The end of days: summer 2004 wrap-up.

HELLO, FRIENDS. It is your man in San Pedro here. Well, from the looks of things winter is now upon us--hooded sweatshirts, rainy days (snow and ice for some), homework (for the little guys and the scholarly types), and pitifully short days. The past summer is but a random jangle of sweet-tinged memories floating in the backwater ooze inside our craniums. Thank the cosmic powers then for those out-of-body memory collectors: the computer and the camera.

LET'S FACE IT, without the assistance of those little mechanical doodads our memories might he a little less memorable. Don't get me wrong, I like telling and listening to tales of past adventures around the fireplace just as much as anyone. But having snapshots of those experiences to share with good folks just adds to the fun. Getting to the point here, over the last few days I've been going over the files on the trusty little laptop-that-could, and man! Literally hundreds of snapshots taken over this past summer flooded the screen and made me want to push the rewind button on the VCR of life to do it all over again. The next few pages are just a mere slice of what went down around me during the warm months of 2004.

MEMORY #1

CHANNEL STREET'S FIRST BOWL AND VERT WALL GET FINISHED-AND THEN IS IMMEDIATELY SHREDDED BY LOCALS AND VISITORS ALIKE

The pros have just been eating this place up, from Daewon's blunts on the gnarwall to Bennett Harada's frontside ollies off the bowl hip. The hard work of the local crew has really paid off, because now it's only a hop, skip and a jump for local skaters with a concrete tranny jones. Pay in mind, the place is only going to get better as we keep building.

MEMORY #2

QUATROS CASAS BOWL IN BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

I head down to Baja California on a regular basis for surf, camp and fishing adventures, but lately it seems like this place is becoming a skate Mecca as well. First it was the Pescadero park down in southern Baja, and now some of the Washington Street guys helped put this fun hybrid-kidney bowl in the ground at the famed surf spot/hostel/funk-zone known as Quatros Casas. When my personal physician and me made it down there in mid-August the coping had yet to be placed--but we indulged nonetheless. Fast and fun is all that needs to be said. Word has it that the coping was glued on the day after we departed. I'll be back soon.

MEMORY #3

THE TWO BEST SHOWS OF THE SUMMER

Okay, to be honest, both of these shows actually happened sometime in May, but it was really hot that month here in Pedro so we'll just act like it was summer. Toys That Kill played a rockin' show in a backyard for some young high schooler's birthday party and it was crazy. The parents had hired a bouncer and provided giant coolers full of Mountain Dew to the little rabble-rousers who came to celebrate and see the band. Needless to say, with all that Dew getting sucked down the bouncer had his hands full all night. The amped-out kids were going bananas, swinging on ropes over the moshed out zone and genuinely having a good-ass time.

Possibly the coolest thing I saw/heard all year was the Minutemen reunion show that went down at the famous punk club the Dancing Waters right here in San Pedro. Mike Watt and George Hurley got back together to play some old songs and honor the memory of singer/guitarist D Boon, who was taken too early way back in 1985. At first I was a little skeptical as to how well the old songs would go down without the guitar wizardry and unique voice of D Boon, but I ended up being floored by Hurley and Watt's mastery of the music. The Water's club is actually a Mex bar now called La Zona Rosa, but on punk night they still call it the Waters. The place is wild inside, complete with weird hooker looking Mex waitresses and artificial fountains all over the place.

MEMORY #4

OREGON TRIP IN MID-JULY

In my opinion, no summer is worthy without a jaunt up to the Pacific Northwest, and this summer was a particularly worthy trip. Highlights included the synchronized skateboarding of Fudge and the Doctor at Klamath Falls (this shot must have taken 30 tries, and I still cut Doc's arm off), Karaoke night at the Snug Harbor in Lincoln City, skateparks nestled into mystical coastal forests, and cliff jumps into bodies of water wherever we could find 'em. A brilliantly smashing adventure indeed.

Well, that's about all I got room for this time around, but the memories of summer 2004 would take up a whole issue of this rag. Hope you enjoyed it, and we'll be seein' y'all somewheres out in the big world sometime soon. And hey, hang in there, because winter will be done before you know it and summer 2005 is just around the bend. Adios.