PARRA-LEL LINES

Parra-lel lines from Randy Ploesser on Vimeo.

I had to wait a little bit to post this fun edit that Jake Pratte made of Clint Walker and I doing some Tandem dorkery at the Parre-lel spot in Barcelona because Thrasher was tentatively using this firing line. But its up now so I can share the whole she-bang!

SKATE OR BOARDING BIKES IN FLORISSANT

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

PIZZA STREET SKATING

Alex finally dragged me to the famous Pizza Street earlier this week where we stuffed our faces full of pizza and ice cream. It was the best/worst/best meal of my life. -Worful

SAFETY STANCE

I got a call from Sam the other day, saying him and Kendal were going to be at the Webster park. So naturally I wanted to join and watch them shred, and I wasn't disappointed! -Worful

RANDY AND WORFUL DO WEBSTER

In the events preceding the pole jam excursion, Worful and Randy orchestrated a urethane symphony on the musical metal ramps of Webster skate park. Luckily I was there to document this rare occurrence and the effect it had on people passing by. Some people were uninterested and perhaps even borderline annoyed by the "racket", but I blame it on the faulty acoustics, and I blame that on half of the Webster skate park stage being absent. Really, every outdoor auditory performance is done with some sort of transitioned architecture in nearby proximity (ie. here, here, and most notably here). Anyway, Alex was involuntarily letting the sights and sounds take over his body (which can be seen by his responsive, expressive and seemingly unorthodox dance maneuvers), but the entire tennis team can be seen walking by with the utmost unenthusiastic attitude. Maybe it's because they just finished practicing on this.

-Jake

P.S. A thousand thank you's for presenting me with the privilege of posting on the Pretty blog! I'll try my best to keep the stream of conscious drivel to a minimum and the montage making at a maximum.

MEN IN BLACK

There's a new polejam in Webster, and of course the Kehoe brothers were all over it. Gabe got a sick line there, and Alex was there for brotherly support of course. -Worful

IS THIS CONSIDERED SECOND BASE?

Here's Chris, ollying over the lovely Shelby, at the Troy park the other day. I'm not sure if this is considered second base, but it's definitely a make. Alex, you need to step up your game player. -Worful

AHOY, TROY

Bobby and I ventured to Troy, IL the other day and had a super fun time at the Troy park that is famous for it's frequent appearances in Jake's videos. I referred to it affectionately as "The Webster park of the North." It's great! A bunch of dudes where already there ripping once we showed up, including Gabe and Derek (even though his fingers are all purple and chubby due to an injury). Bobby joined in on the fun and seemed right at home. Afterward we headed to Jake's house and he bought us all pizza and showed us some footage he'd been shooting. What a great host! The next day I ran into Jake again at the JB park and then again the next day at the KHUL. In other news, since Jake's clearly become a regular fixture in our frolicking and since I love Jake and his tre flips and his videos and fully back Randy's suggestion to invite him to contribute to our blog. If Jake accepts this invitation there will be an informal induction ceremony at Pizza Street sometime this week. Also, YOU HAVE ONE DAY TO DECIDE JAKE. -Worful

P.S. Drew came with us to the JB park and is somewhat less hurt than he has been and was looking good as always cruising around the park. But before we got there he inhaled some BBQ and then felt sick and said the food was making him "feel crazy" and thus he had to stop skating for a bit and rest. I told this story to Bobby and he quickly referred to Drew as "Drew-B-Q." Ha!

CREATING SOMETHING OUT OF NOTH.. TROY, IL SKATEPARK

It has been said that there is strength in limitation. Or maybe I'm just making that up. If that is the case (that I am pulling proverbial wisdom out of thin air) then I hope that some old and timeless work of film or literature will be prefaced by "there is strength in limitation- the dolphin". However, it is highly doubtful when there are people like this dude taking up all of the quote space in the world.

Point is, our pal Jake can point his camera at his little buddies (just kidding "little buddies", but how can you compete when there are people like this dude around) at his crummy local prefab skatepark in the middle of fucking nowhere (just kidding, America's heartland) and then put it into his computer, throw a nifty tune over it, pepper in some stock footage topped with some virtuoso editing and it can all turn out pretty great.

For proof of this theory just ask Jake how I turned everything into nothing on our recent visit to Spain. More from that trip soon hopefully, and more from when Worf and I went to Peru, (2nd link) if I ever get around to it. At this rate, I might not, and it has become clear I have more important priorities.

Worf- can we get Mr. Pratte a password so he can post his own videos instead of having to cringe at the sight of his masterworks aside my silly rants? Is there some sort of perfunctory ceremonial rite we have to perform to knight him into bloghood? I think hanging out with me in Spain for 2 weeks was probably a harsh enough hazing at least.

AIN'T NOTHIN' GONNA BREAK JOEL'S STRIDE

Joel continues to rip, just so you know. -Worful

OH MY GOD, HIDE YOUR SPOTS!!!

Bobby and I met some of the guys at the fountain and had a fun session. Bobby was on fire, tearing up the ledge as well as flatground while beating me in S.K.A.T.E. He transformed into "Sweaty Bobby" pretty quickly. Jake's ankle is still hurting, but he showed up for emotional and photographical support. Alex got bored at one point and made some street art. Meanwhile, this guy walked up and was all "OBVIOUSLY we have a RIPPER at the fountain, and he's snatchin' your tricks up. So hide your Kehoes, hide your Prattes, hide your Marksteiners, and hide your spots 'cause Schwartz ripping up everything out here." Weird. Anyway, super good to see you Schwartz, hope to see you soon. -Worful

NEW RANDY APP

Get the new "Randy App" for your iPhone! How does it work you ask? Simply point your phone at a skate spot and press the WWRD? (What Would Randy Do?) button and you'll get a preview of how Randy would destroy that particular spot. In this case, Herbert pointed his phone at an obstacle at the Kingshighway spot, and as you can see Randy would've done a really tweaked ollie if he had skated there. You can also preview Randy skating in different outfits, anything from punk rock to hip hop. Enjoy! -Worful

SO FETCH AND SO CLEAN

Bobby and I had the pleasure of skating with Jake and the famous Steve Roberts the other day. Steve's arsenal of flip tricks is insane, and it's always super fun to watch him skate. We poked around the Hanley Industrial Court area and skated this loading dock to bank thingy. Steve popped a mean kickflip and varial heel, and Bobby did a noseslide on the guardrail. But after that it was just too dang hot, so we called it a day. Good to see you Steve, get to filming for the Infinity video! -Worful

YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD SPOT NEW TRICKS

Wait, who's Alex talking to? Why, it's Jake! Him and Randy are back safe and sound from their adventures abroad, and I'm sure we'll see some evidence of their fun there soon enough. Anyway, the other day everyone wanted to go to a certain spot to try a certain something, but instantly got kicked out by a certain cranky lady. So I met everyone at the blind school ledges instead. And we skated there for a bit, and it was fun, except for the ever-present ball of fire above us. Then just when we were about to leave Chris had the bright idea to move a dumpster and skate it off the loading dock behind it. Instantly we had a fresh session on our hands. After he skated the dumpster he moved it and discovered yet ANOTHER ledge at the blind school. Like archaeologists, Jake and Alex inspected and excavated it, and then another session had begun. After that we tried to teach Jake how to kickflip properly, but he's still working on it. -Worful