Go Skateboarding Day 2014 - Pittsburg

Go Skateboarding Day is the most important day for skateboarding. Yes, you can skate any day you want but thats not the only thing its about. Its about uniting together with other skaters, meeting new people, and just having fun skateboarding.

I originally planned to go to New York City with a childhood friend, who now lives up in Grand Rapids. However, because of a new internship that he just accepted the week before we had to change plans. We did decide where we were going until the night before we left after he arrived at my house. We decided the best option would be to go to Pittsburg, PA.

Our first stop was Bayne Skatepark in Bellevue. The weather wasn't looking to great. Upon arrival it was still raining. We decided that it was going to probably be like this all day, so we skated anyway.

David Tanner - bs 180 by Dale Nolan Jr. - iPhone 5

Everything was extremely slick, the worst fall I had all day was because I slipped out on the quarter pipe in the back of the photo.

After checking out Plank Eye Skateshop, we headed into the city. Today, there was a famous country singer in town, which explained all the people dress in cowboy/cowgirl outfits later on.

David Tanner warming up for some skateboarding

Myself - Kickflip by David Tanner

I normally make a skate spot map before going into a city but because of the short notice I didn't have time to do much research. We just started exploring. Not before long though, we ran into another group of skateboarders which guided us to some good spots.

 This is a DIY spot that hasn't been fixed up in a long time. This was an ok spot but could have been really awesome if some locals fixed it up.

We skated a lot more then shown in the photos. Sometimes its more fun to just put the camera down and enjoy skateboarding with your friends for what it is. Along this river is a giant fountain with a stair set that leads right into the river. It reminded me a little bit of the Sea Wall in Chicago, which I lost my board to and a friend of mine did too. However, the stairs were to perfect to not be skated, with some luck and skill I managed to kickflip them in a few tries without my board going into the river. (Photo: Brent Moore - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_State_Park)

We skated up to Haines Stadium, where the concert was being held, with lots of ledges along the way. By this time, the group of skaters wanted to keep moving on while David and I wanted to just enjoy our time at different spots, so we split up. We ran into a few other groups of skaters after this but never hooked up with them to skate spot to spot.

David taking a break

myself - wallride by David Tanner

Doing a little bit of sight seeing.

Its been a while since I skated around a city like this. I love just skating around the city and exploring a new place.

First Glance Skatepark: Game of S.K.A.T.E. hosted by Sun Vally Sports

Sun Valley Sports called me asking if they could host a contest to get canned food donations. I was actually planning on doing a Game of S.K.A.T.E. contest anyway. It worked out perfect to have them come in and host the contest. I am always happy to work with other people in our industry. The First contest was on June 10th and the next one will be July 15th.

Skater: Alex Kuss

The game of S.K.A.T.E. went great. Our local favorite Alex Kuss placed second as Ryan ??? came in First. It was a close game with both skaters coming down to the last letter. 

Skater Ryan Photo taken by Tim Pryor and edited by myself

After the match we took a 10min break then had a best trick down the stairs. I normally don't compete because I am generally hosting/judging the contest but I decided to join in this time. I don't have that impressive of a list of tricks. I kickflipped the stairs, did a tailslide and then tried to do a kickflip to front tail down the hubba but never got it. Ryan and Alex Kuss skating amazingly. At one point we had 4 or 5 people land the tricks they've been trying each after one another. In the end, it was declared a tie for first between Alex and Ryan, with Ben placing 3rd.