Lets back up a bit, literally the week of the trip, we were trying to figure out where we were going to stay since Dakota's vacant apartment wasn't so vacant. I think 2 days before we show up, Dakota hooked us up with a homie named Evan that lived with his mom and sister and had room for us. The way the situation was explained to us is that the mom was pretty much down for whatever. The first day we got there, Jamin picked us up in the mini van from the airport which was the first time all the Ohio dudes official met him. Tom would later join after he finished moving from Oregon back to Colorado. Jamin drives us to Evan's and just walks into the house like its his place too. We were all like okay, hrm, must be a Minnesota thing to leave the doors unlocked. Jamin wakes Evan up and then tells us he has to go to work. So we spend time trying to get settled the best we can by clearing up some space to set our sleeping pads on, right next to the shattered flat screen and broken laptop. Devin shows up shortly after. He drove from Iowa and was going to drive the whole crew around for the 2 weeks. The first couple of spots show us that Minnesota has a nice grit to the scene and there should be plenty to film.
During the entire trip, I was there to capture riding & lifestyle photos along with running the instagram constantly posting to keep the followers engaged with what TILT was currently doing. Additional to all of that, TILT had new products they were testing so I needed to capture product photos for marketing purposes.
Jamin hit this massive gap first try without anyone filming or shooting photos. I was blown away and super hyped. Once I get over there to take a photo, he bust out a bar twist which I wasn't ready for and completely head chop him. We quickly get the boot from the cops and we act like we are packing up, while we were packing up, we got the boot again from different cops. We hung around for a second and then got back to the trick. Jamin agrees to do another bar twist but he wants to add a whip to it at the end. First attempt and he nails it but his foot slips off as he is landing and scorpions. I figured he was done but he said it didn't even hurt and got back up to try it again. Whats crazy about this trick is he has to go full speed while hitting the boost button and hop up a 2-3 foot wall, launch off the wedge and then do his two tricks while hoping he doesn't get tangled up in the bikes. Definitely some gnarly shit!
Dylan was trying this massive grass gap for 20-30 minutes before he decided it wasn't possible. He was doing a 180 to fakie wallride, half cab out. He came close a couple of times but it was such a far gap that if he landed it, we all would of just got down on our knees to worship him.
Our last rail on our way back to the car ended in a bust, the cop asked for our ID's and I hung back just not giving mine which ended up working as I snuck photos of the crew being detained. We got off with a warning but this pretty much told us to watch our backs when we were on campus otherwise we were getting a ticket next time. We headed back to Evan's house, took apart the fisheye to clean some dust out and backed up the photos and videos.
We ended up chilling at a farmers market which had a lot of potential but everyone just wanted to hang instead. Devin ended up finding a bag of fruit that one of the farmers left behind which was a perfect addition to our breakfast.
Dakota brought us to these smooth yellow rails that were in a line. Devin ended up hurting his hand on the rail but still got his trick. Josh ended up going down while filming but saved the camera, like he normally does. What I think is ironic is when you go down with a camera in your hand, you tend to risk your body over the $2,000 camera. If you hurt your body, theres a good chance the bill will be more than $2,000. Josh ended up being fine though and then we began to focus our attention on Benny. He was trying a trick that he has tried here before and we all knew it was going to be a battle.
Benny was getting his trick but with a 180 out and he wanted to land fakie. He kept landing in this loose gravel section where his wheels would get stuck. I found some wood under the deck of a near by house and we put it over the gravel. Whats funny is he never landed on the wood, it forced his brain to land around the wood and then he ended up landing it. A lot of times, its not your muscles or body thats holding you back. Landing tricks can be a psychological war at times.
There's a lot of history in Minneapolis when it comes to "action sports." Its a major snowboarding city along with rollerblading, skating and now scootering. Dakota knew this neighborhood had a couple skaters in it and knew there was a skateshop near by. Dylan started filming his line and kept wallriding this building as a finish to his line. Eventually a man came out and asked what we were doing. We explained and he said oh okay, I was working in side and just kept hearing this massive thud, you care if I watch. Then he starts telling us that he runs a skateshop and he's been in the scene for decades and we explain scootering as he tells us about rollerblading and biking. It was really cool to meet someone like us that doesn't care what sport/hobby you are doing as long as you're having fun.
