San Francisco, CA
After three quick round trips out of Orange County and back, rushing through airports, battling OC/LA traffic and getting rained on, the drive to San Francisco was our longest and most anticipated trip of 2008. It not only kicked off the first stop of many on the éS Game of SKATE summer tour, meaning that we would not be returning home for several long weeks, but here we were on our way to one of our favorite cities on the entire tour. Good friend to the GOS crew and veteran of the SF skate scene Shrewgy greeted us upon our arrival and gave us the inside scoop on one of his favorite Indian Restaurants. We filed that for later and headed over to FTC, our hosts in San Francisco for the Game of SKATE. FTC always gets it right, and Main man Error! Contact not defined. had been working through the difficult San Francisco permit process for the éS Game of SKATE to set up in the famous Waller Street closure. June 1st proved to be a typical late spring day in the Bay area: sunny skies, cool temps and a stiff wind, fresh off the water, blasting in to Golden Gate Park. When you’re set up in a wide-open parking lot, directly in the path of these chilly Pacific gusts, this makes for a challenging Game of SKATE set up and almost always affects the skaters’ ability to perform without interference from the wind. That wouldn’t be the case for NorCal local and flip-trick master, Mark Suciu, who barely broke a sweat on his way to winning his third consecutive éS Game of SKATE, presented by Boost Mobile title. Fellow rippers Adam Emery, KC Docherty, Kenny Tanaka and Paljum Tschering, a top seed from the Seattle and Portland area feeder events, would all join Mark in the top 5 but fall short of overcoming the harsh winds and Mark’s non-stop assault of flip tricks in every direction, regular and switch. Don’t believe us, check him out on YouTube…
Special thanks to Shrewgy for hooking it up on the best kept secret in SF – the homestyle Indian food of New Ganges!. Aftab, owner of the New Ganges Restaurant, styled us out with the VIP treatment and treated us like royalty, good times were had by all. He’s down for skateboarding, and local skaters who dine there frequently call him “half-cab.” Check out the awesome “Reserved: éS Game of SKATE Crew” table they set up for us!