40 hours in Diego

this is what diverted me out of SW Colorado all the way to sunny San Diego / Jehu

skate break at the new Lakeside park on the way in from Phx

popped in Luigi's to see Halleran & saw Chooce 1st

John Reis lives near Edgemont

part of my justification for making the long quick journey...

was to strip the walls of Edgemont & dig into boxes & bring back decks to display @ Launch

skated the ramp and realize how much I like 3" steel coping

Halleran came over after work & handed me the 1st Clean Room CD

I in turn let him pick a button from the collection

 If you want to choose a pin sometime, remind me.. I forget to offer most of the time

then we settled into dominos and chatted

this game to be continued in DEC...

rolling up Edgemont I saw my old pal, Carpet!

dinner at Moncai with MC Crackers

we both got the chicken fried portobello special

Teagen & Rose rolled up with Molly & Homer

visited Linda & grabbed some Donut Panic to take to the Dawg House

this warms my heart.... what all see when approaching the dawg house

Chris Center took me up on a Donut Panic

concert promoters!

the concert hall at the dawg house - when is the Clean Room show?

I woke Ken up to share Rachel's cupcake with me

riding over the frmr's mkt, I see John out training, I mean rucking

Chucha barely barked at me on this day

messy jessie let me try some rose apple

she sells these awesome tees too!

I missed JP by 30 minutes, but Amayi served me up

Dennis is my main SD melon supplier. He's a connoisseur!

He was saving this 38lb beast for an Uzbeckistanie woman who hadn't see one since she left her country

the best tacos of my life @ POKEZ . . more on that here!

super proud of Wes Kremer - always repping the RUN with pride

riding up the hill to sangha, I stopped in to say WHAT UP to Sundar

the 1st house I lived in / 1995 with Rich & Steve Jacobs & Grant Guthrie

and then I rode to the main event in Balboa Park / FULL POST here

blazing curbs in the blazing heat

stopped in the Cowtown in Tempe to find they were doing a curb event that night

I love many of the decorations in there, but this most specifically

my 1st glance at the course from a drive by

squeezed in some QT with Trent before things got too hectic

Dave, JR, & Ed of Cowtown making things happen in AZ

I smashed my BIG toe on the water wheel hike, so Cedric from medical patched me up

Mark Carroll cruised by in the evening

Kevin Braun made the finals with moves like this kf back lip

one man's bsts

and another man's bsts

deaf Alex was on the scene

check the video to see how hard Shaun rips

another angle of Shaun's bluntslide with Ryan Lay setting up

Smithers up the angle iron

not enough people skated this obstacle

Robbie Brockel took 3rd - matt price & mike pringle were MC's

a humble Ryan Lay took top honors

Did I mention it was somewhere in the 115 degree range even as the sun was setting?

Top 10 Finalists:

 

Ryan Lay

Adam Arunski

Robbie Brockel

Dashawn Jordan

Michael Eddy

Marcus Carr

Kevin Skutnik

Shaun Gregoire

Kevin Braun

Ted Schmitz - the valet killed it ~!

water wheel

hiking up to water wheel falls, you come across this smaller falls

 a few weeks before realizing I'd be passing through Arizona, I saw this clip. The swimming hole in that 1st minute looked amazing. I reached out to Shaun who was on that trip and he divulged the details.

the slot canyon part of the hike outside Payson

definitely some wild rock formations out there

I was continually looking for the notched log ladder, and then there it was

it was at least 8 feet deep near the log

had my swim all to myself, but soon after a family of 5 showed up

drove into Tempe hoping to catch Trent or Laura still at Cowtown

but they were both gone, so I walked over to Desert Roots Kitchen for a lovely lunch!

curb jammin in 115 degree heat coming up next.......