Go Skateboarding Day 2013: Chicago

Four of us from Findlay, Ohio left for Chicago at 8am to head for Chicago. We ended up an hour behind schedule from driving misdirection. Causing us to be an hour late meeting up with my friend, David, in Merrillville. (an hour outside of Chicago)

About 15 min after we got out of our car, the rain started pouring down. The segway tours ended in a halt under the trees. (picture) I've never seen so many segways in my life, but in Chicago it is a very popular thing, especially for tours.

We got some food while we waited for the rain to hault. After it slowed down we headed out to a bike tunnel I remembered so skate under. When we arrived there was already about 30+ skaters there. Without any warm up skating for us, they started a high ollie contest.

I made it to the final round with about 5 other guys. Everyone kept trying except for me and one other guy because they kept cutting us but no one was landing it.. We both patiently waited until the guy running the thing said, "Has anyone not tried it yet? Then the other guy went before me and ollied the six boards stacked on each other his first try. Then I went and made it over, landing on my board but didn't land centered on my board right falling off. 

David won $20 in the long ollie contest. It was between us and one other guy who ended up taking the final win.

Everything dried up soon after skating in the tunnel for a few hours.

Photo: Me

Photo: David Tanner

While skating the Sea Wall there is always a risk of losing your board in the water and Chaz did. His brother CJ climbed down into the polluted water where a dead goose, a hat, boomerang and other garbage collected in the exact spot of Chaz's board.

Chaz, "Thanks Bro".

Sick ledge spot we found by following a crowd of skaters.

Small skatepark. Photo: David, Manuel up and back down.

We ran into a couple kids at the skatepark, who asked me for a kingpin for their truck. We ended up giving them an extra complete board that Chaz brought.

Before our day was over we had to get some Chicago pizza. Everything was kinda expensive, but we were starting to get super hungry. So when walking buy this really nice looking pizza restaurant we decided to just check the menu to see what the prices where. The, who I think was the owner, told us that he would sell us a pizza for $5. We noticed that on the menu the prices for the pizzas where $15.

We were then offered free soda and a free 10 inch pizza if we let a guy take some pictures and video of us for some social media advertising. We ended up having a fun time talking to him, while he sat and chatted with us over our dinner. So if your in Chicago don't forget to stop by Bongiorino's Pizza and Italian Restaurant.

Go Skateboarding Day Chicago Events 2013

Chicago Skateboard Trip

Most of the photos were taken by me and all were edited by myself.

With leaving to Taiwan for the next two years, a couple of my friends (David Tanner Jr. and Jonathan Tanner) wanted to take on last skate trip to Chicago. While discussing our plans for the trip Jon offered to pay for all my expenses so I wouldn't have to worry about anything. (click on images to enlar

Map to all our favorite spots to skate in Chicago, plus some that I found from using google maps (Click to View My Chicago Skate Spots Map) When I thought I found something good, I would try to use the street view to check it out. If I looked like it could be a good place to skate, I added it to the map.

This is a technique I would suggest to anyone taking a trip to anywhere for any reason. You will find cool places you would have never seen.

Packing
Skate Equipment - 2 complete skateboards, an extra deck, rollerblades, bearings, hardware, shoe laces, and wax.

Camera Gear - I brought my Nikon D5000, 18-55mm and 55-200mm lens, 3 batteries, 8GB and 16 GB memory cards. Jon brought his video camera along with a tripod.

Food - Jon brought a cooler packed with food. 6 pack of Creme Soda, 20 cans of Mountian Dew, 1/2 Liter of Gatorade, and Peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches.

I recently found a ton of stickers from years of receiving them for free through skateboarding from different things. I finally decided why do I have all these stickers I should use them. So for fun in honor of our Chicago trip, we put stickers all over our boards and skates. Even on the weeks and trucks.



The drive took us 3 hours. However we came into some complications when arriving. First we missed our exit, so in trying to turn around, our gps looked like it wanted us to take this one road and in the confusion we ended up on the wrong side of the road in against on coming traffic. Luckily there was very few cars around and we where able to quickly fix the problem.

When we first arrived we searched for a parking garage. First one we found would have cost us almost $40 for the day, however we drove a little bit to the out skirts of chicago and only had to pay $10 for the whole day.

We left the house at 7:30 and arrived around 11 (by the time we found parking). (photo: Jon)

A couple blocks from the parking garage we found this spot. There was 3 other kids already skating here that we continually met on separate occasions with hours in between not on purpose. This spot had this nice long/low mani pad, along with a longer then normal 7 stair. Neither me nor David have skated a stair set in a long time, so we were both happy to manage to ollie it first try. (Photo: David Manuel)

Our next stop: Cook Plaza

If you notice the green water that is for St. Patrick's day. Knowing today wasn't St. Patrick's day we assumed it was going to be like any other day. However we were wrong. They had a little parade and downtown was packed tight with people wearing green.

If you ever go to Chicago (to skate) it is mandatory you stop by at the Sea Wall. Facing out to Lake Michigan, the Sea Wall wraps around the shore line. This is probably one of the most famous spots in Chicago to skate and one of my favorite. It's not everyday you find a 8ft vert ramp street skating.

When skating at the Sea Wall there is one major danger and that is losing your board to the lake. When skating the wall we used spotters to keep any boards from going in.

Myself going as high as I can.

With a few more stops we eventually made it to the northern part of the city. By this point we are all getting tired from skating all day. I ended up getting home around 9, while Jon and David had another 40min. to go. (photo Jon)

On our way out, we ran into our friends once again. It was a fun day and my body is sore from not being use to skating so long anymore.

Chicago Updates

You can follow me, David and Jon Tanner in real time as we skate chicago all day saturday. Jonathan will be uploading photos with his Evo phone. Just click the click to view the public facebook album.