Wednesday and Thursday, the last full days of my trip out here to San Francisco. I missed the last few days updating the diary of my trip so f-it. You get a double day update in one post, Monday was by far my most productive day of the trip so far. Getting two clips really got me in the mood to capture my riding again, and on Wednesday I got another two clips! This trip has, despite my knee injury been the best yet.

Pete as always was in attack mode, right from the off at the Clocktower murdering the spot whether it was dialled lines, or brand new stuff. Because of his level of consistency, he’s able to have brand new tricks dialled almost instantly, it’s quite amazing to see in person and understand the process of how that happens.

Wednesday, was the best weather day since I have been here. Not that the other days were bad, just cloudy. Whereas, blue skies and warmer temperatures are more than welcome as I am about head back home to freeze for a couple of months till spring time hits.

Everyday, out here has been a blessing to session with Pete. Going back and forth jam style, he busts something rad, we both get inspired from the sessions, whether it’s dialling certain moves or progress at new ones. After I hit the two clips I wanted and captured a bunch of Pete’s in the process, I wanted to film the return of FM exclusive clips and feature something Pete doesn’t do everyday.

The idea came to me, why don’t you do multiple turbine hitches, and straighten out then into hitch dark side to halfpacker as we thought about what he could do for the clip? 15 tries later it was stomped, despite skaters in the way and general chaos that ensues everyday at the Clocktower in SF. Pete’s distraction training is to the fullest, he commented actually that it’s great contest training to ride there, and overcome the daily obstacles. Made a lot of sense.

Wednesday was a wrap, and we took a little tour of some of the skate spots close by and necked a couple of beers. I drink a lot faster than Pete, something the CT crew joked about a lot during my trip out here….

Thursday, My last day in SF. I wanted to have a tourist day, seeing the sights before I left and capture some shots. I headed down to SF around mid day and saw Bottle at the Clocktower. I told him my plan and he laughed at me, you won’t make all that in one day here. “I’ll take you!”. First up, Bottle took me back to the X games site, I competed there in 1999 and 2000. It was amazing to see the X Games sign still on the floor, the ground however was almost unrecognisable to what I rode on 20 years ago. Absolutely amazing to see, and a great start to my day!

From there, we headed to Golden Gate Bridge. We came across this spot at Fort Mason, which is basically like a skatepark. The spots out here, are endless! From Golden Gate Bridge, to Golden Gate Park, a place I visited as a kid with my parents and rode with Aaron Dull, Carly Garcia and Eric Emerson, super cool to see that place again.

My next place I wanted to visit was the infamous record store on Haight, Amoeba Music! The biggest record store I have ever visited, and three DOOM CD’s to the growing collection, job done. Haight is a pretty awesome spot in SF, so awesome shops, graffiti, and culture. One of the many reasons, I love it here in San Francisco. From Amoeba, I wanted to check out the skateboard store FTC, which happened to be real close, as well as a few famous skate spots and a skatepark that were also close by.

Big thanks to Bottle for driving me around SF all day looking at the sites, my last day was a great one. Really hyped on this trip out here, I can’t thank Fred Gates, James McGraw and of course Pete and Karrisa Brandt and the kids enough for their hospitality whilst I have been out here, and everyone I have rode with and hung out with along the way. Only good vibes. I hope to make it back again next year, three years in a row would be tight. It’s almost time to go home…