I HEART MIKE BENDA!

Who doesn’t love Mike Benda? HIS HEART IS PURE GOLD!

He has been a huge part of the local and international longboard scene since the beginning. “Serial 5″ has probably shown you how to do a trick or two… his fast, all or nothing style makes Mike a fun rider to watch and skate with.

He is always helping grow the scene by driving groms all over the city and showing them how to ride properly. He has even been known to pay for entry fees and loan equipment just to allow other people to share the passion of longboarding. He gives a lot and really expects nothing in return.

If you’ve spent time hanging out with Mike you know he is ultimately a kid at heart just looking for the next session. So when you see him in a suit(not leathers) it can be a bit shocking – it goes to show that there is a lot more to Mike than meets the eye. He may be standing next to you with a smile on his face but really he is thinking of how to best catch you off guard to sneak a quick jab.

Next time you see Mike make sure you give him a hug.

Thanks to Brianne, Nick and Shawn for making the custom t shirts and to Paul for taking the photos.

TELL US A STORY ABOUT YOUR FAVORITE EXPERIENCE HANGING OUT WITH MIKE BENDA!

Long Trek on Skate Decks

Day 17: Day long Decent

We woke up on the fish farm after having a great sleep with a star filled sky. For breakfast the patrons of the restaurant/farm served us the best French fries we have eaten in Peru. I felt better too. Fortunately the fish that I had watched die for my meal the night before did help. I was no longer ill and I already felt stronger. Then we were off to finish our hard earned downhill. We skated all day into 60 kph head winds. It was very frustrating to say the least. We should have been flying down the road doing 60-70 kph but we were reduced to a slow roll or even hours of pushing downhill. Some sections felt as if we were climbing. We spent lunch in Challahuanca were we ate fruit and got teased for being gringos and it was off again to fight the downhill climb. Adam Aaron and I kept our spirits up by racing each other (slowly) riding hills switch and using liberal amounts of speed mooching and bump drafting. At about 5:30 some deep dark clouds started to form overhead. We decided we should consider setting up camp. Just prior, we passed through a small town. There we purchased cookies and somehow managed to find some avocados. Just before heading off to setup camp. Adam asked a local if it would rain during the night. No he said, it wont rain tonight the clouds will pass… 4 kilometres away, as we scrambled desperately to set up our shelters in the hail, torrential down pour and 70 kph winds  we mocked “No… No lluvia esta noche”, it won’t rain tonight.

Day 18: 3 soles

By some miracle grace from god, or perhaps credit should go to the PTFE fabrics my bivy bag is fashioned from, I managed to wake up mostly dry. Only slightly damp due to my own sweat during the night. Even better I had lived many days within vivid dreams of being home with friends and family. We slowly rose from our shelters and began packing up our wet gear  so we could engage in battle with the very same winds that plagued our travel the day before. If not for this wind we would have made Albancay yesterday evening… After skating for a few hours we made it to the base of the climb into Albancay. The steep windy road was adorned with a horribly hot burning sun and the same damned wind. However I knew that at the top of the climb I would be able to rest for two nights. I charged the uphill hard with powerful pushes. My illness and lack of strength from the days prior had been completely eradicated. The misery of pushing masked by the feeling of power as I ploughed my way through gusts of wind and maintained a roll normally reserved for fast travel on flat terrain. After 45 minutes I had made my way to Albancay. Everyone seemed surprised to see me, not because I had skated up a huge steep slope, rather because I was white. “Gringo!” they gleefully cheered as I skated by. The whole gringo thing is starting to get old. Then a dog jumped out at me. Now when you tackle a hill in the manner I did you make a decisions… It’s like choosing to push hard, to attack the hill regardless as to what it throws at you. You completely ignore how bad you feel. Its an amazing feeling yet it puts you in a strange state of mind. Its fight or flight and after choosing fight  you are in fight mode. I chased that damn dog down the street and around a house. The dog jumped down a 7 foot drop and slid 5 feet on its belly as it barked at me its posture changed from the aggressor to the submissive. I wiped the sweat from my eyes, turned and skated towards Adam and Aaron. Still furious at the dog and the towns people who called me gringo. I needed something to sooth my hot temper.

