Its winter its cold and I miss skating outside.

I was looking through some of the photos I took this summer and I came across this little gem of AJ taken at the "Bike Park" in Toronto. This might be one of the loudest, slowest sliding skateparks in the city, but god is it fun. This years setup combined a series of prefabricated metal ramps with a few of the salvageable wood quarter pipes from bike parks of the past. What makes this park special is that its a mediocre park for bikers at best. The ramps are alittle too small and the run ups a little short to accommodate the X Game lines of a true bike pro.

Fortunately on skates the bike park has amazing flow. This park makes you want to be skating at the very least on a flat setup, but ideally on some sort of big wheels. Although noisy, the ramps are super smooth and blend into each other really nicely. It reminds of a time when skateparks weren't filled with 5 stair ledges and 'real' street skating obstacles. I for one am not going to complain about getting to skate a 6 foot hip into a spine followed by a 7 foot quarter. Thats the sort of terrain we all grew up on, and undeniably always secretly wished we could skate better. 

I love this picture because AJ is my boss and The Boss. He boosts alley airs higher than anyone else I know and can rock a mean 45 second line with a his signature beard smile. If your are wondering how AJ got so good, he'll tell you its all thanks to his toe cut M12's and flat setup. 

February 01, 2014 — Brian Long