2 Weeks On The Road With Darkstar

August 11th :

The day started at about 3am. Out of bed , made the calls to make sure the crew was up and ready, met Scurich at my house and took off to the airport. Lucky for us the terrorist shit happened yesterday and our flight was the first one out . we made it to Raleigh north Carolina at about 3:30 , got the rental van and met Kevin lewis at quiznos for some food. At about 5:00 we got the call from Adam Dyet, Paul Machnau , Gailea Momolu and Paul Trep. We headed back to the airport with the rv and van and picked up the crew. Once we had everyone , we checked into the comfort inn in north hills. We unpacked all the boxes of gear we had sent , arranged the rv , put the lost stickers on the van , and waited for the 11:59 pm starting ceremony. 11:59 hit so we opened the first challenge envelope, pounded a few lost energy drinks and began to knock it out. A few hours later , we had it done! We headed back to hotel at about 4am and called it a night.

Aug 12th:

Even though we didn't get to sleep until 4 or 5 am the night before, we where out the door by 10am. Breakfast in the rv, starbuck's , and we where park bound for a warm up.A few hours later, a good part of the trick book was 'checked off'. After 58 degrees skatepark, we headed to Raleigh state university. Machnau scoped a 10 flat 10 , then we got rolled up on by a toy cop. We decided to go the university of north Carolina from there. On the way into the campas , dyet , Kevin , forini , and hastie scowered a grave yard to find a certain tombstone. No luck today. We met back up with machnau, scurich , trep and white at a perfect step up ledge on campus. Again we get rolled up on by the heat score, but this time they let us skate for a few. Ironically the cops are pretty mellow in NC. Trep and hastie handled a few photos , and we were off to get food. From there, we ended up back at the park where nick scurich decided to break his wrist . hastie, trep , forini , dyet , white and myself then rolled back to chrome rail for a 4am session. No go, cops where posted up and rolled us just as we were setting up the lights. Good thing we skated it the night before while dyet was dipin! Back to the hotel, some editing from the days work, and finally hit the sheets at about 6am.

Aug 13th:

After the late night last night, we got out of the hotel by about 12pm. I'm starting to like those nights of 4-5 hrs of sleep after skating for 12 hrs ! we decided to head back to the durham courthouse to teat our luck since it was a Sunday. Turned out we got an hour or so there before getting scored. Dyet handled a trick on the ledge and gailea handled the 9 stair rail. You'll just have to see the footage to find out what they did. From there we drove to chapel hill to an abandonded tennis court filled with getto obstacles. Good thing for us there was a legit pole jam . dyet and machnau destroyed it. After being there for a few hours , we decided to head straight to Oklahoma city, ok. With 20hrs of driving ahead of us we hit the road. I pounded a lost drink and was good to go for hours before I had to crash in the rv for some shut eye.

Aug 14th :

As I was dreaming that I was in a sauna, I woke up drenched in sweat half way to Oklahoma.Man , the rv  is the way to go. We didn't have to stop and stay the night anywhere, we just took shifts driving and sleeping as we stopped for gas. About an hour outside of little rock, we stopped at a bmx track and handled some business. Back on the road, we ended up in Oklahoma about 20hrs after departing Raleigh ,nc .

Aug 15th :

After opening the city challenges the night before, we had everything lined up for the day. First we headed out to a local ditch and I must say it was pretty fun to skate. dyet handled the challenge for this spot and we then rolled out to the second challenge of the day trying to beat the storm that was moving our way. One of us had to ollie a certain gap wearing a karate outfit. Machnau volunteered like a champ and took care of it first try. After getting the first two challenges done, and the third being lined up for about seven thirty at night, the crew decided to knock out the trick book. Trep blew everyone away when he switch heeled something enormous second try. Did I every say that trep is fucking amazing ? if I have not , Ill say it now , paul trep is fucking amazing. After skateing for a few more hours we headed to the third challenge. Shoot guns with stoney Phillips! This was by far the best challenge of the trip so far. Shot guns , glocks , 45 calibers , ak-47 s , you name it we shot it. Beer , bullets and barbeque! After shooting more than 500 rounds we headed out to go street skate, but got rained out. As a back up plan we went to a local indoor park and continued to check off tricks. At about four am we headed to the hotel and checked out for the night.

aug 16th :

seems like the rain has been following us everywhere we go making it difficult to get anything done at all. we are off to kansa city today to test our luck .  if you ever go to oklahoma , there are some dope spots . 13 stair rail in midwest city , a perfect 10 on I-40 and exit 156 and a super good hubba on the 275 at exit 98 . too bad the rain put a damper on all these spots.

Aug 17th :

 

We woke up early today to charge the road. It was an easy 9 hour drive. This seemed like cake after driving 20 plus hours straight from Raleigh to Oklahoma city. As we got to our destination city, part of the crew went to the hotel to get some shut eye while adam dyet , Kevin lewis, nick forini , mark white and myself got a lead on a back yard pool and charged it. Damn pools dont feel good to slam in ! after skateing for an hour or two, we headed to the hotel to pick up scurich. Off to another spot, we gased up the genny and made another long night of it. During our session , another unnamed team crept by but were not friendly enough to stop and say hi. After the session, we left them a nice note and wished them luck. We got  Back to the hotel by five in the morning and retired for the night.

