Day 17. Bar 25 with Darryl Nau..

Woke up around 11 after some wacky dreams (must have been that pizza in the wee hours) and headed down to the breakfast bar before killing an hour on the internet. Wally still wasn’t up so I took a stroll up to the Volkspark at the top of Friedrichshain. It’s absolutely stifling today so much so that the sweat is dripping off me even when I’m sitting still; riding is out of the question! Wally eventually joined me and we spent the afternoon lazing around in the park watching Hare Krishna’s dance about.
That evening we had planned to meet up with Ross who was going to accompany us to Bar 25 which was notoriously difficult to get into but when I text him he was already there from the night before so we got ready and headed down. Thankfully we got in no problem. Bar 25 is nuts, like some sort of set from Mad Max or some shit.


Once inside I felt completely overdressed (jeans & T Shirt) and completely sober. Let’s just say there were a few characters kicking about who were thinking outside the box when they got dressed that day (or the day before judging by how wrecked most of the punters were!). It was clear we had some catching up to do when we saw Ross who had already been out for 24 hours. We pounded the ales and whatever else we could get out hands on so we could all be on the same page. Darryl Nau shows up and immediately starts getting loose, lifting Wally up and taking photos of everyone in the Bar claiming to be from Bar 25’s website.

"Pretend we're on a roller coaster!! YYYEEAAAAHH!!"

We met Darryl’s girlfriend and friends from NYC who were in town, including his friend Timmy who is good friends with Dave Young. I think Dave Young might have got a strange voice mail at some point during the night, fuck knows what he must have thought!
Everyone got loose for a while and things got a little bit hazy, Wally backflipped into the river and made a few new friends in the river and I think I left at about 8am, ended up walking back and it took slightly longer than it did when I was sober..

Get Xtreme, rad, amped, pumped etc

From the BBC news website:

'Extreme sports in Tynemouth

Xperience 08 is a new extreme sports festival on Tyneside. This October you can try your hand at surfing, BMXing or skateboarding right by the beach.
Lovers of surfing, snowboarding and stunt riding have a lot to look forward to this autumn.
Xperience 08 is a new extreme sports festival for the north-east of England and it's being held in Tynemouth on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 October 2008.

Some of the best skaters, boarders and BMX-ers in the business will be showing off their skills to spectators and running coaching sessions for anyone who fancies having a go themselves.
Team Extreme pro-riders, skateboarders and in-line skaters will be performing in a massive big top on Beaconsfield (the grassy area by the Blue Reef Aquarium), where there will be a skatepark and vertical halfpipe.
Outside, fans of snowboarding can watch experienced boarders catching air on a special snow quarter pipe.
Surf competition
Meanwhile, down on Longsands, some of the UK's top surfers will be competing in the North East Open.

The competition is part of the BPSA UK Pro Surf Tour and the first leg in the Quiksilver UKPST Triple Crown (the other legs are in Scotland and Ireland).
Tynemouth's very own Sam Lamiroy, who won the tour in 2007, will be in the water in his bid to retain the title.
There will be lots of opportunities to "xperience" all the sports first hand for anyone inspired by all the talent on show.
Throughout the weekend there will be surfing taster sessions, skate and BMX workshops and the chance to go snow tubing on real snow just a few metres from the beach!
Performances by local bands and DJs will add to the laid-back vibe over the two days.'

The website for the event is crap and has no updates. Hope the course is good though and the party at the Park Hotel afterwards is usually canny..

Primo: Nice Try promo

NICE TRY promo2 from PRIMO on Vimeo.
This video is made by Glen PP Milligan, is gonna have sections from Stricker, Kurtis Elwell and Brian Foster amougst others so it will probably be pretty good. Release date March '09..

Early bird Saturday session..

Got up early to try and beat the crowds down at the park, got down there at about 8.15am and there was still a few kids there on Spider Man bikes and micro scooters. It was also pretty wet which was a bit of a gutter, even after we swept the whole park to get rid of the puddles it didn't dry up until about midday. Me, Sean and Wally had a good session though and it didn't get too busy until about 2pm when we were all done in. Wally done himself a mischief with an invert over the hip getting his bars caught in his t-shirt and taking a digger to the shoulder. He was down for a while and got a few grazes but luckily nothing was broken. Chilling this afternoon preparing for the Charlie Don't Surf premier tonight, get yersel down man.

Charlie Don't Surf Premier this Saturday night..

<Newrick's Newcastle scene report video premiers this Saturday at Moot or Kings Manor or whatever its called now. Kicks off at 10, be there!

random photos found on Google of Nezza..

The pool

If you ever go to Berlin to ride (you should) you could do a lot worse than stay at Tentstation. The campsite is about 5 minutes walk from the main train station and is nestled in one of Berlin's many leafy parks. The campsite is laid back with a bar and the usual campsite things such as BBQ's and shady communal showers but this gem has an empty swimming pool that you can ride. The pool isn't transitioned but has nice flat banks with a wallride/sub at the top.  The good folks at Tentstation will even drain it for you if it has been raining! Those friendly Germans.

Cramlington Concrete *updated

Not sure how this went under the radar, only heard about it yesterday. The park looks pretty impressive, quite skate orientated and with some interesting and unique obstacles. No word on an opening day yet but security doesn't look too bad..

*updated

Rode the park on Sunday (05/10/08) and the park is much smaller than it looks on these photos, that nipple thing for example is about 2.5 ft high.. However the park is really fun if you can actually get a run in amonst the inbred Cramlington inhabitants, the bowl is really nice about 5.5ft high with a nice hip and sub. The park opens tomorrow 08/10/08 so hopefully the park will have been sparayed and ready for the opening (it was really dusty on Sunday).

Get well soon to the rider from Cramlington who snapped his collarbone in the bowl :-(