It’s been a long time since I’ve done any sliding and an even longer time since I’d been to a slide jam. I’d mostly just been going fast or skating the nearest concrete park, getting some round wall on. This event got me so stoked on longboarding and on my area again though. Tyler Weaver threw down hard bringing a good turnout to his hill in Ashburn.

Pat Schep was staying at my house for the night on his way home to South Carolina so we got up and hit the skatepark and got to the hill a little late. It was about an hour late actually and were stoked to see a group waiting at the top to take a run as well as another group walking back up the hill, kids with blankets spectating and others taking pictures and video. As we started walking up the hill to meet everyone and shake off the cobwebs we saw a couple kids come blasting down the hill throwing some big soft wheel stand up slides and were immediately blown away. We had no clue who anyone was and a bunch of people were ripping. We were seriously expecting a bunch of douche bag, suburban kids that sit on silverfish all day and can hardly skate.

After a bunch of party runs and everyone having a good time a cone got brought out and Pat said longest stand up slide contest. I saw so many kids eat it pushing past their comfort levels. I saw Pat EAT IT at his normal comfort level too. I wasn’t skating with a helmet because it was so damn cold but finally finagled one over my hat after seeing a couple people go down and knowing how fast I wanted to go.

The kid we decided won was Nathan Bergel and I don’t think anyone really knew him before that day, which is pretty awesome. It’s always incredible when people come out of the woodwork and shred. Congrats to him and everyone else that got something.

All in all this was a great time and completely rebuilt my spirit and love for longboarding. I come from the time when longboarders were few and far between and if you ran into another you stopped and hung out. Now there’s a million little fuckers riding around on longboards that would rather tell you to fuck yourself then have a session with you and that gets me down sometimes. It gets me kinda warm and fuzzy to know that there’s a ton of local kids getting gnarly and that there’s plenty of new people to skate with now.  If you weren’t there you missed out and should come to the next slide jam on January 8^th. It’s cold as balls but at least we have some to be out skating in said cold!

Beast Coast is now home to the DownHillBillies! Give these awesome guys a warm welcome because they’ve been putting on events and stoking out the masses with their southern hospitality longer than you’ve been skating! (well most of you) You might have seen some of their events posted on other sites before or heard through word of mouth how sick this crew from North Carolina is. We’re now their main forum so look out for some collaborations throughout the coming year. Both the DownHillBillies and BCL serve the same purpose of saying fuck the bullshit, let’s get together and go skate. Check out their site at www.downhillbillies.com

Just in from Garret Creamer. It is going to be freeride and downhill, just like the last event hosted by Rob Hytha (Rhythm629), we are going to hit a few different spots, still deciding which, but speeds will be between 30-45mph. have some slide hills picked out, and some local spots. heres the google maps link hope you can make it out: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=113004849400514983543.0004964e42d8be13620a9&ll=40.092157,-75.443802&spn=0.017991,0.038581&z=15

Email me at: element4528@gmail.com

wear some christmas stuff, hats, santa suits, beards, etc. get creative