Starting with the usual breakfast appointment at Krazy Horse Customs, Harley & I met the rest of the crew at a service station on the A14, collected Charles and got on the way to Leyton.
Harley & Sam had skated a spot outside the tube station and found a load of spots around what is now called the East Village area surrounding the London 2012 Olympic village last week (Stratford, basically). So this week, we visited on mass.
Getting to the spot was easy for some and a little more challenging for others. Parking was easy for all. And after greeting Dan's car full we headed out into the streets of North London.
Skating the streets between spots was something I used to enjoy nearly as much as skating the spots themselves, but with a camera bag each, Dan & I both find it a challenge and have both taken heavy slams when carrying cameras recently. But it is still fun to weave and carve the pavements and streets with a large group. I suppose it must be a little intimidating as a pedestrian to be faced with eight or nine adult skaters hacking confidently towards you, popping up & down curbs and shouting between themselves over the noise of 30 odd urethane cylinders rolling on paving slabs with seemingly no intention of avoiding other road users.
We took a look at the station spot, which was very busy with shoppers and decided to move on and return with warmer legs.
Moving down towards East Village we stopped at a new play area under construction to skate the repetitive concrete waves at one end. It was covered in broken glass and we were busted in 10 minutes. Onward.
The Wallie Spot was next. Jasper put down a banging line on tape before being given the usual excuses by two security guards. At this point, Sam, Radman and Leo Sharp joined us. We headed back to the tube station to skate the rail/bank in the last of the natural light. While Leo shot Radman, I took the opportunity to get a pic of Sam further down the spot, well out of shot and Harley got a gnarly trick on tape. I helped Radman climb on top of a covered bike rack to get the second angle.
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| Sam Hayter - f/s tailslide round the tree |
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| Fuller - wallie one foot |
As we did so, Fuller & I discussed the inevitability of being hassled by guards at every turn on this site and indeed, the remaining time at other spots on the olympic site we were accompanied by the same two fellas in hi-vis, threatening that police had been called.
We continued to film for the next hour with no sign of the FEDs and with the tricks in the bank Radman showed us a pavement to road gap back towards Leyton. At last our shadows were gone, replaced by a periodically very busy junction on a pretty blind bend.
With Harley spotting, standing in the middle of the road signalling a good gap in traffic a number of people shouted encouragement from their car windows as they passed and twice, slams resulted in boards shooting under moving cars.
Lighting this spot for photos was not easy and I eventually gave up trying to avoid flashes in frames.
I got some nice long and close shots of Sam before we headed back to the cars.
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| Sam Hayter - f/s shovit |
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