When I think of Canada, I think of temperatures in the 30's all year long and snow everywhere. Then I'm told that the skatepark we're going to in Calgary, Canada is outside! How could we do a demo outside in Canada? Won't we freeze are 'nads off? To my surprise, the temperature was in the low 50's and the only bummer was the rain. I felt like I was back in Seattle. The rest of the bad news was the weather report called for continued rain. We started to scramble to make other plans and at one point we even thought about doing an autograph session instead of skating. Another option, Mr. Hawk came up with, was to stay an extra day. This was no easy task as we're talking about 35 people, flights and hotel rooms for an extra night. We made it to the park about 2 p.m., the demo was scheduled for 4 p.m. and to my surprise the rain had stopped and the park was pretty dry. No-one was sure if the demo was on or not.

Ellis isn't afraid of Canadian built vortexes.

As the clock struck 3 p.m. the park was about three-quarters dry and the sun was even peeking through the clouds. I was still nervous, so I grabbed the microphone and announced to the spectators that Tony told me to ask them to use their sweatshirts to wipe up the puddles in the park or the demo would have to be cancelled. I pretty much made the whole thing up. The trick worked, and fourty-five minutes later the park was good to go. We were all so stoked the demo was going to go off, but the clouds were still looking pretty nasty.

There were over five-thousand screaming Canadians on hand to witness a serious skate session. At one point Sal Masekala started to break into the Canadian National Anthem, but the only part he knew was "O Canada" I wasn't much help either. This was by far the biggest Tony Hawk Tour stop to date including last year's Hawk Tour. At one point, I feared for my life. While trying to hand out EXPN.com stickers, I was mobbed by seemingly thousands of Canadian skaters. This crowd was sick and the boys went off.

Alex Chalmers decided to bust an air transfer from bowl to bowl over former Tour Mascot, Robert Earl. You see Mr. Earl pulled me aside later in the evening and told me that he didn't like being called the "Tour Mascot" because it conjured up images for him of being the San Diego Chicken or something. I respect his thoughts and we both decided by the time we hit East Coast we would come up with another title for him.

Chalmers airing over tour mascot Robert Earl.

If you didn't already know, Bam Margera has got some serious street skills. Bam Bam was busy nollieing down this sick ledge, stoking the crowd. Donny Barley a.k.a "Donny Gnarly" was living up to his name with blunt slides, big kick flips and all around fast skating. Steve Berra was on fire as well, busting kick flips down the same ledge Bam was hitting. Tony was busy pulling rodeo flips and nose blunt slides along one of the many fun boxes. Mike Vallely was back attacking everything in sight with reckless abandon. Mike V. is made out of some weird carbon fiber that I think is even stronger than titanium. You see M.V. was trying the death drop, which was huge to say the least. Mike was standing on a shaky skatepark fence and bomb dropping off it to a super steep transition below. Mike finally pulled it off after about four tries and the place erupted.

Mike Vallely. Nuff said.

The Birdman was sessioning the half pipe late in the demo; this pipe was a modern marvel because it even had a full pipe that was 30 feet in diameter. Tony busted a varial 540 and once again the Canadians erupted. I couldn't believe the demo was almost over and still no rain. The crew kept skating for a little while longer and then had to be escorted through the crowd back to the bus. A mob scene broke out outside the bus with kids trying to storm on and get one last look at their heroes. All the guys had to crawl onto the top of the bus to do their product toss which the park operators told us was against the rules. The crowd was in a feeding frenzy grabbing stickers, posters, wheels, t-shirts and Mike V's sweaty demo shirt. I even had to grab the mike again and tell everybody to get away from the bus, so we could make our escape. Finally, the tour bus was back on route to the hotel with everyone safely on board.

This brings to a close the first leg of the North American Tour. If you ever get a chance to visit Calgary I highly recommend the Millennium Skatepark. You don't have to just take my word for it, log on for yourself at millenniumskatepark.com for more info on this city owned park.

Next stop New Jersey, if you're interested in any of the other stops just continue surfing EXPN.com.

Peace Out.

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