USA Tripping, part 2

Still lurking in SF, we went exploring spots and shops

The locals are wild

Some 90's spots are heavily nobbed

This place over the road from EMB is a regular meetup, and people still skate the flat area

The monument blocks are cut into and ungrindable though

Visual treats through the city

Gnarly shop fronts

So we called in on the guys in FTC skateshop, haight street

Awesome shop,

Super clean and easy to navigate

FTC tees over the years

Original prints from Mike Blabac's exibition and book

More prints and old pro decks... including Jason Lee

Quality goods under the counter

James is a good friend of our friends Louie Slater and Martin Kenelly - even knows about the Chesterfield's crooked spire... small world

Mad Max style local nutters

Then we dropped in Delux

Different vibe to FTC, depends what you like

Lots of decks

Hot Chocolate was playing

Signage

More signage

Decks

Lots of pro respect and thanks

More signage

Then you might have heard of Real's Keith Hufnagel has a shop

'Huf' isn't just a shop, it's a brand

The shop is small but super nice

All the gear is ace

Huf tee

We bought Reda's book

They hooked us up with free a tee, griptape cutter and other coolstuff

Huf card

Reda's new book

Portraits of everyone... we'll crack it open and take some pictures soon.

Stay tuned for LA and Vegas!

Peace

USA tripping, part 1

So we went to the USA for 10 days, we took boards cameras and the lot. Ready to capture everything and anything went down. There's so much to do and see there, from old legendary relics of skate spots, to hot off the mixer parks.

We hit SF, LA and Vegas to get a rounded view of what's happening over there, we even made a few new friends.

Here's the photographic evidence.

In with the big players... the view from the SF hotel

Spot mapping, it's a big place, with a lot of legendary people and places

Except most street spots are a bust... the police and laws are mellowing as they are finally realising there are bigger crimes than waxing a ledge

There are epic spots like this littered all over the city

Someone's Urban Assault Vehicle

Classic fire escape

It's big

Recognise this?

It's the classic hubba hideout, it's huge

You may remember hubba hideout by this shot by Mike Blabac, or just watch a video

Meet Arthur, a local hubba hideout lurker

We also checked out modern day EMB

It's all changed, and the areas that used to get thrashed in the 90s videos are have been modified and taken away in 1999

This is it now, blank, and no gonz gap

Remember

Loads of other sweet architecture too

Legendary

Another special spot

Now fully unskatable with wooden tops...

So much amazing stuff has been done on these, just watch any video

Bust city now though

These have inspired skateparks around the world

There were other waxed up little treats too

Then boom, a street named after a Derby ripper

There were much love for the urban assault vehicles we noticed

Big hills to bomb

But SF government have spent a lot of money on stopping us skating the natural architecture of the city...

A lot of the spots have been lost

But there are still amazing spots like the chinatown banks you may recognise

More chopped out ledges, made unskatable

So we drank coffee off them instead...

More USA lurkings coming soon, including pros, parks and plank pushing. Stay tuned