RSS Feed (xml)After finally getting everyone up and about we made our way over to NDK once again and spent the entire day there. Lines were filmed and photos were shot. The highlight of this fine afternoon must go to Andrew Makepeace who, after battling for over an hour, rode away from a banger of a trick on the big bank with a style reminiscent of Gino Ianucci. I’d like to tell you more but the trick hounds amongst you will have to wait until the sequence appears in Sidewalk magazine. Trust me, it’s worth the wait!
The rest of the day was spent either skating, filming or purchasing endless drinks due to the sweltering sun, leaving me with pockets full of Bulgarian receipts – well, you’ve gotta keep the finance folks happy!
As night fell Alex took us to his city centre flat/office/warehouse and we sat conversing into the early hours whilst watching various videos that Virus had released, along with showing the Bulgarian guys some of our lads most recent stuff. After a quick post midnight call at the very traditionally Bulgarian KFC (that was sarcasm by the way) we retired to our beds and quickly all dropped off to sleep.
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Yep, you’ve guessed it – Day 3 and we’re back at NDK. The place is like a magnet, drawing us in coz it is just that good. This time however we actually managed to venture away from it’s perfect spots to visit what remains of Sofia’s skate park. You may well recognise the monument that sits guard over the 10 year old metal vert ramp from our tour T-Shirts (available to buy from Routeone.co.uk if you would like one!).
On first inspection this place appeared to have little to offer, but two hours later we walked away with three banging tricks, one from Avid and two from Manhead. Sadly, once again to find out what these tricks were you will have to wait until the photos appear in Sidewalk! Needless to say, these tricks will surely leave you impresses viewed in a photographic format but seeing them live was special. Manhead landed his vert hammer 3 times in a row on a ramp that had a three inch gap between the coping and the platform, (major hang-up potential) and Avid fought through some truly awful slams to ride away from perhaps the gnarliest trick he has landed to date. If you’ve seen the guy skate then you know that’s saying something!
Day 4 and after a quiet night we were up early to jump into the Virus Mini bus to venture out of Sofia onto the motorways for a three hour drive to visit the first concrete skate park in Bulgaria in a small town by the name of Haskovo. This day was by far the hottest yet and the three hour drive soon turned into five due to the very regular stops for drinks and ice creams. Yep, you read it correctly – Seven gnarly buggers they might be but you just can’t beat an ice-lolly or a 99 on such a boiling hot day.
We arrived at the park to find our hotel situated, and I kid you not, less than 30 meters away. Spot on! No worries about skating with all your valuables in your pocket as you could leave all your cash in your room with the nearest place to get a drink being the hotel bar anyway.
The local kids seemed amazed to have outsiders visit there little town and were super stoked, cheering every trick landed with Amir Williams being particularly popular. He and Avid must have signed over a hundred autographs on the posters we handed out and every kid went home with a smile.
After a quick meal in the hotel’s quaint little restaurant and voyeuristically taking a peak at a traditional Bulgarian wedding service that was taking place we made the very short walk back to the park that was now perfectly floodlit for a few beers and a lot of skating. Now that the park was free of kids we could really get going and I captured a number of sick tricks on film including an impossibly tweaked F/s Melon over the hip from the hands and feet of Ben Leyden. Even I managed to get in on the action as Avid, Manhead and myself put a kicker against a wall and tried our best to get lip tricks on the thing. Manhead being the swine that he is quickly rode away from a pivot popped to fakie whilst I battled my fears to eventually get a fairly stinkin’ front rock. Even got a photo, stoked!
Come back tomorrow for the final installment!
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