Team DLX

Thrasher Magazine, Jan, 2004 by Jasin Phares

IT WAS SOME TIME in early March when I received the call from Burnett regarding what's now known as the King of the Road contest. He gave me the basic plan for the race--no details yet, and all I could think of was the movie Cannonball Run with Burt Reynolds. I mean, this could be a seriously cool trip. Should I put an all-black Pontiac Firebird on the company card? It would have to be complete with T-Tops and the Firebird hood mural, of course. I would also have to grow a mustache, and have some tweaker-looking biker chick with me at all times. We could be in front of the tour van, finding spots for the guys ahead of time, creating diversions to keep the fuzz out of our way. This could be the best trip ever.

When I presented my idea to the bosses at Deluxe--needless to say--it didn't go over so well. So I had to take a different approach to the race; I was going to have to work with the resources I had. We own a tour van that is equipped with every tool you could ever need. I was able to modify the engine and suspension of this tour van with our mechanic, and after several late nights at the shop, it now runs on high-octane jet fuel. Very fast. That was a good start.

Not knowing any details about the race (except where and when it would start and finish) made things difficult. I wasn't able to plan anything out. I had no idea what we were going to skate or which path we were going to take across America. This meant I had to be ready for anything.

I assembled our team by the only guidelines I was given--each team gets five riders and one alternate back home, just in case someone gets broke off. I needed a team to be the all around crushing crew. After days of going through the list and juggling people's schedules, I was able to narrow it down to five riders. They were JT Aultz, Dan Drehohl, Darrell Stanton, Tony Trujillo, and the new guy, Ernie Torres.

With this gang of rippers, along with Gabe Morford our photographer and Dan Vellucci our filmer, we were an army--a tight unit of Special Forces ready for anything. We don't need showers or beds. We don't need clean clothes or new laces in our shoes. We barely need food. And the food I do give the riders is always laced with gunpowder to keep them mean. I've been to hell and back with these guys over the years--I trust them all with my life.

WE WERE ALL RUNNING on little-to-no sleep after driving straight across America, and we pulled into Manhattan straight during a blackout. What a sight--New York City with no lights. At all. You couldn't even see your own hand in front of your face in some places. Public transportation was shut down and the city was completely filled, yet frozen. This meant no hotel. Finally! I've always wanted to camp on the streets of NYC.

The package with our guidelines for the race never made it, due to the blackout. So we had to have it faxed in at our starting point, KCDC in Brooklyn. The challenges seemed easy enough. As it went, just hitting up Max Fish for a quick drink with Dan and Tony set us back some ... Two days later we were able to finish our New York challenges.

The race was on.

ON THE WAY TO OUR NEXT CITY we made a few pit stops. We had to hit up Philly and Pittsburgh on our way to Louisville, which wasn't on our list, but too hard to pass up. I started a calendar for the remainder of the race. trying to figure how long we could spend in each city. This is when 1 realized we shouldn't have made those pit stops, Now we were truly racing.

CHICAGO

THE CHICAGO CHALLENGES WERE COOL, except for the benihana challenge. That was completely embarrassing. I mean, imagine filming a benihana at a skatepark--in front of people--and bailing it. Terrible is what that was. Good thing we had Uriah, a close ally, to help us find the spots we needed in Chicago. This made things go as smooth as they could go in the humid Mid-West heat.

We drove nonstop to Minneapolis, our next city on the list, where (finally) the King of the Road package caught up with us. We now had the official rule book and each city's special challenges. The challenges were all in official Thrasher envelopes and sealed with what looked to be goat's blood and wax, then stamped with an official Thrasher stamp. Cool.

MINNEAPOLIS

THE CHALLENGES we were presented with in Minneapolis would take some craftsmanship, We (Dan Drehobl and I) had to make a wacky skateboard out of something not meant to be ridden. I racked my road-weary brain all morning trying to figure out what would be rad. Thanks to Seth, our long time friend, we were able to find an army surplus store down the street from the hole]. I, of course, had to go in and find some weird weapon to be converted ... like I do at every surplus store I see. Inside I was amazed to see the collection of bomb casings. This could be what I was looking for. Maybe a weird bomb board? I asked the guy about the only casing that seemed like a board could be constructed from. He informed me the bomb cost $4,000 Back to the drawing board, I thought, until I saw a dummy soldier on my way out holding a 100-percent-to-scale M16 rifle.