We had a premeditated session in Florissant yesterday that didn't exactly go as planned. Gabe sent me a text the previous night, hopefully not while walking, telling me that he had an insatiable hunger for a particular trick at a particular spot. Unbeknownst to us, they had recently upped their security measures by placing this sign in front of the spot and employing an elderly man to refer us to the sign. In an attempt to avoid an argument over semantics with the kind gentleman, we unanimously decided it was best to retreat to a spot that was more "skate and boarding bike" friendly. We found ourselves at the Dunegant skate park located just off of Derhake.
There is a common theme that Midwestern prefabricated skate parks seem to share. That theme is removing obstacles from the park after they've occupied it for a few years. I'm not sure where the quarter pipes from Webster, the benches from Troy and the pyramid from Dunegant are currently located, but I'd like to believe they still exist in some sort of skate park purgatory. Nevertheless, Derek, under the influence of the local graffiti, executed a Shaolin style back disaster on the miniramp with a samurai sword to boot.
Later we found ourselves at a closed down car dealership (perhaps the one that someone's dad used to own). Derek was contemplating getting all John Motta on the spot while Gabe was calculating the skatability of the flat bars. Derek grew some facial hair and decided to front board one of the oversized round rails. Danny went back to Champaign with this front nose under his belt, complete with obligatory stylish hand gestures. Although the day didn't really go according to plans, we still made the most of it rather than immediately hitting the boo-hoo button and heading back home, and the last picture is proof that now we are all a bit more manly because of that.
-Jake
