Almost? (Not quite).WITH ALMOST BEING A NEW BOARD COMPANY, we were all pretty excited when Mike Burnett called Tom up and asked if the team would like to be on this year's King of the Road. Of course we said yes, and immediately got down to planning the trip. We secured Jaya Bonderov and Anthony "Lil' Thirst" Acosta as our photographer and our filmer due to their exceptional skills on board. Before we knew it, the date was upon us and we were off to Philly. PHILADELPHIA THIS WAS OUR FIRST STOP. We arrived on Friday the 13th Friday the 13th regarded as unlucky day. [Western Folklore: Misc.] See : Luck, Bad of August, only to find out it was going to rain all weekend ... so we headed over to FDR skatepark FDR Skatepark is a skatepark located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park is popular with notable local skaters such as Bam Margera. The park was built on donated land under an overpass on Interstate 95 with volunteers and monetary donations. to get some challenges out of the way. One of the challenges was to get a kid to talk smack on Barn. Being his hometown, we decided it was the perfect place. So for the kid who opened his mouth--you know who you are, and after the video, so will Barn. After knocking out a couple tricks we checked out of town. Oh, and no Philly cheesesteaks; we didn't want Torn having a heart attack. TEAM ALMOST PHILADELPHIA CHALLENGES F/s grind over the twinkie Twinkie® defense Forensic psychiatry A legal tack in which a defendant claims that a criminal act resulted from chemical imbalances induced by 'junk food,' and not criminal intent. on the vert wall at FDR Run up the Rocky stairs with your board and do a 360 flip first try at the top (failure to land it means starting over at the bottom) Find a teenager who does not like Barn and is willing to talk about it CHICAGO/MILWAUKEE AFTER DRIVING 18 HOURS, we stopped for a quick skate from 4:30am 'til 6:00am. Then we headed to Milwaukee for some rest at Lutzka's parent's house. They were just waking up but were happy to provide everyone with a bed, minus Haslam and Daewon, who decided to play SKATE 'til noon. That afternoon we headed off to skate a ditch that Lutzka knew about, but before we could get to the hard tricks we realized that it was infested in·fest tr.v. in·fest·ed, in·fest·ing, in·fests 1. To inhabit or overrun in numbers or quantities large enough to be harmful, threatening, or obnoxious: with gnarly (jargon) gnarly - /nar'lee/ Both obscure and hairy. "Yow! - the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!" From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang. West Nile West Nile may refer to:
WORD TURDS: QUOTES FROM THE ROAD "I feel like skating so bad I have so much ambition."--Greg Lutzka, exiting the plane in Philly "Coffee really does keep you awake."--Greg Lutzka "Hey, is your mom She goes to the gym. over 40?"--Anthony Acosta, leaving Lutzka's house "Hey Lutzka, go smoke that shit away from the gas pumps."--Tom Curran "Hey, did anyone bring Ryan's booster chair?"--Anthony Acosta, walking into breakfast "Who drew the dick on the side of the van?"--Jaya Bonderov "Daewon, tell my brother I have a big dick!"--Anthony Acosta, wasted "I'll make out with her boyfriend then. I don't give a fuck."--Anthony Acosta "Let's do this. I'll jack off tomorrow."--Anthony Acosta "My hair is so dried out."--Daewon Song "She was arching her back, making it look way too good."--Jaya Bonderov "I got to call my agent first!"--Ryan Sheckler on Mohawks MINNEAPOLIS WE WOKE UP EARLY--noon is early to us, unlike another team we know--and got to searching for Seth McCallum. He was a champ, and was happy to show us around to all the amazing spots that Minneapolis had to offer. At the first spot we went to Harlem grinded an incredibly long flat rail with a terrible run-up, while Greg handled a bunch of points on a nine-stair rail. Pretty soon the rain came (every single Almost tour so far has been cursed with Adj. 1. cursed with - burdened with; "stuck with the tab" stuck with cursed, curst - deserving a curse; sometimes used as an intensifier; "villagers shun the area believing it to be cursed"; "cursed with four daughter"; "not a cursed drop"; "his cursed bad weather), so we headed over to see our friends at Third Lair to gain some tranny points. The next day we enlisted a true local, John Muldoon John Muldoon (March 2, 1896–January 2, 1944) was an American rugby union player who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics. He was a member of the American rugby union team, which won the gold medal. External links
