Quote:
Originally Posted by Giebol
im looking to move out west and am trying to decide exactly where. i thrive on hill bombing and cruising. also i need to find a job, ideally at a board shop. does anyone have any suggestions on a location?
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Albuquerque's got awesome huge ditches all over the place, lots of big hills and no rain at all. Like, ever. We get 9 inches of rain a year, compared to Portland (125 in./yr.) or Seattle (135 in./yr.). Here are some photos:
Team Albuquerque ...and here's another of a couple pros bombing the notorious Indian School ditch:
and now for dessert!
Albuquerque's a total freakshow, full of insanely hot (and easy) girls who are impressed by any guy who owns a car that actually starts...generally a great place to go wild, party, chase girls and waste a year before you go to college.
Kinda hard to make money here, though. It's best to bring a stash of "f*ck you money" in case you decide it's
too weird for you...because native New Mexican employers think everybody is supposed to work for free. Seriously, even doctors and lawyers make 50% less than what they'd be paid anywhere else. That's why we joke that "it may be New, but it's still Mexico!" It really
is just like Mexico, in all the good ways...but in the bad ways, too. A lot of genuine spirituality, but a lot of desperate poverty. Lots of cool, weird people, and lots of bizarre violent crime. Our local community college is a great trade school, and costs $50/semester. Yep, fifty bucks. But our sidewalks look like downtown Baghdad: bombed-out. The roads are fine, though. Lousy for short boards, great for long. Albuquerque is
extreme.
As far as working in a skate shop: there are a handful of small shops (hard to get in, no one ever quits) and several shopping-mall skate shops that are
always hiring. There's a lot of movie-making goes on here...that's something to look into. Any job on a movie set pays well (union shops!). Waiting tables or working room service, even cooking for any one of the hotel chains is a great way to travel around the country. Once you're in with a hotel chain, the world is your oyster.
Or if you want to be a ski bum come wintertime, New Mexico's good (Santa Fe and Taos), Colorado's probably better (bigger mountains, more money, fewer Texans). Just some ideas. You're lucky, dude. You haven't done any of this stuff yet!
You might like South Colorado a
lot, dude. Huge mountains, good economy, pretty laid-back...and there's a really awesome, dirt-cheap junior college just east of Durango.
Why pick
one town, bro? Why not pick
five? Try them all on for size, see what suits you best. I used to live in Oregon, and will tell you the people up there are wonderful; civilized, mellow, well-educated, politically progressive...and holy cow, the land. You're gonna flip out the first time you see an Oregon mountainside. Prettiest thing you ever saw in your life. Awful lot of rain, though. I mean a
lot. It drove me crazy in the winter. But I'd go back there in a minute...especially to Portland.