Words and Photos by Rob Dolecki | VANS
Late last fall, Dakota Roche masked up and jumped on a plane for the first time in six months (thanks to COVID) and headed east to Philadelphia for a week. It was the first time he'd ridden the city of Brotherly Love since 2012 (while filming for Talk Is Cheap), and with evolved eyes, found a fresh landscape of appealing terrain not necessarily noticed during previous trips.
During his stay, I was able to link up with him for a few days to tag along, chill, and watch the Dak show. And as usual, it was a treat to witness, and the the resulting vid came out sweet, thanks in part to Calvin Kosovich's skills behind the lens. Dakota was kind enough to provide some captions for the following photos and gives a little insight to his experience.
-RD
"The never-ending search."
"The feeling of a curved wallride will never get old. This one was made of marble, which led me to believe it would be too slippery to ride, but it was actually perfect. I probably ripped around it like 75 times, between filming a line with it and doing just doing it for fun."
"It's pretty typical for me to use whatever is lying around to set up a phone tripod shot for an Instagram story piece or something. We all had a few rips on this amazing barrier spot to end a day of filming. Dan Foley gettin' steezy wit it."
"Philly has had quite a few barrier spots over the years, but this one has got to be one of the best ever. Couldn’t pass up shooting one of my favorite tricks with one of my favorite photographers. Dolecki, you rule."
"I’ve probably ridden past this tight bank to fence dozens of times without batting an eye, but kinda had the urge to try to get something on it this day. Calvin was on the other side of the fence filming fisheye risking like a 20-foot drop into a corridor. Calvin’s job was way gnarlier than mine on this trick; nose-fence ride-nose.
"Footage review so Calvo didn’t have to climb over a spiked fence 10 times if I wanted to do the trick again."
"Waiting for a police officer to disappear into the distance. The spot was worth the wait."
"Crook-pop-over to start a line. This spot really got my brain going because you couldn’t ride it like a typical rail to ledge. Took me a bit to realize I might be able to do a trick I’ve never tried before which was a pocket drop into the vertical wall after the grind. Cops kicked us out in the middle of trying, but we barged it and got it done. Was really hyped it worked out."
"Corner drop in to a wall. Didn’t know if this was gonna work and didn’t really know how to go about trying it. Thankfully, it only took a few goes to get it how I wanted."
"Among my goals for this trip, getting a 360 turndown and filming a line at Municipal were high on the list. Stoked to kill two birds with one stone at this dream spot. I’d ride here every day if I could."
"Probably overthinking about all the ways a trick can go wrong. Just push through and get it done!"
"One of the problems you encounter while filming for a project, is the possibility that a trick you got has already been done. I couldn’t pass up this setup, but a few weeks later I found out the trick had already been done by another dude who I really respect. Needless to say, this trick is not in my part, but I’m hyped on the photo."
"I went over the bars and bent my finger back on a curb in the process. It felt pretty intense so I thought my finger was bleeding because my bone was popping out but I guess it just scraped the curb. Months later, my finger still doesn’t feel right from the stupid slam!"
"Was a treat getting to watch Colin Mackay and Dan Foley rip this hip. They basically put on a demo of steez for all of us. Picture perfect one foot euro by Dan."
"Dream trick on the last day of the trip. Alley-oop wallride to smith grind at an OG gem of a spot. Couldn’t ask for a better way to end an incredible trip."
"Can’t thank the boys enough for pushing through trick battles with me. Checking the crispy angles."
Be sure to get a look at the first ever VANS Slip On BMX HERE.