I want a freaking ice cream cone…

Day 19: Albancay

Our second day and people are already treating us like locals. The biggest factor in this is due to our carrying water balloons around with us. Ready at a whim to retaliate against our attackers. Our Spanish is getting better and we tell the locals tall tales of being professional ventriloquists and drinking cat milk and we tease each other for their amusement. We frequent a small bakery and a little convenience store many times a day and engage in conversation with the clerks and owners. What’s  best is we no longer get Gringoe prices… The first time on the trip everything is much cheaper. In the evening we go to a pizza shop and we get the most amazing tasting food we have had in a long time. My pizza had spinach on it! I can´t describe what this meant to me. It´s been so long since I´ve eaten a vegetable other than potatoes. We almost cried with joy as we devoured our dinner. This was a good day.

Day 20: 2000 meters in merely 4 hours

The day began with running errands and a phone call to my ex spouse which left me in a weird upset mood. We left some balloons with the hostel owners children who introduced us to the popular pass time. Then it was time to pack up. The guy who worked at the hostel whom had been asking us all weekend how much all our stuff costs and if he could have my t-shirts sat in our room as we packed up to leave. He played with our stuff slowing us down considerably. Then when we were a few minutes past check out he tried to charge us an extra 10 soles. We pretended to misunderstand his Spanish and said no not 10 days to Cusco it will only take 5 and we thanked him profusely as we walked out of the hostel and took to our boards.
We began climbing; It was really hot and humid. My freshly clean shirt was soaked with sweat in less than 30 minutes. The humidity also seemed to get into the camera. I couldn´t get it to work at all. I feared it was broken. That paired with the weirdo at the hostel and my earlier phone conversation really played on my mood. Its funny how much bad morale can affect your physical performance. I felt like crap and I struggled to maintain a pace which I normally find child’s-play. Other things set me off. More dogs yelping at me trying to bite at my ankles, believing my skating to be my fleeing from their guard. I also cut my shoulder open on my drinking tube clip. My shoulder was covered with blood and my pack is stained. Somehow I managed to pull my thoughts away from all the negative and I once again began to appreciate the gorgeous scenery. My pace quickened and I began to lead the pack again. I tried to sing but the air was too thin. We were getting close. Fog rolled up the side of the hill and it chased us up the hill to the summit where we enjoyed a view of the clouds that sit to our right flank. It looked like we were gazing directly into heaven. We began to bomb a crazy endless decent at incredible speeds. Adam and I are getting more comfortable with our packs and we begin to push a little faster on the corners. The cars don´t know what to make of us and the children we pass run after us in awe. The sun set as we skated yet Adam and I continued for a good 20 minutes after dark we were having too much fun passing cars and drifting corners in the dark. We stopped because the roads surface changed to chipseal and we didn´t want to leave Aaron behind in the dark. When he finally caught us he was angry for subjecting him to riding in the night. We found our way to a small family’s home and asked if we could sleep in their field. Tomorrow we would awake to more downhill.

Day 21: A monster named chipseal  …and hes hungry for my wheels

The Family was really nice although kinda weird and the mother ripped us off by charging both Adam and Aaron separately for the same items (they had a small store in their home) We continued down the chipseal covered hill for a few hours until we reached the nearest town. We got called Gringo a lot as we ate at a restaurant. A small crowd began to form made up of Peruvians wishing to glimpse at real live gringos. We told them that In the US people eat dog meat and in Canada we drink Milk from large cats. We also told them it took us 2 years to skate from Lima to their town. After skating away really slowly we began pushing down hill again. The slope was steep but the pavement was really haggard chipseal. Every so often we would encounter a fast section that would have us rolling without pushing. I drifted my carves pretty hard for hours and by the time we had arrived at the bottom my wheels were pretty rough looking. We skated uphill for about 15 kilometres before setting up camp on a abandoned bridge that was covered in ants. I spotted 4 different species in 5 minutes including leaf cutter ants. We only have 84 kilometres and two more passes to climb before we reach Cusco.