TEAM ALMOST MINNEAPOLIS CHALLENGES Shred with Zed (Seth McCullum) Do a trick off the P in front of the Pillsbury Center Sing a Prince song at Karaoke while wearing purple SK8 MAFIA "HOLY SHIT, is that the Sk8 Mafia RV?" someone screamed as we pulled up to our holel. We had heard that they were doing a demo at Third Lair, but we were in disbelief that they were actually there. We walked into the hotel and were bombarded by Smolik, Connelly Davis, and the rest of the Sk8 Mafia crew. There must've been 11 or 12 of them. One dude that I talked to had just made friends with the Sk8 Mafia at one of their previous stops and left wherever he was from to join their tour. These dudes were down to party! I distinctly remember walking into their hotel room as somebody was breaking a hole in the wall. It was clear that if this kept up we wouldn't be staying at the hotel that night, so pretty soon the party shifted to the RV. Jaya and I decided to check it out. These dudes were going off! Everclear was being passed around, music was blaring, someone was running up on top of the RV and jumping off, and I'm pretty sure one of the crew was puking blood. I just saw Smolik at a trade show party, and was sure he wouldn't remember me. I was extra stoked stoked adj. Slang 1. Exhilarated or excited. 2. Being or feeling high or intoxicated, especially from a drug. when I walked by him and he screamed "Everclear!" at the top of his lungs. As Daewon said the next day, "Man, Smolik is fuckin' awesome." DENVER/CARBONDALE AT THIS POINT Tom had been driving for 21 hours and, with Cooper in full pads, we made it to Denver skatepark downtown around 5:00am on no sleep. We skated the park and awaited the call to go get our Mystery Guest, Ben Schroeder. After almost picking him up we headed for the Carbondale Run--us in our van, and Ben and his girlfriend in their car. This is about the part of the tour where every team manager's life starts to suck. Going 70-miles-per-hour down a mountain outside of Denver, the brakes in the van just stopped working. This was one of those times when you wake up in the back of the van and realize what those unused seatbelts are for. Pedal to the floor and the front end locking up, we came to a not-so-fun stop on the side of the road. We made it down the hill--seatbelts in full affect--and after a nice stop at the Chevy dealer we were back on our way. Once in Carbondale we opened our envelope and were shocked to find that everyone would be dropping in Dropping in is a skateboarding trick with which a skateboarder can start skating a half-pipe by dropping into it from the coping instead of starting from the bottom and pumping gradually for more speed. from the top of the fullpipe. We soon feared for the life of Tom "Random Tat" Curran. After everyone else had gotten it over with, Tom stepped up and, after one terrible whale slide, he rolled away and secured us another 50 points. Carbondale was on-and-off rain, so we ended up getting wasted and working on Miscellaneous Challenges. Tom handled a 47-year-old, Sheckler took Mic-E out in arm wrestling arm wrestling or arm-wres·tling n. A form of wrestling in which two opponents sit facing each other with usually right hands interlocked and elbows firmly planted, as on a table surface, and attempt to force each other's arm down. , and Daewon slashed the park with a slice of pizza in hand. Then everyone left, and we were on our way to the next destination. TEAM ALMOST COLORADO CHALLENGES Pick up Mystery Guest in Denver Check in with Phelps at Carbondale Run event no later than 10am on Saturday the 21st Get a photo wearing Phelps' glasses Beat Mic-E arm wrestling Do an entire run with a plate of food in one hand and beverage in the other Roll in on the back of the cradle SALT LAKE CITY AFTER GETTING TO SALT LAKE we ran into T-bone (Tyrone Olson) and he hooked us up with some good spots. Salt Lake was great--this was the first time on the trip where we got to stay in a town for more than a day, so we went to work. Our boy Lil' Thirst went for the glory and knocked out a naked kickflip manual minutes before the rent-a-cops tried to arrest us. After a couple hard days of skating we headed off to a place called Todd's bar, meeting up with a couple local ladies and heading back to the hotel for an hour-long no-holds-barred hotel room wrestling match with the whole team and a bunch of chicks. After some severe body slams, one lucky 24-year-old beauty had a very nice kiss from Shecks (sorry Gretchen), securing us a couple more points. We were skating this eight-stair rail when Jamie and the Zero boys rolled up. Having Jamie on the steps heckling them didn't bother Greg and Ryan, because they kept racking up the points. We deviously tried to ascertain as much info about how many points they had gotten so far. Chris Cole
