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.