Freestyler’s….it’s that time again. First weekend after new year’s this time it’s January 6th, kickoff to the New Year, kickoff to start training for the World Round Up, whatever you wanna call it, it’s the January Jam. Held every January, this is a loosely-organized fun meet-up-and-skate day….where we crash Bixby Park and have fun sharing our Freestyle skills with the local skaters, park goers, whoever happens to be walking by.
The Jan-Jam will be at Bixby Park (aka Cherry Park) in Long Beach. They seem to be doing a farmer’s market thing there on weekends so we meet south of the park, across the street from Ocean Blvd and down the ramp to the big parking lot. The cops totally let us skate there last year and we’ll be at it again. Bring yourselves, a friend, a skater, a non-skater, anyone interested in watching. I’ll have some snacks, beverages, and a kickass boombox. You bring the tricks and cameras! This is an open-invite to any and all freestyle skaters local to L.A. and anyone who happens to be passing through, SoCal freestylers especially. This is THEE JAM of the Jams. If you can make it from near or far, definitely put it on your calendar. If you can’t make it, accept the invite anyway to keep posted on what’s going on with photos, bits of info, memoirs from past jams etc.
Big Special invite to old legendary pros….That means Russ Howell, Rey Meyer, Primo Desiderio, Per Welinder, Richy Carrasco, Gary Holl, Pierre Andre, Andre Walton, John Pope,Rodney Mullen (sure he’s invited why not!) etc. You guys are never TOO COOL to join our jam so just come down, we look up to you all. Anyone who knows them, please send them this event’s link.
One great thing about JanJam is it is full of the energy and aura of Russ Howell whether he is there or not. That’s right, Bixby Park is sacred ground for Russ, as he grew up down the street from Bixby and skated there for a good while perfecting his handstands and spins! When you skate the JanJam you skate where the first Pro Skater honed his craft!
The street-plaza in Bixby is fun, but that’s not quite where we’ll be. Head south of the park a little, cross that street and head down the long ramp. Let’s all keep in contact here or by phone to address any sudden changes. It should all go off without a hitch and will be FUN.
If you’ve been invited and you live far far away, just know that we’d dig it if you were here but we understand. We just wanna keep you in the loop about what we’re doing here in SoCal, and hope you’ll spread the word.
Come skate from noon-dusk….chat and catch up. We’ll have a freestyle game of skate, take some photos, shoot some vids, and have some fun. No time limit runs here! Let me know if you can make it. Even if you can’t….click maybe and help spread the word. Keep freestyle going….with California’s ONLY unofficial official annual freestyle skate jam!
Traveling from the East, Vegas, AZ, NorCal or Pac Northwest?
Try MegaBus, JetBlue, Southwest, Horizon Air, or just catch a rideshare on Craigslist! Damn it, take an Uber if you’re nearby.
http://us.megabus.com/
Traveling from the San Gabriel Valley, West side, or anywhere in the LA Basin?
Hit up http://www.socaltransport.org/ for train/bus schedules. Go Metro!
Are you an Uber Goober? : https://get.uber.com/
Coming from San Diego or the OC? Head up the 5 fwy or the 405 fwy into Long Beach.