolling deep with a crew consisting of Antonyo, Joe, Phill, Corey, JBall, and myself. With so many dudes on deck and the sun beginning to go down we decided to make the most of it and search around Anaheim for anything shredable.
Even though we got kicked out of half the spots and were battling the darkness the crew was still able to throw down a few wild clips before calling it a night and heading back to the LBC.
Before leaving Long Beach and the Fixie Factory I had to add some color to the house rail. Personally I find this rail to be pretty iconic, crazy that it's such a regular fixture to everyone else in the area. Big ups & thanks to Phill for giving me a place to crash and hooking up the rides, I always appreciate it so much man! And a huge thank you to everyone at the Fixie Factory for always letting me unexpectedly stay on the couch for undetermined periods of time, love you guys!
RATPACKRATPACKRATPACK
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