Dan Plunkett, Jack Curtain, Tom K, and more shred Pinole park for ‘Skate Tuesday.’

From Skate Mental:
“IT’S PRETTY SIMPLE REALLY. CREATE A GROUP TEXT AND WHOEVER SHOWS UP SHOWS UP. WE HAPPEN TO DO IT ON TUESDAYS WITH A SELECT GROUP OF GUYS. IT’S ALL ABOUT HAVING FUN AND NOT GETTING BANNED (LIKE JOSE AND COREY).”

I want to preface this article by saying it was all Tom K’s idea.

One Saturday morning this past spring, I heard that all- too-familiar iPhone text message sound from the next room. Most skate photographers would be out skating on a Saturday morning, but lately I’ve left the daily hustle to the youngsters and I hold out for trips or special projects. So old and jaded, I know. But I digress. I hear the text message sound go off in the next room, so I check it out. It’s a text from Tom K. You know Tom, the guy who does the wallrides? He was asking me if I’d be down to go on a trip to Mount Rushmore with him. “Fuck yeah! I’m super down!” He then proceeded to tell me that it was a Skate Mental trip and it was all camping. No hotels, no showers, et cetera. Usually I’m down for this type of thing, but my concern was more for the people on the team who might be less than prepared. Basically, everyone other than Dan Plunkett. Would I become the default dad on the trip and Brad Staba the cool uncle who buys everyone alcohol? Everyone reading this already knows the answer. #StabaCares

The reason Tom decided we go to Mount Rushmore was a pretty loose but funny one. Somehow, most likely while very bored (straight-edge kids get very bored), Tom found a pizza joint just outside of Mount Rushmore named Big Time Pizza. If you’re a Skate Mental fan, you know that its parent distribution company run by none other than Brad Staba—a famous lover of pizza—is called Big Time Distribution™.

Obviously we had to go, and obviously Brad was very down for this trip. So be it.
Words and Photos by Ryan Allan

Dan Plunkett, Ollie
This ollie is super gnar. We were shown this spot by SLC’s finest mutant, Big Biz Liz aka Lizard King. The lady in the living room watching her TV didn’t even mind Dan moving her barbecue to make room on the runway. Nice people in SLC. Melt your dick off.

Tom K, 50-50 Into Freeway Embankment
Tom can see spots from miles away. Granted, they are usually wallies or wallrides, but this time he spotted a super gnarl 50-50 while we were getting gas down the street. It only took Tom a couple of tries to get it, and when we got back to the van Brad was super full of enthusiasm. “God, Tom. Get in the fuckin’ van. Stupid 50-50.” #StabaStillCares

Jake Anderson, Kickflip
Jake was so elated that he got on Skate Mental that he asked if he could hear just one song from his Spotify to celebrate. Of course it was a unanimous no. Slightly defeated, he still blasted this kickflip over the stairs and rail. Poor kid.

Fernando Bramsmark aka Darkness, Backside 50-50
Lizard took us to this rail as well and told us he knew about it because his family has weekly dinners there. All I saw was weirdly nice old people coming out of there. They’d stop and have a look at what we were doing and say the usual “gonna break your neck” and shuffle along. Breaking his neck was not on Darkness’ mind, ’cause he lands his shit.

Dan Plunkett, No Comply Flip
Dan was the driver for most of the trip, and this was by choice. I have no idea why he wouldn’t want to be in the back of the van with shirtless dudes drunk on Mike’s Hard and Budweiser. To each his own. Guess it kept him sober enough for no comply flips.

Tom K, Jammer 50-50
Now this is a Tom K trick I can get behind. Jam up to 50-50. I felt sorta bad for Tom because he has never tasted the nectar of the gods that is Mike’s Hard. The dude only eats avocados and is always trying to push them on you like a drug dealer. No, Tom, I don’t want to share your avocado.

Karsten Kleppan, Kickflip
Karsten is a bit of an odd name, so as most Americans do, we just renamed him. Chad fucking goes. Chad drinks Bud and wears Speedies and does not wear shirts whilst drinking. Chad got so drunk on one of the drives that he put Jake on the Skate Mental team. Every Chad needs a Jake. Kickflip over and onto a crud bank.

To wrap up this article, Brad wanted to add his take on the trip. Take it away, Staba:

“We skated a fucking bank to curb, some asshole shit park, and a decent amount of terrible flatground. We did no demos. Nobody wanted to share an avocado with Tom, and Jake didn’t get to play his music but got on the team. I’d like to thank Mike’s Hard™, whoever at Kraft that invented Easy Cheese™, and the talent.”

More from Skate Mental team: 

Behind The Cover: Tom Karangelov

Skate Mental Welcomes Tom Karangelov

Karsten Kleppan in Nike SB Chronicles, Vol. 3

Recognize: Karsten Kleppan

HUF Footwear Commercial #048 Dan Plunkett

How has your experience been filming this? I heard you were hurt for the first six months.
Yeah. I didn’t start skating until sometime in June. And then I broke a rib at the end of July and couldn’t skate for all of August. So I really got started on this in September.

Damn. What was the first injury again?
I broke my foot at the end of 2014. I had surgery on it, and it just healed super slowly. I had surgery December 1, 2014, and the doctor was like, “Oh, it can take anywhere from seven weeks to three months to recover.” Being a skater, of course I was just like, “Oh, I’ll be skating in seven weeks or sooner. Because we’re really tough, right?” [Laughs] But then I would keep talking to Thiessen like, “Yeah, all good. I just need one more checkup and I’ll be back next month. Every month I would basically end up telling him “one more month!”

That must have been rough waiting to heal.
Oh, totally. I was like, “I am so excited to do this project.” Being stuck at home while the clock was sort of running was super frustrating. I was of officially in the video last December. I had had the surgery like two weeks earlier. At the time I was telling Chris like, “I’ll be good in a month!” After a while I started feeling kind of bad, like I might have blown it for him.

It might work to your advantage. Like you’ll be the guy who’s most charged at the end after waiting so long. How has it been since you got to skate finally?
It’s been good, but it’s tough too. Because mentally I’m really excited to skate. When you’ve been out for that long that’s all you want to do. But physically I’m trying to film a video part while I’m still getting my skating back to where it was before the injury.

Did you know the other guys prior?
I knew Tristan [T-Funk] from DC trips and then I had met Tom K a while back before. I hadn’t met Jon or Dolan before. Right when I got on board, I think Dolan was in and Tom was in, but the other spots were still open. Chris would keep updating me on who was potentially in it, so that was a cool process to find out who we would share the video with.

Are you a fan of the VX?
Personally I definitely am. I used to have a VX back in the day and film a lot. From the Boondoggle days in Minnesota, I was always the guy in the crew with the camera. I remember when Chris was telling me that TransWorld was down to do it all VX, I was stoked. I’m excited just for something different I guess.

It’s funny to think of the Ty Evans TransWorld mold and how it was always sort of considered the highest production value possible. This will definitely be different from that.
Totally. I think it’s sick. That’s one of the things that makes this project so special for me. In a time where there are no more videos, there’s no feel to anything. Everything is thrown together and diluted on the Internet. So to work towards something that will actually be in one whole video, with an actual premiere—the whole VX thing will make it blend and sync up that much more. Rather than just 50 different filmers with no feel or style. Not everyone is going to like it. Some people will love it, and other people will hate on it and talk shit on it.

Everybody is gonna love it.
[Laughs] Yeah. They are.

People were saying you are sort of the tech dude in the bunch. Tom K and Dolan are more big basics. T-Funk is all over with fastplants and all that. Jon is sort of the Isle-style ow guy on some cobblestone or something. You’re like the Shane O’Neill of the bunch.
[Laughs] So weird. Yeah, it’s probably Jon and I doing the most flip tricks and switch stuff. But it’s funny because I’ve never thought of myself as the tech guy. That’s so far from what I am [laughs]. I like that skating is mixed up right now though. You can go from Grizzly Grip to the dude in the tucked-in Polo shirt.

All-time best TWS video part?
The first one I saw was maybe In Bloom [’02]. As a kid I was psyched on Evan Hernandez. He was sick. But honestly I think my favorite part might be Chad Tim Tim in A Time To Shine [’06]. “I stopped doing what I thought I should do and started doing what I wanted to do.”

Dolan Stearns

Here we have a collection of decks from the Substance crew in all different shapes and sizes. From some of the best dudes on and off the board, feast your eyes on a few of the 7 plies they prefer. -Brian Blakely

Jon Nguyen
Isle – Musician Series, Paul Shier
Isle – Art Series #2, Nick Jensen
isleskateboards.com

T-Funk
Baker – Kevin “Spanky” Long Pro model
Baker – Dee Ostrander Pro Model
bakerskateboards.com

Davis Torgerson
REAL – Davis Northstar Low Pro 2
REAL – Davis After Hours
realskateboards.com

Dolan Stearns
Lurkville – Laser Monster
Lurkville – Wolf
lurkville.com

Tom Karangelov
Skate Mental – Dan Plunkett, Van Fire
Skate Mental – Karsten Kleppan, Canned Fish
skatemental.com