Adam rides again.....

AVS.....adam van slyke is one of my best friends...... We first met at Overload or was it RANCHO's market and six years ago, he up and moved across the country to North Carolina. I had the pleasure of skating NC with him last April, then in SEPT of last year I flew back out East to attend his wedding.
          Rebecca and Adam didn't take the traditional honeymoon trip.   They actually waited....and planned....and in FEB of 2011 they rented out their house and hit the road for close to six months. Knowing about their trip was a LARGE inspiration in planning my own adventure. Once we both knew we would be on the road at the same time, we schemed to see where our paths might connect. First it was maybe going to be AUSTIN, then OCEANSIDE, then PORTLAND.............but all those possibilities did not materialize.

Pirate and Adam land at Illya's

Thankfully it all came together in Colorado. Adam met up with me at Illya's and we got down to the good times. Rebecca had flown EAST for some family issues, so it was just Adam and his puppie PIRATE>

The free box made an appearance.

VAN LIFE.... tying up the curtains for the day

Farkle came out at VG Burgers

How miserable does Adam look?

 TOOBING on Boulder Creek is a tradition, but with the spring SNOW MELT and subsequent HIGH run off the creek was at RAGING RIVER proportions. Adam and I did get in the creek, but only for a second.... all the snow melt makes for a FREEZING swim. Other more brave souls were doing some toobing....
                                                                  Feel the FURY!!!

a very sobering dip

We both love playing disc golf and played the 9hole in south Boulder.

Van life!

We met Sessions at the skatepark for old man tuesday

                             We drove up BOULDER CANYON and checked out the WATERFALL

Adam and Pirate stand beneath the fury~

A little further up the canyon is the town of Nederland. A few years back they got a skatepark, and I'd never been to it so we skated the NEDERLAND Skatepark. Adam filmed a line of me.....

The last game of FARKLE before Adam's departure.

We played some more Farkle, ate out a few more times and then ADAM jetted off to CHICAGO to pick up his bride at the airport. Hopefully next year I'll be able to get all the way across the country to see Adam in Carrboro, NC.

Illya.......on the front range

Illya is one of my oldest and dearest friends that I made in Colorado. He lives in Lafayette and I do my best to visit him every year. He has been married for close to a decade now and I fondly recall attending his wedding. Now, he and his wife, Sarah, are parenting two youngsters.... I was in a hurry to get to Colorado so I could squeeze in a visit with Illya before he went on his summer trips.

Illya was anxious to show me his newly constructed COOP and chickens

FEB 93....illya and co invade the backyard on DOVE St.

 A lot has changed since Illya and his long island homies would visit me on school breaks in San Diego. He's now in the role of MR. MOM and loving every minute of it. He has many interests these days along with parenthood and his skateboard no longer consumes his life as it once did. BUT the big development in the last year has been the opening of a world class skatepark a mere 6 blocks from his home. I can't speak to how much he's been using it, but we wasted no time in getting down there for some rip roaring.

YEP... Dad still got it. back D on a weird spot.

Taytem and Boone got the VAN LIFE tour

Taytem and Illya took me on a hot afternoon to the spring fed pool in El Dorado Canyon. This place is in the very same steep and narrow canyon where Mark Roth loves to do his climbing. The pool has a slide and terrific spring board.

Yes, it was magical.

After hours of levitaion, I finally sank to the bottom.

 

I love backflips !

On the drive back to Illya's home, we drove through Boulder and took at the look at a swimming spot that Sessions showed me a few years ago. This year with the heavy snow season, spring runoff was HIGH and the thought of getting in the creek was intense.


Illya, Sessions, and I packed up the car and went skating outside their neighborhood. First stop....a ditch. Sessions wasn't into skating here, so he got out the cameras.....

smooth, long and not too steep + a few curbs to toy around on

always feels good to do a frontside rock.

two brothers from different mothers out skating

Illya dips into a lipslide.......

NEXT STOP was Broomfield Skatepark where we met up with CRISIS owner, Jeremy Frankovis...aka FUZZ.

We all had fun in this bowl, but Sessions kills it.

Transition or Ledge...Fuzz rules the park. Back LIPSLIDE

 I filmed a three trick line....

Fuzz lipslides up the ledge.... not easy, folks...

SESSIONS and ILLYA... creekside lunch after skating 2 spots

Fuzz at CRISIS in the command and control module.

DITCH JAM

steve preps the ditch for shred time

We got back into town with only a few days to plan Steve's 4th annual Ditch Jam. Word spread like wildfire even though there was no official flyer. Sunday rolled around and it was on.... We cleaned the ditch that morning and came back in the afternoon and the kids kept coming out. The water gap saw the most action.

Up high view of the main stage

I feel this captures the chaos. board in water, photos, skating.

