Like always, Tilt hosts a BBQ for all the riders and people that are apart of the chicago jam. No invites ever go out but the people that are most influential in the scooter scene just know about it and show up. This year we had a mini park set up to mess around on. People ended up throwing down after they got their hamburgers in them thanks to Tom K for being the grill master. We started to feel bad that we had to pack up because so much was going down. After things were packed up it was off to the tilt house where the after party happened. The backyard looked like a campground were we tried to burn everything that would catch fire. Inside the house, there was a mini tech deck sesh that happened while others smashed on more food.
Since so many people were in town a lot of crews joined up after the jam for the whole weekend and rode together. A couple memorable moments are, a group of rappers filming a music video and trying to link up with us while we were filming some lines by the beach. Josh Young throwing down while a security guard tried to kick us out. Jona Humbel stepping in front of a car to save one of the shots for Chris. Ridding into the night 15 deep while Collin Niesen tried to fast plant a car. Dylan Kasson going up to that same car trying to FS 180 and the dude that owns the car walks up and gets right in and drives off. Eating tons of pizza and chicken. Thanks to everyone that made it a great time and kept up the good vibes.
Every year before the Chicago Street Jam, the Tilt team goes on a trip. This year we started in Illinois at the shop and took the Tilt van to Grand Rapids, Collin/Tilt's old stomping ground. Before the trip began, the crew was told that it was going to be a mellow trip since half the team was in Texas a day prior. Not even an hour in the crew was sending it on a crazy long up rail. This was our first sign that this trip wasn't going to be as mellow as everyone had thought. Our second spot was a bump to bar next to an open restaurant. We figured we would be kicked right away, but we actually got to seshin' it for about 40 minutes, enough time for everyone to get their tricks including a massive 360 by Josh. As we were ready to leave, we talked Dylan into jumping this wet couch we found behind one of the businesses while Issac, Collin and Josh sat on it. Once we finally got the boot, we started messing around on this long down slanted rail where this hippie chick in a tie dye tee started yelling at us, "un uh, this ain't happening". She said that about 6 more times before we decided to pack it up. The rest of the way to Michigan was filled with exploring abandoned buildings, watching tom throw himself down a 7 flat 4, lighting up a manny pad for 4 hours while cops drove by numerous times not caring. After all that we ended up at Collin's parent's house with three massive pizzas. As tired as everyone was, most of the crew stayed up for a couple hours just kicking it and watching clips.
Day two involved a legal DIY park where Jordan broke his deck, hill bombing a super sketch road that Collin whipped into, and a massively long rail that Issac tried for 3-4 hours. We also hit this sketchy slanted bank to brick wall, a perfect 8 stair handrail, set up a grate to fire hydrant, a bump to bar where Jona got a tow in from a biker gang called the Ruff Ryders. To wrap it up we lit up an abandoned pool. Both Josh and Jordan wanted something at the spot. Jordan ended up going first and got a pretty decent clip but wasn't happy with it. He kept going way after the cops showed up. Collin was on damage control with the troopers while Chris filmed Jordan trying it for another 10+ tries. Finally the sesh was over and we had to hull all the gear through the fence. The cop threatened to take all our gear/van and give us fines with a mandatory Grand Rapids court date. In the end he was cool about it and let us all go with warnings. See kids, if you act respectful you get out of crap like this. Day three everyone was dead. We started with fresh home made breakfast while Dylan did his stretch routine in the front yard with Tom and Jona. We hit one spot on our way out but pretty much everyone just wanted to sleep or take their pants off. We called it early and drove back while half the team slept on the floor of the van and the other half chilled on the chairs and checked the insta feeds.
The Texas trip was the first official team trip this summer, and consisted of Tom, Jordan, Issac, Jona, and Collin. Not quite knowing what to expect was a nice change, compared to the usual Midwest or Cali spot missions. So, we flew in early in the morning, got a sick rental van, and hit the streets to start filming. Before the trip, we were all a little anxious about the dreaded Texas heat. Was it going to be possible to even ride? It was a gamble, but we lucked out with cloudy weather every day except the last day. The first thing we noticed about Texas was the amount of flat bars everywhere. It seems like every business has flat bars around their property line. We even started counting the number of bars we saw as we left a spot one day going to another, and hit well over 30 within 3 minutes. Something most people probably don’t realize about street missions is how much time you spend driving around from spot to spot. Even with Collin’s crazy driving, we spent a significant amount of time in the van. Collin seriously tried to jump the rental van as we left the electrical box spot and ended up destroying the skid plate underneath the vehicle. Sorry about that Enterprise. A lot of the spots we went to ended up being a bust, due to the spot not being there anymore which happens a lot, or because of security guards kicking us out. Like the time Issac landed a frontside 180 heel off this turned off water fountain as security came walking up and Tom had to climb down in front of him holding a HVX. But even with the busts, our spot list was fat, and so was the clip list by the end of the trip.
