Trip to Dirtona
by Steve 'the historian' Hughes

The idea sounded simple enough-take ten days off and visit Stone Edge, Badlands, Kona and then swing by the Charleston Bowl. I've done this trip probably 5 times now, so I assume I got it dialed. The voyagers on this trip were to be Brett [Rogers], John [May], James, Moss (as in trees) and myself. On the day before we were to leave John and Brett bailed due to John's job being on the line, sometimes priorities play a role. So on Thursday Moss, James, Derrick (my friend from school who needed a lift to GA) and I left. My new van (Team Toyota) rules the whole drive, although the hills in West Virginia gave her a run for her money. The first stop was in North Carolina at Science's new vert ramp. [Science is a nickname for Dave Maxwell.] We arrived at 6pm, so we had about a 1/2 an hour to ride (sucks). I padded up, did some grinds then looked at the flatbotoom and realized it was wet, the dreadful spring dew. Science immediately quit skating due to suffering so many injuries on wet steel but Aaron didn't seemed bothered at all. He did some pivot fakies, air to fakies, indies, lipslides - all on wet steel. It got dark quick and we all had to retire. I give it those guys for building such a good ramp in 6 weeks, the ramp was solid as hell and unpainted steel is always a joy to ride.

We left the ramp and went to Science's house. He showed us his collection of UFO magfazines and then we all laughed about the Skitch Hitchcock interview. Science has a great collection of Star Wars figures, what a freak. We split from Science's en route to Statesville, GA to drop off Derrik. From Statesville we went to the Dirt [Daytona Beach, Fl], end of day one.

I woke up to Kurt Meager kicking me and the warm Florida air. Everytime I go to FLA I forget how nice it is to live in a warm climate. I went back to sleep but woke soon enough to Grover, what a friendly visitor. After goofing off all day, we went to Stone Edge around 4pm. Moss had never ridden concrete before so he was a little bewildered, the first thing he rode was the Peanut! I love skating Stone Edge, it's the only place where you can cruise around and skate four different bowls. Kurt showed us all the lines in the Peanut, he did the usual 20 wall runs complete with 50-50's over the hip into the shallow and some nice airs. The first day was a warm up session.

The next day we all cruised the beach with Kettle (out due to broken ribs) and made fun of Spring Breakers. We checked out all the stupid shit and I got my feet burned. When we got back to the Meagers [John] May and [Brett] Rogers had shown up in the Wack Shack [John's van]. After Friday's work May just split, he rules. I was so glad to see those two, the whole trip was kind of arranged by John. We all went to the park and had a blast, I went to Grovers for a while and returned confused. That night was John's birthday so we hooked up with Nick, Big Country, and the rest of the gang, and proceeded to get loaded and get thrown out of a bar, whoops. I think John's birthday was a good one.

I woke up with a headache and a dog licking my face. Another day with nothing to do but skate, and we did. We all skated the International House ramp (7ft high [8ft?], w/ pool coping). I slammed pretty good on a misjudged hang up, stupid. Nick killed that ramp with nice grind reverts and crazy ollies, barely avoiding going off the ramp. After getting beat up we all headed to the park. At Stone Edge Greg [Hiler] was going super high to fakie, the standard stand up nose grinds and 5ft disasters, Greg is hands down the top ruler on a skateboard. May and I skated the Peanut, May did some nice standups and I learned some new lines over the hip. The Egg seemed to be the bowl of choice for us Ohioans, Nick ripped it and Country scared it. That night we did the usual-drinking on the back porch.

I would go on and on about Badlands but the guys there suck and the pool had water in it. May, Kurt and I rode with the water in it but it blew when your board got wet. We had to mini ramp it the whole day, it was fun but that pool is what Badlands is all about.. Those guys suck, what a waste of $7!

The next three days we all skated everyday, cruised the beach, and usually drank on the back porch. The trip was going smooth but something was missing. On Wednesday the Angry Young Man [Chris Colette] finally showed his face, I knew things would get out of hand soon. That night we all hung, smoked up, drank Beam and made plans to skate the next day. Angry showed up at the house early ready to ride, we all left amped as hell. Angry has been a local at Stone Edge since the get go, it is obvious when you see him ride. He killed the Egg with crazy lines, long grinds, and a standard pissed sweeper. Angry killed the nine with some nice ollies and speed lines. As usual Angry scared all who watched on the vert ramp with over rotated backside ollies to tail and giant body jars. That night we finally made our way to the strip for some fun. After avoiding getting arrested we ended up at some cheesy Spring Break club, complete with girls having an orgasm contest, it sucked, we yelled, we left. We ended up at Point Break, crap central. Nick and Angry paid to be the waterboys in the wet t-shirt contest and the fun began. Nick kept wippin the water at the girls faces, that ice hurts. Angry decided the contest sucked so he grabbed the trash can full of ice and water and poured it all on some chick, the place went off and Angry got thrown out. I passed out in Mays van and awoke to Angry screaming. The bouncers gave him a little more than expected, he was hurtin. That day was our last day, we headed north to skate the Charleston bowl (we gave up on Kona).

We arrived in Charleston with a storm behind us or so we thought. As soon as I dropped in, the rain began. That night we bummed out and drank with Darrell Thrasher (some drunk wipe out) waiting for the sun to rise, so we could skate.

When we arose we were greeted by Jimmy and some silver pearl, I made the mistake and passed out for close to 6 hours. I imagine the session was going off, I was sleeping, stupid. When I did awake I rode with Greg, Lance, Drew, Jimmy, Hank - the whole gang. Greg went fast as hell and blasted some big airs, Lance did killer laybacks, Drew locked on some b-side Smiths, Jimmy did the usual killer lines and Hank rode long and proud. I was pretty beat up from the week's chaos and was getting real tired, so we jumped on the rode and returned to Ohio. Road trips rule, I've gone on a bunch and got plenty more in my system (Kenya next).

Joe, I hope this isn't too long . . .

-Steve