Left Glasgow at ten to 7 Thursday morning and battled through the rainstorms.
Got to Eastleigh Travelodge at ten past 2 and nearly ran into the back of Dan Harris's truck! Great start!
Met him and Trev, Lara and Rob, hung around gabbing 'til 3pm, then checked in.
After sorting ourselves out, we all headed off to find Eastleigh skatepark...
Dan liked this panorama feature on my Kodak so much, he wants one!
Steve Geall would later put this to good use...
Tight little bowl...
Pretty vert for a hip!
We prayed that this would be the last wet concrete we'd see this trip....hmmmmm.
Back to Travelodge and say hello to Mr. Bulmers....
Up early Friday thanks to waking at 6am (little bit hungover.....ahem.), couldn't get back to sleep. Dan helped me along by jumping up and down on my ceiling at 7am. I'll get you for that Harris.....
SLADES FARM
Got there about 9.30 with Dan, Lara, Rob, Trev & the Stupps clan. All marvin' so satnavved to the 'nearest' McDonalds.
After the grand tour of Bournemouth (!), we fuelled up and headed back.
I didn't notice Mark Noble was there at first!
Steve Geall
Didn't get any more riding shots, but I'm sure someone else has... It was windy and cold the whole time we were there, little rain showers too, so we all decided to head off around 12 just as lots of other folk turned up! Old Fools chaos!
KINGS PARK, BOURNEMOUTH
En route to another park when boom - HAILSTORM!
That's it I thought, game over. The pavements were white with the stuff!
At least the sun came out a bit when we got there.
Park looked great - but soaked. Everyone wished we'd come here first.
So much for not seeing any more wet concrete....
A few brave souls were tryin' it...
Dan Harris declared it 'grippy'....hmmmmm.
The flat bank dried out first, so Rob Ridge got the session going...
Thankfully, there was enough hot air from all the gabbing that the whole park started drying out...
Hip session got started...
Alex
Steve Connor having a 'moment'....
Steve Geall was goin' off...
(Definetly my favourite park of the trip - I could have stayed there all weekend. But the weather had other ideas...)
EASTLEIGH
Dry!
Steve rather owned this bowl...
I nicked a couple of these pics from this man!
Joe Stupple was killin' this hip.
The dreaded rain came again, so that was the end of Friday.....
FRIDAY NIGHT...
Mr Shooter...
Michael Schumacher & Tom Selleck turned up...
Mr.Wilson & Trev.
Apparently Trev got really drunk and raided Lara's suitcase, but I have no proof of this whatsoever....
Nosferatu....er,...Flatcap.
Steve C. hardly touched a drop...
Joe was on pints...(!)
John B. and Rob Zombie
Magnum P.I. rides a Standard...
SOUTHSEA SATURDAY
Flatcap had crashed in my room so we flung the bikes in the back of his Galaxy and motored down to Southsea. Full English in a wee 'caff on the front and we were ready for the park.
Bowled Fools.....
Billy didn't always make it back out...
Flatcap & Bristol Dean (old friend of Steve Macky's). Dean was gettin' some good air on the vert - and smooth too. I was impressed. Would never have guessed it from talkin' to him at the bar the night before. Dark Horse.
Steve C. & the Stuntman prepare to do battle with the big funbox...
Ronnie Surridge, flatspinny, barrel roll 360 thingy....f@ckin awesome!
After being hounded by the helmet police (I was on the road when those emails went out boys!) and watchin' the rainclouds roll in, I decided to cut my losses and headed back to the Travelodge and got myself up the road.
830 mile 'round trip. Yeah - I
was tired, but then, I enjoyed the ride.....
G
