Check Engine: Vegas
We went to Las Vegas to skate, film, and follow the road wherever it opened up.
The result is Check Engine - a new Arbor Skateboards edit featuring Ace Pelka, Alec Majerus, Sean Imes, Logan Mozey, Noah Holmes, and Will Mux moving through the desert, the streets, and the spaces between.
Out there, the desert has a way of changing the shape of a trip. The light hits different. Time stretches out. The miles, the heat, the waiting, the sessions, and the moments between spots all start to feed into the same rhythm. What comes back is more than a collection of clips, it is a record of the crew giving everything to the road and letting the place show them what was there.
Check Engine captures that energy in motion: the skating, the travel, the stillness, the dust, the humour, and the strange magic that appears when a team trip gives itself fully to the desert.
Alongside the edit, we have also put together a 45-page tour book documenting the trip in stills. Built as a companion piece, the book expands the story beyond the footage - the roads, the sessions, the behind-the-scenes moments, and the details that give the trip its shape.
Watch the Check Engine edit and explore the full tour book below.
Explore the Tourbook
Download the full tourbook here or explore it below.
"The dashboard light burns like a bad omen... Perfect"
"Somewhere outside Las Vegas... Desert stretching endlessly for miles."
"It's the kind of warning you rarely heed when the desert is still hiding a spot, and the sun is at its most violent."
"The ranch sat still out there in the glare. Not a spot. A find."
"First push, then another... Line after line, until the place started speaking."
"And they answered with motion... They gave, the desert relented just enough."
"By then the day had a face. Laughing. Dusted. Bleached. But they still moved."
"They fished boards out of the black water. But in no time at all the pool had reclaimed them. Dripping. Cursed. Some places keep what they're owed."
"The air had everything waving. Water? Concrete? It all bled into one beautiful, blue fever dream."
"What started as murky work began to burn gold in the fading sun."
"Boards down, banquet in hand. Thirst quenched for a moment."
"By night, Vegas leaked through the windshield. A signal. Green signs, no shadows, & neon trouble waiting in the distance."
"By morning, the road had pulled them behind the city. Drainage cuts & service roads. Not a postcard... but undeniably worth writing about."
"They found speed beyond themselves. They tested their limits."
"In the face of civic hostility... They delivered."
"Time after time, until the day gave way."
"And they weren't done yet. Not even close."
"Not on the map. Almost unknown. A perfect pool hidden in the suburbs. The kind of thing you don't find. You're invited."
"They entered. The day changed its shape. The kind of afternoon most folks never see."
"So they made the most of it... Fired up. Tired out... Content."
"After that, the road opened again. Mountains ahead, wires overhead. The city getting thinner with every mile."
"Then the channel started pulling them in. Baked, but still pushing. Concrete running like a dried river."
"The silence. The ditch holds breath... The make. Whoops and hollers ricochet off every corner. Like pinball wizards let loose."
"The next spot didn't announce itself. Caution blew off on a north wind. No place for it here."
"They wore their effort."
"By now they knew the language. They'd always known. Read the land. Accept its offer."
"Here was no way around it. Only over. Stone, asphalt. Consequence."
"They kept finding ways through. Fatigued, but winning. The road keeping score. In small bruises."
"By now, they were all carrying a piece of the day. In the eyes, the calm. In the way the noise slowly faded between spots."
"The land fell open. Challenges above. Challenges below. Concrete mouths cut into the hills, in a place built for water that wasn't there."
"Down there everything got bigger. The walls. The sky. They felt small in the best way. Grateful to move through it."
"The shape kept repeating. Bank after bank, shadow after shadow. Like some machine built to test nerve."
"Out there the world felt older. Than the road. Than the town. Than the name it was given. Like the whole place had been waiting long before they arrived."
"Only in sun like this do the shadows get that sharp. Bodies cut from the black. Carried by the light from the far end."
"Another warning ignored. Like there was comfort in the danger. Fading light. Low water. Looking for a reason not to call it."
"On the way out the desert rose up to see us off. In dust. In wind. In a thousand small grains of sand. Not in words... A farewell you could feel in your teeth."
"By dusk the mountains turned blue. The sky softened. The van moving hazard free. It was like it knew."
"A warning light. A rental van. A few good men, moving through the bad heat. The road demanded patience. The desert, payment. They paid in full. And the desert took it all."
