I'm not sure what exit we took, but the next thing I knew we we're all in Jersey. Or as the locs say, "Joizee". One thing I noticed however is that Jersey stinks! Now I know what you're saying, "Why is this guy talking trash about Jersey?" I'm really not, but when I say it stinks, I mean it literally stinks! I can't tell if the stench is more like dead animal or perhaps human feces, but Jersey has got some serious funk going down. The great thing about this demo is that we were inside a former Best Buy building with some serious square footage. The place boasted two indoor soccer arenas, a miniature golf course and two basketball courts complete with championship banners. I'm not sure who the team was... oh, did I forget to mention the Skatepark? A small street course, a mini ramp and a half pipe were all contained under this one roof. What a trippy combo.

Animal Chin Revisited

Bucky Lasek, Brandon Novac, Kris Markovitch, Mike "Rooftop" Escamilla, Mike Vallely, Steve Cabellero, Kevin Staab, Rick Thorne, Bam Margera, Colin McKay, Skater of the Year Eric Koston and the one and only Mr. Tony Hawk. How could you not be stoked on that line up? X Games vert gold medal winner, Bucky Lasek, was ripping things up on both street and vert as usual. Brandon Novac was sessioning the street course like a kid in a candy store. Kris Markovitch was throwing down huge, busting airs from the street course, through a fence that the camera guys were holding up, and landing on the basketball court. That is the kind of stuff that would even make Kobe Bryant proud. "Rooftop" Escamilla pulled a couple of blunt to fakies on a fence that bordered the street course. He also nailed some sweet-ass flairs. Oh, did I forget to mention that he had to ride Rick Thorne's bike because he broke his a few minutes earlier? Mr. Escamilla is pretty much ga-narley! With a freshly bleached melon, Thorne was rockin' the vert ramp, doing double sessions with Cabellero. He even pulled a backflip off! I think the crowd dropped their bagels and pizza after that one.

Mike V. stays true to his roots with some old-school tricks.

What is Mike Vallely made of? He must be made of some space-age metal because this dude is like a modern day Terminator. Mike was doing a drop from this fence to the street course - it must have been anywhere from 13 to 17 feet high. The crowd was freaking out on the day's events, but one of my favorite highlights had to be this big ledge Bam and Mike V set up on top of this street bank. Vallely, Bam and "Rooftop" all pulled the drop and once again the crowd went off! Colin McKay was ripping vert with kickflips to tailslides and other super, technical tricks. Tony Hawk (aka "Tech Dude") was doing 720's and 540 varials. In fact, some kid came up to me after the demo and said how stoked he was to see Tony pull off the 900. I didn't have the heart to tell the kid he witnessed a 720 and not a 900. The flying Lopez brothers showed up and were sessioning with the boys too. Rich Lopez was on the Hawk Tour last year for the Rhode Island stop. Rich is the only other person in skateboarding to come close to pulling off the Hawk 900. He almost stuck it last year at Skaters Island.

Stop one, leg two is in the books. Next stop Chelsea Piers in New York, just a short ride through the Brooklyn Tunnel. I can't wait, this tour is Sick, with a capital "S". I hear that some dude with the last name of Gambino is supposed to give us directions to the park. He works in the cement shoe business I think, so I am sure he can be trusted.

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