It seemed like a matter of minutes when we began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time ― Jack Kerouac, On the Road

WORDS Marcus Bandy PHOTOS David Ruano

After two days in Santa Cruz we rallied the troops, packed up the Muir Van, and we headed north for a one-day session in San Francisco with our friends, the Sunset Sliders and the Californa Bonzing family. As you can imagine, a single day in SF is never enough to fully fathom it’s depth and diversity—culturally or terrain-wise. Street-style skating was pretty much birthed and experienced much of its formative years right here in SF, and one might even go as far as to suggest that skateboarding’s first urban pulse was pumped out through it’s veins in the bosom of San Francisco’s ungulatind asphalt barrels. But this ain’t no historical lamentation, and with all personal philosophicals on shredsledding’s origins aside, SF is one hell of a place to ride your skateboard no matter how ya slice the sourdough!

Editorial Note

These accompanying pictures, although quite fun and expressive, are in no way meant as a direct representation of the whole of our experience vested during our recent stay in San Francisco. However, due to special circumstances best explicated here via this poignant and paradoxical statement from female skateboarding pioneer, Valerie Vagilantie: “Sometimes the actual act of skateboarding wins the day.” we ask that you proceed in your consumption of said imagery with the above quote lingering playfully (dancing joyfully if at all possible!) in your mind’s eye, and then peruse our pictures with a confidence born from the fact that we still definitely have a full-length 2015, Keep on Tuckin’ video dropping soon; and furthermore with the fortitude of knowing that you can also rest easy as our media dudes found themselves thusly relaxed (bruised, contused, and with roadrash too!) after our brief San Francisco excursion—their minds and camera’s now focused on the travels ahead. Thank you and please enjoy the show!

WHEELBASE CORPORATE MANAGMENT TEAM ©

Next stop, Mount Shasta!

A huge thank you to all this year’s KOT supporters:

Muir Skate, Arbor Skateboards, RDVX Grip, & Push Culture Apparel