10 o'clock high.
SANTA FE
SKATEPARK
Sucks. Small
and tight with
1 1/2-inch cracks
throughout, Santa Fe was a bag. Still, the locals
killed it-Justin, Charlie, Brendan, and a bunch
of 12-year-old kids ripped the shit out of this
wasted chunk of cement.
We took a day off and hung out at Janie's
friend Kathy's house. It's good to have friends on
the road. The next day Justin took us to a lake
with rocks and cliffs to jump off. Thanks, Kathy
and Justin. Texas...
Justin Demmon, frontside snatch.
AMARILLO
PIPE
Epic. Twenty-two feet high. A better elbow than
Gloryhole, better splatwall than Baldy, and smoother
than either. The best cement fullpipe I have ever skated.
An essential component of The Mission. Go there before
you die and flap about it for the rest of your days. We hit
the pipe twice: once in the late afternoon, and once at dawn. Two more
things you need to know about Amarillo: 1) The highest sticker placed in the
pipe still belongs to Jeff Phillips. Real close to true 11 o'clock. I don't even
know how he did it. 2) Somebody could do it-somebody could successfully
drop in from the top of the elbow.
ramp. Once there we hiked up the very steep end, and zing went the board out the pipe, one more time at sunrise, then we spit for stayed all day, then crashed at a motel in
ramps with everything to the pipe. Curtis
immediately began sweeping up rocks, bugs,
dirt, birds' nests, etc-time to skate. The guys
were really fired now from the swim, the hike,
and the clean-up, but Jake went for it anyway.
He took a full run down the pipe, bailed at the
down the ramp, and into the lake. Oh well.
They skated some more until it got dark. That
night we stayed in Borger, Texas outside the
lake at a motel.
Day Eight.
Colorado. We drove up through Denver past
Columbine down to Breckenridge. A new park
there opened July 4, and everyone was gung-
ho for it. They liked it a lot. Curtis murdered
himself while Luke took pictures and Phelper
The guys got up at 5:30 AM to go skate the pipe liked it too. Again, the locals were goofy. We
Frisco, CO, ten miles away.
Day Nine.
We returned to Breckenridge for a while.
Locals were skating like crazy. Then we left for
Salida. We arrived at the nowhere hodunk
Western town to see an old man sitting on a
bench outside, looking like he'd been there for
80 years. Anyway, Curtis skated one run and
Jake one run, then it rained. The cops showed
up, Jake got a no-helmet ticket, and then we
split. The Rocky Mountains are beautiful, but
the high altitude, 12,000-14,000 feet, was
leaving us all short of breath, lightheaded, and
tired. However, we continued on to Crested
Butte anyway. It's a tiny little ski town in a tiny
little valley in the mountains of Colorado with
a big skatepark that Redneck built. At first the
guys had the park all to themselves. They
skated and loved it. Then it began to rain; we
went and got a room at the Marriott and chilled
Day Ten.
awhile while the rain cleared; we returned to
the park later, Lots of people were there now We got up, had coffee, and went back to the
from all over the West. Some dudes from Salt park. They skated a bit, then rain came. It
Lake City were ripping. We got some beers, was time to leave for Grand Junction. We
some porno for Curtis, and headed back to the stopped off at Grand Junction after driving a
hotel for hot tubs and to try to retain oxygen. few hours of more hot road. The guys said it
Hit the relax groove.
totally blew so we split and drove on towards
112 THRASHER
113