Gabe & Diana got re-engaged.

Just kidding...my sk8dog Kerry Getz did though.

Kerry Getz Engaged

But you see what I mean.

MY DSM BLOG IS FAIL CITY....SO SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEW ONE!

But since nobody ever checks this one...you'll never know...but anyway...click this: http://gabusface.blogspot.com/

Tyler Bledsoe = PROFESIONAL

SO GOOD HE IS

WAY TO GO

DVS - MATIX demo in KC?

Anybody going to this next Tuesday?

GO SKATEBOARDING DAY - 2010

Yup...I missed it again. I wanted to make it out to Walker Johnston last night to relish in the festivities...but it took me forever to lock down this HAMMER at Nolan Plaza.

Anybody Else Hyped for Tomorrow?

PLAN B UNITED NATIONS

THE BERRICS

04.30.10

http://theberrics.com/index.html

PROGRESSION

pro·gres·sion

   [pruh-gresh-uhn] 

1.

the act of progressing; forward or onward movement.

...pretty-much sums up how Andy and Spencer continue to tear it up out West.

CARLSBAD

Anybody Scope this Am Contest Last Weekend?

http://skateboarding.transworld.net/1000106076/videos/last-times-at-carlsbad-high-walkthrough/

http://skateboarding.transworld.net/1000106090/features/last-times-at-carlsbad-high-video/

Carlsbad has been a very historic spot for many years...gonna be sad to see it go.

I remember, back in the day, watching video parts with pros like Jeremy Wray, Tom Penny, Rob Dyrdek, Kris Markovich, Josh Kasper, etc. shred this epic spot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz_c_p-0mgQ

Good Friday

Thank You Jesus.

John 19

Jesus Sentenced to Death

 ¹ Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. ² The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. ³ “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped him across the face. ⁴ Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.” ⁵ Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Look, here is the man!”
 ⁶ When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
   “Take him yourselves and crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”
 ⁷ The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”
 ⁸ When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. ⁹ He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer. ¹⁰ “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”
 ¹¹ Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”
 ¹² Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’ Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”
 ¹³ When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement. ¹⁴ It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your king!”
 ¹⁵ “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”
   “What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
   “We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.
 ¹⁶ Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.

The Crucifixion

   So they took Jesus away. ¹⁷ Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull. ¹⁸ There they nailed him to the cross. Two others were crucified with him, one on either side, with Jesus between them. ¹⁹ And Pilate posted a sign over him that read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” ²⁰ The place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek, so that many people could read it. ²¹ Then the leading priests objected and said to Pilate, “Change it from ‘The King of the Jews’ to ‘He said, I am King of the Jews.’”
 ²² Pilate replied, “No, what I have written, I have written.”
 ²³ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. ²⁴ So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.” So that is what they did.
 ²⁵ Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” ²⁷ And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from then on this disciple took her into his home.

The Death of Jesus

 ²⁸ Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am thirsty.” ²⁹ A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. ³⁰ When Jesus had tasted it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit. ³¹ It was the day of preparation, and the Jewish leaders didn’t want the bodies hanging there the next day, which was the Sabbath (and a very special Sabbath, because it was the Passover). So they asked Pilate to hasten their deaths by ordering that their legs be broken. Then their bodies could be taken down. ³² So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus. ³³ But when they came to Jesus, they saw that he was already dead, so they didn’t break his legs. ³⁴ One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out. ³⁵ (This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also can believe.) ³⁶ These things happened in fulfillment of the Scriptures that say, “Not one of his bones will be broken,” ³⁷ and “They will look on the one they pierced.”

The Burial of Jesus

 ³⁸ Afterward Joseph of Arimathea, who had been a secret disciple of Jesus (because he feared the Jewish leaders), asked Pilate for permission to take down Jesus’ body. When Pilate gave permission, Joseph came and took the body away. ³⁹ With him came Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus at night. He brought seventy-five pounds of perfumed ointment made from myrrh and aloes. ⁴⁰ Following Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets of linen cloth. ⁴¹ The place of crucifixion was near a garden, where there was a new tomb, never used before. ⁴² And so, because it was the day of preparation for the Jewish Passover and since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.

Why you haven't seen me around for the past couple weeks or so....

I'm pretty sure it happened while in New York, (Brooklyn to be specific) a little over a month ago.

Here's the low-down: Andrew Pratt and I were skating the KCDC mini-ramp.  Because it's extremely difficult for me to turn down a skate session...I had to borrow Andrew's board, which turned out to be a bad idea.  He was riding an 8in wide deck, (I've been riding a 7.78 since like 1997), tight trucks & like 58mm wheels.  To me...this setup was a bit difficult to manipulate...but I was able to man-handle the beastly board around to an extent that supplied me with some pleasurable skateboarding time.  We skated a good forty five minutes to an hour before I took a tumble from the coping to the flat bottom.  It's funny how sometimes the simplest of tricks can really turn on you.  If any of you have skated a mini with me...you can probably call me out on the first trick I do to start out a run, (backside 5-0/salad/pivot thingy).  Well...that trick on an unfamiliar wooden stick with wheels turned on me like your lovable pet dog Scrappy McTurdzy with rabies this day, (well...not that bad)...but you get the idea.  Exiting the grinder rail skid my front foot rolled off the front of the board and I plummeted to the flat bottom.  Judging by Andrew's reaction...I must have slammed pretty hard but it ain't no thang I thought.  I hopped back up on the deck and gracefully handed him his board back for his turn, (yeah...we probably looked pretty gay sharing a board in a Brooklyn skate shop, but that's beside the point).  We continued to skate the ramp for maybe another twenty minutes or so then toured the shop and chatted it up with the fellas workin' the shop, (READ MY LAST BLOG SLACKERS!)

