#omenhaulsasstocenmass Week 1 Recap.

July 28, 2015

As I sit here in Michigan I am amazed at how far and wide the North American Continent is. We are 1/4 of the way through our road trip and things are going amazingly. Canada is much cooler than I had originally thought, there is a lot of corn in the midwest, but the hills that we have been taken to by the locals have always been awesome, and the skaters have all shredded super hard where-ever we go. We started off in Seattle and Headed to Vancouver, British Columbia for our first overnight go. Within about 1 hour of the trip we called up good buddy John Slugg and asked if he wanted to come across the country for a month and within 15 minutes he cleared his schedule and was ready for anything!


Here is John Slugg Ready for Anything.
While we picked up John we also saw a really cool makeshift chainsaw built out of old Skateboards at Unknown Boardshop in Bellingham! It was Really Cool! https://instagram.com/unknownboardshop/

Chainsaw Skateboard Art.

After that we made our way across the border where we were immediately pulled into secondary because the border guards know how to properly profile bad people. But Omen Longboards, runs a tight ship so there was nothing incriminating in the van and we were sent on our way. No pictures were taken because they frown on that at the boarder.

After that, we headed up to Vancouver where I was able to purchase my first real helmet from Flatspot Longboards.

Real Helmet on, Fake helmet broken by my own hands, which are connected to 2 very weak shoulders. The safety is real. Then we Took Pictures with the Flatspot Team of Mischa Chandler and Les Robertson.  https://instagram.com/flatspotshop/

Even though you cannot tell in this picture, Les is answering an email, negotiating prices, helping out a young grom find his first deck, managing everything West of the Mississippi, and still has time to practice being a Pirate! #whereishisleg

After the Tom Foolery we had to make our way to Calgary, Alberta which is not a short drive. It is however incredibly Scenic, and driving through Banff National Park was Mind melting.



Huge Mountains Are Everywhere. I think this would be the place to retire to when I turn 145 years old!

After the Really Long Drive we finally made it to Calgary after a bunch of Tornadoes had swept through the area. Good timing on our part, which never seems to happen. But we Got to meet up with Royal Boardshop and skate with the locals during the Wednesday Longboard clinic.

It was awesome, and within about a 4 minute skate of the shop is a great Bike path that is super technical, fun, and safe with grass on the sides to run out into.


Here is a Picture of Morgan Owens Scrapping the inside of this Left clean for others to safely skate!


Here is a wider shot to show the whole path. We were blown away when we showed up as well. The locals can really skate this path to its full potential which was really fun to watch.


Group Photo with the Longboard Clinic, and afterwards we were convinced by some stragglers to go skate another cool path at sunset. It was LIT.

Here is my new friend LIL-b (Brandon) getting lit up on a scenic Calgary path that was awesome to skate! Thanks for showing me the lines young Jedi!



Here is a quick snap of John Slugg gettin Pitted while Morgan Bangles the Tangle (does a toeside slide) on the outside.

After this we hopped in the river.... Morgan Owens Instagram tells that story so I wont have to.
https://instagram.com/_morganowens_ncmb/

After the amazing skating we finally started the Trek to Edmonton, Alberta. We got to stop at some really cool shops including Swerve, Local 124, and The Easy Rider. It was really cool to be able to stop at each one of the shops and see their own individual nitch in the community and their respect for the other shops. Edmonton is a very tight knit community, and you can tell by the amount of work that they put forth to encourage young Skaters.


Lisa is the Owner Operator of Swerve, and was kind enough to play us a song on her guitar, and throw us some bearing lube so that we could lube up some suer dirty bearings and get back on the road! The lube is called Bubba Lube and it works!

Warren runs the show at The Easy Rider, and was kind enough to hook us up with a couple of air-fresheners to keep the van smelling tropical and Fresh! https://instagram.com/theeasyrider/

The boys also got to skate the Mini Ramp at Local 124 when we stopped in there as well! if you are in town, stop in and give it a shred! https://instagram.com/local124skateshop/

After we stopped at shops I promptly went out and dislocated my shoulder. Pictures were not taken because it was too difficult to lift a camera, so instead I stuck with Beer!


Thanks to Cariboo Brewing for a quick road to recovery. https://instagram.com/cariboobrewing/

 We skated till about 11 PM and then set out to Drive to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. It was a super scenic drive especially once we ran out of gas. Most of the small town gas stations in Canada are on a "cardlock" which means that you must have a special card to access them. We found this out after we stopped at a gas station with less than empty reading on the fuel gauge only to find out that our American Cards would not allow us to purchase gas. It was a very steep and frustrating learning curve. We did however get to see the Aurora Borealis while stranded and we got a couple of really cool shots of the Van.

