Whereabouts?
Sweden is lovely.
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Off to Stockholm/Kista. Going to try and hit up MAX Burger at least once or twice during my trip, it has become a ritual of sorts.
What is the best way to get about London. Is it best to just get the oyster travel card? Hoping to get to some parks and some spots when I am down.
You can just use a contactless card and it will cut off when you hit the day rate.
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Will do!
Doubt we crossed paths at the train station, we were driving.
Anyone been to Austin, Texas and know which part of the city to stay in or a good hotel or somert ?
No comply is the skate shop there.
Nice one, on a work trip there next month but think im gonna extend my stay for a bit for a poke around.
Visiting my sister in Poole next weekend, any advice on parks/spots much appreciated are there any DIY s around there ? Is it worth going to Prevail ? , thanks
I’m a little out of touch with the area skatewise as whenever I’m around that way I’m generally in or on the water one way or another or out there in the woods riding/ running trails or camping out, but here’s a few pointers.
Goes without saying - Slades Farm skatepark, (Wallisdown). It’s half it’s original size now, there’s the addition of some shitty metal bits and pieces and the surface is like the moon. In my mind it’s always worth popping by, (but I’m probably wrong 
). I still love it even though it’s a shadow of its former self. Incidentally, just across the field is a velodrome with a huge bank type affair which is fun for a bit.
Not too far away from Slades is the Duck Lane park. Maverick built interlinked bowl/ sort of snakey park. Pretty good and easily combined with a trip to Slades.
Verwood is around a 25 minute drive from Poole and has a crete park with a small bowl and a street area. Built by Gravity iirc. Not too easy to find but, you know, Google maps and that.
Kings Park in Bournemouth has a biggish concrete park too. Deep 3/4 bowl, snake run, stairs, hubba and rail, (copy of the old Poole hospital rail that we used to rinse bitd), and some other odds and sods.
Most of the street spots I used to skate are long gone as far as I know. Those that I’d still hit are of the, ‘what the fuck d’you bring me here for? There’s nothing to skate’ variety.
The Triangle in the centre of Bournemouth is a spot that is pretty popular. Asda car park next to Bournemouth station is undercover, has some small waxed up curbs, smooth ground and manny pads. A good go to if it’s pissing down.
Nearby I think there are new concrete parks in both Wimborne and Corfe Mullen. Not been to either though so have no idea what they’re like.
Other than that, you could always contact Steve at 608 Skateshop in Wimborne. He’s a total skate nerd and what he doesn’t know about skating round there isn’t worth knowing. He used to manage the oldest running skateshop in the UK, ‘The Skateshop’, (locally still known as Mackies by the older locals), which is situated at Park Gates in Poole, right by Poole Park. If you stick your head in there they could probably fill you in on what’s up. The owner’s son might still work in there and he is/was a skate rat and could point you in the right direction. Giving the Consortium guys a call might pay off. I’ve not been in there since it was in it’s original location in Dalkeith Arcade so not sure how helpful that would be. They always used to be cool - might be a bit too jazzy these days to give out grass roots advice over the phone though
As for DIYs, there was a rumour a few years ago about one near Fleet’s Bridge in Poole but I can’t vouch for the validity of that. I do know there’s a pos metal mini under the flyover there though.
I went to Prevail once when it opened. People like it and it’s popular but it’s not my sort of thing so can’t really say much about it. The set up has changed numerous times since then anyway.
Hope that’s of some help.
Perfect thank yiu so much for that, had totally fogotten aboit Slades Farm will have to check it out, Im sure there was an article about it in one of my first RAD magazines Iwanna say Christian Gaze doing a method or somethin
Thanks for all your help.
No worries. If you’re headed to Slades you might want to pack some soft wheels if you have any as that surface is no joke these days.
As for that RAD cover, you’re right.
Christian Gaze , method lien. TLB photo.
He had this photo too. It was shot in Sainsbury’s car park by the Dolphin centre in Poole. Apologies for the terrible quality. I couldn’t be arsed to dig around and find my old RADs. There was a microscopic copy of it in Same Old 23 and I had that to hand and snapped a photo of it.
It reminded me that there’s a long double sided, painted curb in that car park which is/was cool. There are quite a few little features around that area that are fun to skate, nothing that warrants a prolonged session though, just five minutes and out sort of things e.g. (very) mellow bank to wall at the train station.
Glad to be of help.
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Ok I take back all my Not Stokedness for going to Singapore. Fucking wicked place.
Basically just picked a random direction and walked until I got lost. There’s no dodgy areas and its tiny so you can just ramble around aimlessly for ages.
Then realised I was hungry, so I walked I to some random hawker centre (street food market), felt a bit choosy so I spent some time checking it all out. In the end settled for some random stall with a photo of Anthony Bourdain eating there. Seemed a safe option.
5 bucks for a full meal and drink (maybe 3 quid). Dope noodles with char siu pork and dumplings. Didn’t photograph it because that would be basic.
On the way back walked past a bunch of Hindu temples, the smell of insence immediately transported me back to being 10 years old playing Tekken 3 at my mates house who had a PS1 when I wasn’t allowed one. Random fun memory.
Last minute trip so I couldn’t find a good hotel. I’m staying in one of those backpacker places where you get a little pod. It’s pretty cosy and fun.
Also nailed this talk I was here for (work trip), got a couple of good leads out of it, so hopefully good reasons to come back. And one of the clients I was schmoozing used to skate.
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Good to hear you’re having a good time and feeling good mate.
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Not really a tip as I only went for a few days in 2011 but if you’re on the beers go to a seafood restaurant. Can’t remember the name but there’s a little chain of 3 or 4 gaffs who do mega cheap mega delish 3 pint jugs
So many banging food spots, kind of a weird vibe there but would still love to go again.
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Going to be in Belfast for a couple of days at the end of the month. Not going to have much free time, but wondered if there are any recommendations have here for chill bars or good restaurants that wouldn’t be obvious for a tourist.
I’ve not lived there for years but for bars I like the John Hewitt for no fuss pints, they have music pretty often or also the duke of York which can get quite busy but has a good vibe
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Just got back from a week in Camargue. Lovely area, friendly locals, good food, incredible wildlife, lots of things to see/do and basically zero tourists in March.
The Pont de Gau bird reserve and the architecture of la Grande-Motte were awesome.
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Yeah we went horse riding and got attacked by mosquitoes pretty seriously. 
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Dragging this one back up. We’ve had an invite to a wedding on Vancouver island next July. Has anyone done some travelling around Canada and can recommend some cool places? I know it’s fucking massive so keen to pin down what’s possible in terms of getting around the place and maximising the time over there
