Headed West

2008 arrived with a bang.  That bang came in the form of a blizzard.  Myself (Matt Porter), Mark Wiitanen, Brendan Hayes & Eric Fernandez all rolled out to see what damage could be done with the new snow.

Eric Fernandez... Pirate extraordinaire. 

Brendan "the shark" Hayes

We went and checked out this awesome rail at a golf course, or library, we don't really know what it was but a bunch of old people kept showing up to drop things off in a big metal box by the front door.  Either the way the rail was epic, but a pretty obnoxious balancing act at the same time.

"Is that a rail or are you happy to see me Brendan?"

Those guys handled it right. I'm usually skeptical when a rider says "I've never done one of these before, but here goes...", but this time around it worked out just fine.  We packed up, high fived, and headed to Wendys to partake in some Spicy Chicken madness.  Wendys has a sandwich called the "Stack Attack" now... word of advice... as Mark learned, it lives up to its name about 2 hours after you eat it.

We headed west, it should have taken 2 hours, but it was the sketchiest road of all time.  It didn't really seem that crazy, but we saw about 25 cars in ditches on the way, including a 5 car pile up.  4.5 hours later we arrived at our hotel.

Screw that drive.

The next day we checked the scene to see what spots we could find.  Thanks to the snow all the schools were closed, including this one with a bunch of soccer fields looking out at the city.

Calm before the storm.

As we were setting up the snow came back with avengence.  The drop-in was holding up solid, and the session was on.  Eric warmed up with some blunt slides while B Hayes figured out the switch business.

Drop-in.

The rail was sick except for the weld spot. Mark handled it.

The session was sick, logged some footage, & headed for our next fast food excursion.  Burger King also makes you feel like crap about an hour after you eat it.  After lunch we headed out to check some more zones & came upon this kink rail.   Eric was all jazzed up to hit it so we went for it.

Hey Eric what kind of board is that?

Sling shot for good measure.

Warm ups.

That rail was a tricky one, but the plow guys watching from the bottom had their camera phones out & ready to send "pics" to their other plow guy buddies.  Logged 2 more shots. Brendan spotted a launch spot to ride this fence, and with plow piles everywhere it was a quick setup.  He held on solid, even though that fence was wobbling and shaking all crazy.

Fence grind.

Eric. Method.

Eric leaving his tag for the next crew.

The trip has been amazing so far, not too cold, lots of snow, and plenty of fattening food to enjoy.  We celebrated with Dennys breakfast for dinner... you make the call if it was a smart decision.

mmmmmm. sausage?

2 days down... good start for the new year.  Heading east tomorrow.