NITRO: September 2010

It was a boardsport fiasco in southern california these past few weeks. Snow film debuts from People, Transworld, Vigeograss, Forum, Volcom and an awesome surf documentary Stoked and Broke, following a couple kids as they walk down the coast surfing and making money as they can. However, I was a day late for the premiers and their shenanigans, luckily the best of it all is online already, Hayden goes to a party II. By the time I showed up everyone had gone home and the people left were on a Ciszek 72 hour hang over. Nikki had already exhausted all the fun tourist activities such as sea world and the zoo, all their was left to do was a padres game, we went, it was baseball, 1-0, boring. It was lining up for a sleepy week in sleepy Encinitas.

The Next day Evan LeFebvre said he had some extra tickets for Street League, Rob Dyrdeks new contest. We picked up Cody Rosentha l, Olympic Cody, The Chosen One, the ever elusive, call him what you will, the three of us were off to see our first pro skateboard contest. We get to Ontario, CA at the Arena get our pictures taken with the worlds largest skateboard, obviously, check out a few monster babes, pick up our tickets ( Thanks Evan) and our gift bags including a gym bag and sweat rag woo hoo and entered the stadium. People were buzzing every which way trying to get posters signed, buying street league memorabilia tee shirts, standing in line for 12 dollar beers and 7 dollar hot dogs, it was a real sporting event. We sit in our cushy seats in an air conditioned arena and watch the rest of practice. Boom cams are swinging all over the place, P.Rod and Chris Cole take a break to hang with their wives and kids. Before the contest begins everyone stands while the national anthem is sung and its Chris Cole, P Rod, Nyjah Houston, Cody Lustka, Chaz Ortiz, Sheckler and Sean Malto in the finals and they all crushed. But in the end it was Chaz looking to take the title with one trick left to do, he had only fell once all day and if he landed one last trick he would be a 150k richer. But pressure is a bitch and a failed crooked grind attempt cost him the win giving it to Malto, people rushed the floor everyone was out of their seats. It was as if Malto just caught a hail mary in the final seconds to win the super bowl. It was awesome, easy to say the greatest sporting event I have ever been to. Thanks Evan.

After such a high from the skate contest nikki and i decide to follow it up with the Hurley Pro at Trestles in hopes to see Slater and Dane Reynolds punting airs. After the drive to San Clemente we park the car and begin the 20 minute walk down to the beach where there is some not so welcoming graffiti written in the walkway, mild examples like "go back to the I E" and "the beach is that way" pointing towards the parking lot. Once we get down to the event we pick up our credentials (thanks Active) and head to the balcony where we gorge on free food and beer, with our belly's full we take a seat and watch the sets roll in. Jordy Smith did some type of superman which was cool, but for the most part it was bottom turns and people then taking it "vertical" as the announcer would say. Luckily my surf guru friend JP Collett was there with us to explain just how "radical" dane was really getting and how hard it really is. Unfortunately, I didn't see nearly as many babes in bikinis as i expected but the sun was out, the waves were firing and we had delicious catering, it was a real nice day at the beach.

I talked to Chicken the next morningto see if he wanted to surf but he said he was going to drive to Big Bear for Hot Dawgs and Handrails and invited us along for the ride. We hopped in the car figuring we had to finish out our contest trifecta, although we didn't make it very far before Chicken informed me he didn't have a license. Reluctantly, I got behind the wheel and we did the treacherous drive that every southern californian has to do every time they want to go snowboarding and three hours later ended up at Big Bear. The three of us got our credentials (thanks Chicken) and headed towards the free food and drinks once again. Oddly enough this being a snowboard event and in the "mountains" it was by far the hottest event we had been to yet. The crowd was packed, mostly people standing in the beer line and trying to win free shwag, I doubt the majority of the people there had ever even been snowboarding, nikki described it as being at a wakeboard event, including bad tattoos and classy gals. Jake Kuzyk, Harrison Gordon and a majority of the HCSC diggers were all snowboarding extremly well considering it was september, the snow was a mixture of dust, shaved ice and hay bails and i think Jake even won some money, congrats. All in all we watched some snowboarding, slapped some high fives and bailed before the contest ended to get ahead of all the drunk drivers headed down the hill.

Nikki's patients were wearing thin onthe contest circuit and my attempt of teaching her to surf went up in flames so it was time to head home. We decided to split the horrendous drive into two days spending the night in Reno with Robbie Sell and checking out his new restaurant Pie Face. Its right downtown, open until 6am, they have gourmet pizza, delicious salads and dollars beers, definitely worth the stop next time your in Reno or just passing through. Back to the contests though, they were all entertaining but Street League is on another level, if you have the chance to go, take it, or if you need an excuse to hit vegas this weekend the final stop is on the 25th.

adios muchachos