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Week Seven
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Monday
April 24, 2006 - Pleasant Grove High School (Elk Grove, California) When we woke up today it looked like rain was in our future. But thanks to mother nature, being a fan of the got milk? Gravity Tour, kept it cloudy but dry. We showed up to the school about an hour and a half early. When we showed up, the school was nice enough to give us some donuts and milk to start our day.
Today's event featured two separate lunch time shows, which means the crowds were smaller, but it was more intimate and up close for the students. As always Marc Englehart (inline) came through with a couple of huge flat spins keep the crowd entertained. The first group of students wasn't as big as the second group but the kids definitely paid close attention to my milk and anti-tobacco facts. During the trivia portion of the shows, every question I asked fetched a correct answer right away. There was no extra time for me to even make a joke about a missed answer, this made me really upset.
When the second show started, Jimmy Walker (bmx) started out his intro run with a huge flair that had the whole place in a frenzy. Danny Mayer (skateboard) ended the show with one of the most fluid and perfect contest style runs I have ever seen. He is now my favorite skateboarder to watch. With the kids in the second show I was determined to stump at least one of them in the trivia portion. But once again I was taken back by their knowledge of the dangers of tobacco. I know that there are some future succesful business people in that crowd. Thanks to the students and faculty for making us feel right at home.
-- Daveee
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Tuesday
April 25, 2006 - Irvington High School (Fremont, California) Here we are on the final week of the got milk? Gravity Tour. It hardly feels like 6 weeks have gone by, but they have, and its now week # 7. Only a few short days left.
Today's show was at Irvington high school in Fremont. Fremont is a town about 17 minutes or so north of downtown San Jose. The last time we were in the bay area, rain followed us everywhere. When we woke up today it was gray skies, but no rain. The ramp was set-up on the blacktop/basketball court area on the backside of the campus. We did two shows today, both assemblies, and each one lasted about 53 minutes. It was a little chilly outside, but that didn’t stop the athletes from throwing down some of their hardest tricks.
Danny Mayer was all over the ramp during both shows, with flip trick after flip trick. Gabe is always on his A game, and Jimmy Walker ended both shows by doing a huge flair (backflip 180). Over the course of the last few weeks, he has consistently done that trick higher and higher with each passing day. Both groups of students had a great time, although I have to say that group number one was definitely the louder and more enthused of the two.
Special thanks to Julie Meyers of Irvington High, for bringing us to her campus, and for getting food from the cafeteria, for all the riders and staff in between shows. One of the best things about this time of year, besides the got milk? Gravity Tour of course, is the fact that the NHL playoffs are just starting. Gabe Weed is an avid San Jose Sharks fan and they just happen to be playing tonight in San Jose. After I write this and it gets posted, we are all heading downtown to either try to get last minute tickets to the game, or go find a local restaurant to watch with all the local fans. Go Sharks, and I’ll be back tomorrow with more news from the road on this final week of the tour.
-- Jimmy C
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Wednesday April 26, 2006 - Washington High School (Fremont, California) Today was a great day, maybe even the best day so far, on the got milk? Gravity Tour for this year. Usually there are one or two obstacles for us to overcome during the course of the day. Today it was smooth sailing all day long.
First of all, it was sunny and warm. We have been battling weather for the last few weeks on this tour. Yesterday it was overcast and chilly. Today there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Secondly, when I looked up directions to the school on Mapquest, it was literally right around the corner from our hotel, so no traffic. We didn’t even have to get on any freeways to get to the school. Then to make things even better, when we got to the school and found the ramp, we were greeted by a member of the student government who not only directed us where to park, she had actually roped off special parking spaces for us. This is pretty much the kind of treatment we received all afternoon from the faculty and staff of Washington High School.