Day 22: Limatambo to Anta

We woke and up brushed the ants off our gear before heading on to Limatambo. At the restaurant I got laughed at for being a vegetarian they suggested Chicken because it wasn´t meat. I had some egg sandwiches (stale bread with a fried egg) then we headed up the hill. The Chipseal made the climb hard. It was by far the steepest mountain pass we have encountered But that also means the climb would be shorter than any of the others. I felt sick so I took a few breaks and Aaron had to clean his wounds as Adam went on ahead. After a long gruelling stretch it began to rain and for some strange reason this cheered me up immensely. I splashed upwards to the summit and met back up with Adam.
We had a few hours of fast flat mixed with downhill all the way to Anta. In Anta we ate dinner in a restaurant. The owner was a kind honest lady who gave us fair prices on everything (in fact I think she undercharged us). We asked if we could sleep on the floor in her restraunt if we left before they opened and she agreed. I tried to give her some money and she smiled and told me to save it for Cusco. Tomorrow we will skate to Cusco. We have one more tiny pass to tackle before we drop into Cusco. We´re managing to do one pass per day… We´re getting tougher.

Day 23-24: Cusco

Woke up, thanked the owner of the restaurant and began our last accent to Cusco. It took us two hours. The climb was a joke, A tiny hill before a massive downhill through the streets of upper Cusco. We blitzed over speed bumps around people through dense traffic and drifted alongside cars through the windy corners that plummet towards downtown. The drivers here are a little nuts. On my way into downtown I encountered people passing vehicles around blind corners. I found myself on a few occasions threading the needle between cars that were 3 wide in two lanes around rough chipseal corners with little traction. It was exhilarating and it gave the locals something to watch to I´m sure.
In Cusco we found a quaint little hostel, we ate pumpkin soup we threw water balloons at Gringos from our hotel room. It seems the only way to cope with the constant staring and Name calling is to make it a joke and parody it. Cusco is too touristy. I am constantly bothered by street vendors that try to convince me that their Alpaca sweaters are not too heavy for my backpack. Adam tries to buy a 750ml bottle of water and they ask for 4 soles, 3 too much. It’s not the Peru I know, yet it totes itself the cultural capital of Peru. It’s very European filled with Churches and other fine buildings likely build by the Spaniards using the hands of the natives. Although I must say I enjoy how you kind find mostly anything here in Cusco (except for HDV Tapes for our video camera). We ate well the last few days and now I´m just about to go for lunch and then skate off towards Bolivia.

I´m getting sick of transcribing my notes to this computer so I´m off for now. More updates in a week.

Paul and Aarons Excellent Adventure – part 2

Day 3, Jan 11th 2001

We awoke before the sun and we prepared for the day. by the time we got to the road the sun was already incredibly hot. We pushed along for an hour and then we stopped at a little town (slum) in the middle of nowhere. There we stocked up on Junk food before we carried on the lonely road. The desert seems endless as is the heat. After gaining a fair bit of ground we then stopped for lunch around 11am. We pulled over at a small fruit stand in a little town that was fortunate enough to have enough water to grow Mangoes and Bananas. I purchased some wonky little Banana´s that had orange flesh (once opened). This Banana was good… I seriously don´t think I´ll be able to go back to eating the junk we get in Canada. I ate my fill of bananas and mangoes and taught a young girl named Nicole how to ride my board. we rested in some nearby shade as Adam filmed the villagers midday routines. We took of swiftly into a fairly large climb, once we crested the hill we encountered a dust storm on a large flat plane. The Sand got in everything but it sheltered us somewhat from the sun. It was such a strange experience slogging through a sand storm by skateboard for two hours. We finished our day in Chincha Alta skating through soft sticky tar, Adam purchased Aaron and I a meal at a fancy pants restaurant then it was to find camp on top of a huge sand dune about 5 kilometres from town. The view or all the nearby towns was amazing. After Adam and Aaron went to sleep I watched the headlights of cars pass by on the distant Pan America Highway and I though of my daughter back home…

