The Loco Is in San Francisco!!!

Hell Yes! We're going to do the Spring 2010 US Tour in the Loco Express again!! We still have Hoodie, Guff, Kibbling, Phillip Lemire, King Brian, and myself, but with the addition of Jennifer Tam, Nate Lang, and Woody from Whistler. We are planning on going to San Francisco and Berkeley, and Las Vegas, where we pick up Simon Pigeon, before heading to Ditch Slap. Timeship Racing hosts the yearly Ditch Slap, an illegal, but infamous event enabling about 60 of us to attack the drainage ditches of Albuquerque, New Mexico. This event is not for weak skaters, with high speeds, gnarly transitions, and unforeseen obstacles that require riders to remain alert and reactive. As an awesome contrast of skating skills, we are then picking up Nick Breton and heading to Boulder for the second year of the Buffalo Bill Downhill, which is a super technical high-speed race in the Colorado hills. From there, we are planning to head over to Salt Lake City, and then back over to the west coast to ride Mt. Baker and Maryhill before heading back to British Columbia in time for Attack of Danger Bay.
I am so stoked for this trip. In addition to the mobs of skaters poaching the ditches and the big mountain racing, we’re going to be skating some of the gnarliest roads, filming the best talents, and having the some of the best times of our lives.


Day One!!
Despite a scheduled departure time of 8am on Tuesday April 27th, the Loco didn’t manage to leave until about 9pm that night. The boys have been working on the bus without sleeping for about 3 days. But thanks to all their hard work, everything seemed to be in good working order! As opposed to last year, we have working brake lights, working turn signals, and even electricity! And, at the last minute, Phillip’s family hooked us up with a trailer, which makes the interior much more spacious and luxurious.
We finally got to the border at 11pm, at which point the border guards, not surprisingly, asked us to pull over. Unfortunately, we had accidentally left a Kontour camera still recording on the dash, which is illegal according to the guards. They were so pissed off that they seemed to try to make an example out of one of us. They decreed that Hoodie was no longer free to enter the US. We stood there dumbfounded; we couldn’t believe that Hoodie wasn’t going to be coming with us on the inaugural 2010 US tour. Hoodie took this news like a champ, still allowing us to take the Loco to the States, and putting King Brian in charge. After a quick crash course on emergency Loco mechanics, we left our fearless leader in Canada, wondering how on earth we were going to make this trip work without the one who built this beast.
Day One has melded into Day Two, as we had driven all Tuesday night and Wednesday day. Despite a small hiccup when a can of the trademark red Loco paint spilled all over the lockbox, we have been making decent time. In the early afternoon, we met up with Billy Bones to shred the microbowl in JP Rowan’s brainchild, Rip City Skates, in Portland, Oregon.
We thought we had this trip all under control, with the plan of arriving in San Francisco by around 1am Wednesday night. By the early evening, though, there was a wobbling in the rear wheels we couldn’t ignore any longer. Woody and King Brian got straight to work jacking up the Loco, and removing the rear passenger dually, in order to tighten up the studs on the rims. So far this plan has been working, but we’re worried that the rims are too stripped to make very far, necessitating a new emergency rim for the wheel. We’ll let you know how it goes, but we’re on our way.

Day 3
We spent this day all on the road!! After having to fix a few little problems, like a stripped wheel rim (uh oh, we need a new one soon!), and got the stereo system working, we started cruising and began the first dance party of this year's Loco trip!! All was good, and we rolled into Alameda in the Bay area to stay at Liam Morgan's house at about 1am.

Day 4
We're at Liam's house, sitting in the bright, sunny kitchen, drinking coffee, and eating breakfast. Awesome!! Soon, we'll be headed off to skate the epic, stupid-fast Berkeley hills, then to downtown San Francisco to the shop "Skate on Haight", skate the infamous Lombard St, and go over the Golden Gate Bridge! So Rad!!!