5th Day of August in Two Thousand and Eight
Well it's official, I'm an occasional updater. This update is for my addition of Project WIDDL to the Flash section.
22nd Day of April in Two Thousand and Six
Not updated this in a while but this is a special shout out for Ads and just thought I'd let anyone know about his new website for his board and clothing company. I did a gallery on some of his stuff last year, just a sec, I'll try and find that........Ah, here it is. Anyway, Ads has stepped this up and is printing boards on top of all his clothing ventures. These are really nice, I've not tried the boards yet, but the pictures I've seen show the same type of really original clean lined designs that I've seen on his hoodies, Tee's and stickers. I suggest you keep an eye on this which you can from the website. Check it here at www.thedrawingboards.com. Nice one Ads, it's lookin' fiiiiinnnnee dude.
8th Day of October in Two Thousand and Five
Today is Coco Santiago's birthday, one of the founders of the Tractor Factory. Happy Birthday Colin.
I just re-did the Flash page. I've got past the lazy version where I just directly linked to the .swf files themselves. I've added a wee commentary to each one of my wee projects and also added a new Random Picture loader which has about 14 pictures from my computer loaded into it.
29th Day of September in Two Thousand and Five
Just a quick note to say that I was at ma Maw's at the weekend there and passed Kincardine who have just had a small concrete park installed. Here's a wee picture of it. You'll see from the size of it why I didn't go to the lengths of doing a full gallery for it. What you see in the picture is more or less what you get. There's also a metal bench off the the left and a small wedge (I was havin' loads of fun with wee kickflips and 180s off the tail fae that) thingy about where my feet would have been in the photo.
Now when I first saw it I was thinking "Oh my christ, another couple of thousand pounds sterling doon the swany." There's a lot of chat about the campfire about councils spending money on things like this that to the hardened skater seem like a waste of money and time. But after skating it, I was thinking, it ain't too bad. Who are we to say to these kids in a wee village, you can't have a wee skatepark of your own coz us experienced skaters think it's a waste. Now I'm not the flyest thing since Danny Way, but I was showing the assembled what possibilities are there even with such a small space, and hopefully a few of them may have been enlightened enough to end up taking to the wooden plank permanently. So I think there is a place for these wee parks as a sort of grass roots start for skating. There aren't Old Trafford quality football pitches in every town in the country but there's enough there that gets people started and that's where I feel these facilities have a place.
27th Day of August in Two Thousand and Five
Right, I've been meaning to write up about a guy a met this year and the skate product that he produces. Fife Council organised for me and Stu Hill (There's another story about Stu which I'll divulge after this) to go over to Germany to roadtest ramps manufactured by a company called WhiteSkate. Anyway, the company invited some other organisations, private and public sector to go over and see these ramps. One organisation that was on this trip was the troops who run Skaterham Skatepark in Caterham, Surrey. One of the Guys who works there, Ads or Adam, produces some really nice looking clothing lines under the name of Coping. Skaterham is a skatepark that's been built in a church and is run (I'm not sure of the complete logistics) as a community youth project. Ads sells his goodies from the shop based in the skatepark at much cheapness but with such high quality. Whilst on this trip to Germany (it's a tough job, but someone's got to do it.) Ads also gave me a wee plaggy bag of Coping stickers which has unfortuneately started a floodgate of sticker collecting for me. That wee bag you gave me is starting to burst at the seams now. On top of that he's also started producing decks as well which look sweet. Here's a wee taster of some of the fruits of his labour in a Coping Gallery. Nice one Ads...
Stu Hill story time. The boneless beast fae Kirkcaldy has been working in DB Boardstore in Kirkcaldy for as long as I know, but Mark, the owner is off on some Snowboard Instructor jaunt for at least a year, so guess who's taken over the lease and is running DB in his absense. Yer main man Stu Hill. Good luck Stu.
Got a wee text fae PeanutMedia Kerry yesterday. She been asked to do some skating for a Teenage Fanclub video in Glasgow. Remember all the little people when yer famous Kerry! So everyone, rush out and buy the single when it comes out, not sure what it is, but should be good.
