CJ Wellsmore ' SEBA Tour in the USA ' 2013

After few days in Paris and few days in Moscow, here we go to NYC ! (CJ Wellsmore, Miriam & myself (Anthony Finocchiaro )
We went there for 3 reasons, the first one was the New York Battle (B.Oneil invitational), the second was to make some pictures in this awesome city and the third one was to test the latest prototypes of CJ promodel street skates. It was a long time since I came here, and I was still amazed by the city which never sleeps. CJ is not a "Broadway movie star", but as soon as we started walking in the main streets, we were approached by a guy "Hey ! CJ Wellsmore !!??" and this happened few times during our trip ! Weird !
After a ton of buffalo wings, a 5th place at the competition, few gaps & wallrides, and many bottles of coke, our next stop is California. Our landing point is LAX, straight to Santa Monica, where we are going to stay for few days ; our first job here is to enjoy this little paradise : shopping, sightseeing, beach, ... and of course few sessions in Venice beach's bowl. The next days, we decided to start a little road trip ; so after signing some papers, we found ourselves driving an old Chevy to Woodward West, where Miguel, after being contacted by CJ, took good care of us as we could spend the next 2 days in a deluxe bungalow and with Pro passes for the whole venue. We spent two days using trampolines, enjoying games and of course shoot some pictures. Our next stop will be Las Vegas ; invited by Tony Rivituso (local skater and friend of CJ), we arrived in the middle of the night and in the middle of a nice birthday party ! With the hot temperatures, we only skated during the night at the bowl, and visited of course some clubs and casinos ; the problems started when we decided to skate Tony's "box" that we put in front of his house : CJ fell badly on his arm, hurt his shoulder's ligament very painfully and couldn't skate at all for the next few days ! We still had to continue our trip and thank Tony, friends and family for the good times ; next stop : San Diego.
We stayed there one day, met Beau Cottington at the bowl in the evening, and had a very nice dinner with him at a good restaurant, where the owner decided to show a part of Vine Street video on his big screen, after finding a good friendship with CJ. We finished the night at Beau's, drinking and talking about skating.
The next day is time to meet Sebastien (from Seba skates) at LAX airport, and finally exchange our old Chevy for a brand new Camaro ! As CJ couldn't skate, we spent time for sightseeing and went to the beach like tourists, waiting for the "blading cup". The D day of the blading cup, I wasn't sure that CJ recovered enough and could skate 100%, but you already know the story : after having a hard time in the qualifications, where his shoulder was extremely painful, he forgot the pain to make it to the final. He showed the crowd and the judges amazing tricks and lines, which sent him directly at the first place. We could all celebrate his victory during an epic after party at the Yost theater.
We spent the next days with Roman Abrate, in Santa Monica, and after skating few spots around, our best session was at the Long Beach's bowl, where CJ landed few crazy tricks.
After these 4 good weeks in USA, it is time for everyone to go back home, and already prepare our next big trip to Europe, for Winterclash and others... waiting for this, you can follow the evolution of CJ skates on our page dedicated to street skating.
Directed By - Anthony FINOCCHIARO -
CAMERA:
5DMKIII
MUSIC:
1 - Everydayz , 360° / Mise en Abime -
pages/EVERYDAYZ/102838644048
2 - Minitel Rose -
LINK:
/ sebaskates
flickr.com/photos/sebaskates/
sebanews.com/
SEBASkatesStreet
pages/SEBA/219452931431618
anthonyfinocchiaro.com/