Epic Hamilton Update..........

Hey,

I'm in Jersey City.
I rode in a jam / demo thing last weekend in Bethleham Pa. at the Source bike shop. There was a spine ramp, two connected fairly high grind boxes and a high flat rail. On the spine I was jumping pretty high and doing tucks similar to the tuck that was on the cover of the Ride Uk that I had the interview in (looking under my arm at my landing). On the grind box I was doing right side pedal grinds to 180, right side pedal grind to 180 x-up lander (slider with out sliding), left side bottom bracket grinds to opposite 180, bunnyhoping onto the box and bunnyhop kickfliping off going slow, nollie 180's off the box, 360 tail-taps over the spine, 540 tail-taps on the spine, and x-up right side pedal grinds on the grind box. The x-up pedal grinds felt especially good with my longer frame and I could get pretty tweaked out sideways on them.
I bought a new skateboard at Autumn skateshop in the East Village, New York City. It's an 8.75" Cota board with Independent trucks (150 mm), and 56mm Spitfire wheels. The deck is black with two eagles fighting, one with a switch blade knife and the other with a switch blade comb.
Someone stole my cell phone at a bagel shop in Jersey City. I went inside to get another drink and left it on the table, when I came out it was gone.
My family's dog might have bone cancer, he can't seem to walk - although he didn't seem to have a problem chasing a groundhog at the farm. Here is a photo of him.
Jared's car looks pretty sweet. I had a cool car, a black 1988 Nissan 300zx that I picked up in Austin Texas last year for 3500 dollars. It had sweet rims on it, a T-top, and was pretty fast. I drove it to Ohio from Texas and drove around in Columbus for a few months. I drove it to Michigan once last summer and had some great times in it. It had a great sound system and nice interior. I could only fit one other person in it and my bike fit nicely in the back, and it looked cool as hell. My fondest memories in that car are driving around Austin Texas with Jeff Landtiser drinking Pbr and listening to Blonde Redhead's self titled debut album, Blonde Redhead. The song "Sciuri sciura" being the most memorable. This was back when we were sessioning this pool. The car was fast and fun to drive. I drove it to Louisville last year to meet Jimmy Levan for the Kentucky derby. That was a great time as was when I drove it to Michigan. I have all sorts of photos of these trips and the car, but they are in Columbus, the only photo that I have with me is this photo of some rose lens glasses with a glimpse of the dashboard. Blonde Redhead's album "23" came out when I had that car and I remember driving the car to dance clubs in Columbus listening to that album. I took good care of the car and kept it clean. I loved it. Well anyways one night after only having it for a couple months I went out to a dance party at a place called B.O.M.A (Bar of Modern Art) in Columbus. It's this old church turned into a dance club on Broad Street. I had a great time dancing with these women at the party and I drank some Tangueray. On my way home I was going to fast for a turn and slid the car into a guardrail, thank god I wasn't injured but the car was totalled. "Spring and By Summer Fall" played as my car sat smoldering. So that was the end of that car, it was sad. Then I bought a 1988 Cadillac Brougham, black with chrome. Here is a picture of me with it at my apartment in Columbus. I've always wanted a big 'ol Cadillac and when I saw this one for eight hundred bucks, I had to buy it. The dude I bought it from was straight up hillarious, he had the funniest stories about living with his mom and about driving the car down to Florida every year. The passenger side rear view mirror was held in place with a condom. On a drunken whim the night after I bought the car I decided to take Columbus skate legend Chaz McGee and a guy named Tauriano who was at this party on a trip out to St. Louis and to Phil Wasson's bachelor/bachellorete party in Kansas city. We took a cruise around the outer belt through a thunder storm and then stopped by my parents house to get packed for the trip. My mom said that it probably wasn't a good idea to show up at such a party with uninvited guests. We drove the Cadillac out to St. Louis where we ran into some car problems and I sobered up enough to take into consideration my mom's concerns and decided that she was right about showing up to a bachelor/bachelorette party with two uninvited guests, especially one who I didn't know at all, Tauriano, and the other being Chaz. So we had the car serviced and skated a skatepark in St. Louis. Chaz did a really high tweaked straight leg indie grab over a hip and an inverted 360 to flat from a quarter at about six feet out. The drive home was nice/relaxing. Again I have photos from this trip, but not with me.
I've gone through lots of skateboards, I mostly leave them at bars which is stupid and irrespnsible, expensive and fun. I would say I've probably bought around fifteen complete skateboards and I've only been skateing for a couple of years. I like wide boards and larger wheels. I normally buy Spitfire wheels and always buy Independent trucks, anywhere from 8 to 9 inches wide. I do like big soft fast wheels but I normally go with the hard Spitfires because I do power slides and they hold up well against flat spots. I'd like to be sponsored by Spitfire and Independent.
Back to the Bar of Modern Art. Drinking in an old church seems to bring me bad luck. I wrecked my Nissan after drinking there and this Spring I broke my collar bone/clavicle skating a mini-ramp that they had set up at a party at the old church turned bar. The set-up was straight out of the ninja turtles. But anyways I slipped out on the ramp and broke my clavicle. The down-time from this injury provided an unexpected flury of new ideas for bike tricks and motivation. When I arrived in New Jersey last month I was just healing and by the time I was back on my bike I was riding better than ever and felt a much more mature / experienced rider. I feel I'm reaching new levels of maturity with my riding and am looking forward to working on some new projects. I wish they would turn the damn music down in this cafe though because I can't think straight.
After the demo in Bethleham on Saturday we rode street and I tried a nollie x-up pedal grind on a low ledge off a double set. I had already nollie smith grinded the ledge and nollie feeble to 180'd the ledge on both Scotty Eaton's bike and Vinnie Sammon's bike after I broke Scotty's chain. I then x-up pedal grinded the ledge on my bike a few times before trying to nollie x-up pedal grind it. I should have tried to nollie pedal grind the ledge first but I went straight for a nollie x-up pedal grind and missed my pedal or something and fell pretty hard on my shoulder. It hurts pretty bad but I think it is just still healing. I have it in a sling and am going to give it some time before I start riding again. Hopefully I'll be able to start riding again in maybe two weeks. I plan on going on some trips to film for some different videos and projects. I have all sorts of new tricks and techniques that I am working on and looking forward to videoing and photographing them as well as just doing them on some new set-ups and also am looking forward to traveling to some new places to ride.
Check out this old school picture I shot of Jared doing a tooth-pick.
I've been sessioning other people's bikes a lot.
A close up shot of a tire slide and one of Dan from Portland doing a wallride.

How are things going over there? A guy at the demo had a purple one of my frames and it looked nice. Another guy gave me a sling for my hurt shoulder which was really nice. I'd like to go on a trip for you guys or meet up with someone to shoot photos when I heal up. Maybe I could do a street web video in some random city? Let me know if you guys have anything in mind. The 1066 frame is badass. Here's a picture of me riding it from Vinnie's site. I think he's got some pictures from that demo he's going to put up. Pretty random email I just wanted to send something your guys's way.... let me know if you've got any ideas or if you guys want anything from me. I've got about a billion more stories I could write you guys let me know if you have any interest or what kind you want, I wish I had more of my pictures on this computer.... I could scan some in. Maybe some old school bmx stories with pictures? let me know what's up

-Steven Hamilton