Absolution Gaps

I had a nasty day of working and decided to cut the deck and draw a card and it came up Wooden Bridge. Luckily, RMJ and about two dozen other homies were there on a windy and not unbreably hot night.  The ledge is the best in Taipei, which means it's the best in Taiwan, and therefore the best on Earth. It's a long long low pink marble one, with plenty of smooth flatground all around. As I went up the escalator, I tried to do some math. If it's been here ten years (conservatively; I think I heard it's been 12) and if ten dudes skate it every day (I think it's more like 20) and if each skater does 100 tricks per day, then we're looking at 1/3 million tricks per year, rounding down and using bad math. So maybe every three years, rainy days and whatnot, a million tricks get done here. I think something like 4,000,000 tricks might have been done on this ledge. And it just as smooth as the day it was born - no - it's smoother. It slides so fast that it takes some getting used to. It roars for grinds, and hisses for slides. There are benches on the other side of the walkway, so everyone can drink and clap and cheer and shout when something good happens, which is frequently. We line up at one end and the other and froth back and forth at each other, but in a friendly way, unlike certain other spots. It helps that the ledge is so long, that if two skaters from opposite ends go at the same time and at full speed, they can easily still make their tricks by going around each other. The ledge is just that long. It's the best ledge in the world.

I've been trying to improve my *******s, by doing one more than before, each session. This time, I got to 26, but it was in record time. I easily made more than 50 % of them. Last few times, I easily spend hours getting to 23, 24, and 25. Maybe, I'm getting to peak skate on this deck: it's bendy, but only just enough to enable consistent flat ground. This isn't a popular opinion, but I hate a deck with too much pop. I don't a limp noodle either. It needs to be al dente. Most of the paint is gone on this one, and the nose is chippping. It's getting there.

We also skated the back of the plaza, with some pink marble ledges that would be a spectacular spot in their own right, but no one ever goes back there because it's a full 20 second skate away, and in Taipei, that's too far, because we have a lot of skate spots.

I got tired, and beered up, and chatted. Everyone left but me and rmj. I have to say, the wooden bridge crew are the most friendly in taipei city. And the motherfucker doing the ** *** **** to ** ********* was an inspiration. I skated harder because of that dude. They peaced out and we drank up.

I vomited everywhere, which is embarrassing, because back in the day, I used to be able to consume an unlimited quantity of beer in a single night. This time, RMJ went for another round and I tried to skate little in the interim. heineken doesnt sit well with me anyway, and it came spewing up.

An ancient man with trashbags came by to collect our empties, and we saw him again as we walked up towards the Xinpu.

At this point, I thought the night was over, barring maybe a beer or two and a cab ride through the psychedlic city that elevated highways in Taipei become after 02:00.

We stopped off at a spot I used to walk by before I started writing about Taipei spots. It's a three up, three down, marble/slate surface, but with two wheel chair gaps in between. Someone with more talent and pop than me could go up, across one and then across the other, and then back down to the sidewalk. It would be hectic, but I'm pretty sure the reason it's not on video yet is because it's in one of the denseist population centers on earth and somehow, no one has found it yet. Also, it's only possible between 03:00 and 05:00, because of human terrain. We didn't even try it. I was too tired, above all else.

Then we went by another spot. RMJ is the master of spots in this city, like a sailor who has been to every port. This one was a special port.

The rickety surface became smooth as silk, and we skated a 100m wall that had been used as urinal by an army of New Taipei City alcoholics, and smelled as such. The sidewalk opened into a tiny, downhill double ledge spot. Each ledge, on both sides, has a series of small ledges above it, making it possible to transition from the upper ones to the lower one, which is about 5m, and drops to a waist high sidewalk, then into a downhill, and outputting into the street.

We noticed a security booth at the far end, but this spot was somehow absolutely virgin, and sawty never left his booth. We slammed a couple of energy beers and went for it. RMJ got an upper to lower *********, several times. I got myself a ** **** to ***** and then maybe the best **_** of my life. Not that it was a good one, but I had puked, was exhausted, in the heat, and had a backpack on. Also, it grinded a respectable distance, although far from the whole thing.

The cab ride home was pretty trippy. I hate cabs here, but at least he had to smell me the whole way. He earned his $250.