It was mid March when Mike Briggs took his final test before spring break 2k13. Biking home from the University of Utah he had one thing in mind, stacking some banger shots for The Hood Crew's newest movie "Freed the Streets". Upon arriving at his house, he received conformation from the crew's instigator at large? Daniel "Freed" that Boulder, Colorado was about to get a healthy serving of snow, almost 2 feet overnight was predicted. A few short phone calls later, a crew was rounded up to make the 600 mile trek to the land of legal marijuana and loose college gals for a weekend of rowdy partying? and handrail skiing.

Joining Briggs on this ill fated adventure would be Blake "pork" Frauchi, The Kid aka Ian King and Forster Meeks. Piling into Meeks's thrashed and rancid smelling jeep, the crew made a quick stop at PCMR to catch a few laps on a mediocre rail line before continuing the treacherous journey to Boulder. As the car swerved in and out of the "party lane" and "chill zone", doobies were rolled and sparked. Meeks packed chew after chew of Copenhagen, much to Briggs's dismay as he had dropped his phone into one of these massive spittoons a year before on a similar road-trip to Bear Mountain. There was no shortage of Freddie Gibbs blasting on the modest stereo as the whip sputtered into Danny's driveway on University avenue.

The bleary eyed crew was met by Freed and his ratchet house, completed by the world's most obnoxious mutt, Felix, and stony ass roommates, presumably the product of an unassuming grow-op in the basement packed with some halfass homegrown bud. The first night was spent in typical fashion, the liquor store was raided and bottles were popped as the crew sent it in a way only Boulder Co. knows how to. Mike could be found in a corner making out with a (surprisingly) fine freshmen, Meeks was instigating all sorts of nonsense with some wanna-be frat boys and Freed was breaking it down on top of a table. An asian homie named Shiro was playing with his nose and offering up his goodies to anyone who was interested. The night ended in a blur, while the snowflakes anticipated to fall were nowhere to be found.

The crew awoke the next day to a dusting of snow on the ground, far from the two feet predicted, but since 8 hours were traveled to get to Boulder, they made the best of it. After driving around for a few hours debating which spots to hit, they settled on a curving 6 kink that Matt Walker had conquered years before. Right off campus, the rail was in full view of a busy street but that wasn't about to stop anyone. Briggs and The Kid were quick to step up to the beast.

On one of his first attempts Briggs went down hard with a lip-slide to the flat, resulting in a dirty taco, finishing his day. The kid went on to battle for hours, not only with the rail but with a filthy bum who insisted on kicking him when he was down in the wet slush. Finally, The Kid left in tears, due to his nasty hangover and lack of food. Poor little guy had only just graduated high school and it was rumored that he was still 14. The crew rolled back to Danny's trap house where Meeks was greeted by a phone call from an unlikely old classmate..

Two half-decent girls stumbled through the snow, chain smoking grits and bitching about the cold. Meeks greeted the short blond with a big hug and the night commenced with beers and molly to go around. No sleep was had as the Briggler's eye balls nearly popped out of his head after rolling? to another CU party. Freed's roommates were less than pleased that Meeks had spent the night with a lady friend in one of their rooms as the rowdiness carried on until 6 AM.

Meeks was woken up by a trippy stick totting Freed the next day, demanding that they go hit a high consequence rainbow rail, twenty feet off the ground with nearly no snow in sight. Maybe it was the drugs or the lack of sleep, or maybe Meeks is just stupid as all hell, but he agreed so at 9 AM Briggs, Meeks and Freed set out to conquer this beast, bad bitches in tow.

The setup was minimal as Freed scraped snow into the landing and a dresser was used to climb on top of the building. Jerriah the giraffe was put in position as Spencer Harkins, an injured member of the crew and boulder loc rolled up to film and Jenni Skulth was woken up to take a picture. Unfortunately, the build took a whole extra hour once two cops pulled someone over across the street and water was purchased to firm up the in-run and jump. Meeks was anxious to hit the feature, telling Briggs and Freed that he would hit it in spite of the police nearby. The pigs left and Meeks was ready to go; Jeezy bumping in his ears helped the substances in his body take on a whole new meaning. As he was yanked in by the bungee, he knew speed was off but fuck it, "how it feel" was slapping harder than ever.

Dropping 20 feet to flat concrete is something most skiers dread but in that moment everything seemed alright, Meeks hopped back up with an "Im chillin!" response. Danny was losing his mind on the roof and Briggs could not stop laughing. The chicks were bored as fuck and demanded to leave. Meeks hurried back up to the top, confident in his ability to stomp out if the speed was right. The bungee was re-adjusted, Jenni snapped a perfect photo, and just as things seemed like they would turn out for the best, Meeks blew it in classic fashion. Failing to adhere to Danny's advice to take the rail to switch due to the minuscule landing, Meeks attempted to put it down to regular, resulting in a typical Fe-mane double eject and re-injuring his bruised heels.

Leaving the spot, the stoke was high but the mission was a fail. Chad drove his little shawtys back to denver and went on to fuck the day away, oblivious that the hype train would start choo-choo-ing the next day when the picture went viral.

The kid, who had mysteriously disappeared the night before with Pork, came out of hiding sometime the next morning. People are still unsure of what got into the kid that night but it was game changing to say the least. Coming in at 5'2 and 90 pounds, the kid is a little fella. He was fresh out of diapers and barely able to feed himself so he seemed the least likely to take the MVP award for the trip. After seeing him break down in tears the day before, the crew was sure that he was out the game. What they saw that day would change things forever.

Rolling up to the infamous closeout that had claimed Spencer the year before, Ian exuded confidence. He was looking and feeling like a pimp as he listed off hammer tricks he planned to throw while the crew laughed on. He went on to stomp a front 450 tap and swagged out back 270… can you say styyyylllee?! Maybe it was just the childlike tenacity but on that day, the kid was unstoppable. The closeout was slayed and the crew rolled back to the monster 6 kink, still skeptical of the kid's abilities to take down this creature of a rail. I mean, it had taken him nearly 6 hours the day before just to make it 3/4s of the way through it so how the hell was he going to stomp out now? With almost no snow, the feature was ambitious but like a child on christmas morning, his excitement was contagious. Right from the get-go it was apparent that he really was feeling it. The giraffe was in perfect position as Ian wobbled his way through one hundred feet of kinked, curving metal. He landed on concrete and slid away in as close to a textbook stomp as one could have? His grin was just incredible, it was a sight to be seen. Everyone mobbed him in a manner similar to when Tony Hawk landed his 900. There were no tears on this day; just a thrilled Kid, doing what he loved.

The Hood Crew? left boulder that trip unsure of whether or not the mission was a success. It is hard to tell with these guys as they tend to struggle under any circumstances but one thing was for certain, good times were had and it was definitely a hilarious adventure.

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