home sweet home

well, im finally back in the grand old US of A and definitely not loving it. sorry to say to whom ever may be here in this country who enjoys the place. well i reckon everyone who knows about this is in the states right now. anyways… i conlcuded my days in burleigh with some more surfing and skating, and this sweet trek through the bush.  the day of my flight, mark and i drove up this windy road for a few miles that he and some other kids cruised down on longboards under the moonlight one time. the stories he told about that night were epic. cars driving up the road and all of a sudden a dude on a skater comes ripping around the corner just missing the headlights. a bit dodgey, but sounds pretty fun if you ask me. and this ride down would last about an hour which was the best part. i dont know of anywhere else where you can catch an hour ride down a mellow winding road on a longboard. mmm  aside from that, we make it to the top of the hill/mountain and end up in this small town of spring brook. i guess you cant even call it a town really. but its nestled up in the bush amongst rain forest and cliffs that reveal beautiful waterfalls. apparently the lookout was spectacular, but we had come on a day where it was down pouring in the bush, leaving a thick fog- hindering our vision. but it was still fun running around the bush in the rain, taking cover inside the huge hollow trunk of a tree and under small sheds. after that, i took my last swim in the ocean, and a few of us headed to the aeroport. of course my flight was delayed a bit, tiger airways is pretty crap- heads up to you all. may be cheap, but they aren’t too reliable or great, eh whatever.  then i spent the next two days in melbourne saying goodbye to a few people and getting all my stuff organized to get back home. i had to leave a bunch of my glass there, but managed to bring some home as a carry-on. My last night in town, steve, mike, his girlfriend, benny and myself ended up going to the croft institute, strangly enough, the first bar i ever went to when i got to melbourne. we sat down upstairs and had a few drinks, not really planning on staying out late, since i had to be at the aeroport early and benny had to drive us home. but we ended up dancing until about 2:30 in the morning, man that was fun. nice little crew of funny cats dancing around like hooligans. couldn’t have asked for much more. went back to benny’s, had a nice sleep, woke up with a shower and some crepe-style pancakes that we rolled up with strawberry jam and vanilla ice cream, like a burrito- a delicious, sweet burrito. then we headed to the aeroport- beautiful day out, made me bummed to leave. benny dropped me quick,. he was borrowing one fo his friends’ cars and had to get it back to him real soon. i went in, and let me tell you, my bags felt pretty freakin heavy, i had a whole 15 pound box of glass, a 30 pound backpack and my skateboard. i thought for sure i was headed for grief. i get to the check in and tell the lady i may have some problems going on. so she weighs my bags, and they are quite a bit over, but she was like, “well its just your lucky day, i wont charge you for them or your skateboard as extra baggage.” sweet! and she said the box of glass was fine. so everything worked out beautifully, i really couldn’t believe it. so i walked around and relaxed. so after about 20 hours of flying on 3 different planes, im finally here… in the cold. its been in the 30’s, some flurries. well over all its pretty nice to be back, im getting distracted right now, so ill write some more later. hope your all well, like usual.

.B

bowls of burleigh

well well well, ill be back in the states in just about 4 days.. pretty strange, aye? a bit sad about the situation of leaving but im way happier to get back to the reality of my life. actually im not too sure about that part. stoked to get back to friends and family and getting back into riding. i can feel just another good season coming around. the goodness just never ends, until school comes around and kicks you right in the ass.    

 aside from that, the times have been pretty rad, except for breaking my hip practically, huuuge bruise, busting my knees, again, and messed up my heel jumping into a puddle on some asphalt. good job brige. so i have a nice limp going on but that surely doesn’t stop me from skating my ass off in some of the sweetest bowls ive skated. probably not the best idea, but i figure i can relax off my foot when i get home. right before i get back to the mountains. that’s what im really getting stoked for, some nice mountains with cold fresh snow. well im on rio’s computer using his internet credit, so im going to get going. but things are still great over here in burleigh- sunny, 80’s and higher, warm water with some nice days of surf and of course the great skate parks. you know its a great day when you make a few stops at different skateparks. well ill try to get some photos up from today. well the photos got in, hope they work. there is a photo in there of jono throwing a double backflip off this bridge that we always cruise by and randomly jump off of. id say its about 20 feet or so. nice mellow height going on there.  and that park is a bit outside of burleigh, about 15 minutes and hasn’t been busy any of the times we’ve been there, pretty sweet aye? first time ive ever skated a full pipe before. a bit strange at first, since there isn’t any transition like ramps. fun stuff though, and you can get some great shots right when the sun is setting and hitting right through the pipe. we will try to get some more shots tomorrow or the next before i cruise off.  better get going, im reading the autobiography of malcolm x, kinda want to get back to it. well, can’t wait to see all of you folks sooner or later.

.B

jono throwing a double backfip off the good old bridge

skating the Elanora full pipe, man that park is fun and…. empty!

another wild ride in burleigh

so im back up in burleigh. its definitely been a pretty few crazy past 6 days and nights, thats for sure. just got back from a nice mellow swim in the ocean under the sunny sky throwing down some heavy drops of rain. such a great feeling of floating in the ocean. the water is pretty warm too and the air is about 85. pretty perfecto. we’ve all been getting up rather early, everyone works around 7, and somehow manage to get up around 6 or so. its pretty nice getting up all early- gives you a nice long day ahead of yourself. for instance, we woke up the other morning to go for a skate around 5:30- but the ground was wet, so we held off, the boys went to work and came back an hour later to pick me up. so i went to work with them for a bit-man those kids have such a mellow job. they are all surveyors and work for the same company and get to drive this wicked 4wheeling trucks all around some sights, taking measurements and jamming stakes into the ground. so we did that for a bit and then stopped by two parks on the way home, had some mellow skate sessions- no one at either park too. pretty awesome. there are so many parks around these areas as well, its grand. every town should have a skate park i reckon, good way to keep the kids off the streets and focused on something fun. but anyways yea we’ve just been doing heaps of skating here and there, had a halloween party where i was a hillbilly, some dude was dressed as a chick, good stuff. we also took a nice camping trip this past weekend, down to this small town of yamba. ate some of the best pizza ive ever had. the chefs really knew what they were doing- put some rosemary sprigs on the pizza- man it was tasty. and to finish up the great camping outing, on the way home we stopped by this skatepark that was right on the water looking out on this bridge and the bay- beautiful spot. real mellow bowls- fun to cruise around. but there was this real young kid- probably 9 or so and was just kiiiling it- i mean i dont think ive ever seen a better bowl rider than this kid and he was way young. we all stood there with our jaws dropped, wondering why we were even trying to skate after that. might as well just quite and move onto something like figure skating. ha.  but we had such and awesome skate session that day. there was barely anyone there and we skated until it just got too dark. gotta love days like that. aw its starting to rain again, pretty strange day so far rain, sun, rain, clouds. swimming in the rain is pretty fun though.  sorry, i must sound pretty scattered right now. im  just trying to do a few things at once here. making hash browns, talking on the phone, checking out the rain, reading a book. actually the book is a pretty good one. the autobiography of malcolm X. good stuff. i dont read much as most of you probably know, but when you find a good book, its kind of hard to put it down.  well im going to focus on one thing now, and thats eating my hashbrowns whilst they are still hot. but hope you’re all doing excellent. ill be home in 9 days i think it is. pretty stoked on that! alrighty, so long for now.

 .B