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?
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?
i realize everyone's gonna just yell out their town, but i seriously recommend portland. we've got it all
Portland has an awesome longboard community with tons of sick hills, but looking for a job can be tough unless you have an expertise or a lot of experience. But the city is set up great for skating even with a city ordinance that says it's legal on all roads, unlike Seattle. Good luck from all the Eastside Longboards local crew - Ptown represent! If you visit be sure to hit us up at Mt.Tabor Wednesdays.
Location: Albuquerque, New Mexico... the City at the End of the World.
Posts: 248
Re: longboard friendly areas
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?
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:
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.
Last edited by Severian_Sidewalk_Surfer; 08-04-2008 at 05:55 AM.
It's a pretty chill college town here with a sick little longboard/snowboard shop located here in town. We've got lots of hills (campus is at 5000 feet elevation!) and 3 ski resorts within an hour of town (Bridger Bowl, Big Sky, Moonlight Basin).
Thanks for all the advice. I'm ending up leaving the longboard at home for this trip but am already planning another trip for spring, where I may be looking, as previously stated, for a job and maybe a place to settle for the summer.
If anyone is near west glacier montana and has an extra board and wants to ride with someone let me know I will be there for a few days before I hit the trails.
longboard friendly areas
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