Flash forward to later that night.  Diana and I went walking around the NYC with one of her blogger friends and it wasn't until I first sat down at this fancy little Tapas bar/restaurant that I felt the squeeze on my knee/hamstring/leg.  At first I shrugged it off thinking oh...it's just inflamed from all the walking I've been doing the past couple days so I thought nothing of it.  We ended up walking around quite a bit more that night and even caught a glimpse of some local NYC skaters shreddin' it up at Washington Square Park.

Washington Square Park

The next morning I woke-up with a giant swollen knee...but strangely enough...felt no pain.  The swelling was enough that I couldn't squat down to the ground like if you are to poop in a hole in the woods that you dug with a collapsible shovel.  However...this being Diana and I's main vacation/tourist day together...I didn't feel the need to rest my leg and continued on about the day.  I  managed to trudge through the NYC streets with only mild discomfort, (did I mention this was the day of the NYC blizzard?)....yeah...I didn't believe the news reporters until we were actually out and about that day...walking about 40-60 blocks with tons of snow raining down.  It was crazy.

The start of our day.

Time Square was about 20 blocks from our hotel.

See...I told you...BLIZZARD in NYC.

So anyways...back to the reason I haven't been at the rink the past couple weeks.  The past few weeks or so I've had some discomfort in my upper leg/hamstring area.  I first noticed when I returned home and went to the rink, (Skate South...for my global followers) that my knee and leg didn't feel as strong as it was suppose to. Another thing was when I'd be coming up to the flat bar or box...there would be a tightening or sharp pain in the tendons behind my knee, (Carl witnessed this first hand one night) as it appeared my knee just gave out on me while approaching the box in a crouched/pre-launch position.  There is also a discomfort that bothers me while sitting down like at my office desk chair or in the car.  As much as I didn't want to...I visited the doctor a week later, (last Tuesday, March 9th).  He really couldn't diagnose me too completely without having an MRI done on my knee/leg so at this point he has me just doing some simple leg excersizes for the next two - three weeks to try and get the strength back in my right leg.  He also recommended, (I saw it coming) to take it easy on the skateboarding for a while if I want it to heal properly.  Being that nice weather is near...and how much I like to be active in the Spring/Summer season...I figured I'd take his advice.  Come to think of it...I've never really had an injury keeping me off my board in the fourteen years I've been skateboarding.

If you're not familiar...here are some sample pix of the ham string muscles and tendons.

LOL...Just Kiddin'

Here ya go.

HAHAHAHA...What are you staring at?

Serious Business

In conclusion...I hope and pray that this is nothing serious so that I can be back on my board ASAP.

Thank You & God Bless.

NYC

Because my wife is awesome at everything she does...last week she was awarded a short trip to New York for a special event with Kelly Ripa and some famous cake dude boss guy to help raise some skrilla for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund http://www.ocrf.org/

Being it her first time in NYC...I decided to tag along to offer some of my super fresh body guard skillz.

We stayed in a fancy nancy hotel located in the southern region of Manhattan...it was pretty trick...they had music playing for us when we checked into the room and stuff like that. It even had a little balcony thingy with a door so I could step out and snap some photos. Here is an example.

Since Diana had some home-girlz to build cakes with on Tuesday...I had to find a gig that would tide me over for a few hours. Luckily, an old friend who goes by the name Andrew Pratt had recently moved to the city and it just so happened that he wanted to hook up and take me out and show me around a bit. A week prior...he actually stumbled upon this rad little skate shop across the river in Brooklyn, you might have heard of it before, (KCDC) http://kcdcskateshop.com/ ....he said it had a mini ramp that was similar to the Junction ramp so I figured it was worth the trip.

Overall...the shop was pretty chill and the three dudes workin' it were super cool too. After seshin' out on the ramp for a while...Andrew and I chatted with one of the fellas for probably 45 minutes or so about local sk8 spots. He was a Brooklyn native so he sounded real genuine as he offered-up geographical sk8 scene info and handed out verbal invites to Andrew to kinda welcome him into the NYC sk8board community. They had a meaty variety of shop t-shirts with designs done by local artists and what not. In order to pay my respects to the generous hospitality...I purchased this one...it fits like a glove.

Diana and I are very excited about returning to the big apple in the future...and I'm pretty sure it would indeed make a great sk8board trip with the homies as well.

Thank You & God Bless

SNOW GOT YOU DOWN?

Don't let it bother you...go get one of these: http://www.ambitionsnowskates.com/

I kinda want one. Anybody here in DSM have one? They like it?

Watch the videos...I was amazed at how much pop and the amount of flip/rail tricks are feasible on these creations.

Post your thoughts please.