Snowbirds: “People from the Northeast and Midwestern United States or Canada who spend a large portion of winter in warm locales such as California, Arizona, and Florida.” Growing up in the arid deserts of Arizona, “snowbirds” are something that I am very familiar with. Every winter, hundreds of people migrate to Phoenix. Driving around the city during this time of year is a mess, full of geezers with out-of-state license plates driving 10 under the speed limit and clogging up all of our streets. Skateboarders also follow in their footsteps and make the trek out to places like AZ during the winter months—if I was stuck somewhere like Denver with a foot of snow knocking on my door, I would do the same thing.
Words and photos by Tyler Bush
One of Denver’s finest, Angel Ramirez, had no problem taking this ollie over the fence and straight to the pool.
Everyone leaves AZ around April, once it starts giving us a warning about the blistering heat in the months to come. Then conversely, much like these snowbirds, many people from Arizona leave the state during summer in order to find cooler weather. I took part in this seasonal migration myself this past year, taking a month-long skate trip up to Denver for a big relief from the heat back home. Here are some of the highlights…
Monico Candelaria holds on to this close-corners back Smith against the wall, just before a summer storm caused us to head out.
With the last bit of light left in the summer sky, Greg Piloto graces this classic Denver spot with a switch bigspin flip that will stick around for all the seasons to come.
Ryan Simpson keeps his cool on this front rock, despite the intense interstate traffic grazing by him.
Right in the heart of downtown, the Denver skatepark is responsible for many of the home-grown talent that it caters to. Jared Stoots puts a nosegrind down in the deep end of the peanut bowl.
Denver’s pride and joys, Sean Frederickson and his identical twin brother Nial, have been deemed the “Evil Twins” by a certain authority in the skateboarding world. Sean holds his end of the bargain by throwing up the horns while taking this front feeble off the drop.
Matt Kehoe 270 Wallride.
Derek Milton takes this hardflip to the street with ease.
Monico Candelaria was the MVP of the trip. He got the most photos out of anyone the whole month I was out there. A 5-0 into the bank on this freeway underpass was no problem for him.
