The End, cheers for following

Ok so we never really finished off this blog with the rest of the trip, as we got home and back into our busy lives.

From San Fran we headed on down to LA. We rode Santa Monica skatepark Then headed on to stay at a hostel that looked out over Venice Beach (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=430951610996&set=a.427800525996.231902.509280996).
Next stop was San Diego. We headed down to Mexico, crossed the boarded and immediately felt like we were about to get mugged, so headed bk into America after quing for an hour n a half. We headed bk to into San Diego where Lex managed to polish off 2 foot long subs in 1 sitting, before getting back to the hostel and partying at some places with people from the hostel.

Next stop, Woodward West! We had Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning to ride, with the only other people there being a group of 5 skaters who wern't even there most of the time, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We had an amazing 2 days riding and definitely want to go back some day.

We planed to be at the Grand Canyon to watch the sunrise but went to the west end of it which is fully touristised so they don't let u near it unless u have payed lots of money. so we headed on towards Vegas, stopping to see the Hover Dam on the way.

From Tuesday to Friday we were booked into the Sahara, which also happened to have the cheapest roulette tables and drinks :). the first night we walked the whole length of the strip and were blown away with how over the top and ridiculous the place is!
Interbike was amazing, seeing all the new products for 2011 and meeting up with the Spank and Diamondback guys.
We rode Pro Park 1 evening. Its stupidly big, but then so was the height the locals were getting out of it!
On the last day of interbike we went to the Gun Store in the afternoon and Lex and I each fired a Desert Eagle, a Police Sniper, and an AK47. From there we went on to the invite only party at Diamondback/Raleigh were holding at Ceasers Palace. The food was amazing and the free bar was awesome, with no restrictions on sizes of drinks measures like we have in the UK!
We dropped Tim at the Airport and went to stay in a Hostel for the last 2 nights, going out with everyone from there to the club at the Luxor and the club at the top of Mandalay Bay, both of which were amazing but stupidly expensive for drinks.

Finally Monday morning came with the flight home. It was good to be getting back, but at the same time depressing to know that it was back to the usual work/uni.

All in all it was an amazing 8 weeks. We visited lots of amazing places, rode plenty of amazing spots, and met loads of amazing people!

Here are alot of our photos:
Tims album
Jamies Albums, West and East Washington to Florida Toronto
Lex's Albums 1 2 3


Thank you to everyone who let us stay with them, and everyone who helped us out at all!
And thanks to Diamondback and RHUK/Spank who provide us with bikes


So this is probably the end of this blog, cheers to everyone who has taken an interest in what we've been up to.

Jamie
Lex
Tim

I was going to try and do this next post with some video from Whistler in it, but my netbook just isnt powerfull enough to edit 720p video without taking ages to process everything, so all of the video will probably have to wait till we get back :(.
The blog is a couple of weeks behind now so heres an update from Milwaukee onwards.

We flew from Milwaukee to Denver to catch our connecting flight to Seattle on Tuesday (2nd) evening. After taking the literail into the center of Seattle we caught our bus to Vancover to meet the connecting bus to Whistler. The journey from Vancover to Whistler has absolutly stunning scenery (which we recoded on GoPro and will have as time lapse in the video).
After reaching the lodge in Whistler we descovered we were in the room next to Toff (Dan) and Ed from Bath, bit random as I didnt even know they were out there at the time.
For Thursday and Friday we rented DH bikes to ride the mountain, with Rob (friend of Lex's) guiding us for the first day. Those 2 days were some of the best I have ever spent on a bike, with ski lifts up all day so you spend more time riding than traveling back up the mountain!
Friday night was Ed's birthday so everyone went out for a heavy nights drinking.
Saturday we just hung about the lodge most of the day (as we were in so much pain from hanging onto the bars over the breaking bumps) and went to ride the Whistler jumps in the evening, only for it to start raining after my 3rd run through them :(.

