Week One

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Monday March 13, 2006 - Mira Mesa High School (San Diego, California)  Welcome to the 2006 got milk? Gravity Tour. Today was the kick-off of the ninth season of the Gravity Tour and we started it off in style. This year's spring tour will run for seven weeks straight. In that seven weeks, we will perform at 35 high schools up and down the state and reach out to over 100,000 high school students.

This first part of the tour brings us to beautiful San Diego. Mira Mesa high school was lucky enough to be the first school of the week. Everyone was a little nervous over the weekend because it had been raining pretty much non-stop on Saturday and Sunday. Fortunately we woke up Monday morning to clear skies, which made for a very busy day.

Our morning started at 5 AM when Gabe Weed was picked up at the hotel in a limo and carted off to the KNSD-TV (NBC) station in San Diego for an early morning, in-studio interview. The rest of our crew went straight to Mira Mesa High to meet up with TV stations KSWB and KUSI. Both camera crews quickly went to work filming the setup of the ramp and interviewing athletes.

Speaking of athletes, I almost forgot to introduce you to our amazing crew for this week. On the BMX bikes we have veteran flatland show rider Gabe Weed and BMX street legend and former world champion Dave Voelker. In the skateboard ranks we have two heavy hitters in the vert class: Tas Pappas and Danny Mayer. Rounding out our athlete roster is one of the most famous female action sports athletes of all time, inline skating star Fabiola da Silva.

The TV crews were hoping to see some ramp riding early in the morning, but the cold morning air was causing moisture to bead up on the ramp surface, so we had to go with plan B. By now Gabe was back from his TV interview so we took the action to the tennis courts and Gabe showed the TV folks what flatland riding is all about. Dave Voelker joined in and showed off some of his street skills, while Fabiola and I were being interviewed for a live television audience.

We performed two shows for the Mira Mesa students today. Half the school came out before lunch and the other half came out after lunch. There were so many students at the first show, I thought it was the whole student body. They were treated to quite a show today. Everyone skated and rode extremely well, especially since the wind kicked up halfway through and made things a little rough. The TV crews stuck around from the morning interviews and filmed both of the afternoon shows. The students were hyped on the shows and were very quick with the answers to my anti-tobacco trivia questions. Overall it was an amazing day, with great weather, and I can't think of a better way to start off the 2006 got milk? Gravity Tour. You dont have to take my word for it, the pictures speak for themselves!
-- Jimmy C

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Tuesday March 14, 2006 - Crawford High School (San Diego, California)  Today was another day of awesome weather - not a cloud in the sky, about 65 degrees outside with a nice ocean breeze blowing. It was the perfect setting for a got milk? assembly at Crawford High School.

Today's was a big assembly that took up the last period of the day. We were set-up on the school football field, which was located across the street from the main campus. Once the bell rang, a sea of students and faculty made their way out to the field. It was such a big crowd, it took almost 20 minutes to get everyone outside.

We did one 45 minute program for the students of Crawford High, and they responded well. The skateboarders are always a favorite at our shows, but today, Fabiola Dasilva received plenty of praise and applause from all the ladies in the crowd as well as from the guys. Tas Pappas and Danny Mayer pretty much did every flip and varial trick they could possibly think of on the ramp. Dave Voelker wrapped it all up in the end with two crazy looking backflips.

The students had a great time and our staff got a special treat today. Nancy Donely, who is the Life Skills Counselor at Crawford, made us a batch of homemade cookies the night before. She walked up and said, If you're going to have milk, you have to have cookies right? I couldn't have said it better myself. A special thank you to Nancy and all the school staff who helped to make today's assembly a great one.
-- Jimmy C

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Wednesday March 15, 2006 - University City High School (San Diego, California)  Today was another day of great weather, not too hot, not too cold, and not a single cloud in the sky. Apparently it had rained quite a bit here in San Diego last weekend, and a lot of school administrators were concerned about the condition of their fields. So far this week it hasn't been a problem, and it was smooth sailing today for University City High.

