Happenings:
The Sunday Sessions, Session Number One
Sunday, May 27th, 2018
by Bud Stratford
Everything Skateboarding has been taking a pretty active hand lately in planning, “organizing”, and hosting small-scale, grassroots skateboard events all over the local Phoenix Metro area. Intended to be “proof of concept” demonstrators… the concept being that skateboarding needs far more grassroots engagement, and that the media, the retailers, and the industry should be showing everybody the way… they have also been a great incentive for me to get out of the office, and get some roll and/or grind time in. So, they’re kind of a win-win-win-win-win for everybody.
All you need is a plan, a date, a time, a little bit of initiative, and some (crappy) flyer-drawing skills, and you too can be an “event disorganizer”.  
My note-taking skills on this day sucked ass; as a result, I totally forgot to get this kid’s name. I know that he’s a pretty good friend of The Time Traveler; that his favorite skater is Jeff Phillips; and that he has these layback rollouts on lockdown. Now, if only I could remember his name, I’d be all set. 
The first of The Sunday Sessions was pretty small, turnout-wise, as I expected it might be. Nothing starts off “huge”, right off the bat; most great things actually start quite small, and then grow organically over time. The turnout for the first Sunday Session was maybe a dozen people or so. But that’s a dozen people that got to go skate with some brand new friends, instead of loafing around on the couch, trimming the hedges, working on the honey-do list, or mowing the lawn.
More names that were lost to my suck-ass note-taking skills. This quarterpipe, however, was tall and steep, with maybe a 2′ transition and two and a half feet of solid vert. Layback frontside rock (top) and stand-up frontside rock (below), respectively. Sorry, guys. Names are still a total mystery to me.
Everybody had fun. That’s all that matters; that’s the best yardstick of “success”, right there. There was also a pint-sized little girl there that learned rock fakies, first try, with a lot of love, support, and applause from the older-guy contingent. If that’s not a sure-fire sign of “success”, then I don’t know what is.
Kayla! Finally, a name that I can remember! This is her third-ever rock to fakie; she landed her first one, and I shot the second one. But that photo turned out kinda crappy, so I had her do it a third time; that one was the charm. Three for three, it doesn’t get any better than that.
The next of The Sunday Sessions is scheduled for 6 pm on June 24th, at Rio Vista Skatepark in Peoria. Stay tuned, get inspired, and start throwing some grassroots skate event of your own. Make them happen, take the photos, and send in the articles. We’ll run ’em all, because we care.
“Thunderbird Joe”, I believe, was this fella’s nickname. He was a little camera-shy at first… but once he saw the photos I was clicking out, he friendlied up a bit. Discussing the strategy (left), rolling in (center), and starting out on what would become a ten-block boardslide journey around the lip of the bowl (right), Joe was my hero of the day.