Natural Koncept East Coast Tour Update

Blair Alley

• August 13 2008
• 7 comments

Words by Josh Zickert, photos by Sean Reilly

What’s up?
It’s the nk crew checking in from Dalton, Georgia. Our Dysfunctional Family video just dropped and we’re on an east coast tour see the reactions of the video and party with the locals.
The entire crew couldn’t make it – Kale’s been surfing and skating the world.  Choppy is a liability and hasn’t been on an NK tour for 4 years.  He’s shredding in Portland on Hannibal Lector status.  Ian Okui just won the ES’ game of skate and is busy hitting up other contests on the island, however Kays and Reilly took 3 flights and because of alcohol abuse and womanizing a 12-hour trip turned into 30! Boby Gnarly & Adrian “the mack daddy” Mcelhaney flew out from LA with an emergency landing in DC.  Shooter McGavin and the Muska were on the flight.  Props to Muska for covering the cab fare from JFK to JZ’s apt in the east village.  Coming out of Denver Dave Davis and Trevor Uriona also had a dysfunctional arrival to the big apple with a 15 hr layover in Cincinnati due to stormy weather. Katch arrived late in the night unbenounced. We skated through the L.E.S. and hit up Gallery Bar on Orchard St. where DJ Brooklyn Dawn handled the beats, the NK video played while katch bombed the walls of the spot and we handled the bar.  The night ended with a fiesta at JZ’s leading to an eviction phone call the next morning.
We popped in the van for our first stop on this 11- day tour to The Skate Lair in Enfield, CT.  Traffic leaving Manhattan on Friday afternoon was gnarly which caused us to be 4 hours late.  Luckily, Brendan Leung had flown out from Santa Cruz, CA to Cohasset, MA two weeks earlier to visit family and drove down, traffic free, to get the demo poppin’ off solo. We skated late into the night with the locals on the street course outside the shop.  The Red Bull Jersey barrier got hit up with Reilly pulling off  a 1-shoed blunt fakie (Davis stole the other).  After all the groms went home we seshed the bowl in the back of the shop.  Pool coping, budweisers, Tato Feliciano, Dirty, Munday & his posse, and the NK crew…all skatin tough. Munday and Jed styled us out with houses to crash at.
Cruised up to North Hampton, MA next to do a demo for The Boardroom.  The session was hot with Kays smith grinding around the corner of the 13 foot deep end of the bowl & JZ front rocking it.  Trevor snappin a nollie 3 down the big 6 and Brendan back tailing the hubba and a surprise caballerial firecracker down the big 6.  The demo was officially over when Chris Martin, our photographer slammed and broke his wrist.  A heavy blow to the crew which left us to shoot our own digi flix the rest of the trip.  Cruised back to chill with Jay at the The Boardroom and handled the product toss.  Dope shop and rad crew for sure.
Next we Linked up with the Lair crew again to skate Josh’s backyard bowl, a masterpiece Animal Chin would have been hyped on.  The locals ripped it & our crew got busy with Kays straight mutilating it, Davis nose blunting the finger tip extension & Gnarly f’s 5-0’ing the over vert corner. Katch was flying around fast as shit and Reilly fell off the rooftop of the shed attempting a serious melon grab acid drop!!  We nearly lost another soldier so we decided to jump in the van for the 8-hour trek south to Ocean City, MD.  On the way we had to lighten the van load so Seamus Murphy, James Mcguinnes a.k.a.“Kicky McFlippy” and Majors along with a bottle of Sailor Jerry’s Rum were dropped off at 3:00 AM at Newark International Airport to grab a train back to NYC.  They will be missed.
Now with some extra legroom we handled the 6-hour drive arriving a little after dawn to get a few hours of sleep before our demo with The Swirld World and Dimensions Skate Shop at the Ocean Bowl located just a block from the beach.  The locals killed it.  Adrian scored the first street footie of the trip.  Next we hit up American Dan’s spine ramp for a couple hours with the Ocean Pines skate rats. Katch hit the walls and we bounced to session Jim’s backyard ramp -2 kegs and BBQ to celebrate the birth of his baby on the day of our arrival..crazy huh?  Thanks Jim- Congrats.
Awoke in a drunkn munky stooper to jump in the van for an 18-hour drive south to Dalton, Georgia.  A day packed in the van with no skating and straight chillin’ was proper.  The crew hadn’t really kicked it since our last tour in Cali to finish the video, so it was rad for everyone to catch up.
Got some sleep in Tenessee & bailed the super 8 motel by noon and were at the North Georgia Skatepark by 3pm for our demo inside the shop on the mini ramp.  Everyone handled their bizz especially on the vert extension.
And than we took it to the courts where they had a bunch of dirty south style make shift ramps and benches where the Mack Daddy sizzled it like only Little Weezy could …just 5 miles from the birthplace of the KKK!   Brendan, JZ, Gnarly and Trevor kicked off the waffle house launch ramp over the wall.  One kid told Reilly, the designated filmer of the day, “I think that wall there be getting in their way!” The locals were hyped – we had to be escorted into the courts by the police!  It was madness.  Loretta, the owner of the shop, set us up by giving us an open tab at the bar/Mexican restaurant and letting us crash at her beautiful house in the back country of the Geroge woods. We are writing this update from poolside drinkin some Bud with our homie Weiser right now.
6 days left and 5 more stops.