Sean, Farm, Alexander, Garlinghouse, and I took off in the pontoon today to the far reaches of the lake to film some GoPro underwater footage and catch some rays.  We went to the island and got another infamous log pic, played man overboard, saw some bald eagles, discovered the smallest island in the World, and RAN OUT OF GAS.  At least 2 miles away from camp and into a head wind we calmly freaked out.  Keeping our wits about us we discovered a secondary tank and what would have been a great end of a story turned into us cruising back in style.

Presenting sponsor Create Originals is hyped about our life aquatic and we’re hyped on their site.  Check it out HERE.

We have arrived and conquered.  Alex, Chris, and Michael already were the last table standing and the solo blade sesh with Garlinghouse went hard.  We abused the hell out of the hot tub and lake front already and the kids are on the mends with the trainer.  Hopefully we get our shred on hard tomorrow, injuries permitting.

Be sure to check out feature presenter UKskate at here.

The day started out pretty normal as far as the tours gone.  Lag, coffee, lag, trick, kicked out by a security guard, indecision, and then it got really bad ass.  The Farmer’s always throw a feast every year when we come through on our way to Lake Owen and today was no exception.  They brought out all the big guns, home-made mac and cheese, baked beans, fruit salad, a crazy Farmer dip for chips, brats, burgers, beers, veggie joints, and the freshest sweet corn this side of God’s country.  we sat around and caught up with Mike and Susan and told some stories and then it was time to jet to do some more blading.  We checked out a little diddy at a school in Egypt and caught a fire clip with Colin and a bad ass basketball shot with Sean.  On to the next few spots that we had to pass on and then the sun set.  After waiting a good 30 minutes for John to show up to shoot photos Alex laid down a giant gap and we were off and running for the night.  Minutes later Alex was getting his birthday trick as he turned 25 at the stroke of midnight.  Happy birthday bud.  Back into the smelly van and it was time to shoot a photo of SOTY BAB.  Now John got confused at exactly which bank Bolino was planning on 360′ing into which created several laughs from the peanut gallery.  The mission was crazy, run up covered in shit, which John had to sweep, which woke up the people in the apartment complex, at 1:30am on a Sunday night, with all the lights and flashes set up, the generator running INSIDE the van to keep the noise down, an impossible landing, and branches in the way.  SOTY BAB laced though.  The crew quickly broke everything down and we dipped.  Next spot was the bustiest of busts but we lied to the security guard and just kept filming until Garlinghouse was able to lay down the honey baked.  For the final cherry on the sundae we got kicked out of the final spot at 4am as Sean laid down the perfect transfer with the security guard walking up behind him with a fucking night stick in his hand.  Iced by McDonalds breakfast whose ‘card machine won’t be working for another 20-30 minutes’ we headed over to White Castle where the dudes laced up 30 burgers in under 5 minutes, I guess they were hungry from murdering all day.  It’s 6:21 and I have an hour of compression left, I’m taking a shower and then the video should be live.  Enjoy.

Yesterday didn’t go better any better then the day before.  Yesterday went worse, quite a bit worse.  Got an early start, stopped by a coffee shop and a bagel shop.  Our first spot got blocked by a hippie picnic party.  We brought the van in to get fixed.  At the next spot MC was getting a piece on this fence grind to drop.  He landed it a few times, but not quite how he wanted.  A few tries later, he landed awkward and thought he broke his ankle.  It started to rain, we headed back to FDA to get MC some ibuprofen and ice.  We were all bummed out about Michael’s fall and we hung out while the rain went away.  After it dried up, we decided to give skating another try.  We went to a college in St. Paul, Bfree and I jumped over stuff and it started to storm again.  We called it a night as it stormed really hard and flooded streets and lightning filled the sky.  After another great meal at Hard Times Café, we went to Haynes’ pad to look at photos from the Texas tour.

We got another pretty early start and skated Downtown Minneapolis today.  We had a pretty slow start, rolling about 20 deep.  Colin popped the chip clerry, and Chris backed him up with another impossible trick.  We strolled a couple blocks to the next spot, Alex got a killer move and photo as we were getting kicked out.  Sean and SOTY BAB got deals across the street right when it started to rain again.  Sweet.  Killer session at Hard Times once again of course.  Sean, Jeph, and Bfree went to a dance party night and the rest of us kicked it at the pad.  Tomorrow it is not supposed to rain… hopefully.

In the meantime go check out featured presenter Jug Shoes and the new O’Neill and Haffey kicks HERE.

Video being reuploaded with Haffey Jug ad.