TEAM ALMOST SALT LAKE CITY CHALLENGES Skate the 13-stair at Skyline High that Adrian Lopez backside Lipped Build a three-man skateboard--with three men riding it, Jump a three-stair Skate a skate-proofed spot BEN SCHROEDER INTERVIEW How long have you been a giant? Stupid question! How old were you when you turned pro? 18. How did the KOTR KOTR King of the Road (skateboarding) KOTR King of the Ring (pro wrestling) KOTR Knights of the Round KOTR Korea on the rocks (website) tour compare to tours you went on when you were a pro? There was a lot more freedom on KOTR. What was your favorite trip, ever? Japan for a two-week tour with Christian Hosoi Christian Rosha Hosoi (born October 5, 1967) is an American professional skateboarder. He was also known by the nicknames "Christ" and "Holmes". Hosoi, along with Tony Hawk, were the most popular skateboarders for the better part of the 1980's. , Grosso, Dressen, Duncan, Reategui, Zipper zipper Device for binding the edges of an opening, as on a garment or a bag. A zipper consists of two strips of material with metal or plastic teeth along the edges, and a sliding piece that interlocks the teeth when moved in one direction and separates them again when moved Head, and Craig Johnson Craig Johnson may refer to:
How did you break your neck? Riding in the back of a pickup without a shell, going 60 mph. Head-on collision A head-on collision is one where the front ends of two ships, trains, planes or vehicles hit each other, as opposed to a side-collision or rear-end collision. Rail transport With rail, a head-on collision often implies a collision on a single line railway. with another truck also going 60. What was the recovery like? In hospital for two months; I had to relearn Verb 1. relearn - learn something again, as after having forgotten or neglected it; "After the accident, he could not walk for months and had to relearn how to walk down stairs" how to walk and then how to skate. I relearned skating switch. Was there anything that surprised you about touring with Almost? The humility and grown-up grown-up adj. 1. Of, characteristic of, or intended for adults: grown-up movies; a grown-up discussion. 2. attitudes of the team. Was your girlfriend hummed? No. She was stoked to go to Aspen, Vale, Carbondale, and to get wet in the rain. Who is your favorite street skater? Mark Gonzales Mark Gonzales (born June 1 1969), also known as "The Gonz", is a professional skateboarder and artist. He is known in the skateboarding world as the pioneer of street skateboarding, currently skateboarding's most popular form. , if you want to limit him by calling him a street skater. What would the Carbondale Run have been like had it happened in 1989? Less beer, more skating. Describe your ideal session---where and with who? Good friends/legendary rippers and concrete coping. What was the stupidest challenge on KOTR? No comment. Did you think Almost was going to win? Didn't even think about it. Ever tried to skate with trucks other than Gullwings? Yes, I was stuck on Indys for a month when my board was stolen with my last set of Gullwing gull·wing adj. Hinged at the top so as to swing upward. Used of a type of automobile door. magnesiums on it. Fuck Indys. They suck for grinding on coping. The "Gullwing Army" is where it's at. There is a big resurgence happening now in tranny and bowl skating, and the Gullwing army will lead the way once again. Just as it did a few years back. Where do you get them? Walt Tied at Gullwing trucks in San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. . Is skating better now or when you were pro? Skateboarding is the same. The media sucks. All handrails. What's some advice for the kids? Learn how to go fast before you spend all your time trying to kickflip. LAST GASP WORKING OUR WAY to the end of the trip, we made a stop at Strawberry bowl to clean up some backyard pool tricks. Everyone, especially Jaya, got busy, and after a quick encounter with the REAL dudes we broke out. We made some more stops for stair and rail points, and by 10:45 we literally had to turn off the generator to make the Lutzka quit skating. It was a mad rash into The City as Anthony and Haslam tried to edit everything in time to turn it in. After a few computer malfunctions they finally got it on a DV tape in time to hand it all over to Phelps. At Hubba all the teams met up, we shook a couple hands, all the while thinking to ourselves, "Thank God this is over." Good luck to Zero. Two years of this competition will drive you crazy. Thanks for the ride, Thrasher thrasher: see mimic thrush. thrasher Any of 17 species (family Mimidae) of New World songbirds that have a downcurved bill and are noted for noisily foraging on the ground in dense thickets and for loud, varied songs. . We ALMOST won. |
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