Sunday we caught the bus early for the journey back to Seattle where we checked into a hostel and I went off to find Tim at a bar whilst Lex took the literail back the the airport to collect the car.
That night we went out into Seattle to some bar with people from the hostel. was bit random with the back room full of oldskool pinball machines. everyone else seemed to get quite drunk off about 2 beers leaving us as the only sober ones, and all the bars close at about 1:3o and nowhere even clubs are aloud to sell alcohol after 2 :S

next day we rode Colanade bike park, under the freeway in seattle. It's quite freeridey with north shore ladders etc, but was still fun. heres a pic from there

Tuesday we headed to the other side of the water to get the usual postcard picture of seattle.
We then drove down to Portland and met up with a friend of Tims and went out to a few bars with them. The local specialty at a shop called Voodoo dounughts is a Maple Bacon donught with Maple icing and bits of bacon ontop. It sounds wrong but was actualy really nice.
Wednesday morning we got up early to go and ride Burnside Skatepark (from Tony Hawks Pro Skater 1 & 3) and got in about an hours riding before the skaters turned up and told us to leave. It's an amazing park with so many different lines and nothing like anything i'v riden before. the next stop was Peir Park skatepark also in Portland. This is a Dreamands skatepark, its well set out and has a 22foot full pipe! we had a mess about in the pipe as it started raining and the rest of the park became slipery. got some good pics, the best being this one.

That night we drove down to a university town, Eugene, and went to a couple of bars there before carrying on our journey through the night to San Francisco. We stopped to sleep in the car for 3 hours as we were all too tired to drive for a bit, but made it to Lex's relatives house just outside San Francisco by 2pm on Thursday. Stuart (not sure what relation to lex, but the father of the family) took us on a bit of a sightseeing tour that afternoon to get good views of the Golden Gate Bridge and into town to Lombard street.
After a good nights sleep having driven all the night before, we woke up at 6:15 ready to go and race down lombard street. We got there for 7:30am and managed to get 5 races in before there were too many tourists and cars in the way. Heres a photo of the action.
We got some good helmet cam footage of the racing and I have done a rough dual view edit of 1 of the races (will do a proper 1 when im home and on the more powerful desktop) which I will upload when we are next on a good internet connection

Next morning we got some pictures with the bikes at the golden gate bridge before continuing on to Post Office trails at Aptos (which unfortunatly wern't really riding very well as all the locals have been away at other comps recently) and then onto Santa Barbra.

Next update coming from Lex...

Florida and new Rays Bike Park

Been a bit slack on updating this, didnt have any internet in Whistler so heres an update!

On monday we went to Wet 'n' Wild warterpark in Orlando. its ment to be the best one but tbh it was a bit small with only a few good slides.
We went to have a look at Vans skatepark in Orlando but bike night was Tuesday night so we decided to hang about for another day to ride it. spent a boring day doing laundary, then watced The Expendables to kill time till bike night. Vans skatepark is fairly sick, fully air conditioned in an indoor shopping mall so amazing to ride compaired to the 95degrees F outside! Rode for about 4 hours, left at 10 and drove halfway to Miami before finding a hotel.














Wendsday morning and we got to Miami Beach for about mid day. Such a nice beach and the water is as warm as being in a bath! Most people there seemed to be English or european, as the American holiday season is over. Checked into a Hostel on Miami beach and signed up for the club night they were heading too. Lex didn't get into the club, and after finding it was $20 (£14) for 2 beers I left to go to some other bars with Marta, a Polish girl who was also staying at the hostel.

Thursday we drove all the way down to Key West. Was a boring long drive and theres not much there, but we can now say we ahve been to the southern most point of the US. We drove all the way up therough the Everglades to Naples before checking into a hotel. unfortunatly we didnt see any Aligators, although I was sleeping for most of the drive.

We wanted to ride Naples skate park on Friday, but as with all the parks in Florida they are not just open access like public parks in the UK. Naples park was fenced off with access to the park through the community center and when we tryed to go in we were told that it was a Skate day an no bikes till Sunday, even though there was only one kid in there on a skateboard. So frustrating as it looks like the most amazing park ever!

We headed on up to Tampa to stay with Kate (former PHd student of my dads) who had just moved into an amazing new appartment overlooking the sea in a gated community.
We headed down to 4F Bike park in Bradenton, FL, on Saturday. It's a fun indoor park with some cool features that is about 6 months old. All the locals there are really cool meaning that the atmosphere makes it a really enjoyable place to ride. no pics of this but got some good gopro footage which will go in the video when i eventually finish editing it!
That evening we headed out in Tampa n had quite a good night although I got a bit too drunk towards the end :S.

