Page 19 of Tailwhip
Before I go to sleep, I send off a quick text to Anthony!
14
Anthony
Blackout – Turnstile
Finally, we make it into Brooklyn to start the tour at the first stop at Brooklyn Banks. We have two vans: one for the riders and the second for all the bikes. Chase made sure to post on the Overbear Instagram page that we were here. He also noted that he will be doing this with every stop. I also let Chase know that I don’t plan on riding at every park we stop at because I want to film the teams.
Starting up the camera, the team does their introductions and sets off into the park. Mateo and Noah ride side by side, like they did in Arlington. They are the newest in the crew, so still sticking together. A lot of the guys are just starting to flow throughout the park, getting a feel for things. One rider, Nash, completes a clean downside double whip over a box jump. Each of the riders starts doing tricks, and some try to one up each other. It’s all in good fun. After wrapping up for the day, I notice all the riders come together before setting off in a train to finish up. Noah, last in the train, finishes up with a clean truck drive over a spin and that’s a wrap on day one.
Day two involves some driving before we reach Philadelphia to hit up FDR and then head to Posh Trails. As we drive through the city, Noah shouts from the back of the van to pull over after spotting a potential spot with some rails and a double set of stairs we could jump. Everyone gets loud and excited to try this out. We all grab our bikes, I start toward the rail and do an ice pick on the first set of rails and coming up to the second set, pulling a toothpick hangover. At the spot, some of the guys are doing simple tricks like 360’s over the set, barspins, and some just shooting the gaps. Clay ends the session with a sketchy gap to rail ride, on a round rail and pulls it clean, shutting down the spot and ending our session. We all know the session is over because none of us want to try to top that. Now, we’re heading to FDR to continue with the tour.
As we are driving, I remember I had a text from Ashlynn that I never read, let alone replied to. I open it and read what she wrote, groaning to myself at what she said. Fuck me, what I would have done to see her pleasure herself while thinking of me. I quickly type out a text back to her before we come to a stop.
Once we stop and take our bikes out at FDR, I decide to film all the guys during the first hour. I capture Noah pulling off an X-up to barspin over a hip, and Mateo doing an overhang toothpick. I also catch Grady doing a downside double whip. After a while, I jump on my bike and start flowing throughout the park. Stopping on one side, watching everyone, I get a strange feeling of being watched. Obviously, we are being watched by other BMX riders and skaters, but this is a creepy feeling I am getting. Looking around, I don’t really notice anything right away, other than a group of girls, with one standing off to the side of them. She looks oddly familiar, but I can’t place her if I have ever seen her before. She just has one of those familiar faces.
I ride up to Chase who is on his skateboard, asking him if he has noticed anything out of place at the park. “Nothing out of normal–plenty of people are here though because I posted these stops on the Overbear Instagram page.” Shaking off the feeling and riding a bit longer, I noticed that the team is all lined up getting ready to finish up the park with a train, like they did at Brooklyn Banks. Noah yells over at me to join them. “Hey boss man! Come flow with us, maybe do a gnarly trick at the end!”
I shake my head, laughing at him. “First off, don’t call me boss man, and what trick would you like to see?”
“I don’t know; do whatever!”
Starting off the train is Clay, heading right toward the section that has a few rails, so he can complete another clean rail ride. Once the train gets to the end for me, I complete a smooth 360 turn down. Once I land, the team is hollering and screaming aloud with that being the end of the day at FDR! The next day we make it up to Posh Trails, only to be disappointed because it started raining and not lightly. It was a straight heavy downpour. I think Clay, Grady, and I are the most bummed, since we are the dirt riders of the group. Instead of riding here, we drive around to see if we can find any potential riding places around the city, but don’t see a whole lot. Talking with Chase and the rest of the team, we all decide to just continue to Dave Armstrong extreme park in Louisville, KY.
After a long ass 10-hour drive, we finally made it to Louisville. The whole team and I are buzzing with energy to start riding at Dave Armstrong. We make it to the hotel for a few hours of shut eye before we get to the park. I don’t want any of us breaking a damn bone because we are too tired to be riding.
Waking up the next morning to a loud bang on my door and more hollering, I roll over, realizing I slept more than a few hours. Opening the door, Gardy and Clay are standing there and toss a bucket of water on me, which only helps wake me up more. Walking out more from my room, I notice the entire team is at the vans waiting for me. Mateo looks up, yelling, “Get your ass out of bed! We have a park to ride, man!”
