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Skate Legends
Desert Tour II - Albuquerque, New Mexico
29 Aug to 1
Sept, four days of rippin’ in the desert
Words and
photos by GBMII
Chuck Dinkins stomps
a textbook Madonna at Calvary Skatepark
I spent a fair amount of time
figuring out how to make it better or at least different from the last tour.
One of the ways was to increase the amount of spots.
Another was to add diversity. This
years’ trip had a little bit of everything that started, and keeps us skating;
parks, pools, ramps and even a trip back to the streets.
Lotsa
players from last years’ tour were unable to make it.
Mason
– Injured
Womble – Injured
Gelfand – On travel to South
America
Baucom – Building his own skatepark
in Gainesville
Barnes – MIA (later I found out he
doesn’t answer most e-mails…)
Baxter – Gravity Games
Schmitt – Recovering from ACL
surgery
Myhre – New baby on board
This years’ crew was smaller but
contained just as much stoke as the last crew.
Repeat offenders Kelly Lynn, Chuck Dinkins, Chris Homan and Chris West
were joined by newcomers to the circuit; Dan and Andrew Murray, for the trip to
the land of Mile High Grinders. The
boys from Fla all brought something new to the event; Chuck brought his new
model from Santa Fe Skateboards, Kelly brought a new platinum blonde hairstyle,
Homan brought a new marital status, and Team Murray brought a new wide-eyed
wonderment over the terrain they were seeing.
The trip this year would bring a bit more local flavor to the table as we
were joined by a significant part of the Albuquerque Crew.
These guys (and gals) are always down for a session, with anyone, at any
time.
Partial crew shot
after hunting bear; from left Homan, Lynn, A Murray, K-Lee, GBMII, Cowboy Cody,
D Murray, Dinkins, CW, G.I. Joe Lehm, and Mike Lowrie
Day 1
The
weekend started the way most other skate weekends would, too early for the east
coasters and right on time for the locals (which is ANYTIME).
The nonstop from Orlando dropped our boys off at Albuquerque shortly
after GBMII and Homan picked up the van and customized it with a sticker set
that Paul Schmitt had sent out a few days earlier.
We collected our bags and crew and headed off to eat and SKATE!
After a
killer chow session at Fudruckers the crew dragged their bloated bodies off to Los
Altos Skatepark.
Los Altos
is 30,000 square feet of outdoor anarchy. Free,
open from 8:00 am till midnight, no pads or helmets required. Kelly, Chuck and Homan had been there before and picked up
where they left off, ripping. Dan
and Andrew picked up the lines pretty quick and pretty soon Dan-O put his stick
down and picked up the camera to document some of the intense ripping that was
going down. Andrew picked up on the
lines KL and CD were throwing down and added some spice of his own.
Los Altos is open to all types of gravity-based adventurers including
BMX-ers and fruit-booters. The
diverse crowd isn’t usually a problem until you play pinball with an 11
year-old that hopped into the bowl without looking, or when you hop onto coping
that slides more like a sticky cheese grater due to foot-pegs being dragged
across it on a nightly basis. Our
boys rose above it all and threw down with wild abandon.
Once the crew got their tools dialed in (97-99a - 58/60mm wheels) the
ripping really started. Kelly,
Chuck, GBMII and Homan were flying all over the “baby’s arm” section,
throwing slides, airs, transfers and 50/50s.
Andrew found the combi-pool to his liking and was hitting airs, lip
tricks and F/S rock n rolls on his first run.
DanO put the camera down long enough to rip some signature tricks as
well. Los Altos Highlights: KL hip air to 50/50s, CD switch carves, Andrew pulling Patty
Mayo/Doug combos, Chuck hooking up one of the locals with some new wheels after
watching him being unable to get halfway up the wall on his flat-spotted 44mm
bearing caps, and watching a couple of 17 year-old gomers passing around a
bottle of vodka and chasing it with Heinekens (at 3:00 in the afternoon). I
guess if you’re stupid drunk it gives you an excuse to miss your tricks and
fall all night.
Andrew Murray, F/S
Rock n Roll, Los Altos Combi Pool
No
matter how many times you see it, this trick still looks trippy.
Andrew,
Patty Mayonnaise, Los Altos Combi.
Dan Murray spending
some time on the Los Altos coping
Kelly Lynn, hip air
to 50/50 at Los Altos
Kelly sweeps while
Dan watches. Los Altos
The
session wound down at Los Altos and the boys packed up and headed to the Four
Hills section of town for some downhill adventure.