Sunday was the flight to Milwaukee to meet up with Joe again. We spent Monday and Tuesday getting a sneak preview and ride of the new Rays Bike Park which opens there in November. Trek are keeping it all under wraps until opening and so we couldn't take any photos or video. Although it's not finished it is looking absolutly amazing and the stuff we did ride was the best wooden features I have ever riden. I'v already had a look at plane tickts to maybe go and spend a few days riding it in January after my exams if anyone wants to come?

Timmy says word!

hey. iv just joined up with these slackers in Seattle.

they havnt updated this blog much of recently mainly because they havnt taken many photos. well other than the ones of lex in the gay bars.

heres a pretty photo of a building in Seattle.........






thats the last boring photo i will post i promise............LOADS of riding shots to follow in the coming days. if im ever sober enough to hold my camerea!


peace n love

Tim xx

A flipping post at last!

Ha, finally remembered my login details for this thing so i can post :)

Alot has happened since the last post so i'll fill you in quick as i can....

Charm City skate park in Baltimore is quality, dead skater but still good fun. I couldnt manual or bunny hop which sucks but the shoulder is getting better. Last few nights were wicked with Jenn & Co. Good times bowling and pub'ing. Shout out to everyone we met out there - appart from the dickhead cops, turns out pushing them isn't a great idea.

Washington was awsome to see, but VERY hot! could have sat in a sauna to cool down! Saw all the sights etc... Oh and dont bother with the Pentagon - you can only see three sides and can't take any pictures....so here's a picture :)















En route from Washington to Savannah we stopped at a motel in an Epic storm! lightening and thunder everywhere! we have some video which we'll post up. Got to Savannah the next day. It's a really nice place, not much going on at night but we met some cool peeps. It was funny getting turned away from a Bristish pub because we had British ID! shout out to Faith selling the Hot Dogs till 4am, the Atlanta crew and Denver from Denver.

We decided to de-tour to Atlanta the next night. Stayed down town with some cool views out the window. Headed to an area called Buckhead that night. Was a wicked night, played loads of pool (Jay won) and drank the bar out of Cider. Jay wasn't feeling to good (lack of food and overload of alcohol) so we made it an early night at about 1.30am.

Next day it was time to head to St Augustine - our first stop in Florida. En route we ate at the best Hooters in the country! got a t-shirt signed by all the girls and loads of pics.... big up all the Hooters girls, especially Krystal, my future wife lol. Hooters pics....










St Augustine is great for history and arty shit (Mum you would love it). Stayed at an awsome Hostel run by a really cool dude. Went out that night, had a look around the town and hit the bar with no name (actually has no name lol). Was looking like a pretty boring night until we met loads of ace people from Georgia who made us say different words all night hah. Shout out to Holly, Kelly, Rachel and the rest of the Georgia crew.

Today (Aug 22nd) we headed to a local St Augustine skate park, but it was skate only - a real shame as it looked amazing! Sooo it was Daytona beach time. Fully awsome beach, real warm and lush. Quite funny when these massive Pelican's fly just over your head whilst swimming.








In an Orlando hotel right now getting ready to get sum grub. Off to theme/water parks tomorrow and a skate park or two. Can't wait!!!

Quote of the week: "lifes like a box of chocolates" (we forced some of the Georgia girls to say that with their southern accents)

Joke of the week: Lady Ga Ga has been asked why she uses that name instead of her own.

Apparently, 'Geoff' doesn't have the same ring

Rays bike park and Baltimore

We spent 3 days in Cleveland riding Rays Bike Park a bit each day. It’s the most amazing place I’ve ever been, so much stuff there and such a big place. Had some good sesh’s there in the rhythm room, the dirt room, and on the resi as a lot of the rest of the park isn’t rideable as its being worked on atm. On Wednesday Lex over jumped a hip in the rhythm room and hit the wall quite hard with his shoulder still can’t ride.

We spent an afternoon street riding in Akron too, its a university town with so much good stuff to ride! video of this coming.