Flipping all of them off, I turn around to get ready and head down to the vans. “Grady and Clay, you assholes are going to get it!”
Little do they all know, this is my favorite part of these tours, when we all just have fun and fuck around with each other. Also, I prepare for this shit, with some black cat fireworks for the occasion, along with some other random small ones. I may need to stop and purchase a fire extinguisher and get them back when they least expect it or throw a whole bag of flour on their asses along with some water while they are nice and asleep. Not only am I going to get back at them for this, but we also have to do an initiation for the new kids with the team.Making it to the skatepark, I have the excited feeling I always get with park rides. Again, I get my bike and take off, to just start out and flow around to get my feel of it. Clay again takes off for some rails and does some more clean rail rides. I am starting to think he was made to do that trick. I have tried them more times than I like, without landing them. If I do somehow accomplish them, they are in no way clean.
Nash starts out with a tire tap and continues through the park and does a flare out of a bowl. I’m fucking blown away by these kids–no fear of riding whatsoever. I find a nice box jump and do a decade. Continuing through feeling out the park, again that creepy feeling sneaks up on me. Like I’m being watched again; what the fuck? I stop to look around, but don’t notice anything. This feeling isn’t a coincidence, though. Noah comes to a stop beside me with a childlike smile on his face. “Thank you so much for this. I never thought I would ever be able to ride this place.”
“You’re welcome–your riding speaks for itself. Now, go do a trick for the damn video!”
Heading off, he does an easy and clean footjam. Grady does a smooth feeble grind further away in the park, but close enough for me to see. Riding my bike back over to the van, I grab the remaining camera to make my way to Mateo and Jax, who is one of the first riders that I hired for Overbear. Jax looks over and gives me a quick head nod. “What’s up, man? What are you thinking of trying here?” I ask Jax.
“I am thinking of a 360 tailwhip.”
Mateo looks over, blowing out a sigh. “Shit dude, if you do that trick, I’ll attempt a rail ride with a barspin at the end.”
Throwing my head back, laughing at Mateo, I say, “You seem unsure of the rail ride for suggesting it!”
“Hell yeah, I am unsure. You’ve seen Clay do them as clean as can be. I’ve only ever tried them a few times and they are hard as fuck!”
I look over at both riders. “What the hell are you guys waiting for? Let’s get these on camera and the crashes that might be coming with it!”
Mateo rubs his forehead with his middle finger raised at me, laughing!
Jax starts riding, easily doing his 360 tailwhip like nothing and–for show–adds in another quick run with a decade. Mateo sits back on his bike with his head down, whispering “FUCK ME” to himself. The whole team is now over here, watching them both–egging each other on. Mateo takes off toward the rail, hopping his bike up and quickly bailing off. Everyone yelling at him to do it again. Noah cups his mouth with his hands, and shouts, “Don’t be a pussy; do it again!”
Mateo gets back up for a second attempt and hops on the rail, riding it halfway before he jumps off to a quick barspin. Then, he continues to the next set of handrails for a quick toothpick. With the entire team encouraging him, Mateo gets back and starts pedaling toward the rail for a third attempt. This time, he rides the full length and barspins out. As soon as he lands it, the entire park erupts. Once all riders are back, as well as myself with my bike again, we all line up to finish up the park with another train.
After Dave Armstrong, we are going to head down to Austin, TX. There, I know, we will be able to get some dirt jumps in. Maybe even making that our first stop. It’s going to be another long drive ahead, but tonight, we are all hitting up a bar in Louisville. Hopefully, no one has a hangover in the morning; otherwise, their time is not going to be fun in the vans.
As soon as we reach the bar, everyone starts teasing Noah and Mateo because of the giant bold X marked on each of their hands, indicating they're underage. I'm surprised they were even allowed into the bar in the first place. Jax promptly approaches the bartender and orders a round of shots–not just any shots, but whiskey shots. I'm not much of a drinker, usually sticking to a beer or two. I tell myself one shot and that’s it. Two hours later, I don’t know how many shots all of us are at, but we are drunk as hell. Clay thinks it’s a good idea to go get our bikes and try to jump a gap that is near our hotel. When you’re drunk, though, it sounds like the best idea in the world.