Shred for Mike 2000 was held at Extremes Skatepark, in Bridgewater, NJ, right off of Route 22, one of the scariest places to drive, and about 20 minutes from where I live. The space where they had the street skating course set up was also a hockey rink, and all day people were slipping out on the weird plastic floor.

At the same time, with live music, Quim freestylin on the mike, and lots of amazing tricks happening, it was an amazing time remembering artist and skateboarder, Mike Cardona. On this site, I also have some older pictures of Mike and Quim, from a demo, and I had written this long thing about Mike after I learned of his passing that was going to go in the print version of skatedork #3, but I eventually decided not to.

At that demo, when Mike first started skating, it seemed like he hadn't been on his board in a long time. He was bailing out of tricks, the way you do when you first try a trick, and it scares you. As the afternoon passed, I noticed him get more confidence, and smile, and skate at the same level his brother was skating at. That was the last I knew of Mike Cardona, finding out later of his passing, and not really knowing how to deal with it. I didn't know him that well, I'd taken pictures of him skateboarding, but that was really it. Still, I got really down when I heard about it, and I think it has to do with skateboarding, and that he loved skateboarding, but had skateboarded his last.

So at Shred for Mike, I saw some of his paintings, forgot to take pictures of them, but admired the incredible use of vibrant colors to give the paintings life and character. I also saw a lot of pro skateboarders, gave Kris Markovich a copy of skatedork #3, talked to Steve from 5boro briefly, met Angela Liu for the first time, saw lots of DC skaters, and because I don't have a flash, took a lot of blurry shots. Below are some of the ones that came out ok.

Skateboarding works for different people for different reasons. Some people are most stoked on watching and recording other people skate, while some enjoy skateboarding around the most. None of these options are inherently better than the other.

I apologize for putting way too many pictures on this page.