2009 recap part 2

Then came three events three weekends in a row: Boarding for Boobies, Rumple Flatspot and Clearfield, PA. Boarding for Boobies was a cool fundraiser in Maryland run by a cool guy who was super stoked on downhill but the course was extremely lacking. It was chip seal pavement and maybe 35mph at fastest with only two sweepers. It came down to me vs. Fifi again and although he beat me down the hill every other heat I managed to pull off some solid tactics and lines to hold out for the win. This event had the most swag of any as well as a cash prize, which was awesome making it possible to travel the next two weekends. After that event was an after party were we drank and smoked a bit then sessioned the steep driveway to the house. No one was satisfied with the skating of the day so we drove out to Harrisburg to Deans house to freeride the following day, which was so much fun.

Rumple Flatspot, outside of Marion, N.C., was a real fun event even though the original super gnarly course was busted. It always takes just one person to ruin it for everyone and that’s exactly what happened here. This was also the first and only time I’ve been chased by the cops while downhilling. We were riding down the two miles of hill from the race course to the meeting location and me and Chris Buono just kept going for it after one cop passed us, narrowly avoiding being run over by a pack of Harleys in a right hand hairpin and right before our destination another cop car started playing chicken with us forcing us to stop. The backup hill was super lame and I got 5th to a bunch of Floridians and Kyle. Afterwards though we used the uhaul Kyle rented for the event to shuttle us on some of the best freeride spots on the beast coast. There’s nothing like 15 minutes of straight downhill with your friends just pushing each other around and constantly mixing it up. You forget that you’ve done anything but skate down a hill all day, it’s insane.

Clearfield was another race that got busted and moved to a back up hill but this time was because of Helen again. The original race hill would have been super gnarly to ride but after my first practice run cop cars rolled up to the bottom and top of the hill. The back up hill was a fun short bomb but nothing intense. Since there was a push limit I just beasted everyone off the push and was out front in every heat to win. I went back up to Ithaca with Keith, followed by Jeremy Ross and Nick Chamberlain, skated some fun roads around town and explored the Comet factory. It was fun freeriding and pushing the limits of what could be done on a longboard.

The next trip I went on was to Montreal to skate with A.J. and race in the St. Sauveur race. I was so excited because I’d never been out of the states before and we were going to skate some of the most legendary spots in longboarding. Keith and I got stopped at the border going into Canada for some reason and they searched the car and had us there for an hour. We got into Montreal at 3:30am and met A.J. on the street. He told us we had to go skate right then because it was going to rain all day and this would be our only chance to skate Westmount. We skated those gnarly runs like Devil’s Toy and the cemetery until the sun was up, then we got breakfast and passed out around eight or nine. The next day we skated the alpine luge track at Tremblant but it started storming and we didn’t get much skating in. On the morning before the race we skated a really gnarly road near Matt K’s house as a warm up before the race. The race was cool with a super steep straight into a 100 degree right then 90 left to a flat finish. Keith got 8th and I got 4th. I didn’t compete in the slide competition because I broke two fsm’s skating a pool in Ithaca before the trip but launching off a two foot ramp on my race board and getting another foot of air was sick.

In August there was the Tussey Mountain race, just outside State College, PA, then a race I held in Winchester the same night followed by a five day adventure to North Carolina and back. The PA race was the best hill of the year; it was fast, had some gnarly sweepers and there were three guys from Rado there: Rob Mckendry III, Calvin Staub and Mark, Calvin’s dad. The top 8 for this race was nothing but fast motherfuckers and it could of gone to anyone. The final ended up being Rob, Calvin, Pat Schep and myself and it was a fast epic run. I had it off the line but we were nearly four wide through the first left, then Calvin passed me into the chicane but I was right in his draft and started passing him down the straight. He started flicking me off and I fired right back and barely made the pass before the finish followed by Rob and Pat. We all headed south to Winchester and had a night race at my place. It was the most lax race ever and in the final heat I bump drafted both Pat and Sean because I was just having fun. I early grabbed over something in all of my heats and everyone just had fun skating with each other. The next day those left at my house went out freeriding before heading home and Keith, Chris Sheehy, Michael Rubin and myself began our journey south. It was rainy in NC and we got one two runs in before the rain then found a gnarly turny road on our way back to town as things were drying and skated until getting asked to leave by police. We drove all the way up the Blue Ridge Parkway to get back to Virginia, stopping to skate roads off the parkway and experience the beauty of the Appalachians.

Then it was time for school to start and it was difficult leaving a life of traveling and skating constantly. There were a few trips to Ithaca in between events over the summer to skate and film that I have failed to mention thus far and those were some of the most fun times I’ve had. I don’t remember going to any events in September but I played a lot of drums and got my head back into school.

October was time for Pennsyltucky II. This time there were a lot more people, many of which were really good at skating like Brian Peck. I got in late again because of a concert and caught the end of the night slide jam held by Ray. I spent the night talking with AD Smooth, Radiation Ray and Rob Mckendry who were reminiscing about their skate roots. The race was gnarly and anyone in the top 8 could have won it. I nearly died in the semi finals when I hit every patch of rough pavement at the fastest point of the hill nearly wobbling me out allowing Bpizz to go on to the finals and win the thing. The consolation round was basically a repeat of the first Pennsyltucky with Fifi passing me in the straight before the finish. After the race we stayed and skated the hill for a little before going to Dean’s for the after party/ barbeque.

The last event I went to was the failed Vermont outlaw. I drove through the night to Hoboken where we slept for two hours before making our way to Brattleboro, VT. It had been snowing and raining the day before so the race hill was soaked. We went to the backup hill but got kicked out of there after two or three runs. After that people gave up on skating for some reason, except for the kids from Montreal and our car consisting of Pat, Keith and myself. We went back to the race hill and skated it in the wet anyway. The hill is 60mph in the dry with a couple hard sweepers so we were going around 50 in the wet and going edge to edge on the road to keep it together. It was a lot of fun but disappointing that so many people pussied out on skating and walked away with swag.

Over the thanksgiving holiday weekend Pat, Keith, Michael Rubin and myself went out to skate some of my favorite Virginia runs and film the video Mac ‘N Cheese On Your Hot Dog. It was a lot of fun getting to show my friends these runs that hardly anyone has skated before. To read the full story from that weekend check out the blog on the Comet skateboards site: http://www.cometskateboards.com/blog/
That brings us almost to the present. Since then I’ve gotten back into street and park skating, went to Anton’s slide jam in South Jersey and had a few sessions at the underground skate warehouse in DC known as Fight Club. I can only hope that 2010 brings as much excitement and gnar as 2009 did.