I've been flaking on sessions pretty hard lately, that's why other people don't like me. Well, there are probably more reasons than that. In an effort to make people like me, I stopped trying to schedule sessions ahead of time, since I hadn't been showing up anyway. This one was a last minute booking, but I came home happy I made the effort.
Happym and I warmed up at the bridge and took the MRT over to 信義. We hit a strange little bank in a strange little intersection on a side road. The wasn't a proper lip, and it had wheel-eater vampire holes down the length of it, and a drain grate in the middle, but it was fun because primarily because of those challenge presented by those. And the traffic. Next we cruised to one of the greatest spots I've ever seen. It's a marble surface, jutting out into a big open intersection, with a triangular marble bank. Cars were parking on one side, and we tried pretty hard not to smash through any windows. It worked, mostly. Just kidding, we didn't smash any windows.
In the past, I've only tried 信義 a few times. Usually, I was with frownym, who has the worst luck of all time, and gets kicked out of everywhere he tries to skate. He must have a bad aura that security can sense somehow. Maybe they learn it in security training. Even without frownym's bad luck, 信義's human terrain is intense: in the day, skating is impossible due to the crowds. Even at 1 a.m. on a weeknight, there were a lot of people in the way. Even when you find a clear enough sidewalk or unpuked on ledge, security is extraordinarily professional. Usually, after the first kickout, they are sitting at the next spot too, waiting for you as you roll up. I think it's because they all work for the same contractors, so they communicate and use cctv to follow us from spot to spot. Routes never seem to matter once they raise the alarm.
At the far side of every route through the district is the holy grail of Taipei spots, BofC. In two and a half years of skating in Taipei, I have never been able to so much as roll at this spot. It's a huge marble courtyard plaza, at the edge of the city in the foothills (Taipei runs into mountains rather abruptly) and it cascades marble banks and stairs from top to bottom, like a joyful marble waterfall. Security is always running across the courtyard before we even approach the intersection, whistling and tweeting and shouting and pretending to be angry, although their lives can't be much fun, so I think they secretly enjoy our little visits.
This time, it was a ghost town. The lights were on in the guard booth at the front doors, but no one was in there. We skated for almost an hour. It was one of the most unexpected events of my skating life in Taiwan. By that point, I wasn't in much shape to skate, but even rolling around at this spot is a major accomplishment. Happym filmed a little line, and we cruised on out before our luck changed. BofC is an example of why I don't like when western crews come to town. They act like dicks and poison the well. Even that couldn't stop us this time.
I skated home, completely across the city, with a very slow rain storm right behind all the way. I would go into 7 and get a TB, come out and be in the sprinkles, then skate out from under the storm and be dry until I finished the beer and had to stop again for a new one. I made it home without major incident.
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