This school has a student body of around 2,000 and they brought the entire school out onto the football field for a long assembly. Normally for the assemblies, we get about 45 minutes to do our entire program, today we had about an hour and 20 minutes, so the students got quite an eyeful. The students filled the bleachers on either side of the field to capacity. The school staff was a little nervous about bringing all of the kids onto the field, but everything went smoothly.

Everybody loved the show, and once again, Fabiola was a big hit. As a matter of fact, some of the students thought Fab used to go to their school. They were a little disappointed when I crushed that rumor by announcing she was from Brazil. After the show, the athletes went to the lunch period to sign autographs.

It was another successful day, and the 2006 got milk? Gravity Tour is off to an amazing start this week. Special thanks to Donna Fallon, and to Moe Felix for working hard to make today's show great. Mr. Felix is very passionate about tobacco education, and was very pleased with today's outcome. I also learned a few new tobacco facts from Mr. Felix today.  He knows his stuff. See you all tomorrow.
-- Jimmy C

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Thursday March 16, 2006 - Madison High School (San Diego, California)  Today was an awesome day as I was able to join Jimmy Coleman and the crew for the got milk? Gravity Tour show at Madison High School. When the crew called me and said they were down south I packed my car and headed to meet them in San Diego. I figured it was going to be a great time visiting my friends on the road but I was even more pumped when Jimmy handed me a microphone and asked me to announce the show with him!

We had some time before the show and since we were on the football field we decided to try our hand at field goal kicking. Little did we know that Jason Hines, the overall project manager for the tour, is a "closet" field goal kicker as he nailed a 35 yarder into the wind. However, once we saw the crowd of students start to file in, we knew it was showtime.

The set-up was super cool and even though we were on the football field the school let most of the students stand next to the ramp. Jimmy kicked off the show with a great intro and the athletes followed with some great riding. The folks from BMX World Magazine were there covering the event so Gabe Weed and Dave Voelker didn't disappoint as usual.  Also the skateboarders, Danny Mayer and Tas Pappas got in the act and even had the BMX World photographer snapping pics of them as well. Of course, Fabiola held it down for the ladies and the girl students all went nuts.

I jumped in the mix during the anti-tobacco portion and was able to deliver some hard-nosed facts about tobacco use.  I was astounded at the new facts that Jimmy added in and realized that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has really been on the move! During the last runs Fabiola landed a huge flatspin, Tas threw a 540 straight into some tech grinds, Danny threw every technical trick in the book, and Gabe handed the kids a competition winning flatland run. "The Lord" Dave Voelker finished the show with a huge 540 straight into a back flip. The students went nuts!

The coolest thing about the show today was that there were sign language teachers translating every word Jimmy and I said.  Madison High has one of the highest deaf student populations in the state and the administrators made sure that even the hearing impaired students got the important got milk? and CFTFK messages!

Thanks to Mr. Morrell for all his help and to the entire Gravity Tour team for inviting me down to spend a day on the tour!
-- Daveee

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Friday March 17, 2006 - Point Loma High School (San Diego, California)  Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone. It’s been great weather here all week long in San Diego, but the forecast called for rain today. Much to our surprise, we awoke to sunny and clear skies. Mother nature was kind enough to hold off the rain until the weekend. That was a big relief to us and the students and faculty of Point Loma High.

Today’s show was one big assembly at 11:00 and the entire school was there. There were no bleachers on the practice field, so the students crowded around the ramp to cheer on the riders. They were a little slow to make noise and get into it, but after the first 10 minutes they were thoroughly enjoying the performance.

The last two days we have had a tour first, a magazine came out to take photos. The folks from World BMX magazine were very into the school show concept and snapped plenty of photos. This show was also unique because Point Loma’s campus is located very close to the San Diego airport. While announcing the show, I periodically had to stop talking because I couldn’t compete with the noise of jets taking off.

It was a great assembly today and I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the first week of the tour. Special thanks to Theresa Bellini from Point Loma High, for bringing us to her school, and for the donuts she brought us for breakfast. Week number one of the tour is in the books, and it has been a memorable one. We’ll see you next week from Escondido.
-- Jimmy C

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