Greenport Skatepark

Fs Indy, James Arroyo.....killin it

Long Island New York is not exactly known for its skateboarding, especially Suffolk county. Today street skating relies on spots, and well spots rely on the topography of the region. Although it is possible for a place that is relatively flat to have good spots, they always seem to be few and far between. In suffolk county our highest elevation is our landfill, and I think that right there says more than I need to about our abundance of top notch professionals hailing from Long Island.

Don't get me wrong there are some sick people coming up from Long Island, and furthermore you can't blame your skatespots for how good or bad you may be at flipping your board around. But what I am getting at is that Greenport skatepark, like other skateparks in small towns keeps the flame burning. Yes, it is true that the park has seen better days, and sure there a some screws that could use tightening but, this is exactly what the locals are doing. They can't exactly fix the shitty asphalt that is eroding away underneath some of the ramps in the steeper, more bike friendly section of the park, But they can screw coaping back into the min ramp and build a new funbox.

All in all, Greenport is not the best skatepark, but they have a 3 foot mini thats fun, a flawless six foot spine ramp, a vert ramp that still has the new car smell, and all the ramps are metal so they are fast!!!! Yea and don't forget the lights.....even though they are not bright enough to take photos with after dark, I still snapped a few before dusk. Enjoi the shots, and if your ever on the north fork of Long Island stop in at the park and be the judge yourself

Another Fs Indy in the 6 foot other angle

-Chris-

FDR

I first went to FDR about 6 months after I moved to Philly. It was scary, I think it was a saturday at like noon and well lets just say I never really skated parks. Needless to say I didn't get much accomplished on my skateboard that day but, I definitely knew I saw something that I was in to. I have gone back about a million times since then and I have gotten much better at flowing through the park and skating around. Somewhere along the way I brought my camera along with me and well I shot some photos there. Since then I have gone back shooting photos about a million times, also getting about a million times better at shooting them. Here a some photos pulled from the FD-Archives. This is just a mix match pick of skateboarding, and art from south Philadelphia's finest. I am going to post a bunch more about the park in the future this is just like a teaser.......Enjoy!!!

360 to Melon flat

Kinda makes you think...

Jamal Smith five-0 fake out

Bryson Monath pledging his allegiance

From the Archives...

James Arroyo pad-less at the park

For some reason back home, in Long Island New York, skateparks are hardly a year round thing. In fact, most of them have a hard time staying open for business period. It's not that there are not a shit ton of kids who love to skateboard either. But, for some reason Long Island is plagued with skateparks that either are short lived, or god awful. Every now and then there are a few that fall into both categories, and very rarely do you find one that is neither.

The park in Riverhead, New York is one of the few that dose NOT suck. It still is far from FDR or any world famous park....but, it has its moments. One thing that does suck is you need to wear pads and that is no fun.....unless you sneak in on a Wednesday when the park is closed. Then you can have all the fun you want and not have to share the park with little kids either and, that is exactly what we did here. Another thing that comes to mind while looking at this photo is the fact that we had to quick hop the fence and leave when we saw some pigs drive up...but thats the way it goes sometimes

-Chris

New Section

A couple weeks ago I went through a very large pile of old negatives and scanned in a bunch that for some reason or another I never got around to scanning. Most likely school was the reason (Go figure I went to a photo school and did not have enough time for my photos). Anyway Since school I have been definitely growing as a photographer. I feel that I have a better understanding of light and shadow, and my composition seems to be getting better as well. Not that I feel I was a bad photographer when some of these photos were taken, because that is not the case at all....I guess what I am getting at is that the things that used to make my photos good, and still does, was less in my control. Now I have been able to harness those happy accidents into tricks that I can pull out of my bag when the time is right, which makes all the difference.

But, it is not just behind the lens that I have been honing my skills. I feel that I am getting better in post production as well. And that my friends is the reason I am writing this. I would like to dedicate a section of my blog to my old stuff. Pulling happy accidents out of the archives and giving them a new twist. Many of these shots are not going to be re-edits either, I would like to focus mainly on the images, that have sifted through the nets somehow. The ones that got away.

On a side note, these images obviously may not be the ones that spark the most vivid memories, but that is half the fun. They were overlooked, when they were initially developed, but for some of them I still can remember part of the day because of the photos. So clearly this holds much personal value as well. Any memories from any photos in this section will be accompanying the images in order to set the mood.

First things first

This is the first blog of what I hope to be many. I seem to be shooting a ton of photos lately and well need somewhere productive to put them. I have always been interested in making a blog and well finally have got around to doing so. Needless to say, I am excited for this.

Two weeks ago Bryson, a name you will soon become very familiar with if not already, had his little brother come up. He stayed for like a week and a half and then went back to his dads, only to come back the following weekend. Now Everett is only 15 years old but they don't call him mountain for no reason...wait they do call him mountain for no reason. Anyway he has been spending a bunch of time up here with us and well, I got a bunch of real nice shots of both of the Monath brothers ripping it up. Most of them are all part of the flat ground series I have been shooting as of lately, but we went to FDR over the weekend and shot a sequence too.

Bryson Monath Ollie rewind...

Mountain fs 180 from the stratosphere

Fakie tre-flip Everett

Cruiser 360 flip Bryson

Bryson

Bryson smashed the lens on the one after this...But he must have been off by a hair on this one too.

Pipitty Pop Bryson's on his way

Catch steez

denim denim denim...

He may not be related to the Monath brothers, But certainly is a ripper...Snow cone fs ollie

All in all it was a fun two weeks with the little guy, and if my gut is right...I know he'll be spending a lot more time in time in Philly and we will shoot a lot more photos.

-Chris Weger 7/14/09-