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AoS-Fest IV : Paradise in the Desert

Intro

Thursday

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Friday

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Saturday

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Sunday

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Day 3: Saturday December 9th - West Phoenix Tour

Glendale Skate Park

The Glendale park was a short ten minute drive away up and around the 101. It is another Site Design park and was poured by Hardcore Skateparks. We pulled up and the park was packed with kids. As we walked in, however, we noticed that the majority of kids were not skating. They were just sitting around on obstacles and hanging out. Very strange. Like Peoria, the street section was an absolute zoo, and a sure way of guaranteeing a collision with someone. It was a mix of apparently very good skaters and lots of clueless kids wandering around. Throw in the random scooter rider and there was definitely no way we were hitting that part of the park. We made our way to the back to the two bowls. By this time, it was around 3:30 or 4 pm and the sun was beating down. It was pretty warm out. Maybe that is what was tapping our energy so quickly. Yeh�that sounds like a good excuse. (haha) Again, our group kind of split off. Some went right to the small 4 foot deep, spined U-bowl/fun bowl while others went over to the larger bowl. At the larger bowl, there was already a group of 2-3 older guys skating, and we made introductions all around. I joined in on the larger bowl. Again, I am not sure how you would describe the large bowl. It has a 5 foot or so shallow top section with a channel on it�s longest edge that drops down a waterfall to a deep end that starts about 9 foot deep and then escalates to about 10 foot. The overall shape is almost like taking an eclipse and splitting it lengthwise except the deep end is slightly longer which makes for a small pocket section. With me still? I took a few runs but the sun was casting a shadow on the entire face wall of the deep end. I had to keep going backside to avoid being blinded. I switched to the small fun bowl for a while, but that proved frustrating as several kids would go at once. I skated there with Patrick and Jay a bit, but went back over to the big bowl. Barry, Kerry and Butch were skating with the older guys we met. I took a few runs, but you guessed it�.puked again. With that, I called it a day and just took pictures. Soon, Patrick and Jay joined the session and everyone was skating the big bowl. Barry found a line to work some backside 50-50s in both shallow corners. Butch found his line to backside double truck grinds in the deep. Kerry was having a tough time figuring out frontside grinds up the escalator in the deep end but eventually I think I heard a faint grinding sound coming from his trucks on coping. (haha) Patrick really seemed to love that bowl. He was working around in a nice line spiked with some grinds and backside disasters. Jay got the feel for it and was throwing down several tricks. He would roll in on the deep end side and work a nice line around the bowl. A younger local ripper...probably 17 or so�apparently noticed our group and wanted to come show us his skills (there�s always �one of those� right? Haha). He joined in the session and was doing some nice ollie grabs in the deep and over the channel. He took a really hard slam trying a frontside stalefish, but after a short break, he got back in and did. Ahhh to be young again, eh? Haha. Around 4:30 or so, we were all worn out. As Jay said "dishes are done, dude". We called it a day. We headed to the parking lot and cooled down. Our pal from Peoria had made it over to this park, but we were done for the day. We hung out with the Seattle guy a bit and had some adult beverages...wheat pops. Some other kids in the parking lot tried to convince us they were of age and bum some drinks, but no dice....denied. They were cool about it though. Before we drank too much or got too settled in, we decided we need to head back. Once more, Butch drove us to the hotel.