We have already had a pretty busy week, this week. I worked late yesterday, but still managed to fit in a winter line launch party for Flud Watches. Then Tuesday night, Reagan and I attended a (work related) holiday party at Rockefeller Center. It was at one of the restaurants that is adjacent to the skating rink. Skating was included in the party festivities. I went to this party alone a couple of years ago, and Reagan really felt bad, because I don’t really even like skating, she does. Plus she had been begging me to take her. So I hope that this year makes up for it. We brought the point and shoot, but it died after the first shot. So, all of these pics are from the gritty lil blackberry cam.

Apparently Reagan, at some point today read a Facebook blurb from my sister about cherry limeade. She said that she had been craving one, ever since.  So, that is what she ordered at the bar. The bar tender was a little bit stumped at first. But after she explained it a little bit, the mixologist (yes, I am using that term, because the dude earned it) came up with a pretty fancy looking drink that seemed to satisfy Reagan’s fever. Try to ignore my totally serious face, below. I was focusing pretty intently on keeping a steady arm for the photo. Doesn’t Reagan look cute though?

Reagan on skates, below.

In addition to all of the festivities of the last couple of days, we also finished our Christmas cards tonight! Man, I’m feeling pretty productive, right about now.

Here is a link to a couple more crappy blackberry cam shots of Reagan posing with her skates on.

It was bitter-sweet, to leave Brazil yesterday. We really had a great time there. We were initially planning on just having a casual Sunday and gearing up for the flight home, while lounging around the hotel, or something. Instead, we ended up having an action packed last day. We initially set out to photograph some of the more historical parts of the center of Rio. But when we arrived there, it was pretty apparent that it was a sketchy time to be out. Even thought it was daylight, it was Sunday morning, and there weren’t a lot of people around, except for the really seedy ones. So we got back in the cab, and decided to checkout Sugarloaf, instead. It was very cool. I’m glad that we did it. Even the the second peak was totally covered by a cloud, when we were up there, the tram ride had some superb views.

^— Descending from the highest point.

^— Looking up, from the lower peak (timer shot).

^— Reagan, on the way up to the first peak. PS, I love this shot.

After Sugarloaf, we headed back over to the Lagoa, to kill some time. We did another bike ride, rode the paddle boats, and even did a little bit of skating. Hahahah. We were watching these kids skate this bowl, at the lagoa. I decided to ask them, if they minded if I borrowed a board and took a turn. The kid was totally cool about it. Reagan snapped a couple of pics. It was a lot of fun.

^— Me, in a 5.0 grind at RJ.

Follow this link for a few more shots from our last day in Rio.

I just found out this weekend, that one of the World’s most famous organic skate spots is going to be closing down, so that it can be a parking lot for construction equipment. I’m referring, of course, to the Brooklyn Banks. This fantastic skate spot is located right under the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge. I posted about it back in April, when I took a walk over there during a break at work. I’m pretty bummed about it. The New York City Parks Department says that “The city plans to use the internationally known Brooklyn Banks skate park as a staging area during the Brooklyn Bridge reconstruction, which is starting later this year and will last until 2014.” Here is a link to the article in the Downtown Express.

FYI, the kids in the photos are just some random dudes that were skating there when I went by, back in Apr.. But check out this old Thrasher blurb with J. Maready skating the banks (by: http://patrickodell.com).

The Truscott’s new pad in RI is located on a seriously awesome longboarding hill. There isn’t much traffic, and it is a nice steep grade. The only problem is, that there isn’t really any run-off room, unless you want to do some dirt riding, which is what I ended up doing. Tadd was riding behind me on a bike, filming. It is a little shaky at first, but then stabilizes.

Longboarding in RI from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.

Here is one more. This was a shorter run, because of traffic behind us.

Longboarding on the 4th of July from Jacob Breinholt on Vimeo.

We got Piper all moved in back at Blythedale and everything, today. I’m feeling pretty good about the way this week is coming to an end. Reagan had a girls night tonight, with one of our friends who is moving away. It gave me a chance to get out and skate a bit. It was really nice to just unwind. This time I thought ahead and wore 2 pairs of socks on my pushing foot, to avoid blisters. I didn’t take any pictures of skating, but there was a pretty dramatic sunset while I was skating down Riverside, to get to CP. These shots are on the early side, but you can image how it just got better and better.

I also ran into this little guy. I see raccoons all of the time when we are down skating in the park, but generally they are just hustling across the road and I can’t get the camera out in time. This guy, however, was up for a full on photo shoot. Standing up on the hind legs and everything.

Other kind of awesome stuff about this week/weekend:

1. The Beastie Boys (minus MCA) were on 30 Rock, last night.
2. Reagan and I are running a 10k in the morning for Kidney something or other. We will see our friend Cuomo there, for the first time since he moved back to CT.
3. Stake Conference this weekend which means that church is later and shorter than normal.
4. If I had to make an estimate, I would say that Piper is feeling probably close to 90% herself again.
5. My brother Pete’s birthday is today.
6. My first post for my new paid blogger gig was published this week.

