That’s right, Tyler Texas, not Dallas. Why? I’ll explain, but first let’s go back to where Tim left off in Charlotte.

The next day our skate spots were severely limited, as it rained all day. It didn’t stop the locals from showing us around, and still managing to take us to some pretty good spots. At the end of the session I sat down with Dre Powell, and Montre Livingston for a quick interview.

We chilled out underneath a parking garage for a little while before saying our goodbyes and heading off to the next city.

Neil showed off his selection of toppings for the many peanut butter sandwiches he’d be eating in the next week.

Group shot of the Charlotte crew.

That night we headed down to Greenville, SC to meet up with David Dodge. The next day they took us to a ridiculously unique spot called “Twin Towers”, which references two lone smokestacks that stand side by side over numerous piles of the rubble that once probably made a factory of some sort. Leave it up to skateboarders/rollerbladers to turn this eyesore into something awesome.

Dodge and Greenville local Adam McManus, decided to construct a new obstacle out of a plastic barrier, a pile of rubble, and a wooden plank.

Neil - Negative Acid

Mike Welland - AO Mistrial

Dodge got a little snap happy, resulting in some awesome candids.

Blue Nipple Monster: Beware

Mike Welland - AOTA

Dustin Hinson - Stale Japan Air

Skate legend Tim Taylor showed up.

Adam - Portrait

Somehow I pried myself away from skating that spot long enough to get some good shots.

Dustin - Portrait

In Greenville, we use giant piles of rubble as stoops.

Traveling to the next spot.

I innocently check out the scenery while Neil innocently fixes his skates… What?

Neil was killing this rail. AO Soul rewind 360.

Tim started off a line with a big 180 over this bridge launch.

The next spot we went to was incredible.

These things launched you high. Tim - Wallride 180 over Neil

After that we all said our goodbyes and headed down to Atlanta, GA to meet up with Kevin Dowling. Kevin knew we were coming down, but was sure exactly when, and the situation was made a little intense when we couldn’t get ahold of him due to his condo lying directly in a dead zone for cell service. After exploring a few backup plans we finally got ahold of him, and he sorted us out for the night. At this point we started to feel the transmission on our limo starting to slip. First gear just wasn’t responding the way it normally had been, and it was starting to grow into a real concern, but we kept on moving forward with our journey, checking the transmission fluid often.

The next day we went to the infamous Summer Hour ledges. I sat down with Kevin so he could explain how such an amazing spot could remain bust free for so many years.

Look out for a sneak peak on that segment in the near future, but in the meantime the key word is RESPECT, kids.

That night we caught up on some tour interviews in the studio setup in Kevin’s back room.

The next day we started off skating in the backyard of a couple Atlanta locals house, which was pretty much a skatepark.

Shortly after that we realized that our bodies were spent. We went to a couple more awesome spots but none of us could actually bring ourselves to skate them. So we just went out for a night on the town.

Huge thanks to Kevin, Briel, and Kairo for letting us stay at their place.

Our next destination was New Orleans for a night of craziness. Here’s the evidence.

The next day we set out to find some breakfast with our host Stu.

This pole must have been the hot spot for posting flyers.

We then set sail to our next destination: Dallas, Texas.

Then trouble struck. Our transmission problems started to resurface, and we suddenly lost our top two gears. We had to pull over in Alexandria, LA and get a room for the night. The next day we hoped a cool engine would ease some stress off the car, and allow us to continue on our course to Dallas. We were wrong. After a mad scramble we found an auto salvage yard with some transmissions to pull, and some locals who were willing to help out.

We ran out of time, and had to leave the junk yard without our transmission. So we just hit the road, taking it one city at a time, at 35 mph.

We made it to Tyler, Texas and ate some burgers.

In an effort to make the best of the situation we had our very generous hosts Cody Sanders, and Caleb Longino take us to some of their local spots, which included this amazing spot.

Cody - Portrait

Tim tried this tree bonk, and actually got pretty close, but he ended up tripping and barrel rolling down the bank.

That’s all the updates we have so far, we’ll have some skate pics provided by Caleb up in the next couple days. Next stop: Dallas, at 35 mph to spend all day tomorrow replacing our transmission. WISH US LUCK!

It’s been a hectic past few days of skating, filming, and driving from state to state, leaving very little time to update the site here. But we’ll try to breeze through the past four stops: the later part of our stay in NYC, our travels to Philadelphia (PA), Charlotte (NC), Greenville (SC), and maybe a few words on our current location in the ATL.

So we came to realize that, like a black hole, time does not exist when you’re traveling through New York City via a 1989 limousine. Having already planned to leave a day prior, when Tuesday night rolled around, we were determined to escape the Big Apple and meet our friends in Philadelphia. However, we still had two items on our to-do list: first to visit Fish (Billy O’Neill) and Jero (Jeremy Stephenson) in their apartment in Brooklyn, and second, to drive our limo through Times Square. So after a full day of skating and a brief rest at the Diskin (Neil’s parents’) residence, along with a brief stoop session, we set off for what we hoped would be a couple of brief stops and a quick ride to Philadelphia.

Us on Neil’s stoop before setting off.

Unfortunately we didn’t get any coverage of our visit to Fish and Jero, but Fiesta Mix, beers, and spliffs were all consumed, and after a series of conversations, jokes, and reflections on rollerblading in New York City, we set out to pick up our friend Annahita, and head to Times Square.

Some photos:

Torres filming out window.

The view from inside of the limo.

Torres setting up.

Torres getting the shot.

Neil and Justin getting ready for their glamour shots.

Big J - glamour shot

Big Neil - glamour shot

Dope shot of our two Long Island natives.

The group chilling in Times Square, looking fresh.

By this point, it was about 2:30 am, and after some debate, the group decided it would be best to just spend one more night in Manhattan (a la our friend Annahita–LEGEND) and ship out to Philly in the morning. Fast forward through about two hours of trying to find an extra long parking space in Downtown Manhattan and we were finally ready for bed.

The next morning we got a fresh start and were on the road by noon.

Though two days late, we were finally on the road to philly. No worries.

These beautiful murals can be found everywhere in Philadelphia.

We went straight to skating.

The crew handling business at spot one.

Peeps were obsessed with this steak spot.

An addition to our crew:

Sean and Colin Kelso - LEGENDS.

Upon learning that the Kelsos have a stoop, we immediately tested it out before strapping on the blades to skate Center City Philadelphia.

The Philly skyline behind the ol’ Stretch.

The gorgeous view of Downtown Philadelphia from the Kelso stoop.

Drank some beers and shot some interviews that night.

The next day started with a seemingly endless, aimless walk…

…in search of half-decent diner food.

Two hours later, we found one.

Later, we met up with these cool cats:

Max, Alf, and Dan at a nice ledge spot.

These kids were the best. They loved our limbo.

That night, we got loose.

Colin and Chesh.

Yours truly and the rest of the Stretch crew….but wait, where is Mike Welland?

He was macking it. That’s where.

Neil and Justin, prancing.

Mike and Colin having a blast.

Colin and Neil’s leg. This was just after Neil climbed out of the limo and roof surfed, then dove back into the limo.

The next day we were pretty tired.

Justin had a quick smoke.

Neil and Justin took a nap.

We went skating this whole day. It was great.

Then we gave the limo a quick facelift.

….and ended the day with an interview with Sean and Colin. Doing it proper.

Torres setting shit up.

Mike Welland pitching in.

ACTION.

We shipped out that night for Charlotte, NC.

The hood.

We were pretty much exhausted on this day, having traveled throughout the night.

Chillin’, waiting to meet up with Charlotte locals, Dre Powell, Phil Gripper, Kenny Owens, Drew (Cool Guy), and others.

Then we bought this cookie cake. Fa’ no reason whatsoever.

Then I busted my ass.

I’m going to stop here, because people are itching to go skate the streets of ATL. Stay tuned for more updates!

- Tim

We drove to Neil’s house in Long Island to fix the exhaust, and build some skates (courtesy of Integrated Distribution parts).

We caught a train into Manhattan to head out to the infamous Brooklyn Banks.

After a crazy night of drinking that some how inexplicably remained picturless, we woke up in downtown Manhattan and had some coffee on the roof of the apartment building we stayed in.

After our coffee we skated around Manhattan, which is an amazing feeling no matter how many times you do it.

However, it does seem to lose it’s coolness factor after skating over a hundred blocks trying to find a spot.

Once we finally got to a spot we were all beat.

So we all took a snooze on the train back to Neil’s house.

Next update(s): TRAPPED IN NYC!!! and Philadelphia

The morning of departure:

Finally, we hit the road.

Riding in style - Elements 2

We met up with Executive Producer of Everything: Grant Hazelton, and he gave us some tools while giving the car another once over.

George Washington Bridge:

We went to Flushing Meadows for a late night skate:

Tomorrow morning we will be embarking on a four week tour across the country… In an ‘89 Lincoln Towncar Limousine. We will be documenting this journey fully, with plans of a full DVD release. Stay tuned over the next four weeks for semi-daily updates with pictures, HD videos, and stories about the tour featuring Tim Adams, Dan Birch, Mike Welland, Justin Brasco, Niel Diskin, Dan Barnes, Mikey Blair and Myself (Mike Torres).

The Stretch Tour is sponsored by:
Integrated Distribution
Revolution Skateshop
Scribe Urethane
Xtreme-Wheels Skatepark
D Train Media
and special thanks to Grant Hazelton and Mary Adams.

When Dan called me and told me he was excited about the section him and Ricky were putting together, I knew it must have been good, but I wasn’t expecting this.

Nick Demarchi has taken some awesome pics recently, and he even released some pictures that he was holding onto for a while. Click the pictures for their larger versions.

Dan Barnes - Royale - Buffalo, NY - March 09

Chris P - Top Acid - Buffalo, NY - Summer 08

Tim Adams - Wallride Launch to Mute Wallride - Rochester, NY - March 09

Mike Torres - Sweaty 360 out - Buffalo, NY - February 09

Josh Marlinski - Makio - Buffalo, NY - Summer 08

Dan Barnes - 270 Back Savannah - Fall 08

Tim Adams - Bump to AO Fish - Spring 08

Eyup Ladies n’ gentlemen!

Our UK friend, Dan Birch will be shackin’ up in the Roc City for a few weeks. In this time we will be skating, filming, visiting local pubs, eating at The South Wedge Diner, and planning a trip to the west coast.

Check out some pictures and footage from our Cali tour from 2006.

Update #1

Update #2

Update #3

Cheers

And not by a small amount.

Earnings will go towards a new grill for The Stoop!

Speaking of which… Box Jam 09 plans will be underway soon. Stay tuned.

What does Rochester NY do when there’s an edit competition? We own it, that’s what.