Mr. Shapiera has been a bit quiet, which means only one thing, he's passed out on a couch or he is rippin' hill with crew. You're in luck hopbloggers, Jacko has some tales to tell... Last two weeks have flown by pretty quick, after such hectic adventures in the land of Pukka Rico, the mode changed to somewhat lurk mode and consisted of some fun times skateboarding in Cali and then up to the Great White North on Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island in B.C. (Hop's note: you dont get all the stories in one blog, one each day!) First day wake up at Skate House and it took a good couple hours till anyone was really animated to do much, then as people started getting bored of being bored the general consensus at Skatehouse is to go skate, probably Malibu, probably one fishy canyon most people talk (and dream about). It's been a while since I've actually done some fast free riding stuff, my leg is still building up strength and riding the Cali roads is a good workout. Lots of tight divvy turns and which requires lots of agility to handle smoothly so it was safe to say I wasn't going to be charging hard with the boys, just taking it easy and enjoy the ride. I managed to squeeze out two runs just hack slashing my way down the hill with each carve (fuck this going backward shit) before both legs turned to jelly.

Same question at the top of every hill...anyone got a skate tool? And da panorama  

As per every trip to Cali comes a trip to San Diego to visit the boys at Sector 9. As per my last post I started working on new board designs with Josh Rolf and some variations of concaves and shapes and hope to produce a new babe for the DH Division lineup. I'm thinking Scarlet might be a good name for her.

Mega mini Muir Skate ramp

Other good news from the Sector hood is that big man Dude Bro Jeff Budro is getting married! Dudebro and Sarah are gonna tie the knot soon and already got a lil chick grommy on the way. While down in the hood, I actually managed to get some riding in on the local hills, funnily enough this is the first time I've been in San Diego and gone out to hit some hills. Previous times were just short trips to the Sector Pad and then bounce back to LA, and last time I was here was with a busted leg so it was just swimming n lurking.

Infamous headless ghost skater in the Breadbowl

As soon as I had one of the new shapes cut out and graphed ready to skate we peaced out down to a spot by the beach called Blacks for a sweet skid session on a gated road. Super butter pavement with two nice big hairpin bends, no cars and it rolls right down to one of the surf breaks. Sector has shot many a videos here either short clips for products or team riders videos, its a sick place to skate and has a great vibe to it.

Blacks Butter

Jeff and I did a quick night shoot there for the packaging shot for the new Lightning Gloves, he had me skate in the pitch black and bust a big toeside slide right into the flash. Was pretty hectic coz they wanted the DHD Predator on it too, and I didn't have a clear visor. Needless to say I couldn't see shit. Got a bit hectic on one shot and just half assed the slide due to lack of vision and got pitched over the top and slapped the road pretty hard, one of those super gumbo moves at slow speed. Got the shot in the end and called it a night.

Jacko's helmet GoPro footage from the photo shoot!

Come back tomorrow, Jacko goin skatin' with Muir, then pot hole surf in Santa Barbara all while looking busy in the Skatehouse.