The run at Four Hills is two miles long, sustained downhill, smooth
blacktop, through a residential area full of grand old estates. The only real problem occurs about three quarters of the way
through the run, when you have to blow through a stop sign on a sometimes-busy
street. Speeds of 40 mph are easily
attained on this run, depending if you tuck and bomb it or soul carve it,
hitting the driveways sidewalks that make it interesting.
Albuquerque head Mike Lowrie joined us as a guide and blew minds pulling
30 mph tail manuals down the upper section of the hill.
Andrew came close to slamming with speed wobbles on his first run, and
Dan and Homan took a wrong turn and ended up being found by a search party.
Just about
any spot in Albuquerque is close to killer ditches, and 4 Hills is no exception.
The 4 Hills ditch is long, deceptively fast and lethal.
The run starts with a sick drop-in off a bridge (right under the “no
skateboarding” sign) and ends a mile later at a giant catch basin leading to
underground 5-foot pipes. The crew
dropped in for a run to say they did it and had a blast screaming down the steep
pitch with perfect transitions. All
except Dan “all I want to do is to is stay healthy enough to ride Calvary”
Murray. Dan took one run too many
and found a section of gravel at the most inopportune time that slammed up the
wall, bruising ribs and forearm and losing lots of skin. We patched him up, fed him a beer and headed off to the next
spot to chill for a while and find some vicodin for our injured comrade.
After hanging with the Los Altos locals for a few we hit Il Vicino for
some fine Italian grub and micro-brew and then called it a night.
We had to get some sleep, as day two was scheduled to be a killer. Day two was gonna be a long one, and the crew only knew half
of the agenda…..
Day2
Day two
started was the “Team Legends” T-shirt day and at 8:00 am sharp at Calvary
Skatepark, another free spot, smaller than Los Altos but just as
interesting. There are a few rules
at Calvary, including wearing a shirt and helmet, and no profane graphics but
that is to be expected at a church-sponsored facility.
The place does not allow BMXers, but it packs out with flippy-slappys and
fruit-booters every day of the week, so getting there early is the only way to
skate without having to hurt someone. The
park is well designed, flawlessly built and easy to wire.
Albuquerque locals K-Lee, Cowboy Cody, G I Joe Lehm, and others joined us
for our morning session. Again
Kelly, Chuck and Andrew ripped the place up, and GI Joe opened some eyes as he
stylishly carve-grinded his longboard across the coping looking like a 20
year-old version of Bruce Walker (although Joe is only a few years younger than
the Floridian godfather). The
highlight of this session had to be when Chuck put on a clinic on how to dial in
Madonnas, and when Kelly flowed F/S rock and rolls like he’d been doing them
all his skating career. After a
requisite hip-jumping jam we all headed off to Wild Oats for some health food,
carrot juice and sawdust cookies.
Style
check, Andrew and Kelly hip ollie at Calvary Skatepark
A member of the
notorious Red Shirt Legends Gang, Kelly rocks frontside at Calvary
G. I. Joe Lehm carves
his 44” pintail around at Calvary
The after lunch
activities started with a trip to the Bear (the Bear Canyon Arroyo).
There is
no way to really describe the Bear. We
can give the physical dimensions and surface types, but it really doesn’t come
together until you stand on your board at the top of the wall and think about
taking off. The walls are huge, the
pitch is fast, the surface is Sensation Basin gritty, and the kinks are in your
face. There are bigger places,
there are gnarlier places, but the Bear sucks you in and somehow coaxes you into
taking a drop. And then another
drop, and then the next thing you know your hurtling down a huge wall, scared
shitless about the next kink/transition and dying to get to the top of the wall
so you can rip another turn at mach speed at the limits of your equipment.
The equipment you need at the Bear is a helmet, a big board, big wheels,
respect, and big balls. Use ‘em
all and you’ll be rewarded, but challenge the Bear without one of these items
and you’ll be risking a trip to the emergency room.
The local saying is “feed the Bear”.
G I Joe, K-Lee and GBMII were showing the Fla Boyz the ropes and getting
used to the Bear when CW, Mike Lowrie, Cody and the Albuq heads dropped in and
just started tearing the place apart. Chuck
Dinkins hopped on a borrowed 53 inch Supertanker and started feeling it, nose
walking and throwing christies at the top of the huge walls.
Kelly started to dial in his runs on his stylish Sector 9 pintail (this
guy has ALWAYS had the coolest looking sticks), and after an hour or so of
prodding we finally shamed Andrew into taking some runs (he made all the cones,
so we can dog him too hard). The
session went on without injury but the Bear showed its’ teeth to GBMII, Chuck
and CW. We finished up at the Bear,
paid our respects and thanked the spirits for allowing us walk away instead of
limping off (or worse).
