​Around 11:30 p.m. on a Thursday night Miles Vendetti, Slade Staneich, Jerm Thomas, and I all loaded up in my van to head south for a little weekend roadtrip in order to escape the 30 degree temperatures at home. Originally we had planned to leave Friday morning but our excitement convinced us to leave a night earlier. Our destination was Richmond, Virginia. Miles and I had been there twice before; believe it or not Virginia was the first ever official roadtrip him and I had taken together back when we were 18. With everybody’s shit loaded up and the necessary driving aids consumed we hit the road south. Miles acted as navigator and DJ which meant he kept the electronic tunes (The Knife – Heartbeats, M83 – We Own the Sky) pumping on repeat and yelled at me whenever I zoned out and stopped paying attention to the GPS. Slade and Jerm posted up in the back seat and kept things more than entertaining. Jerm’s insight on life is amazing.

For this trip I had done quite a bit of research and had a good amount of parks and street spots lined up for us to hit. Some of the skateparks I had looked up I was a bit skeptical about so my plan was to scope them out at night on the way down to determine if we’d want to hit them in the daylight on the way back. Virginia has some weird rules when it comes to their free outdoor parks, i.e. “at least one hand brake is required for bicycle riders”. Out of all the parks I had planned 2 ended up being a blast, 1 was mediocre, 3 were subpar and crowded, 3 were unrideable, and 1 I’m pretty sure doesn’t exist. Pole Green Skatepark was really fun, the park was made out of all metal ramps that looked like they were welded by locals. The park was a bit slippery but we got the hang of it and had a fun early morning session.

Fredericksburg Skatepark was really fun and even had some new stuff that locals had built. It’s definitely a raw and rough park, steep ledges and haggard transitions. Mt. Trashmore ended up being full of pegless Dewtour faggots with brakes who just wanted to compare dick sizes the whole time. In all honesty if you use brakes for every one of your tricks then go kill yourself. The best park of the trip was easily Northside Skatepark in Norfolk, Virginia this place was a fucking blast! Street as fuck! A local in Williamsburg, VA gave us the hint so we headed farther south. It had just opened in October 2010 and was amazing. There was every street obstacle you could imagine as well as some massive bowls that none of us fucked with. The locals were all really chill as well. If you’re looking to take a trip I highly suggest the Norfolk/VA Beach area, lots of stuff to ride, nice weather, and multiple beaches.

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Street success was 50/50; one of the biggest disappointments of the trip was finding out that Hippoland (youtube “hippoland skate”) had been demo’ed as well as the Richmond White Walls which we had had a blast on 3 years earlier. If we had more time I would’ve been down to search longer for spots but I didn’t want to squander time. Richmond’s Geometry Park had a ton of stuff to ride and we found some sweet i-beam setups outside of Virginia Beach. Basically the parks turned out to be so fun that we weren’t fiending for street, who’d have thunk?

​One of the best unexpected surprises of the trip was Slade having family in Suffolk, VA who offered us a place to crash. Originally we had planned on just camping in a tent and roughing it. Thanks to Slade’s aunt and cousins we had a backyard to crash in which actually lead to us being able to sleep inside on their couches and floor. The first night we were shown first hand some sweet ass southern hospitality…and got fucked up! I woke up the next morning by myself in the tent while everyone else had slept inside…eventful night (what kind of dick throws up in the tent? Ass.). We decided to hit up the beach quick the next morning to see the sights and do some corny picture taking. The next night was pretty chill even though the boardwalk was beat as shit, go figure its January. We saw a sweet Neptune statue and that was probably the highlight of the boardwalk. Once we got back to the house we all passed the fuck out grateful to be inside on couches.

By the last day we were all pretty worn out and dead from riding, lack of sleep, shitty food, and all around shenanigans. The drive home was chill and we were all glad to be back home in PA. I think we had driven a little over 1,000 miles in 1 weekend. After all the trips that I’ve planned over the past couples years (I think 11 total), whether they’re just weekend trips or entire week long trips, I’ve learned that the best parts tend to be the stuff that you didn’t plan. Having a loose agenda seems to allow for being more spontaneous than trying to rigidly stick to an exact route plan. I want to say thanks to the crew Miles, Slade, and Jerm and also thanks to Aunt Cheryl and Batboy for giving us a place to crash and feeding us!