Once I made it to the ramp, I was greeted by a very excited Activities Director from the school named Helen Paris. She proceeded to inform me that Washington High is one of the oldest high schools in the bay area, dating all the way back to 1891. She also told me that one of the main reasons they booked the got milk? tour at their school was to reward the students for their improving STAR testing results over the last three years. Mrs. Paris is one of those teachers who likes to incorporate a lot of special events into her teaching and to use these things to help inspire and also reward students. It obviously works well and she seems to be very well liked at Washington High because the students were awesome to deal with.
We did one big show - an hour-long assembly. From the minute I asked the students to make noise, they did and they didn't stop until the show was over. They were definitely appreciative of Danny Mayer’s flip tricks, and once again Marc Englehart was a big hit today with his flat spins. After the assembly was over, it was lunchtime, so the students could stay and talk with the athletes and get autographs if they wanted. For the lunch period, Mrs. Paris arranged a giant barbeque right by the ramp in the quad. She had all the student government out there grilling hamburgers and hot dogs. They even hand delivered lunch right to our autograph tent. We have had a lot of different events go on at schools around us, but no one has ever thrown a barbeque. Mrs. Paris even gave us “Huskie” (their school sports team name) hats to wear today. She definitely cares a lot about her students and her school.
Overall it was a great day. Even with the ramp being set-up on a rather uneven and soft field, it still rode great, despite how high it was lifted off of the ground. I do have to say, that the students of Washington High, have been the best group we have performed for on this tour thus far. I want to extend a special thanks to all of them and Mrs. Paris, and I also wish all of them good luck on their upcoming STAR testing in two weeks.
-- Jimmy C
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Thursday April 27, 2006 - James Logan High School (Union City, California) Today we woke up to find that the got milk? Gravity Tour made the local paper, The Argus, today. We flipped through it and sure enough, there was a huge picture of Jimmy Walker on the front page of the “local” section. They also included a picture of some of the students watching the show yesterday from Washington High, and did a nice little write up on the tour. That was certainly a great way to start the day.
Our show today brought us to the town of Union City, just north of Fremont on the 880 freeway, to James Logan High School. This is one of the largest student bodies in the entire area, with around 5,000 students. When we pulled up, it was a large campus with a rather impressive football field and track. Having such a nice track surrounding their football field, we obviously couldn’t drive the ramp truck on it, so they found us a nice parking lot in front of the school. We had plenty of space to set-up, and it was nice to be on a level surface again. This was especially good news for Gabe Weed. Not only did he have the bottom of the ramp to ride flatland on, he also had plenty of pavement on either side of the ramp as well.
We did two shows today, both during the lunch periods. The first lunch group had a little more time to hang around and check out the show, and they were definitely the louder of the two groups. They were very excited during the pre-show warm-ups, and were cheering Gabe Weed on during every flatland run. Since the ramp was set up in front of the school, I noticed a lot of cars driving by that would slow down to see what was going on. Every now and then, someone would actually stop in the middle of the street to see the show. At the end of each show, Jimmy Walker did a flair (backflip 180). The first one he did today was the biggest one he has done on the whole tour. He makes that trick look amazing, and really easy with how smooth and relaxed he is while upside down.
Special thanks today goes out to Cordula Dokes of James Logan High, for allowing the tour to come to her campus today and for all of her help in making it a success. That’s it for today, one more show left and then everyone gets a much needed rest before the upcoming competition season starts.
-- Jimmy C
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Friday April 28, 2006 - Mission San Jose High School (Fremont, California) Today is the last day of the tour. It hardly seems like seven weeks have gone by, but they have. Today was a day to celebrate the end of another successful tour, it’s also somewhat of a sad day as well. Today’s show very well may be the last tour for one of my best friends, and a great show rider, Jim Burgess.