Like
warriors heading off to Wiamea, the crew gears up at the Bear
Chuck Dinkins machs frontside at
the Bear. Check the flex on the
board – he’s doing everything he can just to stay in the ditch!
Kelly at the same cone, feelin’it
Chuck carves out a
soul arch on 40 feet of wall
What trip to New Mexico would be
complete without a run or two down the Indian School Ditch?
This two-mile long (longer if you want it), perfect pitch,
smooth-surfaced, rounded-trannie drainage ditch appears to be designed for
skateboarding (check out Dan-Os or Chuck Dinkins videos).
Recent rains had cleaned out most of the debris and left it ready to
shred. The ditch is home to
cruisers and flippy-slappies, and you can expect to see just about any type of
gravity driven vehicle during one of your 15-minute runs.
You can have fun on just about any kind of board here (except that tiny
little thing The Walrus rides at Lake Mary) but the locals prefer mid to long
cruisers (36-50 inch) with 65-70mm softies.
This setup allows the most fun, and keeps you from getting in over your
head. If you don’t check your speed at Indian School you can end
up at the bottom like a runaway train, at 35 mph, unable to stop or runout, and
footbraking is pretty scary on a 10-foot wall.
The objective hazards include access ladders, drainage pipes, 8” metal
seams, blind sections under the bridges, and inattentive street skaters (which
K-Lee found just past the foot bridge). This
is always one of the highlights of the tour.
We sessioned there for a few cycles and then headed down to a piece of
the ditch that the boys hadn’t skated yet….
One of the
great features of the Indian School Ditch is that it passes right behind the
house of Jeff Chalakee. Jeff is a
local ripper (and one of the coolest guys on the planet) who has been part of
the local scene since the ‘70s. Earlier
this year Jeff decided to put a vert ramp in his backyard.
Jeff
sported up some serious cash and the rest of the crew kicked in some coin (and
labor) and we ended up with an outdoor version of Olliewood-lite.
Local ramp maestro Abe Towery lent his considerable ramp
designing/building skills to the project and it came out flawless.
The ramp has 9-foot trannies, a low and high section (1.5 foot of vert),
with metal cope on one side and poured concrete cope on the other.
This is all in a big backyard that overlooks the Indian School ditch and
is shaded by a giant 200 year-old cottonwood tree.
Perfect setting for a party.
Which is what the Albuquerque locals greeted us with when we arrived.
As we cruised up to the back gate we could smell the burgers cooking and
the beer flowing. 20 to 30 local skaters, wives, kids, heads, etc got together
to welcome the Florida boys to their second home.
Andrew’s eyes lit up when he saw the ramp, and anyone who has seen him
rip Olliewood knows why. He put on
a clinic of big airs and tech tricks that had the crowd hooting.
Most of the crew was pretty cooked from skating all day but they rose to
the occasion and represented before the call of draft Tecate and burgers made
them take off their pads. The
locals were definitely throwing down as well, with EP, CW, Lowrie and Beetle
leading the charge. CW was throwing
down his signature high to low transfer/roll-ins, EP flowed major Smiths and
Backside airs, and Beetle ripped all kinds of insane air and lip tricks
including his patented backside Smith to headplant.
One by one the fell victim to tired legs and cold beer and finished up a
marathon day of skating. In a scene
that is repeated time and time again across skate spots across the U.S., old
friends were reunited and new friendships were formed.
The bonds skaters share transcend distance, age and school.
At the end of the day it’s just a handful of bros drinking beer,
laughing and telling stories about that days session and sessions past.
Familiar pose on a
new location, Andrew rips a frontside at Chalakee’s ramp as the clouds roll in
Andrew (red shirt) and Beetle
(brown shirt) play a game of “who’s got the strangest trick”
CW Dunn, high to low
roll-in
The dreaded Red Shirt
gang invades another spot
DanO flows frontside
before the party (and a handful of Tecates)
Mike Lowrie adds a frontside of his
own to the session
Local pool owner, BLR racer, all
around shredder and member of the red shirt gang Rob Palmer lays down a Smith
grind at the ramp
Ryan EP stands up a smith as the
sun sets on another killer day of skating
Day 3
Sunday
started with another ditch session, at a place called Live Oak.
Live Oak is a smaller ditch that is more suited for street skating than
typical Albuquerque cruising. It’s
a great place to warm up for another day of serious skating.
