Jamie Reis’ TMMR outlaw last year was a great event and one of the best courses we raced on the east coast last year. This year looked like it was going to be even bigger and I was so excited coming into it. I won the event last year three or four weeks after spraining my ankle on a trip to Ithaca, Comet HQ. Here I am once again with a healing ankle injury from my trip to LA and going to race it again.
The past few months had been really hard to get through. School was more intensive than ever before, the winter was brutal for Virginia leaving me with nothing skatable for months and then I got injured to the point of not skating for the whole second half of the semester. There’s nothing worse than feeling like shit and not being capable of just going out and skating like usual. All I wanted was to be able to go ride down my favorite mountain runs with my good friends. So with that in mind, TMMR put all that shit in the back of my mind and reminded me why I love the life of skateboarding.
I picked up Justin “should be dead” Metcalf Friday night and headed out to stay the night at my house in Winchester. We stayed up way too late drinking beers and talking about the old days of our first races and then got up way too early to drive up to State College, PA. Saturday morning we both woke up before our alarms and Justin even pulled off a shower before I knew he was even awake. I amazed myself with my ability to roll out of bed on no sleep and immediately pack the car. We got coffee and breakfast from Sheetz and were on the road by eight.
Saturday was the novice race and some freeriding right outside State College. It was cool seeing a ton of young kids from all over show up, some even from my home town. Some kids had their parents drive them, which I thought was awesome since it was an outlaw race. It was fun messing around a little bit and shaking off some cobwebs from my legs while trying to not do something stupid to tweak out my ankle again. We sessioned one hill for a few hours with no problem then moved on to the race site down the road where we got the event off with a half hour to spare before the coppers rolled in. Surprisingly not many kids ate it through the one turn in the course. I think I saw two crashes, one of which was in the final. The final heat for the youngins was EPIC with two kids coming into the left 90 on top of each other and both going straight into the curb and off the road.
After the race we packed up and headed to Wal-mart and the beer store for supplies for the campsite/party. Liquor laws in Pennsylvania confuse the hell out of me. They have stores for hard liquor and wine, stores for cases of beer, and then bars and other stores can sell you a six pack or tall cans. It’s just one more thing on the list of reasons why I dislike that state. At the campsite Jamie had bought 120 hot dogs, a slew of condiments and the largest bag of pretzels I’ve seen in my life. The bag looked like it was for mulch or dog food or something. After setting up camp in the wrong spot and moving to the correct spot we pitched tents, opened the beers and partied all night. Justin made the mistake of passing out on the ground at ten and was subject to some of the funniest shenanigans I’ve seen. Waking up in the womens bathroom with hot dogs all over your face is probably one of the most confusing ways to wake up. In my opinion Blair won the party though but it’s arguable between him and the British dad who nearly fought this drunk camper dweller who was pissed that we were parked in front of his RV. It was an interesting night for sure.
I woke up to the sound of people screwing around and fell out of my tent and managed to tear down in a matter of minutes. It was a slow morning that desperately needed coffee and a substantial meal. Anton, J Raw and Anna, Justin and myself went to some little diner in the town near the camp site and had an awesome breakfast perfect for soaking up alcohol. We got to the race hill just before practice runs were started so we suited up and started bombing. I was worried about being able to stop after the finish line all weekend because my ankle is hardly strong enough to foot break and I didn’t want to slide my wheels since you need to rail the turns and otangs wear out way too quick. It took me the entire length of the run out to the T intersection at the bottom to stop while everyone else was a good 100 or more yards above me at the end. As well as stopping I hadn’t gone more than 35 or 40 since thanksgiving or something so I was a little sketchy for my first few runs.
During the first heats it seemed like there was a crash in every one on the first turn for some reason. Rob Mckendry ended up completely covered in mud because some kid took him out in his first heat. I was so sad about that because riding with Rob is always a fun time. He is by far one of the most interesting and entertaining people to be around and he’s got more stories than I could imagine accumulating in a life time. Last year he was in the final and it was Colorado versus Beast Coast and here Rob completely got shafted. I managed to push in front of everyone in my first heat, avoiding the pile up behind me. Luckily my push is still strong enough to keep up even with a weak ankle. My second heat had Will from Clutch and Sean Graves who are both fast and I was a little sketched at first. Will had something weird happen in the first turn that he just couldn’t explain and slid out. Me and Sean awkwardly went down the straight before the chicane almost side by side looking at each other to see who would take the lead into it knowing we were both moving on.
In the semi final heat Jamie mixed it up and I had Michael Rubin in my heat, who has been ripping unnoticed for some time now. He pushed out ahead and I ducked in behind him while the two kids behind us got a little tangled up in the first left, leaving one standing and us with all the room to just chill and move on together. The other semi final was similar but also disappointing. It had Alex Newton, Sean Graves, J Raw and someone else in it but Jeremy got taken out in the first left leaving Alex and Sean to move on. I always just want to see my friends on the podium and when a kid who rips as hard as Jeremy doesn’t do well at races it hurts me. That kid rips harder than probably anyone else on the east coast, no one knows it yet though.
The final heat was pretty epic. I wasn’t expecting to get past the second round with my ankle in the shape it was yet there I was standing on the line with my friends racing for the win. It was Sean, Alex, Michael and myself and everyone had a good push and the skills to ride this hill as fast as possible. I didn’t care at all where I finished I was just so stoked to be in the final heat again that it really didn’t matter. When we heard “go” that’s a different story though. I kicked as hard as I could but definitely had the weakest kick. Alex was out in front and Michael behind him with me and Sean next to each other going into the first left. I went wide giving Sean room to pass and then dove hard inside to get in everyones draft before the chicane. It was a mess of passing going on and I sat back and watched, air breaking before the right-left to see if anyone would go down and let the opportunity to pass arise since I was getting sucked in. There is a pretty substantial dip going into the last straight and I actually felt my unnecessarily long front kingpin hit getting out of it giving a quick wobble. Going down the final straight everyone else was basically three wide creating a huge air pocket for me to get sucked into. I flew past Michael and Alex with not quite enough steam to make it to Sean.
This was a great event that went off without a hitch and I have to thank Jamie Reis for putting it on. It takes a special kind of person to throw all this together and put up with a group of sketchy skaters complaining and being rowdy. I can’t wait for the next race in the Beast Coast series!
Final results:
1st Sean Graves
2nd Anthony Flis
3rd Michael Rubin
4th Alex Newton