One of the craziest spots we went to was this flat down flat bank with rails on either side. Tom got a rad line, but Issac really shut it down. It had started sprinkling when he was trying his trick, to the point that Jona was wiping the Xtreme off every try. But, Issac was able to roll away from one of the craziest grind combos we’ve ever seen go down. Another memorable moment was Tom’s backlip down the 12 rail. We had gone there a couple days before, and Tom rolled away from a backlip, but it wasn’t quite how he wanted it. We then got kicked out by security. So, we went back later so he could do it again. This time an employee was around, telling us to leave from the beginning. Tom wasn’t having any of that, and kept trying his backlip and eating shit. The employee was threatening to call the cops, and we called his bluff. He did have his phone out, but pressed way too many buttons for it to have been 911. Tom kept eating it, the employee was trying to kick us out, and then some weird guy with a fedora was talking shit to us by the van. Finally Tom laced it perfectly, and we were able to roll out without any confrontation with the fuzz. Other highlights include a rattlesnake infestation, rollerblade obstacle’d out ditch, a fun McKinney Skatepark sesh, Issac doing the biggest drops ever with thin Vans and no socks, a trampoline in the form of a flat bar, and hiding (unsuccessfully) from Collin so he couldn’t take our picture. All in all it was a good time, and we’d love to do it again. Shoutout to @keeganmcutchen for geotagging his spots on Instagram, we couldn’t have done it without him.
Tom and Jordan started out from Chicago to meet up with Josh, Dylan and Chris in Columbus, Ohio. From there the crew drove straight to a Denny's in Pittsburgh and started the day off right. The first spot was an abandoned school that required a quick fence hop to enter the creepy premises. Tom got a funky manual to board on a hard to get to rail. Dylan attempted a massive tail grab to water ditch. Dylan got cashed pretty trying to keep up speed for the gap. After getting a couple shots in the front we got the kick by a friendly cop that asked 20 questions about scooters and pointed us towards a couple bmx parks. On our way into the city, we scoped out a few spots and landed at a loading dock. We got kicked out 30 minutes into it and decided to go grab some pizza from a sketch spot that was as dirty as a San Francisco underpass. Once we returned to the car, the person that kicked us out left so we lit the spot up. The second day it was suppose to rain so we hit a spot we knew had coverage. We got the boot as soon as we showed up. We lingered for a bit but were threatened with a call to the cops. As we finally left, one of the employee's told us when the guy normally leaves. We hit another spot and as we started to get warmed up, the rain came. We sat around watching videos on our phones as we waited, but Dylan couldn't sit still. He was either spinning around on his back wheel, doing 360s, or bombing hills in the rain. Finally the time had reached for us to go back to the previous spot. We played hide and seek with the guy that kicked us out and then started riding. We got what we wanted and peaced. The third day we started it off right with Kings Family Restaurant which we had later that night with a whole apple pie and cinnamon ice cream. Hit it up if you're ever in the PA.
The first spot we went to was a long ledge into a sketchy bank. Both Jordan & Tom were trying the same trick. It was about 9 or 10am and we encountered some unusual stuff. An older lady in her night gown in the middle of this neighborhood watching us ride. A Will Smith look a like that had the same birthday as Tom but 19 years apart. A classic drug dealer car crept by and started chatting with us and then said they would be back. They kept pointing out that we were filming and we thought they might want our gear, so we landed everything and dipped out. Bombed some more hills. Checked out Martin Luther King school. Filmed Josh for about 2 hours on this nose blunt to finger whip out that he killed him self on. He never quite got it. Jordan casually filmed while laying down. Grabbed water from 3 girls drinking forties on there stoop... After we packed things up, we were on our way to Carnegie Mellon. Tom insisted on using his TOM TOM. We got lost about a million times. We got to see some cool views, but when you just want to go ride you get pretty irritated and can't enjoy the scenery. His TOM TOM really sucks, but mainly it was Pittsburgh's dumb roads that are old, don't make sense, and are too close to each other. As we rode around Carnegie, a security guard stopped us and pointed out the spot we were looking for but she kept hassling us and asking for our ID's and where we were from. We bounced and rode downtown for awhile cruising taking in some sights. The last day was all about hill bombs and Tom hitting this gap to rail that he had been trying to find for a really long time. The best way to sum up Pittsburgh is stupid roads, a little pricey, good spots, dirty outside the city, and medium to high spot bust rate. The people are very interesting to say the least.
