Tony Trujillo grinds over the death box through the corner and back into the snow-blinding shallow end.
ANTL
had this plan for the Great Lakes Tour
article, and I was going to tell every-
body about our tour, and how it went,
and what we skated and stuff. But I got
derailed and hit by a fucking freight
train, and all those kinds of thoughts faded.
A friend of mine, Phil Shao, passed away
this weekend and it's left me empty and
hollow...it tripped me out. It made me take
a good look at myself, my friends, life and
how fragile it is. How he was taken from us,
why he was taken from us. All these ques-
tions I ask myself but still I have no
answers, just good memories of Phil. He
was the nicest person, humble, he would
bend over backwards to do anything for
Quim ollies off the top into a trannyless St Louis abyss.
Greg Smith is a great tour guide; if you're ever in Ohio, look him up. Frontside slider in Cincinnati.
you. If you needed help he was the first one
to offer it. Always down to skate, just a good
human being. He would never rub anything
in your face, always always down for skat-
ing. How do you take someone like that
away, you know? When there's so much
fucking shit going on, rotten fucking people,
and they take a guy like that away. It's fuck-
ing tripping me out. The Grim Reaper just
woke him up in the middle of the night and
took him. I don't know. I wanted to write
this article, but it's more like I'd rather just
tell you about this. I'll let you know some-
thing, when you're with your friends and
you're skating, just know and take that time
to say yeah, man, we're fucking having a
good time. We're ripping and this is great.
You never know when you're gonna go. And
I know Phil would be down to do it. I gotta
look at it and push through it and the rest is
gonna be for Phil. And I can do that. I know
Phil would do that. I know he would try a lit-
tle harder. He would never want us to slow
down or put the brakes on or anything. He'd
be like, "Put the pedal to the medal and let's
fucking do this." And that's what we have to
do. Search and destroy. You gotta find the
new spots, you gotta work even harder now.
That's the way it's gonna be. When you lose
someone like that it's a fucking tragedy. Just
thinking back on tour and how you're in the
van with a bunch of guys and there might be
a little thing that'll piss you off or something
they do that drives you nuts. I have to laugh
at those things now. You're driving with
these dudes and you're living with them,
24/7 with the same people. With anybody
that you do that with it drives you nuts. But
I look back on it now and I love it. It's the
best. Touring, people-watching, checking
out new spots, just being on the road having
a good time and skating with other skaters.
That's living. Swimming in a beautiful river,
checking out some street spot, skating a
park, all in one day. That's the adventure in
life. That's the road. Thanks to everyone on
the road-you touched our lives and hope-
fully we touched yours. We miss you, Phil.
Rest in peace.
Steve Nessler ollies up, onto and over a mica-brick hip in Minneapolis, MN.
A
C
Bill Danforth kicks ass with his whip-tail scorpion in Michigan.