Wax&Bombing part 3 by Jamie Reid
Richie Eisler long heel roll – Pic Xavi Wiros
Day 6
The morning got rained off a bit, just as we’d managed to get across town to where we were hoping to go to a skatepark the heavens opened, and Mark, Romain and I found ourselves sat in a bar drinking Lemon beer without a clue what to do.
Luckily Xavier (the amazing photographer) worked out where we were from some posts I’d put on facebook, and offered to drive us into the centre of the city to meet Alex and head to Forum from there.
Xavier didn’t even come with us afterwards, he just offered a lift to 3 visitors who were stuck somewhere. That’s what the people we met were like, decent, caring, friendly and generally awesome people.
WNS Crew
Kevin Chow
Wednesday really meant just one thing, the Wednesday night skate at Forum skatepark with “team Canada”. In other words skating with Richie Eisler, Dustin Werbeski, Kevin Chow and Mathias Von Gostomski.
Dustin and Mathias were chilling most of the time, while Richie, Kevin, Michel, Romain and some other local aggressive skaters tore up the park. The rest of us mostly looked on or took short runs mixed in at the same time.
If you haven’t seen Richie skate in person, you need to.
He’d say “I wonder if” and then go bust it out pretty much first time every time.
I can’t really say much more about the day than that!
Again some of the guys headed off earlier in the evening to go sort work commitments out, and we stayed on until just before midnight. Awesome night of skating, with more to come the next day!
Taking a break
Day 7
Street spots, hill bombing, and sightseeing all rolled in to one!
We all agreed to meet at Placa Espanya and head off around the town to some spots.
First off we went up the Placa Espanya side of Montjuic, using the escalators a lot of the way and stopping at a couple of ledges which attracted a bit of a crowd of locals and tourists.
From there we went to the big ledge on the side of the Olympic stadium. I say big ledge, because it really does look a whole lot bigger when you’re stood next to it.
Mathias basically destroyed it on his PB setup, with front Royales, Farvs, and even going for a sweaty but thought better of it. The guy is easily one of the best skaters I’ve ever seen.
Mathias VG by Xavi Wiros
We then cruised round the back of the stadium to check out the huge open arena type area, with incredible views of the city, and some fun stair sets and big curved banks that Alex and Mathias were riding. Loads of shots were taken here, so you’ll see what I mean.
Alex Rahali by Xavi Wiros
Alex Rahali by Xavi Wiros
We decided to head back into the city, as Alex said he knew of some spots there, which meant the easiest way down was to bomb Montjuic, but the other side to the one we did on the first night.
So the first night we bombed Montjuic it was dark and therefore quite scary at first. That was however on a quiet night with almost no traffic whatsoever.
This time though it was the afternoon with lots of cars, and the first time Mark had bombed any of the hills.
We hit at least 50kph, on the way down, and seeing the look on Marks face afterwards reminded me of my feeling after the first night. A massive adrenalin rush!
Mark ridin’ the hill
Mathias and Dustin at the bottom of the hill
Once at the bottom we re-grouped and headed into part of the town I hadn’t seen yet with Alex leading the way (as usual ).
A slight uphill skate through the town was made easier by skitching on a passing Audi, with the driver quite happy to help out. Thanks whoever you are!
Eventually we ended up at a huge rail that must have been at least 50 meters long, that Mathias managed to ride all the way to the end, only made possible by me using half of one of the blocks of wax Grindhouse supplied. Hope someone got it on camera!
Mathias Soul2Stairride by Xavi Wiros
We said our goodbyes to some of the guys then, as the next day was the last in Barcelona, and we had to get some souvenirs for folks back home, so no skating on the last day was planned.
Romain, Mark and I ended up back at Oli’s place on the way back and met his Fiancé Tina.
We made plans to meet up with a few people the following night for dinner just before Romain had to get his coach back to Paris that night.
Day 8
So this was it, the last full day in Barcelona, and the day to say goodbye to all our new friends.
Mark, Romain and I all met at Placa Catalunya where it was raining quite hard, and headed off to do some last minute shopping for gifts to take home.
It was actually quite nice to check out area’s we’d been skating past, as it meant we could take in some views that we’d missed, and grab some lunch before we headed back to our hostels.
In the evening we met Oli and Tina, Alex,Linda and Lidia for dinner at a really nice all you can eat buffet type place where the conversation was flowing like it had been all week, as if we’d all known each other for years and where just a group of friends out for dinner.
Then once finished the rush was on to walk to the coach station to say goodbye to Romain.
We had to wait a while before got on his coach, and in the meantime Oli had to head off.
Alex, Linda and Lidia had planned to go off to the Friday night skate which Mark decided to go to as well as he had his skates with him.
I’d see Mark again the next day at the airport, but this would be the last time I see any of the locals from Barcelona or Romain, all of which I now consider to be good friends.
Getting the Metro on my own back to the hostel allowed me time to think about what an amazing time I’d had, the amazing people I’d met and to start thinking about when I might meet them again.
Day 9
Time to go home.
I met Mark at the airport at 12.00, as we both had flights leaving around 3pm.
We chatted about the week, the people, the city and the skating and both agreed that we need to make it back again soon.
Then at 2.30pm, I get on my flight back to the UK, not sad about leaving, but happy that I made the trip in the first place and feeling privileged to have skated and hung out with such a fantastic group of people.
Thank you each and every one of you. Not just to those that helped organise it and made it happen, but also to each person I met who welcomed me to the city and made me feel at home.
Until the next time….
Gracias Amigos
