32 1/2 (average age of the crew) by Chris "Rhino" Rooney When I'm asked to go on a road trip, my answer is usually "fuck yeah." On this particular trip, I did not inquire as to where exactly we were going to skate. But if its Salba who asks if you're down and you've been skating with him the last 10 years, you know you're going to be skating some good shit!! There was room for 6 people total, Preston, Texas Dan, and myself flew in from San Diego, Tony Farmer arrived from San Fran, and Salba and Kelly Belmar flew in from LA. We all arrived in Albuquerque, NM, rounded up a van, some beer, stopped by a head shop for the snorkle, and headed to the skate park. The Albuquerque park is really fun, free, and no pads required. We had the whole park pretty much to ourselves and everyone was killing it. After sessioning, we headed out for an all night drive to skate a fullpipe that none of us has skated before, with the exception of Salba who'd skated it twice and the last time was 22 years ago. This secret pipe is 26 ft in diameter, about 100 yards long, has a good flat wall section, and an elbow from hell. There were still Santa Cruz stickers pasted about 10:30 from Salba's last session. We had to be stealth getting in, rapelling down a 15-foot wall. The largest fullpipe I have skated is Mt. Baldy, which is 16 1/2 ft. This pipe was monstrous. Having an elbow at one end allowed you to jump on your board and start skating without the initial pumping. Everyone was so stoked to be there, eyes were lit up like you were in the best titty bar in the world. We got to skate for about 4 hours. Salba's pipe skills were up to par, and he was plastering stickers at 11 o'clock backside, working the entire pipe, including the flat walls, and getting high up in the weird tranny where the pipe joins in with elbow. Belmar and Texas Dan were going so high it was sick -- both plastering stickers frontside and working the elbow both ways. Belmar was killing the frontside thrusters at 10:30 and Texas Dan, coming off foot surgery, was hitting 10:30 backsides and bailing some last second even higher, straight to flat bottom. Tony Farmer, pool ripper was no stranger to fullpipes, unleashing frontside thrusters with unmatched style and working the entire pipe. Preston was heating up the session with frontside bonelesses up in the sides of the elbow and killing the pipe as well. After pulling more tubes and engraving our names next to a list of other heavy hitters, we escaped and headed to the beer store to celebrate our victory. Back on the road, we stopped to get more beer and chow down some steaks. We had a long drive to our next spot, Salida, CO. On arriving, the park was empty with a storm approaching. But the weather held up and the session started. Free in the middle of a little town, no pads, and zero hassles. The only thing missing was pool coping. The park is fun and consists of 3 bowls. The shallow is longer with a flat wall and a good hip. The deep gets a little tricky with an uneven finish in the corners, but it's completely workable. Worth the stop if you are even remotely close. We stayed in Gunnison that night, and looking for some sort of nightlife we only mustered up some karaoke with a bunch of locals who looked straight out of the eighties. After too many drinks (the ugly chicks were not getting any better), we headed back to the hotel after tackling about 8 street signs and Preston and me wrestling in the room and breaking some fixtures. Our next stop was Montrose skate park in Colorado. This park has the best surface of any public park I have skated. And on top of that, it is kinkless and the tranny is smooth. Consisting of an opened-ended bowl, leading to a sort of snake run with an island in the middle, this park is a lot of fun. Once again, free -- and no pads required. They are supposed to be adding more concrete in the near future, with a vert bowl also in the plans. Colorado has a really good scene -- parks in abundance, not enforcing pads. We had another sick session. After eating breakfast and seeing everyone who was at the bar walking around town, we were back on the road. Another all-day drive to our destination: pipe #2, another secluded spot that Texas Dan and Salba had done their homework on. Having gotten our gear down to the pipe by rope and rafting in on inflatable mattresses, we started skating. This pipe is about 17 feet diameter, with a tighter workable elbow and about 40 feet of workable pipe. After about 5 minutes, the rain started coming down the elbow. So we waited out the storm and began sweeping and drying out the pipe to get a 4-hour session in. Somebody up there was looking over us (Neeley and Curtis was our guess). Being a tighter pipe (still 17 feet), it was a lot easier to pump and flow through the elbow to get speed and get you over vert. More sticker plastering, thrusters, and 10:30 runs went down. The elbow was being worked frontside and backside, coming from inside the pipe to the outer walls. Having an elbow adds a new dimension to the pipe and being able to carve opens up new territory that was not built to be skated. Hats off to Texas Dan for taking the most shits ever in a pipe ever. A total of 9 shits went down in a course of 4 hours, not to mention the hike down to the pipe and that morning at the hotel. And he still ripped the pipe regardless. Back on the road with drinks in hand, we had another all-day, all-night drive to scope out two more fullpipes. The first one we checked out had water running through it and the rain came upon our arrival to the second. So our mission was to do a recon for a future trip. The mission, as I found out later, was to skate 3 fullpipes at whatever spots we came across and to check some possibilities for the next trip. With 2 fullpipes under our belts, as well as some sick public parks, the trip was winding down. We headed back to our starting point, Albuquerque, NM. With time to spare before everyone's flights out, we skated the park one more time for a few hours. Salba and Belmar almost missed their flight, Texas Dan and Farmer were out, and Preston and I had 3 hours to kill at the bar and talk about one of the raddest trips ever.