Hassyampa Daze

 We had lots of adventures out at Hassayampa, some good , some bad. Here are a few radd memories I can share.

One day, we got a ride from a guy I went to high school with (Dave T.), who had just gotten his learners permit to drive. He borrowed his Dad’s brand new station wagon, we loaded up all our gear, and headed out 60 miles West into the desert to skate the desert pipes. We turned off the freeway onto dirt roads, and he gets crazy and decides to do a slide doing about 60 mph, we hit a ditch, and then roll the car 3 times. The car is trashed, we are OK, but Dave dislocated his shoulder and goes into shock, my back is fu#$ked up forever. Luckily we are only about 3 miles from the freeway, my friends hike it back to cement, flag down some help, and get back fairly quickly considering all the drama. So, now we are “rescued” by total Redneck sheriff types, taken to the nearest town (Buckeye, AZ), as my friend John F. makes “Andy Griffith” jokes to really irritate them…

 The very next day, we headed out again, this time in my crappy old car, same crew minus Dave. We got out to the Hassayampa project, to discover tons of pro’s riding the new downhill. Rick Blackhart, Doug Schneider, SALBA, and so many others I cannot even recall. I do remember clearly Schneider going SO fu@$king high (like 10:30) with a broken wrist (cast & all) in the downhill, and bailing off like it was nothing, like 18 ft. up in the air, OMG!!! THEN, tragedy struck, my friend John F. takes a damn pipe crack wrong, and slams SO hard, it knocks his helmet off and he get a huge cut above his eye, bleeding bad, he could not even remember his own name! Lets see, rescue a friend (we were 60 miles from nowhere) or hang out for the epic pipe session…  Dammit, another tripp to the emergency room, again!!!

 Soon afterwards, security got tough out there, so we adopted our hit and run tactics we used riding pools in the city. We parked the car a couple of miles away, concealed well, then hiked it through the desert to some sections in the river near the downhill. We started skating, taking turns on lookout, and pretty soon some friends showed up and started skating some nearby pipe sections.
Sure enough, this attracted the security guard, he shows up, my friends told him to get lost (big mistake!) and continue skating. About 20 minutes later, the security guard returns with 2 Buckeye sherrifs, they are totally busted and taken to jail in Buckeye for trespassing. Luckily we saw them coming, bailed into the desert just in time, crawled through the wash, eventually made it back to our car and got away! Whew, that was a close one, that was our last session there I think…