If the weather on Saturday, November 28 is good (or at least not wet) in Houston, I will be going to the EZ-7 Turkey Jam ditch skating contest and jam.
It has been many years since I’ve been. Probably 11 or 12. Seems like the last couple of times I went it got rained out, which is always a bummer. But I’m going to give it a shot this year.
EZ-7 is one of the oldest and most classic of Texas skate spots. It’s a drainage ditch in a public park that empties into one of those massive flood control ditches that runs through Houston. It is surrounded by grassy berms, on which skaters and families hang out and have a good time. It’s about as grass-roots as you get, and reminds me a lot of the atmosphere of the Paderborn, Germany freestyle contest. The City of Houston, or the County, or some entity of authority has actually decreed EZ-7 an official skatepark, which is bloody amazing. Yep – it’s all legal and good.
I really need this. I need to bath in the reviving waters of Texas skateboarding. I need to skate with friends, take my runs, not care who “wins” because it is all such a blast that no one cares and everybody leaves fully stoked and powered up for more skating!
I’m planning a trip to Belton to skate Chuck’s ditch and other spots with my friend Mike, the week before the Turkey Jam.
For me, ditches and banks are really the best form of skating other than freestyle. I love freestyle – it is really what I prefer to skate – but let’s face it, sometimes one needs to carve, and grind, and ride walls. Flat-walled ditches and banks offer the best variety of moves. You can adapt vert, street, or freestyle tricks to them, and there are some tricks that are really best done on banks. I have more fun at places like EZ-7, the little bitty Glenville ditch where I usually skate, or even a simple banked wall or driveway, than I ever have at a modern skatepark.