6th Day of August in Two Thousand and Five
Had to post this, Check out the Balloon Bowl, how much fun would that be?? Oh and non-skate related, check out Google Maps and it's bigger brother Google Earth. See if you can find yer hoose!
31st Day of July in Two Thousand and Five
A revolution has happened in North Ayrshire. The Evolution Skatepark is now open. Evolution Skatepark was built by the same bods that did Perth and Blantyre and is a managed outdoor concrete park, which in short terms means there is subtle entrance fees and helmet wearing regulations. There's been a lot of chat about the whole wearing helmets on an outdoor park but I feel it's a small price to pay to not have to put up with the yahoos that you find loitering at most other parks. But especially, this park is an absolute belter and who cares if you do have to wear a helmet, could save yer life. Ah've uploaded a gallery to the Skatepark section so you can have a wee drool if you so desire.
On Friday night I was through at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow. The council there had organised a workshop/indoor skatepark type thing for the week, culiminating in a demo/show on the Friday night. This was run by Team Extreme and was sponsored by Fruit Shoot (that drink that's not quite Ribena and not quite Oasis). Now, when you first hear the name "Team Extreme", you instantly think, 'cheeeeese', but I was looking at the website and people involved include Neil Danns and Jamie Bestwick, so I went with an open mind. It was also good that they are trying to raise awareness for the sports involved and letting kids try out these things under real tuition that hadn't tried it before, but..... Mo Diggedy, it was extra lashing of high strength fromage. The only thing that really saved it was the pro demo which for the size of the setup, they did really well.
23rd Day of July in Two Thousand and Five
Well, been a while since an update. I've been sorting out my broadband connection. Yes indeedy, ah've joined the revolution and ah now nippin' along at a nice tasty 1Mb speed. Wicked!! The Tractor Factory is also moving although hopefully no one will notice the difference. I've managed to sort out dedicated webspace instead of just a forwarding domain to my ISP webspace. Hopefully this means I'll get listed on search engines better and there's a few other tricks I can add to my arsenal.
Just been out today to the Leven comp which was good inspite of the lack of PA. Really canny remember the winners, but the results and photos (taken on my brand spanky new camera, should be up sometime on SkateboardScotland.
Next weekend, 30th July, is the opening of the Evolution Skatepark in Stevenson in North Ayrshire. This skatepark looks like an absolute stoater. Should be really good. There is also an indoor skatepark being set up in Kelvin Hall in Glasgow all next week with a pro demo on the Friday night. I'll probably be heading to both these events, so I'll sort out some sort of imagery.
Here, by the way, check this out. Google are taking a stab at the internet mapping and directions game. Pretty damn impressive stucf, check it at Google Maps.
29th Day of June in Two Thousand and Five
Livi Pure Fun Skate Party was on at the weekend there. What a weekend! I tell you that event gets busier and busier. It's all guid though. Much fun and hilarity was had by all. I, as usual burnt myself oot before the end of Sunday. One of these years I'm gonna pace myself enough to keep skatin' the whole weekend. Anyway, all the usual suspects were there, Stu, Benson, Div, Ben, the Commanderson plus all the usual folks fae around the rest of the UK that you see at the greatest event in the British Skating calendar. Some of the highlights were Benson taking and very much deserving the king of the park. Wee Josh Parr fae Bolton totally rippin' the Big Bowl and halfpipe. Everyone was talkin' about him. He broke one of my life rules as well. "Never Ollie Blunt something that is 4 times taller than you are!!!" Neil Smith (I think!!) did the big rail out the back of the park down towards the river. The 2 minute to Midnight Bowl session. Ben Groves Backside Flip over the rail to the wee bowl.
