I'm not sure what to say about this footage. More of the same, I guess. On average, I think I would probably spend at least 3 nights a week skating here, especially during the winter.

The image will take you to the site or click here for the Quicktime version (right click to download, if that's your pleasure).



Uploading all this footage reminds me of a little piece a wrote back when I was writing for some skateboard journals and I was trying to do a bit of creative writing to get away from all the news style stuff I was having to do. An old friend from Farnham, Andy Patterson, aka Andy Smoke, suggested that I write something about the car park and for some reason I got inspired to write about it.

Because Andy Smoke says so!

I’ve had this in my head for sometime, but never gotten around to putting it down on to paper.

To the general public it’s just a car park in the middle of a roundabout. To skateboarders it’s more than that. It’s a place to go and work out their frustrations and find new ones.

I feel like it’s something more than that to me. For me, it starts with my usual approach from the direction of Farnham, passing the traffic lights by Barons BMW garage and over the brow of the hill, the car park is spread out before me, but the real activity is hidden on the lower level, underground. A quick glance out of the car window as I circle about to the roundabout’s exit trying to see the conditions of the ground in the car park, Is it wet? Did it rain this morning? Has it cooled down too much and condensation started to develop on the floor? Nope. It looks good. Who’s skating?

Then it’s off the roundabout and sweeping wide around the outdoor car park before reaching the entrance to the underground section of it. As I drive into the tunnel I feel like I can empathise with something like a gladiator march up into the arena or one a footballer as he runs through before reaching the pitch.

And then it’s into battle! Depending on the time, it’s either into the midst of a hectic session with everyone whizzing about, or the silent welcome of being the first one there this evening. Time to grab my board, a few warm up circles of the car park with a couple of chance manual rolls and maybe even a grind or two, to see if the curbs are still waxed, and I’m home.