Hey all, here is my recounting of the Nova Scotia part of the recent Skull Skates Tour. Good times even with the wet weather on Friday.

Brent Jordan was supposed to get in Thursday afternoon, which would have made for a good warm-up session on Thursday evening at the Commons, but his flight got messed up. Eventually I got a call from Brent around 9:30pm while still at the park. Brent had just landed. He quickly hoped at shuttle downtown. Dale Hussey, Brent and I then went for pizza & beers. Brent was staying with me, so we headed home for the night. In the morning it looked like rain… I had to work, but went in way late so I could take Brent by the Fall River park. We skated for only about 30 minutes when it started to sprinkle. In this time Brent slammed once sliding out and once trying to jump up the sitting ledges on the way to the bathroom! After that I dropped Brent off at Uptown and headed into work about 3 hours late… oops!

After work I hooked up with Brent and the others at Uptown. Donairs were on the menu for supper. Brent as usual (like his California burritos) kept a partly eaten donair in his hoodie most of the evening. Since it was raining, we all head down to the Fist Fulla Fives indoor mini-mini. Drinking and skating ensued.

Mike McKinlay – Smith grinding

Barry Walsh – Big ollie frontside air on the little ramp

Dave Hung – Stylin’ frontside hurricane r’n'r.

Barry Walsh – Backside air – using his Big-O skills

After a few hours of skating and drinking we decided to head out on the town. Tribeca was our destination. Nacho gave an account of that, so I won’t go into much detail. Bill Danforth was chatting up a few young ladies… have some funny pics on my cell phone of that. I was driving and took it easy, but most of the Skull guys had their drink on. A bunch of them wanted to meet the Trailer Parks Boys, so about half the group took off to Bubbles. When Tribeca closed we went and found the others and Barry W, Marc T, Bill D, Ri and Brent headed back to my place to chill in the hot tub before sleeping. Ri enjoyed my collection of classic arcade games and was still playing Ms. Pacman at 4:30am. Around then we all passed out… well Bill Danforth had passed out hours earlier but Brent got him to move… somehow he ended up waking up under the pool table in the morning.

We got up around noon… had a big breakfast and checked the weather. It looked daunting, but Steve Hare called from Chester saying the park was dry… so we headed out. A few sprinkles on the drive down, but Mother Nature co-operated and the park stayed dry from till 5pm or so when we left for La Have/Homegrown.

Brent Jordan – Tuck-knee invert

Barry Walsh – Big backside ollie

Ri – Frontside air

Barry Walsh – Can ollie higher than you!

Brent Jordan – Frontside poop air

Barry Walsh – From another angle

Ri – Smith grinding over the loveseat

Bill, Bruce and doggie chillin’

Mike McKinlay – Backside boneless on the taco

Five cars loaded of people set out from Chester to La Have. Stopped in Lunenburg to get beer and bbq stuff then raced to catch the cable ferry over to the Homegrown shack. A few hours of chillin’ and bbqin’ ensued before most everyone headed up to the ramp. Not sure how long we skated, but when Dale Hussey showed up it was around midnight and people were probably skating till 2am or so… Including a quite tipsy Clancy that was funny to watch! Brent Jordan decided to stick to drinking and playing guitar… even played an old Grave Concern tune. Clancy or Michel was on the drums most of the night. Lots of drinking was going on all night both inside and out by the water… I’ll let the pics tell the rest.

Mike McKinlay – Big melon to fakie.

Party goers watching the action – Not sure who the dude in the green was, but man was he annoying when he got drunker as the night went on!

Dave – a.k.a. Horse Man out in the parking lot

Brent and Justin getting their drink on!

Not sure what the deal was here

DMODW and Horse Man

Dale Hussey – Late night Texas plant

Skull Skates road trip crew

Skull Skates team riders – From left, Marc Tison, Barry Walsh, Bill Danforth, Mike McKinlay, and Brent Jordan

Bill Danforth was stoked on finding a mini of his old Pro model

Eventually the drinking slowed down…. Probably because all the beer was gone. People started to crash around 4am…. It was getting light out as I went to sleep in the back of my car.

Sunday was a sun day. Woke to perfect blue skies. We all chilled around the bakery and had breakfast. Eventually around noon we headed back into Halifax to skate the Commons park. Around 2pm most of us skated the bowls at the Commons while a few hit the street area. It was super sunny and difficult to see in the freshly painted Big Blue Bowl but people managed as you can see below!

Brent Jordan – Big frontside air in our little 9ft bowl

Jon Swinamer – Representing with a nice smith grind.

Zack – Corner double truck carve grind

Brent Jordan – grunting through another nice FS air.

Ri – with his signature Smith grind

DMODW – skating the haggard old street area

Justin – sliding safely through a tail slide – nice helmet!

Around 5pm everyone was beat from the sunshine and previous night(s) drinking. We headed to Uptown and then to get some grub before the bulk of the Skull guys had to start their journey back to Montreal. Ri got to work an hour late on Monday morning…. Not bad for leaving Halifax around 8pm. Brent Jordan was flying to T.O. the next day, so we checked out an art show and then formed a new band.

“The Geriatrics “ – Jon, Greg, Brent and Rob (not pictured)

The Skull guys were stoked on the trip and talked of coming back for a vacation asap. Good times!