We picked up Chris West (fresh off of working OzzFest) the night before
and he was ready to hit some Albuq ‘crete!
After a typical New Mexican breakfast (minus the Tecate) at the famed
Garcias Kitchen the crew headed up the hill to Live Oak.
The ditch cruises downhill for 200 yards or so and then flattens out into
a spillway with some cool drop-in channels and a nice hip.
West lead the charge up and down the ditch and somehow talked everyone
into doing a coffin down the flat for one final run. After flying up and down the walls, hips and channels lost
its challenge the boys found a launch ramp and stood it up at the top of one of
the walls for a little old-school extension session. Everyone had a blast trying to “wheel” it.
The Conspiracy Crew from Colorado joined us with a few locals as we
closed down and headed off to bigger terrain.
Andrew
and Kelly spend some time on the extension
The entry is a riot!
Kelly and Chuck take the drop
Chuck goes F/S on a big board while
Dan captures the drama
Next on
the agenda was a rarely skated gem called the La Cueva ditch.
Lots of people forget about this ditch when it comes to naming spots, but
it is one of the true jewels in Albuquerque’s crown.
It starts with smooth 20-foot walls and perfect transitions and snakes
downhill for a mile through manicured grass backyards in the Northeast Heights
(check it out in the new Concrete Wave). The
lower section has walls that are asymmetric allowing for killer speed carves and
slides. All the heads showed up as
if drawn by some mystical call out, and the ditch was sessioned by at least 30
locals and guests that morning.
The La
Cueva ditch is part of the same drainage channel as the famed Carmel Ditch.
The Carmel Ditch was featured in a contents page spread in Concrete Wave
a few issues ago, with Ryan Simonetti pulling a sick F/S wall ride.
Carmel is long and steep with more curves than Salma Hayek.
It is a blast to ride when it is clean and you have the right wheels.
The only problem with Carmel is the finish, it has a raked finish that
can only be overcome with big soft wheels, and even then it is the worst place
ever to fall. The ditch was dirty
due to massive new home construction in the area but Mother Nature will clean it
out, and as she does the finish will mellow as well.
This ditch is gonna be epic in a few years.
We took a few hits and even rolled around in the 10 foot full-pipe that
feeds into it as well.
Lunch was
at a local health food joint, and Dan and Andrew looked kind of guilty bringing
in their Taco Bell bags and joining us. After
chowing down we geared up to head across the river to a pool known as the Westside
Egg.
Kelly rips the egg while Homan and
West ponder their next move (nice background)
The Egg is
a sweet 9-footer with good transitions, workable shallow/stairs and a fair
amount of flat bottom. The
poured-in-place “cooldeck” coping is thick, but made for grinding.
The Egg is at a house with a For Sale sign out front, and Albuquerque
locals have been sessioning this pool for about 6 months.
After a 10-minute bail out session (of some of the foulest smelling water
ever) the boyz got down to business.
GBMII showed the crew some of the local lines and then they did the rest.
Kelly and Chuck were going off and Andrew was just missing rock-n-rolls
next to the diving board. Homan and
Murray were on it like old pros, but Dan-O refused to go over the light, even
though he was living on the tiles. GBMII
invoked the “Fort Worth Whip Out” rule on tricks, which is that if you
can’t pull a trick off by the third try you have to skate the next run with
you pants around your ankles. Fortunately
everyone was on their game and stayed clothed, and the boyz turned it into a
good old-fashioned pool session. The
heat really got turned up when Ryan “Hollywood” Simonetti showed up and
started ripping the pool like few others do.
Kelly was starting to feel it and CD was carving over the stairs, and
Ryan was killing it all over the place (with frontside rock n roll sliders over
the stairs!). About that time our
luck ran out as an irate realtor (and Barry Mainlow look-alike) came busting
through the backdoor yelling about trespassing, liability and recreational
facilities. We didn’t stick
around to hear his tirade as everyone just agreed that we were trespassing, said
they were sorry and would never do it again.
We picked up their stuff and walked away.
We weren’t too concerned because we knew the house would be sold the
next week anyway. Recently
Albuquerque shredder Rob Palmer decided he liked the pool (and the huge house
and giant corner lot) so much that he bought the place (but that’s another
story).
GBMII grinds in the left side pocket
Chuck gets touchy in the shallow end
while the crew hides in the shade
New owner Rob Palmer poaches a
deep to shallow grind prior to signing the mortgage papers.
After
the “bust” the crew headed out to Troy’s 6-foot mini-half but found it too
wet, so they cruised back across the river to hit a hot tub and some R&R.