Aurora Borealis + Skate Van   

Once the morning came we quickly hunted down a Diesel Tree and Filled the #mobileruckus with the "D" and got her back on the road to Saskatoon.

While in Saskatoon we noticed a lot of very beautiful women. So many in fact that it was worth noting in this blog. We stopped in to grab some delicious breakfast and stoke at Escape Sports, and went out and skated with the locals.

Johnny and Marcus let us steal some WIFI and laughs while we hung out at the Shop! https://instagram.com/escapesports/


Here is Morgan doing a grip and slip through a Path in Saskatoon!


THAT IS RIGHT, I AM RIDING A TOPMOUNT IN THIS PICTURE, I typically ride a drop deck, but this path was so awesome I busted out the OMEN Patriot for some tech turning!

After swimming across a river we were not supposed to swim across we piled into the van and drove to Minneapolis from Saskatoon  (16 hour Drive)



With the Sun setting behind us we ventured East. This photo was the only good thing to come from this evening. Almost hit a dog, killed a flying bird, went to a boarder crossing that was out of service, and got stopped at the border crossing we had to back track to. Needless to say that was pretty exhausting and we made it with some good laughs and some good tunes. I believe that Fetty Wap: Trap Queen was on repeat for about 6 hours until John Slugg tried to throw the portable speaker out of the window.

The next morning we had to blaze a trail to get to Pinewskis in Minnesota.

Me stoking out the locals with some urethane knowledge and some massive Thumbs Up! https://instagram.com/pinewskis/


Here is Dalton and Myself going for the dead arms steeze. While we were skating in Anoka I rode some of the best pavement I have ever had the pleasure of rolling down. This road felt so dam good that we skated till my shirt was soaked through.

After that we left and headed to Black Squrl Skate in La Cross, Wisconsin. There are definitely lots of hills in that area, and there was nothing but fun times to be had with Wynne and the Crew. I cannot remember how to spell his name, but it is pronounced "win" and Win was one of the best tour guides we had on our trip. He took us to an amazing location to skate, was a super ripper on his own deck, and had great advice on how to fully enjoy La Cross.

Thanks to the guys from Black Squrl, next time we are in town take us to all the roads you talked about! https://instagram.com/black_squrl/

We spent the night in the Walmart Parking lot and grilled up some super delicious steak thanks to Morgan "mountain man" Owens and his constantly prepared self.



We watched Netflix and chilled...

We then woke up in the morning and drove ourselves out to Madison, Wisconsin to skate through the town.

This is us right after meeting up with some locals and barging through the streets of Madison. One of the best places to just go out for a rip. Lots of great sidewalks, cool features, and driveways for days.

After leaving Madison it was over to Phase 2 skateshop. Phase 2 has 2 locations and both have an awesome supply of stoke inside. Lots of cool old boards, many sweet ass graphics, and tons of interesting memorabilia on the walls to stare at for hours.


This is us taking a quick picture with Charlie and the awesome deck walls! https://instagram.com/phase2skateshop/

We then went and skated with more locals who were killing it so hard when it came to showing us around the hills, but got too tired and forgot to grab the camera with the sd card... oh well skater problems. Just know we ripped it super hard and fun times were had. We then retired to another Walmart parking lot for the evening.

In the morning we woke up to head on down to Trade Winds in Crystal Lake Illinois. We got to meet Brian and Dave and chat in their wonderfully air conditioned area and we took some awesome Pictures. 

Here is the gang in front of the OMEN Van. https://instagram.com/tradewindscove/

After that we headed over to Motiv8 Skateshop but they ended up being closed because they skate on Mondays!

We were stoked so we skated in front of their store and got this shot of John doing a 2 wheel maneuver. https://instagram.com/motiv8skateshop/

After Leaving Illinois we moved over to the Warren Dunes in Michigan to go and jump in the water. Once we pulled in we were bombarded with some stoked skaters who wanted to try some boards and skate around on some OMEN Longboards.



The #mobileruckus just seems to attract a good time where ever she goes! (The van is a wonderful lady)



Here Monica and Karli test out the Seahoot and the Alpine, no shoes, no shirt, no problem.



Here is Sluggy Bear (John Slugg) getting a little Nose Manny in near the ocean when we stopped for a scenic break!
John is by far the best skater in the van, and makes a good time of any parking lot!



Now we sit here next to Lake Michigan and watch the sunset as we wait for the 2nd leg of the #omenhaulsasstocenmass tour to begin. Thanks to our moms, dads, friends and family who have given us support through this journey.

-Nate
Love you mean it!

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