Monday, January 10

Weekend Tour of Las Vegas with Mike Scott

By Zack Podell

From the moment I stepped off the plane in Las Vegas, I knew this wasn't going to be an ordinary trip. It was a late Friday night, and the airport was still very busy. I guess this is the city that never sleeps. There may be more people out and about at 2 a.m. than at any other point in the day. I quickly scanned the airport and found Mike Scott, just as his friend Daveee was heckling Lionel Richie. I think Daveee was telling him how much he loves having sex to his music. We quickly made for the door, because we didn't want to stick around for Lionel's reaction to Daveee's comments. We threw my bags in Mike's car, and told Daveee to meet up with us at Denny's on the strip.

Forward frontside mistrail.

Fifteen minutes and only two miles later, we made our way through the perpetual traffic jam on the strip, only to find a gang convention in the parking lot of Denny's. Mike parked the car, and we got a little nervous. We got out of the car, and made our way inside, realizing that we were wearing all red, and there was a convention of Crips outside. Daveee finally joined us fifteen minutes later. Shaking and sweaty, he proceeded to tell us that he was chased by a bunch of guys in a truck. I quickly changed the subject.



Check out this video clip of Mike Scott and Griffey March. (3.6 MB)

While waiting for our food, Mike brought me up to speed on what he had been doing. We hadnt talked much since Pawn went out of business and Mike didnt skate much last year. This was mainly because he needed some time to think, and decide what direction(s) he wanted to go in. He lost, or quit, all of his sponsors, got a full time job, and spent most of his free time with his girlfriend. But he never quit skating. Mike is the type of person that skates for the love of it. His main focus is to go out and have fun, not to be the best, or win competitions. This was the first time in five years, that Mike had taken a real break from our sport. "This was the best thing that couldve happened to me." He said in reference to his time off, and leaving all of his sponsors. "I got a chance to put things in perspective." Although he is going back to school, he will be skating on a regular basis.

Gap to Top Soul at the Real Ride skatepark, Las Vegas.

Mike was explaining his relationship with USD when our food finally arrived. We agreed to pick this topic up later because we were all very hungry and exhausted. We ate our food quickly and made our way to the house. It was 3 a.m. when we got home and there were a bunch of local skaters waiting for us. We stayed up for another hour or so, hanging out, watching skate videos, and planning the weekend. We decided that we would skate the park first, and figure the rest out later.

We woke up Saturday morning, and went to the Skate Park. We pulled up to the All American Sports Park, and it was then that I was told that Real Ride's new park has been built inside the complex. This is the same place that hosted ASA's World Championships in 1998. There is a climbing gym, go-cart racetrack, batting cages, a full restaurant and sports bar in the complex. The Skate Park has one street course inside. There will also be a vert ramp, and second street course built outside, next to the indoor course.

Mike got his skates on and warmed up. I went out to the street course after a few minutes and found Mike, Daveee, Griffy, and Jake Taylor tearing it up. For the first five minutes or so, I watched in amazement as they were changing up grinds like crazy. This was some of the most amazing skating I have ever seen. I grabbed my cameras, and started shooting. The four guys were feeding off each other's energy, pushing their skating farther than I thought was possible. We ended up skating the park until about 10 p.m. Once again, Mike Scott pulled tricks that are so technical words cannot explain them. The video clips in this article speak for themselves.

Alley-oop Top Soul, Las Vegas.

It was back to Daveee's house, where we hung out for a few hours before crashing out. Sunday morning we woke up rested, energized and motivated. We went to the park and met up with Jake Taylor, and Griffy. Together we skated the park for a little bit, then took it to the street. The four of us went to the "bank rail" about 10 minutes from the park. We pulled into the parking lot, and found part of the building was torn up. Apparently some idiot, driving a truck, was not paying attention to the vertical clearance. This moron drove through the 7 foot 2 inch entrance, with probably a 10 foot truck. Needless to say, there were metal beams, concrete, and debris everywhere. We found the rails completely intact, so we skated.

After about 10 minutes, we moved on. We skated three more places over the next few hours, then returned to the park. Finally we headed to the MGM Grand, and skated this huge bank to rail. We got about 15 minutes worth of skating in, before the security chased us away. Having agreed that we got all the footage that we needed, and that we all needed to get some rest, we went our separate ways. Mike went back to St. George, Utah, and I hopped a plane back to Los Angeles, after having a late dinner with Daveee.