2009 éS game of SKATE presented by éS footwear

Off Days in OC

Posted on Jun 10, 2009

Southern California is about as far as you can get from my Midwest hometown of Chicago while still being in the continental United States. Not only is it 2,000 and some miles of physical distance between the two, but the differences in landscape, people, culture, and climate are palpable. This time of year in Illinois it could easily be 45 degrees and rainy or 90 degrees and dripping humidity, but since arriving in the West I haven't looked back from the sunny and seventy days that are the norm year round out here.
Since wrapping everything up in Illinois and being tossed into the mix in Phoenix, things have definitely slowed down a bit before the whirlwind of road life begins. For us out-of-towners on the crew the past week and a half have been spent helping out around the Sole Tech offices and, of course, doing what really got us all here, skateboarding.

éS writing intern Patrick Binkley passes time in California with a Front-Shove to Nosegrind while another product of the Internship of A Lifetime contest, Dieter Galvan, films.

Dieter bought an AE-1 to document the trip from his perspective. I hope éS doesn't decide to hand the photography internship over to him!

Being from the Midwest and hearing about all the skating in SoCal I didn't realize how brutal it is not having a car to get from spot to spot. Since things aren't actually as close to each other as I imagined them to be, the OCTA bus system has been our chauffeur for our time here.

Patrick throws a frontside kickflip across some Orange County art.

Oh, and in case anyone was still wondering, in respect to Mark's last post, Chinner's problem was solved.

-Phil Blair