The 20th Colorado Road Trip Recap and Keaton Newsom’s Memorial

The Colorado Road Trip has now been an event for 20 consecutive years where we gather the crew and head into the mountains for the weekend to come together and takeover the small mountain towns along our path from skatepark to skatepark and campsite to campsite. What started in 1999 as seven high school rollerbladers doing an annual camping and skating trip has grown into a “festival” of 130 people on average from all over the U.S. and the world. The Colorado Road Trip is more than a just a trip, it has become a part of my life, helping shape who I am and providing me with memories and friendships I will cherish for the remainder of my life.

Remembering Keaton Newsom

This year was very special, not because it was the 20th annual, but because of the memorial that was held for Keaton Newsom. The love and energy that was radiating throughout the air during the memorial was truly beautiful and at the same time very sad, for we lost a great person in Keaton, and he was taken way too soon. It was very touching to see people who never met Keaton and people who knew Keaton his entire life come together in full support of one another on this years CORT and spread his ashes back to the earth in Telluride. It brought me to tears watching as I was reminded of others we have lost in our community and how precious life really is and how lucky we are to have such tight bonds in our community to provide us with support in times of tragedy.

Our Community

With our community in mind I focused most of my photos from this years trip on the people instead of the skating. It is thanks to our community that events like CORT are able to persist and survive into the future. One of my fondest memories of the power of our community on CORT was when I managed to jump a trench in the desert and fall into a giant cactus patch, resulting in my entire frontside being filled up with cactus spines like a pin cushion. I hobbled to the fire and everyone there took their turn plucking the spines out as I squirmed in pain.

Thank You

I want to thank every person who has ever taken the time to come out to CORT to share the love, it has been a glorious 20 years. I LOVE all of you! Lets keep on riding and ROLLING UP for another 20 years!

FWHAT

Links

• For information on future Colorado Road Trip’s follow the CORT Facebook Group.

Credits

• The photos of Keaton Newsom’s Memorial were shot by Dustin Spengler.
• All other photos by Luke Bender