Staff Meeting at Turtle Ditch Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Staff Meeting at Turtle Ditch

Posted on Thursday, May 3, 2012 by Rob

By Rob Meronek

Today we took the middle of the day off to skate. After going all the way out to the new unfinished Apollo Beach park, we got kicked out within minutes of barging it. Oh well, we spent the afternoon at plain old crusty Turtle Ditch in Tampa instead.
Alex Bowers
Bowers takes a break from Bowers' Banter and too much Morrisey in Innetech while slangin' inventory. This backside flip all the way around was hard fought with loud shouts of expletives, all with a smile, though.
Ryan Clements
The coping dance is not just for Chad Voght and the mini-ramp as Clem demonstrates here.
Joe Pelham aka HiDefJoe
I like seeing members of the SPoT Media Team with no gear and ripping. HiDefJoe's got HiSnapOllies on the shell that gave this place its name. Joe is the one behind the scenes filming and stitching together all these SPoT Life Episodes we are having such a good time doing.
Luke Pallone
Ah crap, literally, or should I say, digitally. I met Luke Pallone today. He just started working in the Shop, so introduce yourself to him next time you're in there. Luke's first photo on the site is a Take a Poop, but he's going back to get this 50-50. He's coming to work at the Park from Subway and a funeral home prior to that. I wonder if he worked on the vert funeral a while back.
Ryan Clements
I caught Clem mid-crap out of the corner of my eye. See, everybody poops, Luke. This one is such an artsy shallow depth of field poop. Lovely.
Jorge Angel aka Porpe
Porpe's ratio of touchdown dances to tricks landed is pretty much even. This crooks to fakie was likely followed by a nice shoulder bounce.
Justin Carrico aka Crash
I would imagine this is how Crash's face looks seconds before the multiple auto vehicle altercations he's been in. Welcome back to the the Staff, Crash.
Justin Carrico aka Crash
Now that's a wallride to fakie. Proper flat palm high five with all four wheels touching and ankles folded like origami.
Joe Pelham aka HiDefJoe
HiDefJoe's got a HiSpeedBoardslide. I don't know if you should do stuff like this prior to being like 35.
Jorge Angel aka Porpe
There's a great low impact flyout at the mouth of the ditch. Porpe's got a nice level one off it.
Ryan Clements
Clem's take off and landing is first class with free drinks the whole way.
Sam Bellipanni
This is the first time I've skated with Sam Bellipanni. He's killing it on the wheels. That's a backside flip. Check the sequence here.
Jorge Angel aka Porpe
After Porpe made this switch ollie and wiped his hands off from the game of patty cakes he played with the ground, he did a touchdown dance.
Joe Pelham aka HiDefJoe
If Schaefer was here with us he would have made HiDefJoe film his own backside 180 over the cone.
Sam Bellipanni
Wow, Sam. Backside disaster revert on the log? I didn't even realize this could be done on that thing.
Sam Bellipanni
This bar so far is the longest lasting thing I've seen at this place. The city seems to have a serious mission to clean up anything that gets done here, even graffiti. Sam's got a feeble to fakie on it and we're all sitting back at work now.

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