Every year before the Chicago Street Jam, the boys pack up in the van and take a trip somewhere around the Midwest. The entire crew was in town for this one which was a nice treat. Since it takes a whole day to gather up everyone, some of us cruised the city and hit up a couple parks with some friends. As the day continued, the crew got bigger. We caught a nice sunset sesh at burnham and headed back to Mokena.

Half the crew stayed at Shane’s apartment, our sales manager and the rest stayed at Collin’s. There was limited couch/floor space and it was a nice night so Jon and Issac decided to sleep on the balcony. Once everyone was up and fed, we met at the shop, snagged any last minutes parts, packed up the van and hit the road.

This year we decided to hit the Rust Belt cities of Detroit and Cleveland. The crew consisted of Jon Archer, Erik Feenstra, Jona Humbel, Jordan Jasa, Dylan Kasson, Tom Kvilhaug, Chris Martin, Ralph McMoran, Issac Miller, Josh Smukal, and Collin Snoek. After hours of driving, we were just minutes from Detroit and we still hadn’t nailed down a hotel to stay at. This is pretty normal for us for some reason. As one person drives, the other books a cheap hotel, or finds a place to eat, or locates the next spot.

As we neared the first spot we knew right away the neighborhood we were in was sketchy. The gas station we stopped at for drinks had a couple cops posted up and the checkout area used a sort of rotating lazy susan for the teller to take your money, because the rest of the counter had bulletproof glass separating the customers from the teller. We expected a bit of sketchiness, but what we didn’t expect was the wind!

The first spot had some of the gnarliest wind we have ever rode in. But the spot was so good that it didn’t even matter. Northwestern High School is filled with crazy banks, ledges, and transfers everywhere. You could start at one end, carve one wall for speed, then push up to the biggest wall with perfect tranny at the bottom to hit your trick. It wasn’t long before the tricks started going down.

Tom K switched things up by hitting the wallride off the side of the bank, and almost whipped into it. He got the whip in a couple of times but just couldn’t pull out of it to land. Some local homies showed up to the spot and helped us get into the abandoned building across the street so we could shoot some b-roll and explore. Tom K eventually broke his deck and we were outtie to the next spot.

This was one spot we knew some tricks would go down. It was a perfect 9 stair rail down a bank at some ATV dealership. This thing was seriously so low, it was like a park rail. So immediately Tom and Jon started trying tricks up it.

People were looking at tricks over the rail into the bank too. As Jona was working his way up to back sugarcaning down it, Tom and Jon both laced their tricks and Issac was able to lock into a backside over 5050.

The sun was beginning to set so we decided to make our way into the city for some extra light to see if we could find anything. We ended up at a random street by the river that of course Dylan knew a spot on, so we scoped it out. The place looked insane and had banks, tables, ledges, stairs, even manny pads.

This place looked like fun and was all downhill, but a lot of the obstacles had some minor flaw to it that made it hard to ride. The whole team was pretty tired so we decided to just head back to our hotel that was behind Hooters.

After breakfast and a round of crabapple dodgeball (which Chris lost), we hit up a really cool DIY. Everyone got clips despite the soaring temps. Some people came out and took some modeling photos which was strange because that DIY was just in a basketball court next to an empty field. The local homies ended up meeting up with us and we hit the next spot but not before we had some pizza at a bowling alley.

Once we finished we headed over to the abandoned building with a sunken in 2nd floor that created the perfect tranny you could hit. There was also a sketchy bump to rail and a random cinderblock ledge. This spot was low key famous. DVS, Rome SDS and some ski company have all ridden here. While some people were trying to film tricks, others went and explored around the building, and even got up on the roof for a bird’s eye view.

After leaving the warehouse we ended up driving up and down random roads to see if we could find anything. We did end up finding a wallride gap to sidewalk that Dylan attempted. It had a weird run up and of course Dylan had to go full speed at it.

We were there for about 30-40 minutes before he started getting sun sickness and had to call it otherwise he would of been drained the rest of the day. While we were there some of the crew noticed a 5 kinked rail that we would later come back to.

We continued to drive up and down roads and stumbled on another small DIY which was right next to another abandoned building.

Some of the team rode and some of us explored the building trying to find a way up on top of the roof to get a good B-roll shot but there wasn’t a way.

We headed to downtown Detroit, to Hart Plaza. We did get the kickout but not before Tom was able to sticker slap one of the sculptures. After driving around for a long time not finding anything, we came up on a red bump to bar outside a local youth boxing gym. After about five minutes there a dude in a van drove up on us super-fast, and started yelling at us to leave. He was saying how he owned the place and it was for the kids, and that they just painted the rail that Jon was about to grind. Over and over the guy yelled, “I did it for the kids” while he kicked Jon’s backpack and got in his face.

Jon just replied with, “chill man, I like the kids too”. We were fine with leaving but the dude was being unreasonably angry and nearly fought Jon. It was a tad scary because we were learning how sketchy Detroit can be and we didn’t know if this guy had a gun or anything. Everything happened pretty fast so we packed the van up and drove off while he was taking pictures of our license plate. We quickly realized Dylan wasn’t in the van and we had to go drive up and down the roads and try to find him and hope this guy wasn’t following us.