With more mild weather in Minnesota than the last stops on tour we decided to skate more during the day.  Started the session at the Badlands foundation spot in Minneapolis.  After a warm up session and one clip we said bye to Billy, as he headed to the airport to fly to Denmark for the Roskilde Festival.  Since we had 3 ghetto passes with us we headed to the hood Northeast Minneapolis.  We got a few good clips at some schools and churches in the area.  Jeph invited us to the pizza shop he works at for free za and pitchers.  Everyone was hyped on the grub and we had some laughs.  Decided to cruise to the pad to digest and reboot with some coffee.  After getting out of the car we hear a tire leaking, flat tire.  Late night blades session iced.  Bummer.  AJ and I went to the gas station and tried to fix it.  Didn’t happen.  So everyone partied the night away, hopefully tomorrow goes better.  -MG

Make sure to check out the featured sponsor Valo Brand Skates for all your dopeness over here.

Today the proud sponsor is Street Artist Urethane and we don’t feel like putting our logo on shit, and we don’t feel like doing a hyperlink.  You know who we are.

After the big storm on the way home from Wichita, the temperature dropped a bit. A nice break from the heat we had in Texas. After getting home at 7:30 am in the morning we snoozed till about 2 pm. We cruised to a local cafe to fuel up for the day and watched a recap of all the footage from the tour so far. It’s really cool to see what you have so far and it definitely helps give you a boost of motivation for the day. After our egg sandwiches and biscuits and gravy we met up with Alex, KC, Pat, and MCfresh.

We set up a wild roof roll to dumpster grind to wallride for Bolino, so he went to the van to grab his skates. He soon realized he left them in Wichita last night to enjoy the storm. After talking to a homie from Wichita we were informed they were hanging our in a garbage can soaking wet, nice one Skater of the Year. Haynes is on assignment to shoot him for his ONE interview and he no longer has blades, ice. Now that Colin is skating Nimhs, Bolino uses his a few times during the day to come through with some nice photos. Around the corner, everyone starts skating a kink rail. We hear some fireworks down the street, about a minute later a parade of 10 police cars race past and a helicopter starts to circle above us. As Michael and Chris finish up their deals, the rest of the crew strolls down to check out the scene. Turns out there was a 2 car drive by shooting, and 1 man died. Welcome to KC team.

After business is taken care of on the stink rail, we go down to the street to a foundation gap to the street Alex has been sitting on. With Haynes in town and the generator it seems like a good night, he jumps the gap a few times, photo turns out nice, Bolino built some weird trailer grind set up and got a photo and we cruised to dinner. Everyone was psyched on the 2 for 1 burgers and pool table. The next day we find out the building next to the foundation spot had collapsed and someone died. Alex must have landed too hard and shook the building.

After fueling up, we headed to this big bank to ledge. After everyone was worn out from struggling to charge down the on ramp to his huge bank and the tricks were landed we cruised to the next deal and got hassled by the 5-0 and decided to hit a different part of KC. Bolino threw himself down this long skinny gap a couple times and we called it a night at 4:30 in the morning.

Chris, Michael, and Billy go to NYC on Friday for a TML3 filming tour, so them along with Haynes headed back to Minnesota the next day. They will be back on board in couple weeks to jump back into the madness with the crew. In the meantime, keep checking out www.youhatetoloveit.com to see what the crew is up to in Kansas City.

Proudly presented by Bakerized Skateshop, proudly celebrating their one year anniversary this July.  Support the shops homies.

6 hour driving days turn into 8 hour driving days when assholes can’t merge.  Construction was all for not on I-35 North to Wichita as we headed to meet Broskow, Collins, Wheeler, and crew.  Deals were had at one of the biggest busts in the whole city as cop after cop drove by.  It’s one thing to skate a spot, another to light a spot, but to skate it with 15 people, light it up, and have a van like ours in a residential neighborhood with a loud generator is unheard of.  At one point 4 squad cars and 2 patty wagons had driven by and all we got was a “is this your car?” it wasn’t…

The ride home at 4:30 am was spoiled by a thunderstorm, and by spoiled I mean we drove down the highway with the lights off at 70MPH filming lightning with the 7D making the people who feared for their life scream in dispair.  Lucky for me they were in the back and the people in the front weren’t and aren’t afraid to die.  End of the day the footage is captured, the video is sick, and we are in Kansas for a minute.

Proudly presented by Lylac Shop of Montreal.

Travel days are the best and the worst days in skating.  They bring a much needed break from the long days of skating, however, these breaks are usually accompanied by hours in a cramped, smelly, wet van drinking beers with your friends.  Our last night in Austin was accompanied by a trip to Bikinis bar and grill for some quick hot wings and young girls signing the party van, Betty White and then we were on the road to Denton.  5 red plastic cups turned into rotation style flip cup binge drinking and before you know it several people were playing blackout poker. The homegirls blessed the van with some cool drawings and some nice messages, then Kate defaced it with a love note, which got edited and fixed.  Thanks Kate  Pass out where you find a spot, floor spot action in Garlinghouses room, and a few more memories and broken hearts.  Onward into the sunrise of Kansas.