Hell on Earth

Finland! Boom! I'd never been, and my trip there was arranged very last minute, due to correspondence from Janne Saario who had been hiding out in the woods with his Missus, kid and dog for a while. Really! Ciaran never stops yappin about Helsinki and the level of radness there, and I can now say I share his sentiments. The advantage of a local hook up makes a trip so much easier, no translating, no misreading signs, just local spots, folk and food, good times!
Helsinki has a tonne of rad spots, local guidance is pretty mandatory, but considering they're a very friendly bunch it shouldn't be too hard to arrange. Janne was fully down for filming, he picked me up from the airport and we got straight into it- this pics from the morning of the second day where he got very tech in the wetness.
This was the first spot we hit, mad slippy/sticky block where Janne proceeded to perform tricks I've never witnessed with my weary peepers.
This was such a fun little park, most obstacles there had a touch of the quirky about them, lots of little wallies, curved benches, and I even got my first taste of ripping a picnic bench without the aid of cheese sandwiches, cadet orange and a flask full of luke warm tea.
That there on the right is a fella called "Matti", an original ripper who also makes a zine complete with a mix tape- how rad is that!
"Karjalan Piirakka" Its a savory pastry thing that I found in me gob on more than wan occasion, beats a half melted double decker any day!

t'was handy not having to work out local tram systems, or language, everyone's English was par-fect and far better than manys the Bray local.
Mean grill yo', this is probably the angriest you'll see a Fin, mellowest people I've ever encountered.
Janne: frontside child balance. His kid Tuure is so rad! He cries when da takes away the board or his wellies. His hobbies include covering himself in apple juice when Ma & Da aren't looking, break dancing (especially head spins) and washing his face in the dog's bowl. Such a fun happy kid!
Janne is studying landscape architecture, this is his most notable creation- "micropolis". Its packed to the brim with madness & radness, but actually doesn't have that synthetic park feeling. You just keeping pushing around and can hit about 20 things in wan line. I almost cried when Da made us leave.
Thanks a million to Janne, Essi, Tuure and Jesper for making me feel so welcome in their home and filling me with fine Finnish food. Janne ripped so so so hard, I've never even thought of some of the tricks he did, let alone seen them, and I was stoked I got the opportunity to film them, can't wait for the results back from the lab!

Brits stool

From Bray to Bristol Co. England, a helluva town- Once again I found myself in the company of Al(pha dog) at the delightful hour of 4a.m. in hot pursuit of spots, sun and eventually sleep.

We started at the mini ramp with a view out the back of 50:50, or "tweny tweny" as Al called it when asking for directions off Postman Pat.Young buck' Danny Waylight was to be the subject of the camera pointing as he provided shapes with his skateboard under his feet and the worst Irish impressions I've ever heard (from someone with an Irish Ma, shockin!)
There were many quirky spots around the city, didn't get time to take pics of them as I was taking pics of them, nah' mean? I did take a pic of Al in M&S, Ah ye-uh!
We ended up at this parr-fect 9 stair rail on Saturday that will no doubt end up in every mag in the next few months, Will Ainley, Alco linns, Paul Carter & Danny all stepped up and got down, impressive stuff.


The pecking order- Al gets top role with his mind's eye. T'was the el-scorchiest day I've felt on my honky ass all year, so any angle under the shade of a bush was favourable. Pro-chillin wirreh waterside, nice place.
Al got his celeb-on when we ran into Rowan Atkinson on a night out.
Plans were made to rest our weary bones, then plans were scuppered, but it was Mike O'Shea (a mad Brit despite his name) who took us in and gave us a well welcome horizontal platform on which to slumber. Real nice dude, real fun to skate with and real rad art.
We ran into Del boy, also an owner of a shite Irish impression, he's is a full time Britographer, but hey, its not his fault, he was born like that. Nice guns.
Should have taken a pic of this last spot, it had a bank, rail, hip, steps and wallride all in wan, just one of many rad spots there. Go visit Bristol and buy a pair of socks from Danny's shop. Rad city, rad spots, nice vibes.
Tanks lads!