Matthew Ratliff got MVP of the day in my book. fs smith

Matthew Ratliff nosegrinds......

Yes it can be dangerous......

Matthew with the trick of the day. FS Bluntslide

SKATE HIVE coverage

Lincoln was great, but the last few nights there in the van were pretty stifling....I was super stoked to have spent so much time with Steve. But the day after the JAM, I hit the road, bound for COLORADO.........

The farthest EAST

Heath, Jerry, and Leo were set to do a demo at Heath's shop SUBSECT in Des Moines. Hey, why not go check it out?  Des Moines ended up being the farthest to the EAST that I ventured on this year's journey.

the flyer was pretty funny

The bicycle shop next door would let you take a bike for a spin!

Grabbed a sandwich at Ritual Cafe....

A few days later we drove into OMAHA for a mini ramp contest. Steve was one of the judges. Phil was the MC.

5ft tall 16ft wide....the competition.

 Omaha legend, Donny Diederich, competed. Growing up in Kansas, I'd heard of Donny. If memory serves me right, he had tricks in the first FOUNDATION video, 'Glam Boys on Wheels'. I know he was on Foundation at that time.


The other Omaha legend, Jeff Chase, took home the money on this day. I had a handful of clips to use for Jeff, here's another...   Jeff is master ramp builder and the driving force behind THE DONUTHILL PROJECT. This ramp was on my list of MUST SKATE and Donny was kind enough to take us over for a quick session after the contest.


Steve gets the elusive 5050 over the gap, while I skate the spine for a bit.

Cut out for lunch at McFoster's Natural Kind Cafe.

fruit shake with gingko or was it blue green algae...

as a side note..... on the ride out to Des Moines, the freeway was shut down for a few hours due to a bad accident. As a result, HK performed it's first show on Interstate 80.

HK rocking I-80-----thanks to steve for the photo.

next up....ditch jam!

PechaKucha - Lincoln

Soon after we arrived in Lincoln, Steve jumped into editing his thousands of photos and videos from the trip. He got a call from the local Pecha Kucha organizer and learned that she had a spot open for the upcoming presentation on Friday.

  I'd never heard of PechaKucha either, so here's some background.

- PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace. -

Steve had presented 20 of his photos the year prior and was stoked on the experience, so he agreed to do it again with a focus on the Skate the State photos. He jumped into picking out his 20 best photos and was soon all set for FRIDAY.

On the night of the presentation we posted up in the foyer and I sold a few SKATE THE STATE tees and before long, Steve, Phil and Mike took the stage...

VIDEO of the presentation!

I love the color in this shot

Mike adds his comments..

dogs will chase you when you're skating on the highway

STEVE's first Pecha Kucha

trips to Omaha and Des Moines are up next  !

Land of Lincoln

As Steve nursed his blisters after the monumental 440 mile skate across the state of Nebraska, we took to touring Lincoln by bicycle. First stop was Yai Yai's Pizza where Steve has worked for many years.

Vegan slices of Steve's creation.

Art at the local screen printing biz. all toys I used to play with as a kid.

Steve on the morning radio recapping Skate the State

Same guy that Steve works for owns Oso Burrito too!

Avo/cheesie melt wrap at Maggie's VEG

We rode out south of the city in search of.....

full pipes.....

let's take a closer look... not gonna be dry this week.

Steve made a full pie that we split one night.

Phil Burcher....owner of Precision Skate Shop and Skate the STATER had us over for dinner one night. Actually it was more his wonderful wife, Tara, who did the cooking and entertaining. We got a tour of the garden and she and the kids took a look through the FREE BOX. Phil got home from work and we skated the ramp for a bit, then sat down to a marvelous meal.

Everyone found something they could use.

Phil 5.0 grinds the ramp he made last year when he turned 50.

Chalk up another outstanding homecooked meal. Thanks TARA!

one of two identical cats that live with the BURCHER's

Temperatures started to rise over the next few days. Steve kept showing me around town as he still had a few recuperating days off work.  Steve's blister was still bad, but I did sneak in a brief skate break at one of the local Lincoln skateparks

Was psyched on the Freakbeat name, but walked in, and walked right back out.

We sat with Tara at her shop where Steve had an photo show

Open Harvest is where I did my shopping. GOOD DEL

Phil plays drums in the Evil Weiners!

Lincoln Farmer's Market

View of Lincoln from the State Capitol

 I felt privileged to have Steve as my tour guide. He's lived here for years and has the town dialed. Everyone knows him and we'd get stopped routinely on the streets as most everyone wanted to know how SKATE THE STATE went. As a result I was able to meet all sorts of local Lincoln personalities. It did make me miss my close connections in San Diego........
 
next up  - PECHA KUCHA, then trips to Omaha and Des Moines.....