KING OF THE HILL (Day 2)

El Dorado Hills, California · September 27, 2026

Saturday was about figuring things out.

Sunday felt different from the moment we arrived.

The long, offset Hybrid Slalom course from Day 1 was gone. In its place was Tight Slalom—a much shorter course with cones positioned closer together and running considerably straighter down the hill.

This was going to be a different kind of skating.

And for Tom, it looked a lot more familiar.

A Different Course

Tom got right to work.

The tighter cone spacing seemed much more suited to his style, and it didn’t take long before he was getting through the course pretty quickly.

There was less room to think between cones. Everything happened faster. The rhythm was tighter, the movements quicker, and small mistakes became much harder to recover from.

Watching from alongside the course with my camera, I could see the difference from Saturday.

Tom looked more at home.

But I was also keeping an eye on someone else.

Artie.

Our New Rider

We had met Artie only the day before.

What started with Tony jokingly asking if anybody wanted to get sponsored somehow ended with Artie wearing a Fault shirt and racing for us.

What I didn’t mention in the Day 1 story was that Artie went out and finished second in the Hybrid Slalom.

Not a bad first day representing Fault.

His wife also raced and took first place in her class, making their weekend even more impressive.

Sunday, however, Artie looked like he might have something more.

As the runs continued, it became increasingly obvious that he was going to be competitive.

Then he proved it.

Artie took first place.

So our first weekend with a Fault rider ended with a second-place finish on Saturday and a first-place finish on Sunday.

We certainly didn’t plan any of this when we drove up to El Dorado Hills.

That’s what made it even better.

I’m excited to have Artie representing Fault and even more interested to see where we can take this from here.

The Stories Between the Runs

But just like Saturday, some of the best parts of the day had nothing to do with finishing times.

I spent a lot of Sunday talking with people.

The conversations would start with the event, a board, a rider or something happening on the course and eventually work their way backward through skateboarding history.

I told stories about riding in the late ’70s and early ’80s.

Other people told theirs.

Several times I’d mention somebody I rode with back then, only to discover that the person I was talking to knew them—or had ridden with them too.

That happened over and over during the weekend.

Skateboarding has always felt enormous when you’re inside of it. Different generations. Different scenes. Different styles. Different parts of California and the rest of the world.

But put enough skateboarders together in one place and suddenly it becomes remarkably small.

There always seems to be a connection.

A person.

A skatepark.

A contest.

A board.

A story.

Eventually, you find the thread.

A Skate Shop on Wheels

One of my favorite discoveries Sunday wasn’t actually on the course.

I met a couple (Dalton and Merit) from the El Dorado Hills area who had brought their small business out to the event. They sell T-shirts, skateboard parts and other gear at local events.

But it was how they did it that caught my attention.

They had converted a large cargo truck into a mobile skateboard shop. —Full Cab Skate

And it was really well done.

You could walk inside and essentially be standing in a small retail shop—except this one could pack up at the end of the day and drive to the next event.

I loved the idea.

Fault is still growing, and part of this weekend was simply getting the brand out into the world and seeing where it might fit.

This felt like one of those places.

I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing some Fault shirts—and maybe more—inside that truck at future events.