Our final show of the tour took place at Mission San Jose High School. It’s a large campus in the city of Fremont, and they had us put the ramp in the senior parking lot. It was an early show, starting around 10:15, and it was a giant assembly. The entire student body and staff came out to watch our final performance. I know some of the athletes, especially the ones who have been on 90 percent of the tour, were a little tired and sore after putting on some of the best performances of their careers the previous weekend at the Stockton Asparagus Festival. I was a little under the weather myself as I have been battling a nasty cold all week. We all were ready to wrap things up and head home. When the students came out today and crowded around that ramp, there was an energy in the air that I can’t really describe. It fired me, and all of the athletes up and today was, in my opinion, the best show of the tour.
The students were loud from the moment the show started, and they didn’t let up with their enthusiasm one bit. We had an hour time block to fill, and everyone on that ramp gave it their all today. Mission San Jose High was definitely the loudest school of the entire seven-week tour. When Jim Burgess took his last run, I asked the students to cheer extra loud and explained to them that this was probably his last tour with us, and they responded with roaring applause. I know if I was making this my last tour, I would want to go out like that.
After the show was over, I was approached by a very nervous student holding a dozen red roses. He asked if he could borrow the microphone, he said he had something important to do. He stood up in front of the entire school, and asked a girl to prom, she accepted. That’s only the second time that’s ever happened to us on the got milk? Gravity Tour. It was basically a special day for everyone involved.
Since the tour is over and this will be my last web blog, I want to take this opportunity to summarize and thank people. This tour was seven-weeks long, and in that time frame we drove almost 2,000 miles throughout the state of California. We performed at 32 high schools and the Stockton Asparagus Festival - and during that time we reached out to almost 100,000 California high school students, and thousands of fairgoers in Stockton. Along the way, we had lots of adverse weather to deal with, but we always made something happen. We had rain, we had wind, and a few of us got stuck in nasty snow storms in the high Sierras more than once on this tour. We had five rampside barbeques on this tour. Some of us were lucky enough to visit one of the many dairy farms that make up California’s dairy family. We had lots of schools schedule rallies around our shows and we had one school throw us a barbeque with the student government, and we had one student use our show to ask a girl to prom.
In order to make a tour like this happen and succeed, it takes a lot of work from a lot of different people. I want to start off by thanking all of the athletes on the tour. Dave Voelker, Fabiola da Silva, Danny Mayer, Tas Pappas, Gabe Weed, Jim Burgess, Jimmy Walker, and Marc Englehart. I also want to thank Koji Kraft for coming out onto the tour at the last minute and helping us out with our indoor shows. Armand Sylvie and Tyler Hank for all of their hard work in setting up the ramp day in and day out. That’s a hard task, and they are always troubleshooting to make the ramp trucks better. Daveee Blair for announcing the shows I couldn’t do, and for coming out in San Diego and putting in the “extra credit” work to learn the show messages. Jason Hines and Todd Shays in the ASA office for all of their behind the scenes work on the tour and helping out with keeping the web page looking perfect. Stef Zeh for taking all the pictures on the tour and coordinating with all the schools and local media about the tour. Ray Prock Jr. of Ray-Lin dairy in Modesto for not only taking time out to come to several stops on the tour, but for also taking Stef and I on a tour of his dairy and explaining the whole process to us. That’s something I have never done, and I won’t soon forget it either. Steven Perleman in the ASA Sacramento office for all of his hard work in booking seven weeks worth of high schools. I don’t think I could accurately describe how hard of a job that is and he handles it in stride every year.
Steven, this was the best seven-week run of schools yet. You did an amazing job. Lastly, I want to thank Harold Peterson and Michael Freeman and all of the hardworking folks who make up the California Milk Advisory Board. The got milk? Gravity Tour has been going on for nine years now and I can’t thank them enough for believing in this program, and for giving myself and the athletes the opportunity to perform for thousands of people in California every year.
Its been a great tour, thank you to everyone who reads my daily rants. That’s it for now, I’ll be talking to you next season. In the meantime, you can keep up with the summer happenings with me and many of the athletes at the Action Sports World Tour webpage.
-- Jimmy C
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