Summer of Death: Road Warriors

I pulled under 600 North, astonished by the number of people that had gathered for the fourth year of SLUG’s street-style skate contest. It was half an hour before Summer of Death: Road Warriors started and more the 50 people were already on the scene shredding and sipping some undercover, frosty, adult beverages. The first spot was a quintessential Jersey barrier with concrete transition that SLUG Mag had built along with Dick Weed and Chuck Langlois. This was no fluffy spot. There is nothing easy about jamming straight into a concrete wall.

The contest kicked off and everyone started powering at the barrier in one big jam session. As most were still trying to figure out what the hell they were going to do on the thing, Sean Hadley powed past everyone and layed down massive frontside 5-0 variations. Israel West got vertical with a miller flip, while Isaiah Beh backed his bible brother up with a blunt fakie. Andy Leyba, (2nd place winner from the Kickflip the Economy contest) rolled up to the scene dressed to impress with a black tie and slicked back hair but that’s about all he had to offer for this spot. Kordel Black ripped in with a feeble fakie and Brandon Hobush layed down a lengthy boardslide rock. This was not going to be an unambiguous decision for the expert judging panel consisting of Tully Flynn, Jason Gianchetta, Keaton McDonald and guest pro James Atkin. As the session roared on, nearby train yard workers started taking heavy notice to all the skaters filling up the spot. Fearful of our sheer numbers, they kept it on the sidelines and radioed for back up. Dave Amador caught word of the fuzz coming in for some crowd control so the call was made and the session ended. Everyone piled into their cars and scattered to the next spot with haste.

The best part about this contest is the unrestrained street-skating essence that it embraces. These are real street spots, there is no special permission to skate—it is rough, rugged and raw. If the cops come, you better run.  

The next spot was very well concealed. Nestled among tall buildings, it is primarily a flat ledge. However, to those with a keen skate eye, there is much more to offer then that. Hobush got tech with a smith kick-flip and smith bigspin, Chase Strikwerda cracked an ollie over the hand rail leading up to the loading dock and Mark Judd kickflipped his way up the step. Hadley, frustrated with everyone’s slow feeble trick attempts on the ledge, took a different route, cutting against the grain with a kickflip wallride off the steep up bump. Leyba killed the comedy act momentarily for a 50-50 finger flip and West shut the spot down 50-50ing the handrail coming off the loading dock. This was the gnarliest trick of the day. There is virtually no runway to get any speed and you have to cut into it from almost a 90-degree angle. Pandemonium unleashed once he rolled away. Nothing else needed to be seen and nothing else could be done. This session was over. It was off to the third and final spot:­ the Sunny Side handrail.

Photos:

Page:  [1]  2  Next >>

Comments on this article

Posted on September 5, 2009 by cheryl

Great going we had too much fun. except when to police arrived, I thought I was going away in cuffs.

Add a comment

Please keep your comments on the subject of the article.
We will delete your comment if it is racist, misogynistic, sexist, bigoted or just plain lame.
No HTML allowed!