Friday, July 7, 2017

King Of The Road 2003: Deluxe.




Ernie Torres and Dan Drehobl.

East Coast Blackout.

Deluxe also used the mix and match approach for their crew. Ernie Torres, JT Aultz, and Darrell Stanton were riding for Real, Dan Drehobl represented Krooked, and Tony Trujillo was the Anti-Hero. Jasin Phares served as team manager, Gabe Morford was the photographer, and Dan Vellucci was the filmer. Former World Industries and Black Label pro Randy Colvin was their mystery guest. After getting off to dark start in NYC because of the east coast power outage of August 2003, Deluxe blazed a path of destruction to first place that went through Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Louisville, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver, Boulder, Salt Lake City, Reno, Sacramento, Novato, and San Francisco.

Ernie was the team MVP. He also took the biggest rail, backside lipslide, and kickflip honors. Drehobl got a blindfolded pivot to fakie and did a frontside air on a M-16 that was used for the cover of the DVD. TNT wore the same clothes for the entire trip and made the front of Thrasher with a roll-in at the sea wall in Chicago. JT checked off the ledge tricks and "pretty much made out with a bag lady"* for a 50 point bonus. It didn't hurt that Darrell Stanton was in the zone and killing all manner of stairs, rails, and switch tricks.

I think what made the first King of the Road special was the surprise element of it. There really wasn't all that much social media back then so it was basically done in secret until the new issue of Thrasher showed up in the mail on a cold winter day. The accompanying articles chronicling each team's adventures were well written and provided a lot of information to digest. It got you in the mood to hit the road and go skateboard once the snow melted.

The final point tally:
1st: Deluxe - 2,830
2nd: Tum Yeto - 2,790
3rd: Volcom - 2,710
4th: éS - 1,440

* The quote is from Michael Burnett.

The pictures are by Gabe Morford.

Thrasher - January 2004 Volume 24 Number 1

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