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Week Four
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Monday
April 3, 2006 - Washington High School (San Francisco, California) You know that song by Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” Well I’ve seen the rain this last week and the snow too, and I’m ready for some sunshine. We are in San Francisco this week, and once again it’s raining.
We were supposed to start the week off at Washington High School. This is a very cool campus with some awesome scenery. The football field looks out over the Golden Gate Bridge. Even though it was cloudy and rainy, you could still make out the bridge spans. We were scheduled to do one assembly on the football field today, but the rains sidelined us. The local NBC station came out to do a live remote this morning. At first it looked like it was just going to be an interview with the guys, but after some searching around, we found a nice hallway where Gabe could do some flatland riding.
We set-up some got milk? banners on some barricades and turned that hallway into a makeshift TV studio/riding area for Gabe. The NBC affiliate broadcast two live segments where Gabe rode in the background while our tour director, Steven Perelman, spoke with the reporter about the tour. After the TV spot, the guys and I hung around until lunch time, signed autographs and met students in one of the classrooms. Jennifer Epstein was our contact person at Washington High, and was very passionate about the anti-tobacco messages our show delivers. We spent well over an hour in her classroom, and I even learned a few new things about tobacco dangers from her.
As I write this, I can see the sun creeping out from the south end of the San Francisco airport. Hopefully the sun will stay with us for the next few days.
-- Jimmy C
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Tuesday April 4, 2006 - O'Connell High School (San Francisco, California) Yesterday's musical reference was to Creedence Clearwater and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” Todays reference goes out to 80’s pop band, The Eurythmics, and their song “Here Comes The Rain Again”. This weather has been relentless and will not let up. It was fairly clear most of yesterday evening, but around 1 AM this morning, another storm made its way inland from the Pacific Ocean.
Our show today took place at O’Connell High School. We were scheduled to do an assembly show out on the blacktop today, but due to the weather, we had to come up with a “plan B”. Fortunately for us, O’Connell High is a unique campus with some interesting design features. The school has a three story atrium area, with a big roll door. It was almost like being inside a shopping mall. The ramp crew was able to back the truck right up to the door, and unload the barricades, PA, and signage for us to do a flatland show.
It also worked out great for the folks from Producers Dairy. They were able to back their refrigerated milk truck, right up to the door and unload pallet after pallet of double chocolate milk. The lunch bell rang at noon, and all the students made their way into the atrium to watch Gabe ride. It was a good show, Gabe rode for 30 minutes straight, then we gave out some got milk? t-shirts and the students all got to sample some free milk.
Special thanks to Jane Steiner from O’Connell High for being so flexible, and for allowing us to do our show inside the atrium, and another special thanks to Gabe Weed for riding nonstop for 30 minutes today.
-- Jimmy C
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Thursday April 6, 2006 - Galileo High School (San Francisco, California) Guess what? It didn’t rain today. We awoke this morning to bright and sunny skies. Due to the amount of rain earlier in the week, it still put a bit of a crimp in our plans for the day.
Our show today was at Galileo high school. This is a city school with some amazing scenery. From the football/soccer field you can see Fisherman’s Wharf, the Bay Bridge, and Alcatraz Island. It’s an amazing view, we all enjoyed it, but the ramp truck didn’t get to see it. The field was too waterlogged from the previous days of rain. The school staff was concerned about the truck tearing up the turf, so we had to improvise. Fortunately for us, this particular school has a very nice auditorium, with a nice stage and plenty of seating. Instead of one big assembly backing up to lunch, the students were divided into two groups, and we did two flatland shows inside the auditorium.
Gabe Weed had a nice wide open area to ride up on the stage, they even had students run the spotlights for him. This was a very nice auditorium and both shows went very well. The students were happy that they got to see some riding, and the faculty was thrilled that they didn’t have to cancel. After the shows, all of the athletes signed autographs in the quad during lunch.
Special thanks to Deborah Bryant for all of her hard work in bringing us to Galileo high, and for being so flexible, and working with us to ultimately make the show happen. She is a nurse at the school, and is starting a smoking cessation group for students who do smoke, to help them quit. She also took the time to explain to me and the rest of our crew why there were a bunch of parrots flying around the neighborhood. Apparently these birds are famous and they are known as the “Parrots of Telegraph Hill”. I’ll have to read up on them.
-- Jimmy C
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Friday April 7, 2006 - Lowell High School (San Francisco, California) Our show today was at Lowell High School. The forecast called for rain again, but when we woke up, it was dry - very overcast - but no was rain coming down.
The original plan was to do an assembly out on the football field. The school had planned a big rally outside, and our show was going to be part of it. Due to all the weather earlier in the week, the administration was concerned about us damaging the field, so they decided to cancel the rally and opted for an indoor show instead. Gabe Weed and I have a portable box jump ramp that we brought down from Reno, and we were going to set it up in the gymnasium and do a flatland/box jump BMX show. We had called up Koji Kraft at the last minute, and he jumped on a plane from Chicago to meet us in San Francisco. Koji is amazing on a box jump ramp. That guy could do a 45 minute show by himself.
When the crew got to the school, it was still dry, and they found an alternate concrete location outside. After some discussions with the school staff, it was decided that we would do the vert show outside after all. Instead of one big rally, the school arranged two 45 minute long assemblies outside. It was still cloudy and cool, but the important thing was that it was dry.
The riding portion of the shows today was nothing short of amazing. Koji is insane on the vert ramp. He does so many different combination moves, it’s hard to keep track of what he’s doing. He definitely had the rest of the athletes fired up as well. Koji, Jimmy Walker, and Jim Burgess, our three BMX riders were all going super-high on the ramp, and all of them fired off tailwhips during their runs. Skateboarder Tas Pappas was doing every board flip trick he knew on the ramp while inline skater, Marc Englehart, was spinning moves like 720’s and 900’s, and Gabe Weed was amazing as always on flatland. At the end of the second show, Koji went for a flair (backflip 180). This is a trick that’s given him lots of trouble over the years, but I guess he relearned it, because he made the one today look easy. Jimmy Walker can do flairs regularly on the vert ramp, but lately he’s been working on variations of the trick. He tried one today, a turndown flair, and almost made it too. Overall, our shows today were so solid it was like watching a contest.
After the shows, the students lined up for autographs, and Berkley Farms dairy was on hand to give out plenty of free milk. Special thanks goes out to Maryann Rainey from Lowell High. She was great to deal with and was extremely flexible with her scheduling, allowing us to setup on the basketball courts outside. We couldn’t have timed these shows any better. About an hour or so after the shows were over, it started to rain again. That’s it for week #4 of the got milk? Gravity Tour. Week # 5 takes us to Modesto, and we are keeping Koji Kraft on board for all of next week.
-- Jimmy C
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