Aug 18th :

Today the crew split up to divide and conquer. Machnau , scurich , and gailea headed in to the city and shot some photos while dyet ,hastie , trep and myself went to a tattoo parlor to get some ink done. We got most of the city challenges out of the way today and only have one left. One of them was pretty comical. We had to set up a slip and slid at the notorious wet boys house. This shit was hilarious and sketchy. Slip and sliding in a backyard full of nails, broken glass and dog shit. I took about 15minute to rake up the area but never the less Kevin got a nice slice on his leg. From there we met back up and handle some more tricks in the book. At this time some of the crew went to the hotel while trep , dyet and myself went out till four in the morning again to keep checking off the book.

Aug 19th :

Another earley morning out of the hotel with minimal sleep. As we gathered the crew to and got on the road for the dailey mission, it started to dump rain. We ended up driving around scouting spots for Sunday. We decided to divide and conquere again today. Dyet, mark white, Kevin lewis and myself headed to an indoor park to polish off more tricks in the book while the other crew continued to mark spots for Sunday. As we pulled up to the park we scoured the parking lot and got a visual on the zero van. As we walked to the park from the lot we touched the van , and Jamie Thomas jumps out you trying to fuck with my van boys? of course we are , its one of the challenges in the book. We then went into the park and five minutes later their team leaves. Thats cool. After an hour or so the rest of our crew hooked up with us at the park and we continued the battle.when we finished at the park everything was drying up outside so a few of us headed out to find some stairs. We then headed back to the hotel and crashed for the night.

Aug 20th:

Woke up today and the weather was great. We charged into the city and trep handled some shit , while the rest of us warmed up a bit. After the first stop we headed to the hospital hubbas and got rolled up on by security. Paul and scurich took the van and headed towards another spot that the same security guard patrols while I distracted him by asking for the same directions over and over. I then proceeded to interview him about the details of his job, his life , and skateboarders. As he took the bait , paul took care of what he set out to do. As he pulled up in the van , the guard caught on to my distraction and had to leave. We broke out from that spot and headed to some ditches for some fun. From the ditches, we got some food, skated some full pipes, scoped more spots and headed back to the hotel.

Aug 21st :

Today was  the day we would be picking up our mystery guest , but when we got to the airport , he was a no show.  It was also team challenge day at the Denver park. All the teams had to partake in wack challenges, a slalom race around the park , quick deck set up comp , and a raw hot dog eating contest. We finished the day, jumped in the rv, and headed out towards our next destination.

Aug 22nd:

We arrived in dyets home town at about 5 in the morning after driving 10 hrs from Denver. At about 11am , we headed out on the town for a day full of skating. First we went to an 8 stair and blew out a page. After a run in with a group of steroid pumped jocks and a dickhead coach we went to a X flat X double set that our mystery guest abdias handled with ease. Just as nick forini stomped a few pop shoves on this bitch, we got rolled up on by under cover cops and legit police. After a half an hour of getting our ids run for warrents, they told us to beat it, so we did. From their we got some food and then headed to a XX stair rail that no one has ever thought about touching. Well maybe they thought about it, but no one has had the balls to jump on it , until now. Ya dyet!

As if this accomplishment wasnt enough , we rolled to a XX stair that our mystery guest frontside flip twice in a row. Danm , its good to have a great mystery guest. On the way out of town, we skated a tight bump over a barrier and another full pipe. At this point we got some dinner and got on the road for an all night drive to san fransisco to open out last city challenge.

aug 23rd :

after another all night drive, we arrived in frisco at about 9am on weds morning. we went to hubba hideout, opened the challenges and went to it. The first was to ollie the california street gap. Abdias handled it , but not without getting a nice hipper first. After , that I had to find an original emb local and have him do a pressure flip. I ended up getting ahold of ben sanchez and after hooking up at his work , he landed it . while we handled that , scurich went to handle the 3rd challenge. After we fininshed in frisco, we took off for another long drive back to la.

Aug 24th :

We arrived in la at about 2am. Half of the crew where still in backersfield sleeping while dyet, myselfand abdias continued to skate threw the night. We went to Huntington  high , then had a session at the volcom wherehouse until about 9am in the morning . that was a long night. After getting some sleep , we got up and sessioned the garden grove eight stair. Dyet checked off a trick or too , then we headed back to my house for some sleep.

Aug 25th:

The last day is here and we where out the door by 11am. We went to volcom first to warm up. after sessioning for a few we went back to the garden grove eight. Abdias got the frontside full cab so we hit the road. We hooked up with the rest of the crew at the Westchester rail that dyet backtailed. From there we had to hook up at the santa monica pier to hand in the book and our footy tape. We took the group kotr photo and hit the road again to check everyone into the hotels. Yet another long night and finally in bed at 4 am.

Aug 26 :

KOTR is over. We went to the wrap party at about 3pm. Everyone was beat. 2 solid weeks of driving skating and no sleep can really torque you. while we all drank pbrs and carved the pink motel pool the results were announced. Last place toy machine , 3rd place baker , 2 nd place darkstar , and zero was first with the 3 peat. I can say that it was an experience that I wont forget. The tricks, the challenges, the shit talking . it was all fun , and thats what skating should be about. Fun. I want to thank everyone for making this trip possible : thrasher magazine , lost energy drink , globe shoes, darkstar , rds, osiris shoes , dc and all the reps and retailers that helped while we where on the road.

Thanks.