ISSUE 115
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David Ehrenr eich Ploesser h Odam
captions Ra ndy photos Ric
Danny Tumia, Josiah Gatlyn, Randy Ploesser Caleb Davies, Craig Williams, Skylar Kehr Cody McEntire, Kristian Svitak
Danny Tumia frontside pivot
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David Ehrenreich Randy Ploesser Rich Odam
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Almost no one knew each other the morning of this trip, and as we stumbled blindly into Ultimate Distribution TM, Skull Skates Pro and fearless leader Craig Williams’ crazy zigzag of B.C. and Alberta, I assessed our situation. From the U.S of A we had veteran Pro and 1031 owner, Kristian Svitak, along with two rookies Pros: ’06 Tampa AM winner, bigspin activist and Think Pro Cody McEntire and SLAP Pals-approved Randy Ploesser, who ditched the Birdman for The High 5. Also on board was Stereo AM Josiah Gatlyn from Florida, who was recently thrust into Internet fame by The Berrics, and balancing the scales we had a blue-collared janitor and Sector 9 rider from Portland by the name of Danny Tumia. In the van-mix were eager flow bros Skylar Kehr (Bones Wheels) and Caleb Davies (Toy Machine). Driving would consume a large portion of each day, and many times the schedule would read: street spot, demo, long drive. Craig’s persistence in avoiding cities was that of a zombie movie, so we quickly found beer as our only outlet to road legs, sore bones, van fever and the general lack of women. Well, Josiah discovered coolers, but that’s another story. While Craig and Kristian exempt themselves from the substance abuse, they were very much apart of our endless summer. Craig has extensively traveled western Canada for the better part of his post-pubescent life, so he knew the best beef jerky stands, the owners’ names at motels, and facts about every place we stayed or passed through. In Craig we put our trust, and despite being pushed to the limit of patience and mental sanity, he never let us down. It was a trip like all good trips—you drop in, ride it out and have the best time ever. Concrete skateboarding
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Josiah Gatlyn 360 flip
I think anyone in the van would consider Josiah the life of the trip. I don’t know if he was serious or not, but he also said he’d never been drunk before and that he was drinking as an experiment to see why people do it. A couple Smirnoff Ice tall bottles (his drink of choice, apparently) and it was off to the races. Like some sort of slapstick cartoon version of himself, he’d fly off the handle hugging people, falling down, and just being a general hazard. Even with what might of been his first hangover, he did this 360 flip pretty easy.
The Pros & Bros had four demonstrations on the schedule, with dates in Salmon Arm, Edmonton, Medicine Hat and Castlegar. Demos, while important, can be draining for the skaters and brought up reservations about how much street skating could be accomplished. But to everyone’s delight, as each new one came and went, it felt better than the last.
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Cody McEntire
nollie bigspin backtail stall backside flip out Cody Mac has a hard-boiled, no-bullshit attitude that typifies a lot of people in the region he’s from. This attitude doesn’t mean he’s just a letthe-skating-do-the-talking person, something that someone of his skill and consistency would have no problem pulling off. On a particularly long van ride one night, while quite snockered, he ditched his usual reserve and the Texas in him really came out. During a hostile takeover of the DJ controls, he sang outlaw country at the top of his lungs and made everyone a target for his verbal abuse. It was amazing.
“Cody had commandeered the music to exclusively Hank The Third and David Allen Coe.”
Skylar Kehr rock to fakie
Skylar possesses an enviable amount of youthful, destructive energy. A “shoot first, ask questions later” sort of mentality that I can only imagine gets him in a lot of trouble. Two thousand dollars worth of trouble this time after a hotel incident involving a knife, a mattress, and new bedding. Sometimes this sort of attitude can come across as irritating and contrived, especially with how popular it is to market in skateboarding these days, but with Skylar it is absolutely genuine and awesome. His raw exuberance obviously comes across in his skating.
Life in the van, though tedious at times, always produces the best memories. Ticks excluded. We’d all heard horror stories of Lyme disease, but reality hit when the ticks infiltrated every crevasse of our van. Randy, Craig and Cody up near the front remained calm, but the rest of us lost it. Danny was so scared he’d refuse to kill them himself, flicking them spastically at Kristian and I. Like junkies having spider hallucinations, we felt them everywhere. These bed bugs of the mountains forced a full van cleanse and roadside inspection of all possible-infected personal. 66
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Kristian Svitak sill stall to fakie
While watching Kristian skate this it was obvious he was no stranger to crusty spots that most people wouldn’t even consider skating. Being from the Midwest like Kristian, I also harbor a certain sentimentality when it comes to skating such things. Kristian said he was hurt but it didn’t seem to slow him down. Hell, if I was the consummate veteran pro hurt on the trip, I would just sit in the back of the van, drink beer, and take pot shots at all the new generation AMs in my general vicinity. Kristian seems far too friendly and mature for that, though.
