Snaked Ick performs "Onewheel Time" live at Oak City Shred Fest 6 April 2026.
There is a dog named Freeway who has no idea what he started.
Last year, at Let It Ride in Las Vegas, three women were sitting around after breakfast when Freeway wandered over and did what dogs do. Laura Dobbs looked over, looked at the dog, and said it out loud before she could stop herself.
"Snake dick."
Jeff, Freeway's owner, had beaten her to it by half a second.
Laura turned to Heather Graehl and Sarah Meeker. "That would be a really good name for a band."
They decided to start one.
Three Women, One Van, Zero Rehearsals
Laura is from Virginia Beach. Sarah is from Baltimore. Heather is from San Diego and owns a camper van. That van became the original recording studio, tour bus, and anxiety management system for Snaked Ick, all in the same week.
Laura Dobbs competing at Oak City Shred Fest 6. Photo by @eridelife
After Let It Ride, the three of them loaded Heather's van with boards, gear bags, body armor, and board boxes that had been shipped ahead. They pointed it toward Austin and started driving.
"I wasn't looking for a band name," Heather says. "I was looking for a safe word for when I got overwhelmed."
The road trip turned out to be easy. The communication turned out to be good. And somewhere between Las Vegas and Austin, Snaked Ick wrote their first song.
The material wrote itself. Onewheel racing is full of things people say out loud that belong in a song, and the three of them had been collecting them. One lyric came from the porta-potty situation every woman at a race knows: full pads, small space, impossible angles. "Why won't my thighs fit?" became a hook. "Stay on your board" became a refrain they had already been singing to each other during practice runs to burn off nerves before a race.
"There's a lot of anxiety when you race," Laura says. "Scary features, trying to go fast, pushing yourself. So to ease some of that tension, we would start singing while we were riding. We'd just make stuff up."
They also started collecting things other people said. Overheard lines, context-free comments, anything that hit a certain frequency. If it made them look at each other, it was probably a lyric.
3 lead singers, Road Trippers and Podium finishers
The three of them are actual racers, not just performers. Laura has been riding for six years. She bought her first board off Facebook Marketplace from a guy whose wife made him sell it after he broke his wrist. She showed up at Oak City Shred Fest, saw women racing, and decided she could do that. Last year she made the finals at Race for the Rail (the oldest pro women's Onewheel racer to do it).
Sarah has been riding since 2020. She came into Lemonade Float Fest 4 with a specific goal: finish within a minute of Ashley Gnann, who had been ahead of her all season. She finished 35 seconds back, beat Ashley on one segment, and came in second overall ... after having to stop mid-race to find a charger, subsequently borrowing one from Andre (South Louisiana Onewheel Crew), and get back on course through what she describes, with considerable understatement, as "an emotional situation." Her community pulled her through it.
"I can actually be my whole self here," Sarah says, "and I'm never too much for the people that love me."
Heather flew into Austin for Lemonade, skipped her flight home when she realized you can't ship a board in under a week, accepted a ride from her friend Lori, drove 22 hours to North Carolina with a stop for authentic Cajun crab boil, and competed at Oak City Shred Fest the following weekend. She races pro women on a custom Fungineers VESC build she finished two weeks before Lemonade and says it's already improved her riding by 20 percent.
All three of them were at Lemonade Float Fest 4. All three of them raced. And all three of them performed.
Sarah Meeker competing at Lemonade Float Fest x Amped Electric Games. Photo by @eridelife
How the Music Actually Gets Made
Snaked Ick does not practice. They do not have a rehearsal schedule. They live in three different cities and only see each other at events.
"The only time we write content is at these events," Heather says. "The only time we practice is at these events."
Heather Graehl competing at Lemonade Float Fest x Amped Electric Games. Photo by @eridelife
They performed their first official set at karaoke night at Oak City Shred Fest, debuting the song that was written in the van. They performed at Lemonade Float Fest 4 this April, invited by Luke Austin and CJ, the event's organizers, who treated them as a real act -- because at this point, they are one.
"This was really exciting," Laura says, "to be recognized as a real band. Because we put a lot of work into our music."
The work is real, even if the conditions are unusual. Lyrics get written between heats. Songs get practiced on trail runs. The material comes from the community because the band is the community.
What the Band Is Actually About
Sarah said something near the end of her interview that captures it better than anything else.
"I want something real for when we can't race anymore. I don't ever want to not be connected to the women in Snaked Ick. It has nothing to do with our rank, what category we race, how fast we hit the trail. We're part of this community, and it's never going to end. Our music is going to go on forever."
That is the whole thing, compressed. The racing will eventually get harder. The bodies will eventually ask for something different. But the band survives all of that.
Freeway the dog is presumably unaware of any of this. He did what he did, and now there is a band.
Follow them on Instagram at @snaked_ick.
Laura Dobbs can also be found at @onewheel_lore.
Sarah Meeker at @headystateofmind.
Heather Graehl at @heather_sandiego.
USA FLT is the national sanctioning body for Onewheel racing. Learn more at usaflt.com.
