In its simplest form, the Gumball Rally 3000 is a beast of a road trip. Not so much for the mileage (a mere 3,000 covered in seven days) but for the cars, which are outrageous; the drivers, including celebrities, DJs, artists, billionaire bankers, action sports athletes, and supermodels; and the parties, which are notorious."I've always done this because I had such an eclectic bunch of friends that came from all these different walks of life," Gumball founder Maximillion Cooper says, "and I thought that if I put them in the same room together it would create something interesting. It works."
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Since its inception in 1999, Gumball has followed a different 3,000-mile route each year. This year it began in Stockholm, Sweden and ended in Las Vegas, Nevada. The cars were airlifted from Amsterdam to Reno, Nevada. Drivers traversed the Sierra Nevada Mountains through Lake Tahoe to Los Angeles, drove down the Pacific Coast, and crossed Death Valley to Las Vegas. Cooper says the U.S. section of this year's route was among the most beautiful scenery of any Gumball tour.Gumball has always included several action sports athletes. Cooper, 43, is a former race car driver, competitive BMX freestyle rider, and sponsored street skater. Tony Hawk, a close friend of Cooper's, has driven in the rally for the past eight years. One of the biggest crowds Hawk has ever skated in front of was in Warsaw during the action sports demo at last year's Gumball. This year's list of athletes included freeskier Jon Olsson, skaters Kevin Staab and Lizzie Armanto, BMX riders Rooftop Escamilla and Coco Zurita, and others.Photos and captions by Aaron Nardi.
Coco Zurita was stoked to get out of the car and hit the ramp. With massive airs and stylish back to back tricks Coco showed the crowd why he got a silver medal in last years X-Games.