Day 4, Farm, Jan 12th

We got up earlier than the day before and headed down until we found a small shop once again in the middle of nowhere. The family running the shop showed us around there farm and we played with Piggs and chickens for hours. Their children played on our boards. From there we pushed on the road for a long time until we got to Ica. The roads have been great thus far. The shoulders not so good and the crazy drivers sometimes cause us to hop of the road but road conditions are good otherwise.

We ended up in Ica. Pushing through more Crazy Lima esque traffic. showing off stand up power slides (with our back packs on) to the locals between the tightly arranged traffic. I purchase some orange loaf before we pushed through the dark searching for a decent camp site. We jumped over some sharp prickly bushes down a drop into a farmers field where we set up our camp and cleaned our wounds. I ate the orange loaf and it reminded me of the lemon loaf I would eat with my grandparents when I was growing up. I miss my grandmother who passed away this Christmas. I cried and I slept outside under the open sky.

Day 5 Not even an Ice cream cart!!, Jan 12th

We awoke at 5 and we started skating just after 6. We skated only taking pause long enough to refill our bottles all we could. I really feared we may run out of water during this stretch. The desert was crazy hot and there was nothing around for miles and miles. I would skate as far as my eye could see 5 times over then the road would dip, climb and turn about 5 to 15 degrees then we would do it all over again… countless times. I was blown away by how straight the road was and how desolate everything was. We finally ended up in Santa Cruz and we were invited to eat a meal with a family there. Their names were, Corina, Said, Victor, Luigi, Gloria, Fiorella and their dog was named Oso. The Family showed us around there farm then they guided us to some nearby ruins of an ancient Inca civilization that was decimated by the Spanish conquistadors long ago. Its eerie to see this, the homes torn down into piles of stone and the pots all smashed against the hills. The village would have existed over 2000 years ago. I can´t describe the feeling I got from being there imagining the atrocities that took place on the soil I was walking on. That night, exhausted from the 8 km hike through the hills we slept outside in another feild across the street from the Family we stayed with.

Day 6 Peruvian death hill then Nasca!!, Jan 13th

There are two roads to Palpa from Santa Cruz, There is a long windy way with nice pavement that’s about 15 km long and there is a direct route that rapidly climbs a hill and has a fast drop out the other side. The locals kept telling us we shouldn´t take the direct route because it was too steep. We figured this was a good thing. We would enjoy the run down the hill. Lets say the locals knew what they were talking about. We attacked the climb at dawn and when we got to the top of the hill we saw a tunnel. We threw on our headlamps and excitedly started rolling down the steep steep slope. The road in the tunnel was riddled with pot holes and when we got to the other side we found ourselves on the craziest hill any of has been on. a tight web of cracks, crevases, pot holes, bulges, chipseal, You name it. It was the worst pavement I have ever seen. It was on par with the steepest hills I have ever skated but 6 times longer. My legs could barley take it. 10 minutes was more work on my legs than 5 days of skate touring. ever turn became a nearly uncontrolable slide My shoes got hot from foot braking. But some how with our 15 kilo back packs we managed to make it down without crashing. It woke us up in a hurry let me tell you! The craziest stuff I´ve seen…

Next we found ourselves in a beautiful town with lush flora skating in the dawn sunshine. We had arrived in Rio grande where we stocked up for breakfast and entertained the locals. After an hour or so we were off to skate into palpa. The climb out of Rio Grande was really steep but we were rewarded by a beautiful steep and windy downhill. We flew down the hill with ease. Then it was off through Palpa. Outside of palpa we hit the Nasca desert. This was hot, Aaron was feeling weird and Adam was starting to feel symptoms of travelers diahrea. The road was crazy long but I was exuberant at the challenge the heat presented. We had our steepest climb to date and this was by far the hottest strech. it was then followed by 20 km of flat straight roads as planes circled over head. They were peering at the Nasca lines which we couldn´t see at all from our vantage point. After a long and grueling skate we finally arrived in nasca and we scurried to the nearwest Hostel with Internet service. After taking a nap and a shower we got to computer work. Its been a crazy tough week the hardest skate of my life. But the hardest part should dwarf our last leg and its just around the corner.

