We got the word that our good friend Nick Killback (from Dave’s Hippy Oil) was coming into town for a short period of time to visit. We obviously wanted to soak in as much Nick-time as we could, so we dropped everything we had planned for the week end, and packed the car to hit the road for a short trip. We didn’t even go too far away from home, only a few hours out of the city and it was enough to make for a memorable trip, not to mention inexpensive one. Skate trips do not need to be grandiose, simply step out of your city limits for a few days with the intension of an adventure, and you will surprise yourself with what you get into.
It’s amazing how much you can get away with on a skate trip if you are bold enough. We had been to this area a few times in the past, and managed to find an old dirt road on the edge of somebody’s property into the woods to camp on. This is not to say you can just barge where you want on a trip, but if you are respectful, I think some boundaries can be blurred.
I have been caught before in a case like this, so be prepared to leave at 2 am if you need to. It’s all part of the experience of a skate trip, so don’t sweat it.
A skate trip is obviously about the new spots you find to skate, but I always take pleasure in the little things in between sessions. Like when we cooked steak behind the dumpsters of the grocery store in this small town. Or when we took refuge on a rock by a lake to make espresso with our friend’s fancy camp stove. For me, a skate trip is about moments like these, and it’s important to balance the skating with some après-shred activities.
What happens on a skate trip stays on a skate trip. This does not only apply to the shenanigans which were saved from the list of details we told our girlfriends back home, but also applies to the places we went. Unfortunately we can’t say exactly where we went on this trip. If we were to reveal a few of these iconic spots publicly we might face a serious out-lash from some hard locals.
The hardest part of a skate trip is leaving the lifestyle and returning to the routines of regular life back home. But what if we think of this time spent as simply a shift of perspective regarding how we interact with our environment? There is no reason we cannot immerse ourselves in our regular habitat with the same attitude on living. To loosely hold a plan and flow with our surroundings. Go explore on your own terms, find something that you had no idea was there in the first place.
Story By Joey Bidner, Photos by Alex Brault