Dylans run up for this trick was across the train tracks, through two lanes of traffic, up a sidewalk to a drainage ditch and over a guard rail. A perfect Dylan spot. The first time we were here, they kicked us out so we showed up on the weekend with no hassle at all. After about 10-15 tries and Dylan seriously doubting if the trick was even possible, he landed it and shrugged his shoulders like oh, okay, I guess that was it. We then went across the street a little to this out rail where Tom and Devin both killed it.Â
Devin's first attempt was fast and wild, he flung the scooter out and landing in the street. He got back up and landed it right away. We joked about where he should land, saying the sidewalk slant was made for it. We all knew it was out of the question but turns out, it wasn't, at-least not when you're Devin Heald.Â
I ended up screwing up and took a photo of Devin lipsliding this massive rail on the wrong side because Josh was filming on the left side and I didn't want him in the photo. Devin agreed to do it again like it was no problem. We got the photo which still blows my mind because my flash was pointed directly at his eyes and the lighting wasn't great at this spot and the whole trip Devin had been complaining that he can barely see at night when he's driving. The next day we show up at a school first thing and the entire crew trickles in. Tom and Devin warmed up at a smaller rail in the back but the first thing the boys want to film is on this massive kinked rail. After a hefty battle and some loud yelling of the word "FUCK", Devin went to his happy place and landed his first ever double kinked rail.
Tom got a wild idea that he was going to try a line that went an entire block. It involved a wallride to fakie, halfcab off the curb, wallride, late whip over a cone and briflip over a mulch gap. He tried this for over an hour. He landed it 2 or 3 times but every time he hit the cone. It was really cool to watch him get this, even if he did hit the cone.
Dylan found this rail on some spot app and Devin was intrigued. He starts hitting it, each time getting closer to landing his board 5-0, when a big burly dude tells us to get out of there. We give him some shit but ultimately just decide to come back in a couple of hours to hit it again. We walk up to it like a stealth mission and start sending it. Devin gets a couple lands just to make sure but it turned out that the guy had already left and we were in the clear.
While Dylan was recording a podcast, Tom was trying to land a wallride to something on the rail. The sun was going down and we didn't have any lights and we already got the boot not that long ago and the camera battery would of probably died so Tom decided it wasn't worth the battle to maybe get it and not have it look good on camera.
When you're out filming in the streets, you see a lot of things other people don't get to see often. In addition, you are also something most people don't see as often so both become an intriguing subject on both ends. In the above photos you have Dylan on the left where he was filming a manual around a long C shaped concrete bench. It was at a bus stop so there were a bunch of people that would try to sit on it, in between tries. I would constantly walk up to them and explain the situation, some people didn't speak english so I had to point and demonstrate while others would be super sassy and show their disapproval of the inconvenience. To top it all off, that spot had half eaten chicken wings on the floor and in the corner there was a piss bucket. On the right you have Devin hitting a hand rail while kids look in extreme excitement. There was a school daycare service and they couldn't believe stuff like this was happening. Who knows, maybe we sparked some future generation of scooter riders.
If you look closely, I captured the moment toms bars were bouncing off the ground, completely bent. He ended up bending his prototype bars back into place and landed the trick. After that, some of the crew went to grab food while others went to the beach for a swim since it was a hot day. The boys spent their time at the beach finding rocks and trying to hit seagulls that were chilling on the buoy.
Everything about this photo above is sick! You have a vintage proto striker, a highlife 40 & tiltlife waterbottle both turned to wear they read together HIGH LIFE, little playmate elite lunch box, quaker state and lube nascar shirt and of course, Erik Karl. We were at this spot for awhile and Devin kept trying new things while warming up. I decided it was such an odd combo that the trick needed to be shot sequence. I knew the train kept coming by but didn’t even realize it was in the shot till Erik mentioned it. 33% skill, 33% equipment and 34% luck.
While we were still using that spot app, we went to a place that had a bank to wall but when we showed up, the entire school was under construction. We walked around while people were working and no one cared but it was clear that we weren't filming here today.
In the later days of the trip, everyone was going in waves of extremely hyped and completely over it throughout the day, myself included. Most times we would show up to a spot and just sit down. Hope someone would ride a spot long enough to get a break or dream about a place where we can go get food.
The last day felt like the ultimate buzz kill, it was the hottest it had been the entire trip. Everyone got a late start and the first spot had potential but no one was feeling it. We pushed around the most this day which didn't make any sense but it ended up waking everyone up and forcing some tricks to happen. If you look closely at Dylans full cab, you can see white dots all over his shirt trailing down towards the bottom left corner, thats his sweat getting flung from his body as he spins.
Devin ended up doing a fakie heel down the 3 flat 3 first but that wasn't enough for him so he threw in a fakie whip bar. Oh yeah, he did it twice too because he didn't like the way the first one looked. That's what makes the difference between a pro and an amateur, the strive for perfection that no one else will see.