More updates when I finally arrive in Cusco I have 3 passes all above 4300 feet to climb before I make it there.

Wish us luck and keep an eye on our tracking site.

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0670CMjxG7Zm0JN3qJ6j7Pm3CQkR5e69g

Paul

Paul and Aaron’s Excellent Adventure – part1

Over the last few months the stress has really been building up. I have been increasingly emotional and sleep deprived as the time for my to departure came closer and closer. I have been finding my lack of enthusiasm to be rather alarming too. A culmination of many things: The recent passing of my grandmother who cared for me during a third of my upbringing. I also figure all the planning, the low finances, family stresses, goodbyes and overall danger of the trip contributed as well. I was getting so sleepy too. I had little time to get a full nights sleep. I wanted nothing more than to rest, to take a break from the tears and goodbyes that plagued my recent past and just sleep.
My last night in Calgary was particularly hectic Aaron and I had to pack up all of our possessions into one room and we had to clean the place up for a new tenant, not to mention we had to pack and make sure we had everything in order. We were leaving our home behind and when we returned it wouldn´t be the same. Good bye to a lifestyle we had grown to love. Thankfully Rachael and Anna came over to visit. Rachael ordered us all east Indian food from my favourite restaurant, If she hadn´t I don´t think Aaron and I would have had eaten at all those past few days! On top of everything else she helped us clean out our bathroom as we moved heavy furniture and musical instruments down the stairs.

I spent the next morning with Anna and Annik frantically scrambling to get things done. I headed to the shop to grab my new boards (demonseed, demonseed deelite custom and a catalyst) Shortly after that we met up with Annik´s Grandmother Tara who drove us all to the airport. Aaron had already been waiting for us with Mike Hagar. The clock was ticking away, it was time to say goodbye…

That was the hardest round of goodbyes I´ve ever given. Saying bye to Annik was the hardest part. I can´t even begin to explain, yet I knew this was something I had to do for myself.

Going through the airport was fun, I kept my mind off my family by focusing on playing with our camera. We spent the whole time goofing off and filming B footage. Customs were hilarious, I pretty much just chatted with the officer about documentaries on South America while Aaron got drilled for nearly everything one counter over. When we had finally made it through we both took one last look at Calgary’s familiar grey landscape before boarding our plane.
I´ll actually miss you Calgary… Kinda.

For more pictures and more information go to www.longtreksonskatedecks.com

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I strongly dislike computers, January 5th 2009

Arriving in San Francisco was fun, it was New Years eve. Aarons father picked us up and drove us to Silicone Valley to ring in the new year. We tried the bar scene for about an hour before ditching at 10pm to go skate parking garages in nothing more than our hoodies which were wet from the “winter” rain. After much fun on my new catalyst deck we headed to Dennys for a 4am meal. We headed to Aarons parents home in San Jose to go to sleep. As soon as we got around to waking up we got back to work. Filming, computer work, lots of searching for obscure items and more computer stuff. Honestly I can´t wait until I´m sleeping under the cool desert sky near the coast of Peru far away from this damn computer! Instead of searching for things I need, I´ll be deciding what Items I can afford to toss out to lighten my load. I was just on the brink of going crazy with all the things that need to be prepared before leaving for Lima.