On the drive back they stopped into the legendary Elks Lodge pool.
Earlier this year this local icon fell on some hard times as it became
infested with BMXers who trashed the pool and turned it into a bust.
The pool still retains some of its past glory but the walls/coping/and
deck will forever retain the scars of disrespectful, shortsighted monkeys.
But like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, this pool will be ridden again.
The Elks Lodge pool showing it’s
battle scars and anti skating attempts (13 feet deep, with all the vert you can
handle)
Day 4
The Monday
morning routine started with a quick pack-up and a drive-by to Ronald’s
Steakhouse for a junk-food grease-bomb breakfast.
Although the team was leaving in the afternoon they had a full agenda.
GBMII had reserved a few special spots for the final day to ensure that
everyone left with a smile on their face and coping dust on their pads.
After a
quick warm-up at the Los Altos Park the boys followed Ryan EP down to an
abandoned motel pool called the Quarter Pounder.
This sweet Roman gets
its name from the movie Pulp Fiction. Ryan
EP carves out of the pocket
The
Quarter Pounder is a 9-foot roman with a sweet shallow end and burly cast
coping. Access is a little tough, having to scale a 6-foot then
10-fence to gain access to the inner sanctum.
Once you make it in to the pool, your worries are far from over as cops
frequently cruise the area looking for hookers and street people to hassle.
Strict adherence to the pool-riders code limited us to a short session
but it was well worth it as boys feasted on another Albuquerque banquet.
Kelly and Chuck were
on the tiles in minutes
With one
pool under their belt by noon the crew headed off to the Heights to continue to
try and quench their thirst for coping. GBMII
had saved a killer little square permission pool for the final session.
Shallow-end tiles at
the Beech Bowl
The
Beech bowl is a “b” shaped bowl in the
ivy-covered backyard of local artist Jose.
Jose doesn’t spend much time in the bowl but is completely down with
having rippers stop by from time to time to spend some time in this blue haven.
The pool
was in pretty good shape and just needed a quick sweeping before we hopped in to
rip. The Beech bowl is 7 feet deep
with whippy transitions and a perfectly located deathbox.
It is more of a one or two hit deep end, and a pretty unrideable shallow
end. The pool is named after the
dog named Beech that lives in the backyard with her puppies.
Beech took a special liking to Chuck and cheered for him on his every
ride (Beech liked Chuck so much that she jumped in and joined him on one run).
Chris West had the pool dialed in pretty quick, and Chuck Kelly and Dan
weren’t far behind. Kelly was
having Holiday bowl flashbacks and hit some backside forevers until he got too
dizzy from spinning around in the tiny bowl.
The crew finally ran out of time and energy and said their goodbyes to
the pool and the animals.
Chuck and Beech
discuss his latest ride
Abe Towrey slashes
frontside over the deathbox at the Beech Bowl
Ryan Simonetti floats
a frontside air in the deep end
Andrew carves around
the deep end
Kelly
getting focused at the Beech bowl
Rules to
live by at the Beech
1.
You kick it here, you buy beer
2.
Treat our house like your moms or die
3.
If I catch you stealing – dead!
4.
Start trouble – dead!
5.
Piss Jose off – dead!
6.
Ass, Grass, or Cash – nobody rides for free
7.
If I don’t know you – turn around
8.
If you don’t follow rule #7 – dead!
9.
If you’re here I hope you called first
10.
Call before showing up
The crew dusted off their pads and
packed up and headed for the airport. On
the way out of town Chris West reaffirmed his Dirk Diggler rep, sweet talking
convenience store worker out of her digits. Homan easily walked off with his second GQ award.
Dan took the slam of the weekend on day one at 4 hills.
Chuck could lay claim to the best trick with a 30 mph Christie at the top
of a 35-foot wall, but Kelly and Andrew had pretty strong cases as well.
Andrew easily wins the bonehead award for telling two hotties that were
interested in making him the meat in their love sandwich his real age.
Old and
new friends said their goodbyes. The
count for four days of skating totaled; 6
ditches, 4 pools, 2 parks, a couple of ramps, some hills even a little flatland.
Not a bad way to spend a holiday weekend.
Everybody
came away with some new experience. Andrew
continues to hone his backyard pool draining/sessioning skills, learning from
some of the best. Pool riding
protocol hasn’t changed in 30 years, and he will be part of the new generation
that carries this skill to the future. And
his proud papa got to help him with the lesson plan.
We’re all counting the days till next year’s event.
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