Back to Memphis after Denver, its all good...why are you sorry?

I tell people that I am back to the Memphis scene after returning from a week and a half long trip in Denver, where I hit sometimes three different skate parks in a day. A general reaction from some people have been , "Sorry you had to come back to Memphis."  Which I understand what they are saying, Denver has a whole lot more to offer than the city of Memphis, I do agree, to a certain extent. For me, at the level of skating that I am currently, Memphis and the surrounding areas are pretty good. Denver did raise the bar for me, I went to Denver with limited transition skating and left Denver with a whole new familiarity for many different varieties of curved concrete and a bit of metal. Seriously, Denver took my tranny skating to the next level, thank Ja. Memphis has what I need at the moment: my mini ramp, the Wood Bowl, Tobey Park, DIY, Little Rock, Oxford, Jackson MS, Louisville, St Louis, I don't know, Kona skate park is a 12 hr drive. Yeah, I know, its not like Denver where you can live in Arvada and have access to 6 kickass parks with in 15+ minutes from your living quarters. No Memphis is not ideal, you can't drive an hour west, catch a ski lift up 2500 feet and bomb down the mountain on your new Never Summer Snowboard, then do it again, true dat. But you can go skate with some cool ass people, drink Busch, listen to music and watch TV. Its just where I am at I guess in life at the moment. Ok, yes, if you gave me a free pass to Denver I would take it for sure but things are good in Memphis.

I returned home from Denver on Tuesday night after dealing with delays from the Airline. Never fly United, I know at least two other people that were delayed by that airline this week alone. Wednesday night I headed to Terry's, dropped in and got to know the bowl all because of skating in Denver. Before that night I had previously  stood over the threshold of skating Terry's and did not do it,  but this Wednesday night I had not problem with the attempt. It took me a while that night but I even got over my Sea-Legs as Jungle Jeff put it. Skating that bowl    makes me crazy. I don't know how may times I finished  several runs back to back and my lungs were burning from breathing so hard. My lungs would be burning, my back soar, my legs weakened but screw it, I am taking another run. Skate until you drop. The next day, as I drove to Little Rock, vivid memories of skating that night kept recurring to me over and over,  giving me as strong a feeling as if I had encountered some beautiful woman's lips, intoxicating.

I decided to stop off at Kanis on my way to Hot Springs that Thursday afternoon, maybe get a run in on the Bowl and hit some wall rides. Yeah, the bowl was flooded so I hit some wall rides and their quarter ramp until it started to rain. So I went to Hot Springs were their is nothing to skate but before  I did Kanis left me with a little present. There are several different variations on wall rides, so I decided to hit a jersey type barrier that went vertical. I get up to the run up thinking that it is a little concave, but it was not, it was convex. I hit the convex and was tossed off the board onto my knee. Any way.... So went to Hot Springs Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday.

I returned back to Little Rock Saturday afternoon,  thought I was going to check out En Joy skate shop and indoor complex. I went to the address listed, even called them on the phone and followed their directions but I could not find it. After  agonizing in my frustrations and yelling vulgarities to my self in the rear view mirror I decided to go back to Memphis and skate Terry's. So Terry's I skated, what a fun and mellow sesh, thanks to all those there. And to top it off, Ron M said they had problems finding En Joy as well, so it all worked out. Hello transitons.

I also visited Tobey Park: Almost done - Photos.

Late