When five friends from Minnesota take a trip to New Orleans, it is bound to be an adventure regardless of how they get there.
But for local skateboarders David Fink, Jamiel Nowparvar, Benji Meyer, Darin Limvere and Mark Leski, the method is part of the madness.
They're rollin' down the river. Literally.
No, they can't skate on water. But the friends -- with plenty of sponsorship help from Red Bull -- have turned a 195-foot flat-deck barge into a floating skate park. The barge was docked in St. Paul this weekend, where hordes of skaters tested it out in competitions. On Sunday, the crew officially launched its 28-day, 1,705 mile trip down the Mississippi. What happens along the way? Aside from a lot of skating, that's anyone's guess.
"I'm looking forward to the unexpected," Fink said, wearing a captain's hat as he spoke Saturday. "There's a little bit of anxiety, but I'm ready to experience the American journey down the Mississippi."
Said Nowparvar, who said he wants to dress like Huck Finn for part of the trip: "To be honest, we don't even know. It's going to be an adventure. ... I've never been on a boat with a skate park."
The five guys are part of a tight-knit local skating community. Thrown together in confined indoor skating spaces for many winter months, their bond grew. They are joined on the trip by a film crew. A houseboat will also follow -- so they don't have to sleep on the main vessel, which really does look like a giant barge retrofitted as a skateboard park with ramps and other barriers.
There are planned stops in the Quad Cities (on the Iowa/Illinois border) and St. Louis. Top skaters from those spots and St. Paul get a free trip to New Orleans -- not on the barge, but still a nice prize -- for a final competition at the end of the journey.
