PLAN: Take Arbor‘s PDX Sk8 Bus on a giant loop around the western United States and skate as many parks and mountains as possible.
PRIMARY DESTINATION: The streets and ditches of Albuquerque, NM for The All Around Challenge and S.L.A.P. The All Around Challenge tests riders to compete in transition, slalom, street, and boarder-x, while S.L.A.P. is simply two days of shuttle runs through the city’s intricate system of ditches.
INSTA HANDLE: #SLAPsafari. When passing through the California border, the fruit patrol asked us if we were on a skate safari. We replied yes, and shortly realized that nearly everything we planned to skate had an animal related name: Antelope, Cow, Fish, Phoenix, Bear, and Buffalo. The name stuck.
PART 4: COLORADO
After over a week of daily skating, we were ready to get off our boards and climb some epic Colorado rock formations. At our first stop, most of us lurked at the base of a huge rock wall while Pat and Casey scaled the summit, and Will caused as much erosion as possible. Next, we skated a couple massive parks and scaled another giant rock wall.
Just after sundown, we arrived at the Ratchet House in Boulder where we were greeted by a fridge full of beer and more on the way. Housemates Aaron Hampshire, Nick da Brown Kid, and Justin Rollo know how to bring the party and still rage the mountains in the morning. Colorado is gnarly.
Noah Throckmorton follows Brandon Tissen
A recent snow storm closed down most of the choice mountain passes, but the locals took us to ride the Buffalo, which stays golden all winter long. With moderate to high speeds, a large variety of sweepers, and several hairpin sections, the only downside was the heavy car and bicycle traffic, which did little to slow us down.
Our hangovers started to set in shortly after the session, so we grabbed some pizza and refueled for a session at Arvada park. We stayed one more night in Boulder and climbed the rocky peaks of Eldorado Canyon the next day. The climb was too steep to bring the DSLR, but we got some solid insta shots along the way.
After the hike, we headed to Fort Collins where we partied with the most lesbians I’ve ever seen in one place. The next morning, we followed some local advice and finished off our geographically legal substances before crossing the border and made the long haul back to Oregon. It was a crazy two week ride with countless unforgettable memories, and we’ll be back for more next year!
Make sure you didn’t miss Part 1: California, Part 2: Arizona, and Part 3: New Mexico. For more coverage, follow the crew on Instagram and check out #SLAPsafari. Full video drops Friday!
Words and Photos: Ross Druckrey