Skatepunk

Barker Barrett has one of the most classic styles of all time, and he's one of my favorites of the last twenty years. From the Shut days and NSA Am series, through Cheapskates and more recent Playground sessions at Woodward, he's graced us with great skateboarding fortified by an unmatched dry wit, a sardonic sense of humor, and a warm heart. (Click on photos to see sequences.)

The new camp at Woodward Beijing wasn't quite finished when we were there, but that didn't stop Cairo and Corey from finding stuff to skate. Cairo's selective tricks and buttery approach was a great complement to the all-charging, all-the-time attitude that's become Corey's trademark, and together it was super fun to shoot and skate with them. The indoor stuff was pretty much just thrown together, the outdoor stuff is from the plaza that's not quite finished yet.

Corey, Cairo, and Metty are certainly not afraid to try new stuff. Scorpions and seahorses and they didn't even think twice. I was very happy to document. We also saw large black scorpions, chameleons, lizards, cocoons of some sort, grasshoppers, starfish, and more. Very interesting delicacies.

It's been a few days and it's 2am and we're going to Tianamenn Square tomorrow, so I'm going to try to keep this short... After that first day of skating we were looking forward to exploring a little, but we couldn't get a driver, so we stayed in camp, cruised around, skated more, and shot more photos. I'll get some sequences up soon. I hope.

China, here we come! Neal had suggested we bring snacks, which definitely made the airplane food a little less tempting, and that's a good thing. I shot my usual window shots, we had a short layover in Tokyo, and we were met by Joey, the new intern, at the Beijing airport. Interns are so hot right now! The ride to Woodward was filled with funny Dave Metty and Corey Duffel stories, but by the time we got there we were tired and sleep couldn't come soon enough!

We're heading to China for a week to check out the new Woodward Camp in Beijing! Should be interesting! Thanks, Gary and Neal for including us in this excursion, Claudine and I are both hyped! I'm stoked, as always, to have been part of Woodward projects for so long.