Words and photos by Tommy Blanco
I arrive at LAX for a red eye flight at 4am out to Toronto Canada, I was first in line at the Canadian Air desk and thought I was chilling. 20 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart, there was no sight of Nate Moroshan (Primo TM) or Glenn Milligan. So I shot Nate a text saying, “where are you guys at?” Nate blasted back “were here waiting for the flight to board.” Then I realize I was in the wrong place, I called Nate up and found out I was at the wrong side of the airport. So I got my three over size bags and hauled ass to the other end of the airport and boarded the plane with no other problems.
When we arrived in Toronto, we met up with one of Nate’s old friends from his days back in Michigan. Nate’s friend was kind enough to give use a ride into town to his studio apartment where the Primo team would be staying for the next three weeks getting clips for the primo video ‘Nice Try’. Everyone quickly claimed their space in the tiny studio apartment. Glenn set up his camp in the corner of the kitchen. Nate got the only futon in the joint. And I set base in the closet. We made our way down to a Wal-Mart style store called “Franks Tire” or something, to grab supplies. Toilet paper, beer, and so on. Because none of the team had arrived yet, the next day was dedicated to scouting out spots. Good spots were definitely not hard to come by, since we were in the heart of down town Toronto and across the street from a major college.
Sniky Dees became our nightly bar to hit up after a long day of riding. Cute girls, cheap beer, and good food, it was an easy choice. This was where Glenn quickly reminded us why his nickname on the road is “The International Playboy”
Josh Stricker and his good friend Rayez drove in from New Jersey and we all quickly made our way to the bars and our usual nightly adventures began. As soon as we all got back from the apartment Strikes said something about seeing a mattress down the street and him and Rayez proceeded out he door and into the night. The next morning I woke to find Josh sleeping on a small, stained twin mattress with a clear shower curtain as a cover. There was a reason that some one threw out that old mattress, but I guess the risk out weighed the benefits to Josh. Then again all I had for a bed was my bath towel for the first two weeks.
The next two-days we proceeded to find squirrelly gaps for Josh to bang out. About a week into the trip Brian Foster drove into town and Sam Lowe flew in from Vancouver with a completely built bike in hand. Sam told us that he had forgotten to take his bike apart and when he tried to check his bike in, the clerk told Sam the he would need to take his bike apart. Sam had no tools on him and quickly responded that his bike was welded together as one piece. The clerk quickly gave his bike a look over, shrugged his shoulders and slapped a tag on it.
The next day we made our way into the projects, right away I spotted a crazy rail off a janitors shed. I thought it was way too big to do but jokingly called it out for Sam. He gave it a look, then threw his bike up on the roof and gave it a shot. The first time he did it he got to the L part of the rail and ditched the bike at the last second. He got back up and tried it for about 20 more minutes. Pretty much every time he landed the impact was so hard his feet blew off or he folded on his bike. By the end, his heels were bruised and his elbows were cut up and bloody.
For the last leg of the trip my homies Anthony ‘Boy’ Flores and Manuel ‘E-Man’ Cantero flew in from Los Angeles. If you have ever had the pleasure of hanging out with Boy and E Man you would know that they have a laugh about anything and everything. This time it was about how gangster they are with their gay colored money. We all rode our bikes down to the Sniky Dees, later renamed Sleazy Dees after recurring events at the bar. Me, Boy and E man ended up plastered and made our way back to the apartment. When we got back me and Boy for some reason started wrestling and boy ripped off my shirt and jeans. At some point Glenn walked in and saw me practically naked wrestling with Boy and said, “fuck this I’m going back to the bar”, slammed the door and left.
The next day we made our way in to Kitchener, which was another college town. The first night we arrived at a distributor’s warehouse (sorry I can’t remember the name) where we were greeted with open arms and some kick ass BBQ and hot dogs. The next day we push down to the university and did our run through without getting into much trouble from the campus police. We ended the day with some bar hopping and Boy was running around with his California ID telling girls “I’m from mother fucking Cali, I’ll fuck you for days and forget about you!”
The next morning was the hardest getting up, no thanks to $2 shoots from the night before, but the crew needed to keep stacking clips. John Heaton took us to this crazy narrow stair set into a grass hill, John told Glenn he had been sweating this gap for a long time, walked up the stairs, gave it a few test jumps and banged out a deadly tailwhip, with no problems. Everyone’s jaws dropped when he pulled it with such ease. We drove into down town Kitchener to grab some much needed choc-o-tacos and sodas and to chill out for a minute to take in the city. We made our way up the street to a tall double set stair rail. Boy called out a double to ice on the rail, but the middle of the rail just seemed to short. He went ahead and tried it any way. A few tries in he ended up going straight to the chest letting out the craziest sound, like a dog dying. If you look at the end of the first “Nice Try” promo you can see the crash. After that Boy was wrapped for the rest off the trip. The last two-days of the trip people began to fly or drive home and me, Boy and E Man just walked the streets and took the rest of the city in before we had our way back home.
All in all this was a fun trip, I traveled to new places, met new people, got loose every night and saw some wild and random things.
Go here to see a gallery of riding photos from the trip.
