I headed down to the Hermosa Pier to catch up with Cotty, Al and Kelly for breakfast at Henessey's before they headed off to the airport to fly back to Ireland.
That in itself provided plenty of entertainment let alone what would occur 6 hours later with just Cotty and myself back at the same place.
During breakfast we saw a woman jogging down the road slightly bra-less, but definitely not in a good way. She then proceeded to dance on the spot with some rather crazy and unique dance moves while everyone else walked/ran/skated past her giving a WIDE berth.
While we were giggling at her antics and police car turned up and two offices started chatting to a bunch of what looked like were homeless guys sitting on the entrance to the pier.
One of the Officers took out some rubber gloves, which of course sparked lots of comments about a cavity search, however he moved over to an upturned bicycle just in front of the guys. He started working on the bike and at that time another 2 police cars turned up and parked next to the first car.
After about 30 minutes the bike was fixed, the police had written one of the guys a ticket, and they had put the newly fixed bike into the back of the police car all while the crazy lady danced and did a retarded version of aerobics oz style.
Seems to me that there would be bigger issues in LA to deal with rather then have 3 cars deal with a possible stolen bike.
From there I said my goodbye's to Al an Kelly and made plans to meet up with Cotty in the afternoon.
I wandered up to the Spyder Skate shop and bought a cruiser board for $140 USD and had the trucks taken off for travel (only for me to realise later that I was still in town for a few days and could use the board now).
I chatted with the guy setting up the board and he was telling me about a budding business he was starting with designing hats. It's call Cala Caps and you can find out more at the website http://www.calacaps.com
Once home I finger tightened the trucks back to the board and skate down from Manhattan Beach to Hermosa Pier.
This was the first time I've been on a board in.......... well in a very long time.
It was an embarrassing performance as I struggled to hold a straight line, propel myself forwards without nearly falling over, and avoid on coming traffic...... but after 10 minutes I had reached my destination without too many incidents an no injuries.
Cotty was already relaxing in the beer garden and I was happy to see him not only enjoying a nice cold corona, but also having a bucket of ice with three more waiting.
We kicked back and watched the world go by, crazy people, hot californian babes, drunks, skaters, surfers, it had everything. By the time the sun went down we had done 4 buckets and Cotty had gone to the bathroom 17 times. We decided to move inside for some warmth, and another few buckets of corona.
Here's where everything gets a bit hazy.......... but I do know we had another 3 buckets of corona, Cotty was refused service because he didn't have his passport, and that we grabbed some beers for a walk back to the camper van to get some ID for Cotty.
For some reason during that walk back I thought it would be a good idea to 1) hold on to a beer; 2) Skate down a footpath on to the road; 3) having just consumed 14 Corona's at the pub.
The skateboard flew off horizontally......... as did my feet, while my body was launched vertically. About .2 seconds into this experiment Gravity over ruled my movements and brought my right hip, right elbow and beer bottle quickly to the surface of the road.
Fortunately my head steered clear, and the beer bottle shattered without cutting me, and although Cotty can't recall the incident I can tell you at that time he thought it was pretty bloody funny.
Suffice to say I walked the skate board the remaining distance back to the Camper Van.
We called it a night and I wandered back down to the beach to skate back up to Manhattan, which of course was the cause of my slightly strained groin muscle from doing the splitz, the bruise on my left thumb from stopping my face hitting the pavement and the numerous bumps and lumps I have from the 15 or so times I fell off the board on the way back.
Cotty was already relaxing in the beer garden and I was happy to see him not only enjoying a nice cold corona, but also having a bucket of ice with three more waiting.
We kicked back and watched the world go by, crazy people, hot californian babes, drunks, skaters, surfers, it had everything. By the time the sun went down we had done 4 buckets and Cotty had gone to the bathroom 17 times. We decided to move inside for some warmth, and another few buckets of corona.
Here's where everything gets a bit hazy.......... but I do know we had another 3 buckets of corona, Cotty was refused service because he didn't have his passport, and that we grabbed some beers for a walk back to the camper van to get some ID for Cotty.
For some reason during that walk back I thought it would be a good idea to 1) hold on to a beer; 2) Skate down a footpath on to the road; 3) having just consumed 14 Corona's at the pub.
The skateboard flew off horizontally......... as did my feet, while my body was launched vertically. About .2 seconds into this experiment Gravity over ruled my movements and brought my right hip, right elbow and beer bottle quickly to the surface of the road.
Fortunately my head steered clear, and the beer bottle shattered without cutting me, and although Cotty can't recall the incident I can tell you at that time he thought it was pretty bloody funny.
Suffice to say I walked the skate board the remaining distance back to the Camper Van.
We called it a night and I wandered back down to the beach to skate back up to Manhattan, which of course was the cause of my slightly strained groin muscle from doing the splitz, the bruise on my left thumb from stopping my face hitting the pavement and the numerous bumps and lumps I have from the 15 or so times I fell off the board on the way back.