Once we got Dylan in the van we headed to the 5 kinked rail from earlier. Tom scoped it out and turns around and says, “Yeah I’ll hit it. This blew some of our minds how casual he said it. We got the lights out and the kids started flocking to us. Since the kids have nothing better to do, they come hangout with 11 dudes traveling in a van. These kids were a pain because they kept getting in the shot or using the rail as a gymnastics station. Tom gets about 10 or so tries into it and makes it past the 3rd kink but slips out.

The whole team gets hyped but shortly we get kicked out by a janitor. She said she already called the cops. Tom tries 2 more times and realizes he needs more time and not to be under pressure so we pack up and go. On our way back to the hotel we find a cool little manny pad and 4 or 5 benches sitting around it. Dylan and Jordan end up getting clips while some of the team ventures off and grabs some tasty beverages to bring back to the van for everyone.

Day three in San Francisco was the filming of the Tilt 2 intro. We ghetto rigged the back door to stay open while Chris held onto the camera/tripod and filmed while Collin drove. If you have ever been in the van with Collin you know thats gnarly and we even had to blow a stop sign going about 20mph to get it. Once we split up for the day it went great for the Tilt van getting some good action but for the rental car it went way south. Lots of driving around and spot bust so they ended up checking out the golden gate bridge. They did scope out a killer school for after sunset sesh. We all met at the school that night which was in a neighborhood. Lighting it up was going to be risky but we felt like it was worth it. A lot of people were either watching us ride through their windows or hanging out on the street corners confused but intrigued. A couple cleaning people went into the school while we had the lights up and they seemed concerned but didn’t want to confront us. We hopped the fence in the back and lit up a 17 stair. Issac got the clip 1st try and the whole team started yelling in excitement. Tom started lining up for his trick but some lady drove by and said she called the cops and one of the cleaning guys came out and said we had to go. I have never seen a set up get torn down so quickly and packed in the van. We are talking lights, light stands, generator, gas can, extension cords, two HVX’s, 7D and flash all over a 10ft fence in about 90 seconds. The next day we drove around together hitting the same spots and getting portraits of the team for the website. We did a quick stop at Wallenberg just to peep it. There were a bunch of kids practicing basketball and a random yoga group but before we knew it, Issac was throwing himself down the set. Re-opened his hand again but in the end he landed the trick. Three times might I add but they weren’t as clean the first two times.

After Wallenberg we hit up Twin Peaks to check it out and see the sunset and take some photos. Mostly everyone still wanted to ride so we drove around for a bit and ended up at a ledge/mani pad. The main reason was for Jordan to get a clip but everyone else ended up getting something but he couldn’t pull through. We went back to the hotel, ate some pizza and went over the 2015 spring/summer apparel drop. By time we finished up it was close to 2am. Since this was our last night and tomorrow we had a long van ride so some of us decided to stay up all night and go out riding. Ralph didn’t even change out of his pajamas as we hit the streets. It was pretty interesting and fun but holy crap were we tired when that sun came up. On our way back to LA we stopped at Big Sur. Jona was pretty much asleep for the whole thing until we took one of the sketchiest roads up some mountains with vertical drops that would keep us rolling all the way to the ocean if we went off. Jona was not about that life at all. As part of the crew split off at Ralph’s house to hangout and film the other part drove the van back to Chicago with stops in Vegas, Canyonlands National Park, Breckenridge ski resort, Denver and from there we drove straight to the Tilt House. Some things that need to be noted is Collin peeing on people’s houses, actually Collin just peeing where ever he wants. Tom K going through a red light in front of a cop and the cop not doing anything. Going to a school while in session and getting kicked out because Ralph was smoking. The teacher then realized we were riding the spot and then got kicked out for scootering. Blaring Taylor Swift in the van and the whole vehicle rocking back and forth. Erik and Tom both having birthdays during the trip. The team battling to charge their phone inside the van and one hell of a time in the bay.

San Francisco was a mission, getting up at 8am and riding till 9pm if not later. The entire team was crammed in a van with everyones luggage from LA to Oakland. After our Denny’s experience we for sure thought we were getting a hotel with cockroaches but it turned out pretty swanky. The next morning we went over how the crews were going to split up. Half the team went in the Tilt van and the other half rolled around in style with the rental car. The first day doing this, everyone was hyped to be in the bay. Half the team had never been to San Francisco and the other half had been to the bay 7+ times. We hit some of the more famous spots to give the rookies their taste of what San Fran has to offer. The crews didn’t meet back up till night time to light up a bank to jersey barrier which almost everybody got a clip at. By the end of the day, one crew alone got 15 clips. That was pretty heavy and we for sure thought the rest of the trip was going to go that way, but it didn’t. We split the crews up a little differently the second day and some of us ended up hitting the same spot twice. Like the flower shop, I think we passed that place 8 times in the 4 days we were in the bay. The first spot the rental car hit was along the water and so many people were constantly in the way.