We spent the last day in San Francisco, Aaron had hoped to go skate Lombard st. but we were too busy preping the website, getting our Spot tracker to work and an inventory error sent on a wild goose chase looking for my sleeping bag and some food grade hydrogen peroxide. Our search ended in Berkley with mere hours before our flights left. True to form we rushed to get back the our place in San Fran so we could hurry to the airport and board our flight to San Salvador. On the ride over I spoke to Rachael. Annique just learned to say “I love you” and I wasn´t there to hear it…

For more pictures and more information go to www.longtreksonskatedecks.com

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Planes over Lima, January 7th 2009
Arriving in Lima was a crazy experience. From the plane during the final portion of the decent you could make out these sandy clay slums that nearly completely blended into the beige sand that lines North Western Peru. The slums were everywhere they stretched as far as the eye could see. “Oh my god, I am in Peru”… I felt sick…. What was I thinking coming all the way out here!? This is crazy! I barely have enough money to get back, if I were to get robbed things could be pretty hairy! I also desperately miss Annique and after my phone call with Rachael the night before I am begining to worry like crazy all over again.
While in the airport I chat about lightweight camping gear and about starting charities with Karl a young man from Portland Oregon that we met during the plane ride over. We pass through customs pretty easily thanks to the help of a Local named Victor who translated my customs documents for me. “Hablo muy poco español”… Then we met up with our ride to the hostel we were staying at during our stay in Lima. We shared a ride with another traveler a young woman from Norway. The cab driver chuckled at Aaron as he yelled Spanish explanative out the window at crazy drivers as we sped through Lima dodging the crazy traffic. It seems there is little governing traffic here other then the boundaries of the roads. Cars and busses go where ever they wish. The ride was exhilarating, but it left my lungs feeling coated by the exhaust fumes from propane and cheap fuel.
Aaron and I rented a single bedroom with a double bed for the night, I figured we would be sleeping very little as we had a lot of unpacking organizing, and repacking to do. We also got to building our boards for the trip with some fancy new stainless steel hardware we picked up in San Jose. I was about to purify some tap water to brush my teeth and I looked outside at a crazy busy street in Mira Flores (district of Peru) and I began to have a little freakout. I was near tears about everything I left for the next three months. I once again realize that the trip was actually happening. Aaron asked if I wanted to go for a walk. “No”, I replied” I wan´t to skate”. I wanted to feel something stress free, something familiar. I heard a knock at the door. ”There are two women here to see you” recited a worker of the hostel. I walked down stairs and Adam Colton was waiting with his sister and there friend from Peru Erica.
Adam, Aaron and I spoke about the trip gear and the the crazy culture for a few hours. His excitement was contagious. It made Aaron and I feel a lot better about our situation. It was also nice to know he would be willing to come part way with us. After he left I got to work on packing and setting up things, Aaron and I eventually set out for breakfast yet it was already dark at this point. We headed to a local supermarket to save money on eating out. We ate on the walk home then worked into the late hours of the morning before going to sleep.

For more pictures and more information go to www.longtreksonskatedecks.com

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Love in Lima, January 8th 2009 (Picture of us in traffic)
Today we slept through breakfast. That sucked. When we did manage to wake we cleaned our rooms then moved out of our fancy single bedroom into a dorm room at our hostel. We didn´t need the floor space to pack our bags and build our boards so Aaron and I figured we would save the money. I also found out today that the staff all though Aaron and I were “Marica´s” (Homosexuals) because we rented a private room with one bed for the two of us. After having a good laugh over it we began to make friends with the staff here at the flying dog hostel. I think the receptionist liked me now that she realizes I´m not gay. Before lunch Adam Colton arrives again we find him a room at a neighbouring Flying dog hostel, and then play some foosball  before heading off to film ourselves skating around Lima. Once again the traffic was insane. The drivers here seem to like it when we “skitch” (pull ourselves along using moving cars). The Police dont seem to mind either!! We have a blast weaving through the narrows spaces between vehicles and ducking under rear veiw mirrors. We end the day off after another trip to the super market and long discussions about teamwork, robbing banks, filming and being Llama shearers. It looks like Adam Aaron and I will be skating together after all… Thats all for now, I´ve gotta go shear some Alpaca wool! Buenos Noches hotdog face!

For more pictures and more information go to www.longtreksonskatedecks.com