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AoS-Fest IV : Paradise in the Desert
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Day 2: Friday December 8th - East Phoenix Tour
   At 7am, the alarm went off way to early. This is normally an off day for me. What was I thinking? Well, I got up and dressed and ready, and headed down to breakfast with the guys. Patrick and I were the first down as the others who made an even slower start joined us. We filled up our tanks on some good morning food and got our gear ready for the day. Around 7:45 am, we got on the road and headed to the first park, Gilbert (aka. Freestone).

Gilbert Skate Park
   It was a surprisingly quick trip…quicker than I had planned. A little after 8 am, we pulled up to the park. About the same time, another van pulled up and 3 little kids piled out in full skate gear. Their mom got out and asked "are you the AOS guys? We skipped school this morning to skate with you." Stoked! What a way to start the trip. Turns out the kids, Shane, Brandon and Jack, are all Gilbert locals. The park was not supposed to open until 9 am due to "winter hours". It usually opens at 6:30 am any other time. We had not counted on that. Luckily, the mom knew the parks people and called a ranger to come open early. Stoked again! We got in, stretched out and got underway. The sun was sitting in a bad spot that kinda blinded any one that was in the two bowls. I actually took a good slam coming off one of the banks in the street course and being blinded in a shadow. We made the best of it though. Another Birmingham local, Barry Gilliland, also made the trip and he soon showed up at the park as well. We had a nice little session going. Everyone was getting their skate legs going and warming up while taking in the new terrain. Gilbert is not an easy first park to start with. The street course was a good starting point. The small, spined bowl was popular for a while, but soon attention turned to the "telephone bowl", so named for it’s resemblance to an old telephone receiver. Little Shane was showing us all how to skate that thing. He had his lines down. He was rolling into the deep end, backside 50-50s around the corners and airs over the hip. Little ripper! Around 10 am, it was time to head to the next park. We said goodbye to the kids and headed off to the second park of the day, Chandler.
Gilbert Skate Park
Stretching Out
(Kerry, Chris and Patrick) (JS)
Kerry pads up (JS)
Playing Hooky from School
(Shane, Brandon, and Jack)
Telephone Bowl
Overview
Another park overview
Chris in foreground (JS)
Butch warms up
in the bowl (JS)
Barry 50-50 in the spine bowl(JS)
Kerry warms up
in the Telephone bowl (JS)
Patrick zips around
in the mini bowl (JS)
Butch drops in (JS)
Barry/Old_Timer/Bombshelter (JS)
Little Ripper waiting his turn (JS)
Shane frontside airs
in the Spine bowl
Brandon nose grinds
Patrick floats over the pyramid
Jay frontside grinds
the big wall
Barry 50-50s the corner
Barry dropping in
the Telephone bowl
Little Shane backside airs
the hip in the Telephone bowl
Flip-flopping between bowls (JS)
Chris/Amorone taking pics (JS)
Patrick gets in one
more ledge slide
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