We had a pretty good weekend, considering that it was supposed to continue to rain all day Saturday. Apparently, mother nature was able to get it all out of her system early that day, because it actually shaped up to be a pretty nice little weekend, weather-wise after Saturday morning. Reagan cut hair in the morning, then palled around with her girlfriends for most of the day. But we were able to go out for a stroll/skate in the evening. It was very pleasant. Reagan loaded up on bubble gum on her last trip to target. So she spent pretty much the entire outing, trying to impress me with her bubble blowing skills.

Sunday morning we got up nice and early, so that we could make it to Central Park in time for a Mother’s day race. We had a really good time. Reagan and I ran most of the race together. We finished in time to make it back for church. This was a bonus, given that one of our friends who is moving away, was giving an address yesterday.

We spent the entire afternoon visiting Piper (which I will address later), then had a barbecue with some of our friends in the evening. The chicken that we had taken out to thaw, was no where near ready, by the time we were going to the bbq, so I was just going to make a sandwich. But Carl bailed me out at the last minute with some cheese filled brats. So meaty. Thanks again, man.

I came across this by way of Animal. Is the idea pool really that shallow these days? What happened to the good old days, when the good ideas flowed like wine? Since the entire functionality of a freestyle deck requires it to be rigid and lightweight, the skateboard above has in effect been rendered useless. Chris Jackson, is clearly no Danny Way. Maybe he should design a fold-in-half rollerblade instead. Seems more up his alley. No hard feelings, Chris.

It’s a new sport. I can tell by your face that you haven’t heard of Kung Fu Skateboarding. Ok, it isn’t really a new sport (or a sport at all), but it sounds like it would be pretty sweet, if someone were to invent it. Way cooler than rollerblade basketball. We bombed some hills in the north end of CP again last night. Col got this shot of me, using the force to make myself go fast. It was perfect weather, again. Don’t let the hoodie and the beanie in the picture fool you. They were both overkill. In fact, I ditched the beanie after about 10 minutes. I love skating so much and I have to say that I’m really bummed out that I’m going to miss out on the Broadway Bomb, again this year. I will be running a marathon (boring). Alright, marathons aren’t really boring. But compared to a skateboard race all the way down Broadway NYC, they seem totally boring. Next year, next year. Go here if you want to check out some more Central Park skate session pics. They are lumped in with the rest of “random October,” so you may have to wade through some other stuff.

I got out and skated last night for the first time since June. It was the type of weather that was custom built for skating. The temperature was less than 80, but more than 70, with a very mild breeze. Another thing that was cool about last night, is that instead of freestyle skating, we were just bombing hills on the longboard. I can’t even remember the last time that I rolled out the longboard. I had forgotten how fun it is. Part of the problem is that there is a severe shortage of smooth pavement and of hills in NYC. Even though longboarding is a relatively simplistic counterpart to normal freestyle skating, I think that the simplistic aspect is what makes it so appealing. My friend Col and I were discussing it a bit last night during our session. There is something very liberating about making huge esses down a long hill. It is super smooth and has such good asthetic.

I’m so glad that longboarding has come back with such force. For a while it seemed like longboarding disappeared. The skating, of course all keyed from what was going on with surfing. All of the really old guys, like Duke Kahanamoku rode longboards. But they were also made of redwood, so they probably had to be huge, just for the buoyancy factor. Then it seemed like the 80’s were all about getting as technical as possible on shortboards, even if your style was weak. PS, remember T&C shirts? I had like 10 of them. Hahahaha. The only people who rode longboards, it seemed were the traditionalists and beginners, who needed the extra stability. Thankfully, in the early 90’s guys like Wingnut, started to showcase how cool longboarding really was. Then guys like Joel Tudor and Bonga Perkins (my personal favorite longboarders), who really brought the sport back to the competitive level.

Joel Tudor, rocking the I heart NY garb.

My first Longboard. A Hawaiian built Keoki, 11′ 6″.

Anyway, we owe the old guys, big time. Our session last night reminded me just how much.

If you know anything about the Dogtown Z boys, then you probably know who Jay Adams is. You probably also know that he has been locked up for the last couple of years. Growing up, I knew the name. I was the most familiar with Peralta though, as far as the Dogtown boys go. Anyway, there was a Sundance film that came out several years ago documenting the the impact that the Dogtown skaters had on the evolution of skateboarding. After seeing this film for the first time, I developed sort of an affinity for all of the guys. I almost felt like they were some long lost relatives, who had fought hard to give me my heritage. I know that is a bit extreme. But if you grew up skateboarding, and dealing with the stigma associated with the sport, in the late 80’s early 90’s then you know what I’m talking about. I also highly recommend the film. Even Reagan loved it, and she never really was that interested in skating. Although, she has been asking for a skateboard recently. I definitely need to jump on that one.

There was actually a Hollywood version of the story too, called Lords of Dogtown. I normally tend shy away from the Hollywood interpretations, but I thought this one was actually really good. They got Heath Ledger to play Skip Engblom, who was one of the original owners of the Zephyr skate shop in Venice CA.

Anyway, I’m glad to see that Jay is out and I hope the best for him.