“The thirst to travel is almost unquenchable...”
Craig Williams 360 flip to fakie
I figured Craig would simply fill his role as van driver/whip cracker and that would be that. Somewhat to my surprise, Craig is a 39-yearold skate rat. I almost laughed a couple times when he said, completely earnest, that he was “blowing it” because he hadn’t got a photo yet. Do 39-year-olds shoot street photos? If tres can look this good at his age, it gives me hope for the future.
Caleb Davies While on an adventure the brain works differently than while accomplishing normal activities. It’s really the only viable excuse, because even once the ticks were gone things were changing. Van fever set in. Skylar was colouring his own teeth with black markers; Josiah had dicks and bull’s eyes drawn on his face; Danny fell to a bet-banning speech; Randy had lost his slingshot; Cody had commandeered the music to exclusively Hank The Third and David Allen Coe. Luckily, the van fever also worked in our favour. When we’d lurch to a halt, it would be right down to business. Calgary, for example, was a half-day stop with a full session at Mills Beach before checking five spots and eventually wreaking ship at the infamous bike path wallride. Four boards and numerous feet made it into the Bow River. Despite some serious slams, Kristian, Caleb and Skylar all got tricks and it was off to another city before sundown. 68
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switch 180
An obvious gnar factor of bikes and pedestrians coming from five different directions and a river right after the landing (which claimed a board or two), made this spot insanely hectic. Caleb had been robbed repeatedly on this switch 180 when all the sudden an old man came skidding around the corner on his bike and slammed. He stood doubled over right in front of the spot before Caleb, bloodied from his own slams, said in his heavily inflected Alberta accent: “Hey there, bud, you mind movin’ over a bit there?” I had to stifle laughter as I helped the poor old guy on his way.
“Four boards and numerous feet made it into the Bow River.”
“With Pauly Shore looking on approvingly, we all took turns skating...” Danny Tumia invert
Danny sat bitch in the back seat, between Kristian and Cody almost the entire trip, so they knew his life story, and many other stories that covered a wide spectrum of quality. Spots like this are why you need a “good at vert” guy like Danny on every trip. How often do you come across a ramp in a giant plastic dome in the middle of the mountains? I, being a decidedly “not good at vert” guy, sat at the campfire just outside the dome with the rest of the crew. I remember the absurdity of watching Danny try wall plants nine feet up in the dome, while Josiah drunkenly ran in circles babbling and giggling like a high school girl who had her first taste of raspberry schnapps. It was one of those “this is why I skateboard” moments.
Craig had arranged for local royalty to show us around, and they awaited at each destination with open arms. In Calgary, it was Devin Morrison and Dustin Henry. There was Glenn Suggitt in Edmonton, Roger Bruinsma in Red Deer, Sean Lowe in Salmon Arm and Eugene Voykin in the Kootenays. Over in Kamloops, we had Derek Swain and Matt Berger. Each stop left us wanting to stay longer, but also knowing we could miss out on what would be in store another day. Once such evening, in a location that shall remain anonymous, we were treated to a nine-foot high by 16-foot wide ’80s-style vert ramp encased in a plastic bio-dome. With Pauly Shore looking on approvingly, we all took turns skating until pure fatigue finally put a nightcap on the session. It was a place and time that rekindled those early memories of skateboarding—the feeling you’d found something very special. It’s why we go on trips, why we explore, and why we take the time to meet new people. The thirst to travel is almost unquenchable; throw skateboarding in the mix and it becomes mandatory. See you next time on the road. 70
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Randy Ploesser ollie
I really didn’t understand this guy. I don’t know how he got on this trip. He smelled, was constantly drunk or hungover, and barely skated. The kids at the demos had no idea who he was, and he didn’t seem like he wanted to try to impress them either. He’d just roll around smoking cigarettes, glaring at people, and saying, “Fuck Canada” under his breath. It must of took every bit of strength he had to huck that sack of shit over this pole. To make it worse, he constantly made fun of me! He’s a bitter, talentless prima donna and I hate him.
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