Shred Stick Chronicles: Revised

    

     Back at it! No longer En Barcelona, this time the street carving takes place in Washington, DC. Obviously. It takes a confident (crazy) young whipper snapper to grab ahold of a cupcake truck, crouch down un-spotted in the rear view mirror and steal a free ride uphill passing bikers who just passed me flipping the bird. I throw it right back to them I've learned to realize that people don't usually like something that seems out of place. Bombing hills in my loafers and accelerating through yellow lights mid bike lane has gotten me a few derogatory comments along the way. Do I care? NAH. All I have to do is turn up Flux Pavillion in my headphones and tell everyone "I can't stop". I do have trouble stopping sometimes so most of the time I just keep cruising. Pedestrians, bikers, buses, pot holes and taxis do pose problems when trying to shred at a high level. Rush hour is almost preferred because then I'm the one passing everyone and I don't need to be worried about getting clipped from behind. I promise, Mom, I'm aware of my surroundings and when in doubt get slow down and walk my board through traffic. Oookk!
     My commute from Georgetown to Bethesda, MA involves walking a block in the morning to catch a bus to DuPont circle, quick skate to DuPont metro, taking the metro up to Bethesda, Maryland then skating to the office. All uphill in the morning. More importantly is the trip home. ALL DOWNHILL. For the first chapter of this chronicle I am featuring some young shredders that have become some of my only friends in the Bethesda area. These little groms are actually pretty sick at shredding the slopes, check em out:

     Like I was saying, the ride home is all downhill. Sounds nice right? Well 7.2 miles downhill can and does get tiring after a while. Especially when it's 90 degrees out with 95% humidity. Lets be clear here, I do not usually complain about shredding conditions but I do not like humidity and I don't count stairs. I have done the lengthy ride from Maryland to DC a few times. There was one evening when I couldn't decide the trail or the metro home and then mid way to the metro I saw the little dudes above racing down a side street and was forced to absolutely shralp the two lane bike highway home with them. They only made it a mile and a half and when I told them I was headed to Gtown they thought I was crazy. 22 and skateboarding seven miles home from a finance internship... varsity squad. The pictures below show a little more of the Capital Crescent Trail: