Week Five

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Monday April 10, 2006 - Oakdale High School (Modesto, California)  I made a couple of references to songs about rain when I wrote all of my journal entries last week. I will start my entries for this week with another rain song reference. This time I will go deep into the eighties and reference Milli Vanilli’s “Blame It On The Rain.”

The rain was definitely to blame for us not having a halfpipe show today. We are in the Modesto area this week, where it has been raining off and on for days. There is actually quite a bit of flooding in the area as well. During the rain days last week, we had Gabe Weed ride flatland indoors. This week, we added a little something extra, a box jump and Koji Kraft.

We were at Oakdale High School today ad they were bummed about the weather of course, but more than willing to open up the gymnasium to us. We positioned a box jump in the middle of the gym floor and put out some barricades, while some of the school staff helped pull the bleachers out from the wall. We held one big assembly where the whole student body packed into the gym for a 45 minute show. Gabe Weed, our flatland pro, was on point as always when it comes to his riding, and Koji Kraft, the BMX maverick, gave the students quite an eyeful with his tricks over the box jump. At the end of the show, Koji even did a backflip over the school Principal, Rick Jones.

At the end of the show, I went through my usual tobacco trivia questions with the students. One student told me that one of the major tobacco companies sends its customers birthday cards with coupons on their 40th birthday. When I asked him where he came about this knowledge, he informed me that his dad received such a birthday card on his 40th birthday. I told him I wasn’t sure about that fact, and that if he could provide proof, I would give him a prize. He came back into the gym about 45 minutes later, and handed me his cell phone. On the other end of the phone was a customer service representative from this particular tobacco company who proceeded to tell me that they do in fact send out birthday cards with coupons to customers 40 and older. I was blown away by the fact that this was true, and by the fact that this student took the time to try and prove it to me.  I rewarded him with a got milk? skateboard.

Today was a great time, despite the weather.  Special thanks to Rick Jones of Oakdale High, for all of his support and flexibility with his schedule. He also went out of his way to remove a doorjam beam, so Koji had a straight shot to hit the box jump.

Cross your fingers for no more rain, I’m running out of songs with rain in the title.
-- Jimmy C

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Today was a scheduled assembly to take place during the last period of classes. It was a reward for students who had perfect attendance over the last few weeks. Knowing that, the pressure was on to make something happen despite the weather. We didn’t want to let the students down. In addition to the off and on rain, we also had high winds to contend with today. It was really bad, bad enough that if it were a pro contest, it would have been cancelled already. The crew and I got together before the students came out and we all agreed that the show must go on. Now in situations like this, I always let the athletes decide whether or not they want to skate or ride in windy or wet conditions. It was a unanimous decision, and the students were very excited when they saw the guys warming up on the ramp.

Once the show got started, the wind actually kicked up even worse. That still never stopped any of the skaters or riders. Koji Kraft was firing off tailwhips into the wind, and Marc Englehart did flatspins and even a 720. On one of his flatspins, I thought he was going to get blown right off the ramp, but he made every single one. We ended up putting on a 45 minute performance that ended the school day. As soon as the show ended, it started raining again.

Despite the terrible weather conditions, today was still a great show, and a great reward for the students of Downey High for their perfect attendance record. My special thanks today goes out to my ramp crew, and all of my athletes on this week of the tour. The ramp crew went out of their way to get the ramp together despite the dangerous conditions, and all of the athletes knew how much this meant to the students, and they made it happen.
-- Jimmy C

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Our show today was in the city of Turlock, at Turlock High School. Turlock is about 20 minutes or so south of Modesto. Since the rain was more to the north of Modesto, that meant it was dry in Turlock, which was a great relief to us. The ramp was set up in the middle of the campus, and we did two shows today. Both shows were during the lunch periods, and each lasted about 45 minutes or so. The students gathered around the ramp and were greatly impressed by the tricks. At the end of the second show, Jimmy Walker tried another turndown flair. He came close to making this one, but just over rotated a bit. He’ll be landing those in no time.

After each show the athletes signed autographs and talked to some of the students about the upcoming competition season for this year. Normally when the shows are over, I pack up the PA system and help the ramp crew tear down for a bit, before going back to the hotel. Today was a little bit different, I’ve been doing shows on the got milk? Gravity Tour for many years, and today was a tour first. A couple of local dairymen came to watch the shows with their families, and they invited us to come tour their dairy farm and learn how the milk gets from the farms to the store shelves. I gladly accepted this offer along with our Tour Manager, Stef Zeh, and my son Tristan. We spent a good 2 hours touring the dairy, we saw the cows getting milked and we even got to feed some of the cows.

We learned everything from what the cows eat, to how much milk they can produce. We even saw a newborn calf, who was actually born last night, feeding from her mother. It was an awesome experience, one I won't soon forget, and neither will my son. I want to personally thank Ray Prock, Jr. from Ray-Lin dairy for giving us this opportunity, and for taking the time out of his day to educate us about his dairy farm.

That’s it for today, looks like the rain is out of the area for a few days. We have one more show in Turlock and then it’s a 3 day weekend.
-- Jimmy C

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Pitman was our second and final stop in the city of Turlock. Seeing as how the entire area goes on spring break starting tomorrow, Pitman was to be our last show of the week. The Pitman High campus is very large, and they have an amazing concrete quad area in the center of the school. This made for a perfect set-up area for the halfpipe. We did one 45 minute show today during the lunch period. Once the bell rang, we were surrounded by a sea of students rushing into the quad to see the athletes on the ramp. They were a very enthusiastic group, and really seemed to enjoy Gabe Weed’s flatland riding and Tas Pappas’ kickflips. The Turlock/Modesto area is home to a lot of the dairy families that are a part of the California Milk Advisory Board and once again we were paid a visit by one of the local dairymen, Ray Prock Jr. In case you didn’t read yesterday’s update, Ray took several of us on a tour of his dairy yesterday. He enjoyed the show on Wednesday so much, that he came back out with son. As a matter of fact, after the show, Ray’s five-year-old son decided to help the ramp crew take down the ramp. He was very helpful at taking out the flatbottom bolts, and folding the got milk? banners. Who knows, maybe in 20 years he can multi-task. He can work most of the year on the dairy farm, then for seven weeks out of the year, he can work on the Gravity Tour setting up the ramp.

That wraps it up for week # 5. It looked like the weather was going to hold us back, but we didn’t miss one show this week. Special thanks goes out to BMX pro Koji Kraft, for hopping  a plane last minute to come out and be a part of the tour this week. Next stop is Sacramento, then it’s on to one of our favorite events, the Stockton Asparagus Festival.
-- Jimmy C

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