17th Day of June in Two Thousand and Five
Ahhhhh, holidays are guid. Just got back from ma holidays in Australia. That country is huuuggggge. Wow I tell you, I saw a postcard that overlayed most of Europe onto a map of Australia and Britain is like less than the size of most states. Anyway, didn't get much in the way of skating done, but check out the Rye Cradle Skatepark I managed to get a wee run around on. I think this is the skatepark that was featured in an aritcle I read a couple of weeks back where the council wouldn't pay for the roof of the cradle but the guy how was building it for them thought it really should have the cradle and so stumped up the extra cash for it. The skatepark is not just big in the sense that it has the cradle, the whole bowl is really big at about 10-11 foot deep. There was a wheelybin in when I got there and I needed to get help to get it out of there.
The Dunfermline comp was on while I was away. Apparently it rained a touch, but they did get things going and by all accounts had a rad day. Gutted I missed it. There's a write up and some rather spiffing photos over at SkateboardScotland.
It's the Livi Pure Fun Skate Party next weekend the 25th and 26th of June. Noticed that Sidewalk have printed it as being in July. Doh!! Anyway, this is the 25th Aniversary of the Livingston Skatepark and so there is Limited Edition (only 100) Livi TeeShirts on sale at Blackmark and Focus. All proceeds from these Tees goes towards the Skate Party. If you've no been to the Skate Party I urge you to really get yersel a tent and get along there. There are rumours that it may be the last due to public liability issues, so make the most of it.
22nd Day of May in Two Thousand and Five
This is just a wee update. I was going to do an article on Coping Threads which is a clothing company that one of ma mates has down in London, but ah'm away oan ma jollies and ah've nae time left. I got a pair of rather fly hoodies aff him. Ah'll sort that oot when ah get back.
I was at the Cupar Skate Jam last weekend partly in my official SkateboardScotland capacity, partly in ma never skated it and wanted a shot capacity. They organised a load of wee comps for Skateboarders, InLiners and BMXers and it was a braw day. The skateboard comp was sponsored by Black Mark and was a wee jam session in Cupar's main bowl. There's a few photo's up at Skateboard Scotland courtesy of Joe and I added photos to my skateparks section of the park and it's metal halfpipe. Nice wee park there if yer ever in North Fife.
Black Mark has bought a semi fisheye, we have the power to start gettin' a few close up scenes for the video.
9th Day of May in Two Thousand and Five
Was through in Glasgow at the weekend and finally managed to get some updated photos (ie not in the wet) for the site. If you head into the Skateparks section you can see the results.
Had quite a busy weekend all in all, I went on a bit of a large structure photo hunt and went to get some photos of the Forth Rail Bridge on Saturday morning and took a wee trip through Falkirk on the way home from Glasgow and went up to see the Falkirk Wheel as well.
Speaking of Falkirk. A wee addition to the previous post about the rails and boxes that have been built there. Apparently Stuart had "shag aww" tae dae with the building and all props really belong to his bro Roy. He's now put a 20 odd foot flat bar rail there as well. He just found it and then thought, "get some legs on it and fet it doon the skatepark" Nice one Roy. I like the way Falkirk, although being a concrete skatepark, manages to change slightly every time I visit it.
Lastly, just before I sign aff and get me kip, I've added another Flash file to the website. I was sitting in the car in the pouring rain waiting on someone when I saw the rain hitting the windscreen in all sort of random sizes and positions so thought it might be cool to try and re-create that. I'm gonna try and develop it with a bit of interactivity but check it out in the Flash section.
Oh almost forgot, ah've got ma Skatepolice badge at SkateboardScotland. I thought it might come with fortune, glory and chicks on sticks, but nae such luck. Ah'm just helping out with organising SkateboardScotland events. All of the committee positions at SkateboardScotland have changed with Ali Menzies now the Chairman which to me is a wise choice and should help it become better as an organisation. Big up Ali.
20th Day Of April in Two Thousand and Five
The Factory held it's first comp of the year last Saturday. Big thanks and appreciation have to go to all those involved. Gusho looked like he had a lot of involvement, Blair and few others judging and Ali Lowe taking his usual stance behind the mic. Oh and Effective Edge for the prizes. It was a really good day with loads of really good skating. I was running about like a maddy in trying to get some photos of which you can see the pictures here.
