Barn con't....

A Canadian winter is not only long and harsh, it comes with a side of creativity. Canadian skaters have to become "artists" and either find odd spots to skate, or simply make something out of nothing. Phil's barn is a castle of creativity. Wood, metal, screws, and a brain has created this place for Niagara skaters to continue on through out the winter and progress at their on will. Cory, Dyllan, Phil, myself, as well as a few others have been making visits to this barn over the winter and learning new tricks on the regular. This is a few from our recent trip.


Cory warming up with a back smith

Phill stickin' a front crook on his own funbox

Dyllan gettin techy with some lipslides to tail slides. Dyllan killed it this day!

Winter has arrived

Now that the snow and cold weather has arrived, many of us do the whole hibernation thing. Indoor skateparks, garages, even basements if we can. Luckily for us here in the Falls, a good friend, Phil has put together a small indoor skatepark (which is still under construction, but will be done soon). We were able to session it today and I decided to bring my gear to shoot some photos. It was something I needed since I haven't shot much in a little while. More photos will be posted later on the Barn's website, but this is one I decided to keep to show you a small preview of what's to come.

lawn ramps

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have barely been shooting and haven't really had anything to update with. Anyways, an old friend, Jake Antonio, recently bought a house, and has decided to build a mini ramp in his back yard. It's super fun. You can't tell by the photos, but it's got a fairly tight tranny that isn't as smooth as it looks either. It's still a super fun ramp to be on. I decided to shoot some stuff tonight, and as luck may it, I even got a photo!






Here is a second angle of my blunt fakie.

Vancouver snaps

Here are some of the photos I shot while I stayed in Vancouver. Nothing skate wise, but all tourist and wandering around type photos. They include mine and Cory's all day bike ride around the Sea Wall, to skating around the city. Enjoy!

GO BUY SHIT!

They are moving out. New plaza, new opportunities. Skaters hate luggin shit, so they have decided to sell the shit. Go buy dat shit!

Final Day In Vancouver

Today is my final day out here in beautiful Vancouver, B.C. It's rainy, cold, dreary and down right dull. Perfect day for a blog post! Yesterday was so fun though! Cory and I did the bike ride tour of the city. Hitting up the whole city. East, West, North, and South. We took a trip along the seawall and biked around the whole thing. The city is absolutely gorgeous and it's a shame I have to leave. I have a ton of photos that need to be uploaded and posted on here, so expect a big update in a few days.


The view from the Seawall of downtown Vancouver. This was only 1/8 into our bike ride and we were already about a half hour in. Beers after that ride were a perfect way to end it!

Vancouver Continued....

The last few days have been great! Great weather, great times, great people, and above all, great skating! Cory and I took a trip to Ultimate Dist. and scoped out where Concrete Skateboarding Magazine is made. It's a tight ship and everyone is super chill. Brian Caissie was out of the office, so we were unable to see the photos he shot in Seattle, but he is a busy dude. After getting some product, and taking the dime tour of the warehouse, Cory and I returned home. I headed over to Mike Graveline's house where we hit up a bank spot in which he destroyed! The next day, we hit up Hastings, as well as Lee Side. Hastings is gnarly. Lee Side....is gnarly. Here are some shots from the last few days for your enjoyment.


Shot this picture of Cory while waiting for the Sky Train to take us to Richmond

Cory poses for a quick portrait in Ultimate's deck warehouse. Definitely a sick room to be in!

Cory has been resting his leg lately, here he is in a zen moment.

Here is a shot of Mike doing a bluntslide revert. This is only 1 of MANY tricks to be thrown down on this spot by Gravey.

Mike walkin back up the hill after landing another trick and scopin the footy that American Dave captured.

This is the view of the mountains driving home from spot to spot. Love it!

Gravely pullin a huge blunt fakie. To what most don't realize, is that he is stalling on the corner of the bowl. VERY small!

Vancouver/Seattle trip

I know I haven't updated this in a long time, and my apologies. Ok, this is a good one though since I am currently staying at my friend Cory's house in the heart of east Vancouver. The day I arrived, Cory surprised me with a trip to Seattle with the Kitsch skateboard dudes and photographer (and personal idol) Brian Caissie. The trip was for 3 days of straight skating and no demos. Some guys from Seattle showed us around. Josh Andreson, and Joe (forgot your last name buddy). Both dudes ripped. Thanks guys, definitely had a fun trip. Back to Van, I have been skating the plaza, and checkin out spots. I was also able to meet up with some friends from back home, AJ and Trevor Blades. I wasn't able to see them all summer, so coming here and getting to see them was definitely sick. The other day was the RDS Skins comp at the plaza, in which Paul Trep destroyed it with a switch back smith down the BIG flat bar, as well as a switch back noseblunt, and switch flip back lip down the big handrail. So sick to watch that stuff go down. I have another week here until I'm home and I plan to make the most of it. Not many photos have been shot since I've been doing more exploring then shooting photos. Here are a few shots from the Seattle trip as well as stuff from Vancouver.


This was our group, minus some people. Cory Wilson, Brian Caissie, Stacy Gabriel, Sean McAllister, Josh Anderson, Joe, Kyle the filmer, Geoff Dermer, and myself.

This is the view you get coming into Seattle, from mountains to this.

The Seattle Space Needle has a sick park behind it. So Fun to skate!

Final night of the trip, peacin out! Thanks Kyle for putting us up in your place.

Sean got the most sleep on the trip. This is one of those times where he crashed early!

This is the view coming down the road to Cory's house. They are always in view.

This was what we made our first night back from Seattle. That sauce had EVERYTHING!!

Cory resting his little injury. Get better soon bud!

The Kids

The kids consist of Simon Stunt, Trevor Rivard, Dyllan Nykyforak (not pictured) and Cory Traynor. They love to skate, have good times, and get as much coverage as they can. They are a fun bunch to shoot with too because they always think of something, somewhere that is awesome to watch and shoot. They film all the time, and will hopefully be posting some clips (wink wink) soon. Here are some photos from a recent day out with the guys.


Trevor with a SWITCH back smith


Simon got the first trick with this feeble


Cory with a BS 180 over something much harder to skate then you think


Traynor again with a front feeble


This took Cory a few tries with a few slams, but eventually put down this huge FS Ollie on the barrier.

That barrier is hard to ride on....

A nice outing

Simon sent me a message saying he wanted to try some things that he had been thinking about, and no more then 20 minutes later, Rivard sent me a text saying he wanted to skate. None-the-less, both Simon and Trevor Hooked up and got a hold of me one more time (This allowed me to charge my batteries) and I was on my way. A solid day of street skating, and a fun session at a local park down in the country to finish it up. Here are 2 photos from our first location at a school in the city.


Simon Stunt - Pole Jam into a lovely, perfectly smooth, non-rocky bank....


Trevor Rivard - Pole Jam Frontside Grab into the same perfectly skateable bank...