Red Bull Trip to Key Largo Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Red Bull Trip to Key Largo

Posted on Monday, April 27, 2009 by Ryan

By Ryan Clements

The images below can also be viewed as a slide show.

Red Bull Sarah summoned me for a brain-storming/idea-sharing session in Key Largo a few weeks back. Of course the first thing I thought was, "Cool. A five-hour bike ride sounds good to me." This is what it looked like on Alligator Alley from my vantage point
This was my rear view. A fellow biker rode with me for about 60 miles on Alligator Alley
I arrived in Key Largo just in time to catch the sunset. In the Keys, when the sun goes down, everyone applauds
Any bar where I can get four Coors Light drafts, a side salad, and an order of wings for $20 is paradise to me
The next day I spent most of my hours working with a great view, but took a break and headed down to the pool to grab some free lunch
I was really hyped when I found out that there was a skate park about five miles away. I rode around for a minute, but was told that I had to leave because I didn't have a helmet, elbow pads, knee pads, and wrist guards. No joke
The lady running the park was super-nice and gave me the email address of one of the county commissioners. I sent a long email about how I will not be going back to Key Largo, spending my hard-earned money, as long as they have these ridiculous pad rules in effect
The skate park was actually in a city park, but none of the baseball fields or basketball courts had any rules posted at all. How sad. Are us skateboarders really that bad? Not in my opinion. I skated in the parking lot, in and out of traffic, barely avoiding pedestrians and no one said a word to me, which seemed much more dangerous...all while the skate park looked like a ghost town
The nice lady that ran the park took about 20 minutes out of her day to talk to me. This was her new puppy. I couldn't resist
Ryan Llamos of Red Bull writes down some of the amazing ideas I came up with
Eat, work, eat, work, eat, drink, repeat. Do that for three days in a row without a break and you'll see what I experienced
I never liked birds until I got to know Derewenko's bird, Skittles. These dudes were chillin' by the pool
Ah. Paradise. There was a hot tub on the other side of this fountain. I got in there with a newlywed couple, possibly on their honeymoon. I don't think they'd ever seen a heavily tattooed, white-trash skateboarder before. I said 'hello' and they just looked at me
I took a field trip one of the days during our free time and rode my bike about an hour south. I found a statue with this plaque on the bottom
On the ride back to the hotel I saw "BAR" from the road. I couldn't resist, but got a kick out of it because at 35 I think I was the youngest guy in the bar by about 20 years
One day I might buy a place on a secluded island and quit life, but I'm having too much fun right now to do much more than think about it
This picture took me about 50 tries to shoot. I had the bike on cruise control at 50mph, let go of the bars, hopped on the back seat, leaned back as far as I could, and shot the pic...and my cheap-ass camera doesn't have a fish-eye. Some dudes in a car rode up next to me and gave me the "shakka" sign
I got back to the hotel just in time to catch the sunset with the tunes of a reggae band that Red Bull hired
Clements: Hey Red Bull, can we please have a delicious dinner and open bar while the sun sets? Red Bull: No problem, Clements. We've got you covered
Ryan King and Marcos, Red Bull field marketing managers from Jacksonville and Ft. Lauderdale respectively
Where in the world did he get those eS Koston's?
They don't call it Alligator Alley for nothing. I saw about 100 of these dudes on the ride back, no exaggeration. Thanks for the fun time, Red Bull, and let's use some of my great ideas!

Comments

Subscribe to the SPoT What's Up Blog

Enter your email: