An Adventure to the Unknown:

Good Samaritan Goes to Santa Fe

Dolla

Written by Joey Greenblatt

We had been talking about how slow the winter has been when we checked the weather and saw a storm heading southeast from the PNW. It was supposed to go through New Mexico and then carry on through the Midwest and then across the Eastern United States. Hunter had been geeking out on Santa Fe and all of the Spanish architecture. He was adamant about how good the footage would look and honestly, it sounded appealing to all of us to go get clipped up in New Mexico.

The preface of this trip is Dolla’s 21st birthday. That night, a big group of us went out to dinner at Wasatch Brewery to celebrate. While Earthing at the dinner table, the idea of going to Santa Fe was becoming more enticing with every spot we found. We knew we would be fine spot-wise, but committing to going would certainly be a gamble. We had no idea how much snow would stick, the only information we had was that there was supposed to be four to eight inches of snow total, not accumulated. Dylan was at dinner too and there he vaguely told us his much more logical plan for the storm, as opposed to ours. They were heading to the Midwest and playing it safe, an option that seemed like a smarter choice.

Santa Fe is not close to Salt Lake, If it turned out to be a bust, our long drive would be for nothing. After some pacing and hearing Dolla say “You never know” about 35 times regarding how much snow they would get, we decided to bite the bullet and leave the next morning. I called Luke and Elan on the way out, they were down to make the trek from Minnesota. We were all so clip-hungry at this point and over Utah spots that we would have gone anywhere. We left dinner and went home to pack for our five a.m. departure. This meant that we would not be going out that night. Sorry for bailing on your 21st birthday celebration Dolla.

Nick Miller

The next day, as we passed Durango everyone got excited by the amount of snow. Even going into areas of northern New Mexico there was still at least six inches on the ground. As we got closer and closer to Santa Fe, the ground was getting dryer and dryer. 20 minutes out of where we were staying, silence slowly spread through the car. There was maybe a quarter inch of snow on the ground, and we were stressing. We put our stuff inside the AirBnB that Luke had reserved for us and then went out to scope. Thankfully, it started to snow when we left the house.

Although it snowed overnight, it didn’t snow the amount we had hoped. It settled in that it was going to be low tide and the tensions continued to rise. Thank God for Rodrigo and the energy he brought. It was his first trip with us and the only thing concerning him was having a good time. The first two spots of the day didn’t work out. Little snow, speed problems, and frustration left us without any ideas, so I decided to hit a spot behind one Gabe tried out of desperation. What I wanted to do wasn’t working, so I settled, got smoked, and then quit.

That night, Rod saved us again. We went to this rail in a gated apartment complex that Rod wanted to 5050. It was scarier than it looked. There were a lot of poles and sharp rocks around the rail and about a half inch of snow. While that sounds like a deadly recipe, Rod pushed through it like a champion. We were whispering trying not to get kicked out, but our efforts were essentially useless because of how loud street snowboarding is. So many people came outside of their apartments to see what the noise was and just minded their own business. I was amazed we didn’t kicked out. Today was our first introduction to how chill Santa Fe locals are.

After breaking his board and taking some crazy slams, Rod managed to get Good Samaritan’s first clip of the year. Unfortunately, on the way home we got a call from Elan, he said Luke’s truck broke down in Iowa. They were stuck there until a shop could fix it. While Luke and Elan were bummed they woudn’t make it, their hotel had a casino and a bar nextdoor. They were going to drink, gamble, and make the best of it. Sometimes god works in mysterious ways.

That night we all knew that downtown Santa Fe, regardless of how epic the spots were, was not going to provide. That’s when we decided to leave and venture off into some of the smaller towns in New Mexico. I bet you wish I was gonna say what those towns were called, but I’m not going to.

In the morning, we checked out of our Airbnb, got some free coffee, and said goodbye to Santa Fe as quickly as possible. We didn’t know where we were gonna stay, so we drove straight to the first spot that Nick wanted to hit. This rail was wild, I don’t even know what to call it, but it was curvy and kinky. After setting it up and dealing with a pole that was blocking the landing, we were finally good to go. Nick battled a little bit but got it within a few hours. After that, we found our new crib and embarked on a mission for Dolla.

When Dolla told us where the spot he wanted to hit was, I had no idea what he was talking about. We got there and slowly but surely it all started to make sense. With a little evolution, I was so hyped to see this go down. Dolla just brought his bungee back from Jackson, and it was honestly harder than I thought not to laugh behind the lense while Dolla screamed “Banshee Back”. He laced the spot up a few times to end the night.

Joey Greenblatt

The plan for our third day in New Mexico was that Gabe and I were gonna Battle Royale a massive kink. After getting there, the rail seemed a little less perfect than it did on Google Earth. There was about six feet of run-in and at the end of the rail, there was a street sign close on the left side. After quite a few attempts and some close calls, Gabe decided to call it quits and save himself for the next day, leaving me alone to battle.

After about four hours of trying I started to lose hope. It went in waves; I would get super close a few times in a row then I would just lose all the progress I had just made and be back to square one. After about six and a half hours of trying this rail and a handful of slams, I could barely walk up the stairs let alone climb up the drop-in ramp. I was on the verge of quitting when I gave it a few more and somehow locked in. Big thanks to my friends who helped film and shovel for an entire day. Exhausted, we went home to take a quick nap before leaving to set up a country club spot for Gabe to hit the next morning.

The first hour after I woke up felt like a fever dream. After about five snoozes on the alarm, no breakfast, and a cup of coffee we were out the door by 6:50. Because I forgot the USB2 cable, I couldn’t get any clips off my camera the entire trip. On the way to the spot, I was making some space for storage and misclicked a button. The clips I had selected to delete were the only ones I could see. My entire body tensed up and I reacted as anyone would who thought they deleted every clip they had gotten on a trip, and it wasn’t pretty. I couldn’t believe what I had just done. Thankfully, I played around with it a little bit and everything was still there. A feeling of relief rushed over my body, and before I knew it we were at Gabe’s spot.

Hunter Goulet

With the spot already built, we got right to it. That’s when Hunter realized that he left his SD card at home. We were all over the place. So he and Rod went back to the Airbnb while Gabe started to try it with only one angle. I get a call, it's Hunter, and he asks ” Yo where’s your adapter, my SD card is in there.” My adapter was in my camera bag which was at the spot. We were a loose operation that morning. Eventually, Hunter got back, and a few tries later a grounds crew came to shovel the stairs. As we get the boot Gabe does it perfectly. On to the next.

Hunter had this huge bank he wanted to ollie into so that’s where the day took us. He was jumping into a retaining wall of rocks held together by thick chicken wire-like rebar. The wall was bumpy and had rocks poking out all accross it. After a few warm-up tries, Hunter fully committed. It looked so sick, and I was convinced that it was the one. Through the viewfinder I watched him catch transition so well that his nose caught on a layer of rocks and he got launched forwards. He did a frontflip from about 15 feet up and thankfully landed board first. That was the last attempt, and we were all grateful that he wasn’t hurt.

Squad

Once Hunter successfully evaded death we went to set up this natty speed down bar. We were all so exhausted that we gave up after about four minutes of trying. We didn’t wanna go home, but we were all so tired from the morning mission that no one wanted to touch the rail. What we ended up doing was pulling bungee for Dolla to ollie the set. He wanted to do it shirtless for the ender of a park video we were making. He “wanted his clout back,” he said. A couple bungee pulls later, Dolla stomped and it was beautiful. That was it for the day, so we celebrated with Street Dreams and Miller Lite to end the trip.

After cleaning the Airbnb, as Good Samaritans do, we went to get Hunter a clip before we left town. It was Hunter’s first street clip on some real steel. He did it effortlessly, and it was the perfect clip to end our excursion on a high note. After the craziest snowstorm I have ever driven through, somehow we were still alive and made it home. The journey to New Mexico was an exhausting success.