Session at the Ranch

Thanks to Lisa Whitaker at TheSideProject for putting together this video as well as the last one posted. She is by far one of the raddest people out there. EVER.



After this skate session (which followed GSG), we got a midnight tour of the bulls... "The Ranch" is truly a ranch and the bowl we skate is inside a true barn. The bulls were quite onery. Turns out they are famous... prize bulls, valued for their genes. Their semen is sold all over the US and Europe. Maybe you are thinking the same thing we were... like, um, how does one collect bull semen? Well, in case you don't know but have an inquiring mind, they have a fake plastic cow that the bull mounts... and the semen goes through a tube in the fake cow and collects in a bag. Then its frozen/preserved with liquid nitrogen. We were told by our guide, that there is another way to collect it... that he doesn't agree with so much... something about an electric probe in the anus... ok, maybe this is TMI for a skate blog. Anyways, the calves were a little friendlier, and they licked our hands with giant twisting tongues, which were rough, like grip tape. They were sweet, made the girls talk about being vegetarian and all that. Eventually we fell asleep on the ramp.

In the morning we headed to San Francisco for a couple more days of skating with the girls. Kristina ollied the gap at 3rd and Army, then she tried to kickflip it but it was pretty windy, and she busted her knee, which was a real bummer. Then Abisha rolled her ankle. I fell on my phone and broke it... then Kristina broke her phone. At the end of the day there were 7 girls jammed in my closet watching youtube videos and mad-hating-on 'the life of Ryan'. It was priceless. If you want to see pictures of "the closet" and this entire adventure you can find them on TheSideProject blog (link posted above).

Girls Summer Gathering (GSG) !!!

Girls Summer Gathering 2009


Enough said.

Raccoons doing it.

FYI: This Blog is deteriorating. Yes. You might read it and feel like you just listened to some message I left in your voice mail that was too long and got cut off. My suggestion is that if you want to read more about girls skating, you should log into the Skate Like A Girl San Francisco blog. In fact I recently wrote a little story about a game of S.K.A.T.E. There are other writers for that blog too, just in case you're getting tired of hearing me.

Anyways... being sick again, filling up on miso soup and tea and chocolate. My right eye keeps gooping up. A never ending chain of texts, emails, phone calls, instant messaging. A tour almost underway. Fundraising. SLAG in Pride. Updating websites. Meetings. After school programs. Skateparks being built. More girls learning to skate. Demos. GSG. (Speaking of GSG, Amy Caron just wrote a song about it, check it out: GSG Song... wait, I can't figure out how to post this... I'll do it later, or email it upon your request)

I took a little lunch break today and watched a skate video. Bad idea... shouldn't do that when I'm trying to rest and get well and resist the urge to skate and all that. After the video I looked out the window to see if the raccoons were chilling on the fire escape. They were totally doing it so I snapped these shots (I know, no privacy but c'mon, they were right outside my window which was open... and it was broad daylight... but then again maybe nocturnal animals doing it mid-day is like humans doing it in the middle of the night. At least they were quiet, not like the neighbors, geez! No, the neighbors weren't doing it on the fire escape, but still, even with my ipod in it was too much information.

Have a meeting at the wine bar now. Romantic eh?

PDX--->

Meeting. Nailing down the SLAG summer tour. Website tutorial. Dutch Brothers across the street. Pouring rain. Cat fur and spray and kittens everywhere. Dog poop. Peeing on the lawn. Enough sunshine for lil mini-ramp sessions. Flip-tricks in the street. I didn't take a shower or change my clothes for 3 days. I learned too late that if you try to catch an earlier flight and its not the same day that you pay $100... so I slept in the airport, and the next day, when I boarded standby, they gave my grubby self a fist class seat and put my skate in the special coat check. Thank god for ipods and good friends that write handwritten letters. Thats enough to make me feel like the luckiest SOB ever.

Mexico City Part 4 (Majical Mystery Tour / clinics)

Nancy and I went to Mexico city as representatives of SLAG to teach skate clinics to the girls at Chica Rider (our sister organization). They have the most amazing crew of female skaters. They seemed to catch on faster then any girls we've worked with. Their enthusiasm was contagious and we skated with them for hours. They wanted to try every trick... and due to my lack of skill and my personal preference, I resorted to a lot of old school moves. These were some of the best days I've had skating. La Fuente skatepark clinic in Mexico City. I like this park because its got shade and trees and just relaxing overall. We were happy to give away some free stickers, shirts, and DVDs for this event. Renata Ruiz came and ripped it up a little at the end, despite her apt having burned down that weekend. It was good to see her one last time before we left.


There were so many girls skating with Chica Rider. On Saturday, they filled up an entire tour bus and drove to Queretaro, the most colorful park I've ever seen. There we were greeted by more girls and really supportive male skaters. Mexican skater Mayra Gallegos showed up missing her board, so I lent her mine and despite not skating in months, she put down some impressive lines. She rips. The three hour bus ride back to Mexico city was one big fiesta. We watched skate videos and the girls danced and sang the whole time... lots of energy.
Nancy instructing over a dozen girls.
Girls skating in Mexico is blowing up! We were honored to be guests of Chica Rider and look forward to returning. Thank you to Paco and Paloma!

Mexico City part 3 (mangos and more)

Palm Sunday.
Lots of fresh fruit, papayas, guavas, mangos... The mangos were the best I ever had. Soft like a peach and sweet, and you can peel them like a banana, and take bites around the small pit. Its not the variety that you could really ship, and not super stringing like I'm used too. I ate more of these then my stomach wanted to handle.

Paco and Paloma were a little amazed we didn't get sick from the street food, but we pretty much indulged in everything, tacos, tortas, tamalies, smoothies. It was all delicious. Nancy even got a langua (tongue) taco. The guy cut the giant thing in half, peeled the outer skin off with a couple quick rips, warmed it up on the grill, and put a corn tortilla around it. You could still see the tastbuds and Nancy scarfed it down without much chewing or examination. She said it tasted like beef.
Gum tree. Like I said, we ate everything.
Everything except this little zoloitzcuitle, a hareless Aztec dog... a little greasy to the touch.
The culture in Mexico is very affectionate. Greetings are made with an embrace and a kiss on the cheek, and the parks are full of couples making out.

We love Paloma Guerrero!
And Mexico!

Mexico City Part 2

We were fortunate to hang out with Micaela of Poseiden (San Diego, CA), who also came to Mexico to help teach clinics for Chica Riders. Poseiden works to expand female participation in skateboarding. Micaela and Paco look back at the mariachi band while she explains that they are singing about this crazy woman who drowns her children in the river.

We went to a handful of parks. This one (called Bowls of head if Juarez, because it is next to a giant sculpture of Benito Juarez's head) had a series of large bowls, all painted different colors. We had a great time skating this park, until Nancy got stuck inside a really deep bowl and I had to help her out. We were both winded, still acclimating to the 7,000ft altitude and excessive smog levels. Check out the video at the end of this post for the panoramic view of this park

After skating we rest in the shade and talk about clinics, tours, foreign exchanges, and how we can work together in the future. Clockwise from upper left: Nancy (SLAG director), Renata (Riper!), Micaela (Poseiden), Paco, and Paloma (Chica Rider).

Above is my sneak photograph of reggaeton master 'Gold Nigga' at the opening exhibition of Converse sneakers that were painted by Oaxacan artists. We dined on fine wine and Oaxacan hours d'evours, including chapolines (grasshoppers). Unfortunately we didn't have snazzy suites like the folks below so Nancy and I showed up in our grubby jeans and sweatshirts. This didn't stop the press from shooting photographs of us or Canvas Magazine from scheduling an interview.