Tony Miorana, giant backside
air, opening day, Medford, OR.
It's better than the Combi-pool
and free.
151Things
That Can
Happen
Road
ON
R
Version 1
Getting a good crew together is important.
No one wants to cruise around with someone
who is going to whine when they have to shit
in the woods or eat less than ideal food. For
this mission, that task was accomplished. We
assembled a crew consisting of me, some of
the Phoenix crew (Cody Boat, Jimmy Moore,
Ben, Colby Carter, and Jason Alexander,
AKA "Rookie"), some of the 151 team
(Darren Navarrette, Chet Childress, Aaron
Harrison, Zach Connelly), and Pool Dog
Darrel Delgado went along for some of the
ride on his way to the Amarillo pipe. Nik
Freitas and I served as the photo goons/doc-
umentors, but this position is not a necessity.
Snapshots, however, are mandatory.
We had lined up some places to stay in
advance, but we often let the chips fall where
they would. In most places there are some
hospitable folk, and camping out is always a
killer option. Cheap hotels can be a welcome
inclusion into the itinerary and provide a
much-needed shower. When worse comes to
worst, there's always the car.
Road trips are also an easy way to
express yourself. Adopt a new persona.
Change your name. Create road games.
Make bets on tricks. Relax and enjoy the
fact that school, work, and everyday life is
behind you for the moment. I got a new
tattoo and grew a mustache in honor of
Lemmy. We called each other by our
French Canadian nicknames in public or
Trip
OADS ARE A GO! OPINIONS ARE LIKE ASSHOLES (EVERYBODY'S GOT
one), but in my opinion road trips are an essential part of skateboarding.
Staying in one place for too long leads to stagnation, and skating new ter-
rain opens new doors. The nuances of the road, such as how truck-
ers signal to each other (and you, if you can read it) when it's safe
to pass or change lanes, become apparent. In May of this year, a
group of friends executed their planned road trip, and these are
some thoughts that sprang up. Following are two accounts.
just referred to everyone as "Marty."
We hit parks in Chandler, Albuquerque,
Durango, Montrose, Ouray, Breckenridge,
Salida, Silverthorn, Crested Butte, Medford,
Ashland, and Roseburg, pools in Phoenix and
Holbrook, AZ, the Indian School ditch in
Albuquerque, a vert ramp in Gunnison, CO,
Burnside, and the new West Seattle bowl. We
had a rough plan of some of the spots to hit,
but we also had room to play around with our
schedule so we could stay somewhere unex-
pected, especially if the locals were into hav-
ing a good time (such as in Gunnison!). There
are so many new and good concrete parks
going up in the US it is now no longer neces-
sary to drive for a day to skate somewhere
with nothing to ride in between. In Oregon,
the I-5 corridor and the coastal route have
parks about an hour apart from each other.
You can go as far as you want or stay in the
same place, realizing that the next spot is
right around the corner. Parks are now being
built and designed by skaters, leading to opti-
mum skateability.
The resurgence of parks leads to so many
questions about the future of skating. At just
about every park we met some young kids
who are already showing signs of ripping.
When I was their age there were no public
parks in my area, and we had to make or find
our own spots. Will these kids stick to their
local park and stagnate, or will they have the
drive to make and find their own spots too?
The split between street skating and transi-
tion skating that occurred years back has had
some interesting consequences as well. The
little kids see the older guys going fast and
big because many of the older guys never
gave up skating transition when the chips
were down. Some of the younger rippers at
parks never skated much transition and stick
to the ledges at a park (of course there are
exceptions...). Which will the little kids look
up to and emulate? Hopefully they'll take
from both and progress. This is the most
likely outcome in my mind.
After our crew split up, Cody and I headed
northwest to Oregon, with our final destina-
tion being Seattle. We saw the opening of the
Medford park, skated a few Oregon spots,
and wound up in Seattle the day that
Motörhead was playing. I have left my home
for the summer. My trusted 1970 Dodge Dart
is the closest thing I have to a home for the
next three months. I have obligations to ful-
fill, but for the most part life is going to be
good. Hit the road, Jack.
Thanks go out to everyone who put us up
and put up with us, including Janson in
Holbrook, Mike, Patrick, DJ, Chris and the
Albuquerque crew, Bo, Jaime, and Carter in
Gunnison, Mark in Crested Butte, Miller and
Beaz and all of the heads in
Medford/Ashland, Robin and Jenny in
Portland, and the West Side guys in Seattle.
-Wez Lundry
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