Wednesday night we left Cleveland at 9pm and drove through the night and arrived at New York at 8:30 in the morning after a few stops. We parked in Jersey City and took the ferry across to Manhattan. We walked up to central park the all the way down Broadway through Times square, down past the empire state building and on to Ground Zero and Wall Street before taking the ferry back to the car park from there. After finding a Hotel and having a power nap we got a taxi down to Jesse’s house (a guy we met at the hostel in Toronto) and had a few drinks there before heading out in Hoboken, Jersey City. Things seemed to be ending quite early there quite early so we took the Subway over to Manhattan and found a bar there which was open till 4.

New York Photos

Friday we drove to Baltimore, stopping at a MASSIVE shopping mall and bought a few things, arriving in Baltimore in the early evening. On Saturday we went to a house party (the guy whos house it is works for Monster Energy and had fidge loads of every type of Monster there is) and then went into town to Angels Rock Bar.

Going to check out a local indoor park in Baltimore today as Lex recons his shoulder is ok to ride with again now after hitting the wall at Ray's.

The Internet isn't great here so I will upload more photos to Facebook another time. I will also put together a short riding video edit as we got some good footage of Rays and street riding in Akron on the GoPros.

Toronto

We have just had an amazing few days in Toronto. On Wednesday we Spent the day at Joyride 150, its a sick indoor park with everything from North Shore, Jump boxes, Park, Resie and foam, and even an indoor XC loop. After a good days riding there and after cleaning up at the hotel we drove into Downtown Toronto and got the bikes out to and had a look about. We randomly bumped into some street riders there who showed us a few cool spots and gave us the intersections to put into the GPS to find all the good parks.

So on Thursday (Lex's Bday) we started at Markham's outdoor concrete park on the outskirts of Toronto.







We then moved on to Vanderhoof which is an old concrete bowl with a massive cradle! the coping was huge on the bowel which made it quite hard to ride so we didn't stay too long.






Having looked online we had seen that there was quite a popular backpackers hostel in the Entertainment district in Downtown Toronto. This turned out to be about the same price as the hotel we had been in further out in Markham so we booked in for 2 nights.



After checking in we went to find a wooden skatepark that the street riders the night before had told us was quite ghetto. This turned out to be 1 of the best parks I have ever riden! yes the ramps were fairly haggered, but the angles on all the quarters, spines, volcano's, jump box, etc were perfect!












The locals there are amazing riders and really sound people too. We met a Plain Lazy team rider called Lee from Camborne, Cornwall (small world), and a local called Ian who was going super massive on everything. They told us about 2 more parks worth visiting just outside Toronto on our way back to the US.

We found somewhere to buy beer (everywhere is the equivalent to £1.50 a can here!) and headed back to the hostel where we met a few people from different places. The Hostel had a night out planned to the club where we had guestlist for Lex's bday anyway so we went along with them. It was a rubbish club so we left after 1 drink and wandered around a few bars with a couple of Canadian girls we met. Most places wouldn't let us in because we wernt wearing shirt and shoes (on a Thursday night :s). We ended up in a Chinese Restaurant at 3:30 in the morning eating the worst sweet n sour chicken balls ever, before heading back to the hostel.

On Friday (feeling quite hungover) we wandered down to the CN tower and lake Ontario then back into town.





In the afternoon we went for another sesh at the wooden park and then went to some local street spots with Ian.
Friday night ended up being quite a laugh. we started off drinking at the hostel again with Jesse, a guy from Jersey City, and a German, Sebastian. We headed out to a bar with them where an Australian girl came up to us before we had a chance to get a drink n told us we should go to a bar called Madison with them, so we all jumped in taxis and went. Everyone got very drunk and had a good night.

Saturday We hit 2 more parks on our way back to the US.
The first was Icelands, a 10 year old concrete park with a lovely flowey street section and nice bowel with perfect quarters and a cool hip.












The second park is called Shell Park. Its a very old park with some amazing lines, but having just had lunch we were both feeling too full and hungover to do much there and didn't get any photos.

The drive back to Cleveland took about 5 hours with having to go through boarder control, but we eventually made it back, and went to Paninis bar for some food which was quite entertaining as the waitress struggled to understand us.

I will put up more Photos and all the riding photos in an album (probably a publicly viewable one on facebook) at some point!

Going to ride some street in Akron today then Ray's bike park for the next few days!