Was a hectic weekend in Dub-land, due mainly to the visit of Leo from Sidewalk , although this was eventful it, was to prove inferior to the spectacle of Dlynn's traveling inch punch show, notice how the Chi energy collects around the angry little facial area, keeeee ya! "pooosy"Finn grew some Neck hair, that's news, way to go Billy Barry.
Its rarely we get an overseas visitor that doesn't stay in Jurys, look for Leprechauns and frequent our golf courses. Its even more rare that we get a visior with 2 belly buttons, Morgan Campbell was over with the English lads and he shredded as only a twin navaled man can, he even got to experience the young howeyeh culture of the Temple Street area, "Misthur Misthur, giz a shoh oh yur buuurrd"
I stuffed myself in a Lebanese restaurant, the meals are like picking at stuff before dinner for about 3 hours, highly recommended.

shaka brah!

The first three rolls of the new film arrived today- ampage is off the ricky' scale!
Wan roll was color reversal (normal stuff), wan was Tri-x (Black and white) and the last was Vision 2 (negative movie film). The first delivered badness I'd since forgotten- James Black in particular reelin in a lovely flick I'd thought had gone to the land of lost keys and missing socks.


The B&W reel was all Wayne and all groovy, fuggin stoked! The last projected was the colour negative stuff- it looked bonkers when I was projecting it..

I'm having fun adjusting the colours into suitable forms for the relative places- Here's J-money in the green room brah!

Shunt dine

Contemplations of a journey North to get stuck into the Lynn brother's section of the new vid were mulling from pro to con in my muddled mind. For wan, I was fuggin smothering with a cold, mad headaches, temperature etc (sob). I couldn't think straight so I just said sure fug it, we'll see how it goes.


The reason why I found myself as the sole passenger on the Air-couch up was also another factor that was weighing heavily on my soggy brain mash. As big Stu had pointed out to me already, t'was the weekend of the 12th of July, the weekend when orangemen like to walk down the road. On the con side, things could get ugly, on the pro side the spots were freed up as the Johny Whoppers would be all out looking for rap-scallions. Its smelled a bit of bad idea, but I also smell a bit, so I thought it was a good omen.The subjects of this trip- Dlynn and his brother, whatshisname. Ah young Dennis, a humble sole with a bright future. He spent most of the trip complementing me on my toned guns and slick set-up. He constantly reminded me of the blatant ineffectiveness of his inch punch on my chiseled Bray features. "Eat dog shit and diiiie dackhed"
Biggy Stu is the illest! He played photographer, B&B host, shointer, 2a.m. spud boiler, switch flipper, driver and walking guided tour leader. Tanks Mr Stu, you're a swell fellar!
In the word's of the mighty Terry Kennedy, "What block you on? I be' there!"
This diner was called T.K. no doubt after the man himself. ...Kict it dennn!
Stubert spotted a tasty gherro bank right here but for some reason young D'lynn's delicate sole wasn't feelin it. Its still there if you fancy it- just don't wear your Dublin Airport novelty Leprechaun suit when shreddin it.
Another spat from Stu's back catalogue, this time on the Fall's road, not as good as it looked, but Dennis Lynn's brother did provide with some radical action shots for the "Charlie Chaplin" camera on Shannon's soft wheeled cruiser.
This was the best spat of the day- Cave hill, overlooking the madness. It was quite an odd weekend, a very eerie atmosphere what with the festivities and omni-present riot vans, but at the same time we didn't get the boot from any spot we hit, not one. My Mexican accent was free to flow on the mountain side as we dipped into Monsieur Stu's baguette and grape combo.


Both brothers provided rippage on both days (despite Dennis's brother having a swollen back from mini ramp carnage) all of which will be shipped off to the lab and processed in good time. It was a very unique and very memorable experience. A weekend trip to Belfast = a cure for the common cold/whinge. Thanks lads!
Here's a couple of killa sequences to whet your appetite. Jaypers tonight!

Footpath mag

There's an interview in the new Sidewalk about "No Use" with my alter ego Paul Evans. As you can see Gibbo is continuing is rise to power in this world with his thumbnail still that adjoins said interview.

Nero Wolfe

Gibbo gave me a newspaper from 1982- the year of my entry into this world, amongst some retro gems were these rib-ticklers...christ they're woefull!

Just in case the fully explained and addressed jokes (Why can't a bicycle stand up on its own? Because its two tyred (too tired), from Aidan O'Brien..etc) weren't enough for you, this mu'fugga was lurkin at the bottom of the T.V. listings. Looks like me da, after been bitten by a wolf.


On the film front- a nice bit of stuff is on its way back, while the fruits of the past few weeks have been posted to Rotterdam for processing, so the show is on the road.

Over and out
-Mr Conrad Jnr.