When I got back fae Dundee, I had camera in hand and it was still a nice night, so I decided to nip round to King's Road Primary in Rosyth to skate and photograph what is one of the best street spots I've been to in good while. King's Road Primary has this lovely bit round the back which is a curved flat bank which goes along for about 20 metres round the edge of the playground. I got there and was gutted at the sight of the newly installed skatestopper surface right along the entire length of the bank. Canny believe it. Check out the pictures here, look at the second image and imagine that with a flat surface right along. It was sweet. As you'll see from the rest of the pictures, it's still no bad with some nice wee ledges, benches, ollie humps and manny islands. I've added a Multimap link in there as well.
Answers on a postcard please..... What are they puttin' in the water up in Perth? We had a Mini BlackMark Mission up to the skatepark on Sunday and on about three occasions there was kids gettin' aw radge at each other, one BMXer idiot (not a generalisation) just purposly kicked another kids BMX and then started pushin' him about. Wasn't just the BMXers either, there was also a skater who was gettin all mistrel at someone as well. That place has gone down in my estimation a few points.
11th Day Of April in Two Thousand and Five
Went to Falkirk on Sunday there. Word on the grapevine was that Falkirk had a few new additions in the form of manny pads and rails to fill in the huge flat area. The Duncan's have built 2 wooden manual pads (bolted down no less, I think we're lookin' at Scottish Skateboardings A-Team) with metal edges and 2 free standing rails. These totally fill this park out and it's made it even better and well worth a visit. If you've no been, get yerself over there. I've added a couple of pictures of these to the Falkirk gallery for your perusal.
9th Day Of April in Two Thousand and Five
Just pasted together a panoramic picture of The Factory and uploaded it as the opening picture for the Dundee gallery. Still not managed to get a decent photo of the bowl, I'll get that next time. Oh, there's a comp at the Factory on the 16th of April. I'm gonna probably get up there for a few pictures and a wee skate.
The DC Team are coming to Bonnie Scotland on Tuesday. Christ that's 3 days away. They're going to what is now getting called the Kelvingrove Street Plaza in Glasgow for an 'unofficial demo' at 6:30pm. Let's hope it doesney rain.
28th Day Of March in Two Thousand and Five
Ma bro just did me a new header for the index page which is fly. He did the original, but wanted tae gie it another go. The results as you can see are the mutts nutts. Nice one Ali. Props.
Just finished watching the new Blind DVD, What If? It's pretty damn good, ah tell you ah'm a sucker fer a guid vert section and Jake Brown doesney disappoint. He was doin' some crazzzzy ass tricks. Jake Duncombe seems to catch flips before he's left the ground. Style. And the slam section is unbelievable. I know I'm not the best video commentator, but 2 words, Video Days. It's a hidden extra on the DVD. 2 films for the price of one, canny grumble at that. Anyway, ye can purchase it here.
27th Day Of March in Two Thousand and Five
Welcome to the newly designed Tractor Factory Skates. Well, this has been a long time coming. There might be a few wee changes and tweaks to come. I want to put descriptions or picture links onto the Flash and Links page and I was considering and background for the index page, but that depends if what I have in mind works. Anyway, might as well start off a new site with a new article and what better way to start than with the Bones SOS Allnighter.
Focus skate shop in Edinburgh organised a trip down to Bones Skatepark in Bolton on Friday. The session was a SOS (Skater Owned Shop) allnighter starting at 8:00pm and finishing at 8:00am the next morning. Two minibuses went down for a belter of a sesh. Bones put on wee bits on throughout the night to break it up a bit, the highjump, games of s-k-a-t-e, videos in the cinema room (Alex Irvine provided some wacky japanese skate video, most bizarre) and a kitchen sellin' the usual greasy spoon delights but in the main it was just a full on all night session. Braw. Check out the photos below.
Big thanks must go to Sibs and Focus for organising the bus, Ali for driving the second bus and Bones for putting the whole thing on. Nice one, Y'all players!
Just realised that Focus have got a link for the Blueprint premiere photos which is on the old site, here's a link to the photos. Again, props to Focus for organising that an' aw.