There was this one lady that ran into a friend and they started small talking and her little white dog that was off the leash was just barking at Jona as he stood there and waited for the lady to move. She was oblivious to what was going on so Jordan rode up to her and started circling her. Her dogs were barking like crazy and she couldn’t even hear her friend talk so finally she realized what was going on and continued to keep walking so Josh could hit the spot. Thank you Jordan, you were a hero that day. Again the crews didn’t meet up till later that night to sesh the same spot which was a DIY bank spot. Turned out to be a lot of fun and a bunch of tricks went down including a pretty sizable gap that Dylan hit twice to get a line. The funny part is half way through Dylan trying the trick, a mini van was parked by the landing which made the trick that much harder. Some of us split off to eat some dinner at a random taco food truck which turned out to be some of the best food on the trip and a famous San Francisco grub spot. Once back to the hotel, some of us got together and rode over to the Hella Grip house to watch some skate movies while the others either stayed up and went through footage or just went to bed.

Pretty much everyone knows what SD9 is, but what most people don’t know is its one big filming trip for Tilt. Half of the team got picked up along the drive in the Tilt Van coming from Chicago. The other half flew in to San Diego. Once everyone was in San Diego, it was all smiles and high fives. Straight out of the airport, a couple homies randomly spotted us while we were splitting up gear, and they were down to show us some spots that were close. We threw them in the van and started driving. The first spot we got the boot in 10 minutes. We drove down a couple blocks and started to hit a college and again within 10 minutes we got kicked. We then found a cool rail hop that Erik hit 1st try. Night came quick, so we went to the hotel to chill in the hot tub and get some grub. The next couple of days we hit Home Ave ditch, came across a sweet mellow rail to trick in and out of, and checked out a school with a double rail hop. We got yelled at by locals because we were in a ditch out back making their dogs bark and found out that if the cops would of caught us it was a $380 fine. We booked out of there and ended up passing the cops in the van as we were leaving. After jumping so many fences it was nice to know that tomorrow was the SD event. Our total bust vs rideable spots was 4 out of 8.

At SD the crew mainly chilled, hung out with all the homies, devoured 3 pizza’s in minutes, watched some of the contest and got yelled at again by angry moms that couldn't see over us. Oh and Issac got sticker slapped. After the event we still had some daylight, so we went to 3 spots and lit them up. For only having half a day to film we ended up getting 11 clips. The next morning we packed the van to the ceiling and headed to San Francisco. Half way into the drive Collin pulled off on some road and the entire team got out to piss. Tom ended up winning longest trail. A little bit further in the drive we randomly pulled off and drove down some dirt roads. We got a nice portrait of the team and some B-roll for TILT2. Sleeping in the van is probably one of the hardest things to do. You have two options, you either put your head on the seat in front of you or you lean up against the window and have your head rattle off. Either one you do, you have a sore back by the end of the 7 hour drive. That drive actually turned into 14 hours on the road. Once we finally got to Oakland we hit up a Denny’s where we got the worst Denny’s experience to ever be had in the entire world. Service and food were so bad that it was funny. Everyone had wrong orders, forgotten items, missing silverware and the whole experience took forever. Good times for sure.

This was our 4th annual street jam, and it was definitely one for the books. The number of riders went uncounted, but we would like to think it was around 10,000. The Tilt crew along with 20-30 riders started in Mokena and took the train in. From there they took a small cruise through the streets to meet up at the starting point, Union Station. Immediately upon arrival the Chicago Street Jam was underway. With $1,500 cash up for grabs plus gear the riders mobbed the streets. The first spot was Fulton Market where we had one of the owners cars waiting to be gapped over. One rider tried a gnarly front flip over the car and ended up breaking his ankle. After Collin's car had been beaten down and dented, time came to mash over to the NBC tower to hit the clock ledges. This is where people had time to get a little technical and get that cash. Once the mob's energy died down, the cruising continued to the next spot. With cars turning around and bridges being covered with scooters like ants, the city clearly didn't know what to do. The third spot was a flat 9 rail at Butler Field in Grant Park.

Right away tricks were being thrown and didn't stop until the bangers came out. After too much hype, the riders went to an unexpected cool down spot at the stage ledges. After everyone had some time to rest those feet, it was off to the ender. The last spot was the massive Buckingham 12 also located in grant park. Everyone gave it a solid look and determined right there whether they were hitting or observing. A select few threw down and snagged cash to bring back home. Before the jam could end, a bike cop pulled up and tried to shut it down. He said he had reports of some unsafe maneuvers happening down some stairs and that's why he showed up. As he turned his bike sideways to block the stairs, the riders ran to the other set right next to it to set up and land their last tricks. After the cop realized he was defeated, he joined the crowd along with many other Chicagoans and watched in awe. All in all, very little injuries occurred and a lot of good vibes were sent out through the entire scooter community. We thank everyone that was a part of this amazing time. Until next year.