A few issues back, Hotdog and I decided to try and turn our vacation in Virginia into an article and a montage both for theP. The latter of which did not work out. The small clip below is the raw, unedited footage from our excursion. You may have seen bits and pieces in one or two local skateshop videos, but there are plenty of things I can guarantee you haven’t seen.
You gotta feel safe when Goku’s on your flight:
Ballard was bummed because he wasn’t allowed to take his remote control car on the plane:
Cole Wilson can be an annoying little bastard at times. You gotta love him though. Plane hi-jinx included spitting a chewed up Twix bar into the vomit bag and putting it back in the seat and shredding Ballard’s Ipod.
Ballard had had enough at one point.
But quickly got over it and let Cole round out his setups:
Meanwhile, I chilled in my own little corner with the provisions from Continental airlines. I gotta say, for all the hell they put us through, they hooked it up once we were on board.
See that big ass cloud over there? That’s enough to put in a holding pattern over the Gulf of Mexico for almost an hour.
I personally don’t see what the problem was:
theShuttle service knows what’s up:
After spending a night in Houston at a swanky hotel that the airline comped to us, we finally made it to theBay Area. Tony Manfre picked us up in a fresh Hyundai rental and we had to handle the first things first…Burger King and fresh boards.
We drove past this and almost passed on it, but we went back to check it out and had the raddest experience ever. Put it this way…theProgram and it’s associates, including Cole, are known in theBay. You’ll have to wait to see what Cole really did at this spot.
Tripping out west. Started super not good. Plane breakdowns, delays, missed connections, hotel and food vouchers, lost wallets, shitty weather are not good things with which to start a two-week mission.
Ways to kill time when you’ve got a 4 hour delay:
Tattoos:
Portraits:
Underhanded shots at the airline:
Phallic handrail placement:
Dinner and drinks:
After 6 hours of waiting for your flight, you’re hyped to be packed into a small-ass plane:
You know theBallard’s gotta have take-off footage:
The saga continues later….
cole wilson is a terminator. if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.
There’s a method to my madness…I promise. This photo was shot months ago and has been sitting on my hard drive waiting for the right home. Focus Magazine’s latest is that home. Head to your local skateshop and pick up a copy.
Cole Wilson, frontside tailslide:
I went out skating yesterday with theBallard and Chris “Chili” Ennis and things got…well…crazy.
There’s a neat little spot on Winter Ave that’s in a weird spot traffic-wise. The turn is very blind, people tend to speed through there, and it bottlenecks quickly after the turn.
Chili had an idea for a run he wanted to film, so he and Ballard were getting bizzy, putting in some werk.
I was walking around, just lurking because there was no way for me to shoot the trick without being in the way of the line, when I looked over and saw some lady in a tree with her little pink digital camera.
She then moved down onto her steps and kept shooting more and more photos.
“What are you taking pictures for?” I asked.
“For the police!” she said.
“Why are the police coming?”
“Because what you’re doing is illegal and dangerous!”
“Riding a skateboard on the sidewalk is illegal and dangerous?”
“Yes! And you’re disturbing my life!”
An argument like this went on for several minutes and things just kept getting more and more and more ridiculous.
I would say that 90% of the altercation is on videotape, so I’m sure you’ll be seeing theVideo of it soon enough.
She was spouting off all types of crazy nonsense and really just instigating the whole thing and then saying things like “it’s really sad that you grown men would pick on a crippled old lady.” Other quotes include:
-in response to a question as to why she cares about my safety: “I’m not worried about the safety of a grown man, but for the safety of the provincial children.”
-after Ballard responds to a question she asked: “Stop addressing me.”
-after I asked her if she was able to get a window seat on the spaceship she came in on: “That’s a really ‘especious’ thing to say.” (No, I don’t think that’s a word.)
As you can see…this was an extremely frustrating situation. She finally went back inside and we got back to werk. But then, low and behold, back out she comes with her walker and starts hobbling back and forth across the street (who’s being illegal and dangerous now?), taking pictures of my car, and me sitting in it, and Ballard and Chili filming the line.
We would ignore her for the most part, but then she’d come and try to get in the way, or get right in your face and take your picture, all the while talking about “when the police come.” She never did call the cops.
So her arguments were:
1. We were being loud and disrupting her life.
2. Skateboarding on a sidewalk is illegal.
3. Skateboarding in the street is illegal.
4. Skateboarding is dangerous.
Logic tells us:
1. Her yelling at us across the street was much louder and disruptive to her life.
2. Skateboarding on a sidewalk is appropriate and safer than skateboarding in the street.
3. Skateboarding in the street is legal as a skateboard is a vehicle.
4. Hobbling your crippled body across 4 lanes of traffic through a blind turn that is notorious for speeders is much more dangerous than us riding skateboards.
Outcome: Logic wins.
I honestly wish the police would have shown up. I’m sure they would have asked us to leave, just so they didn’t have to deal with this insane woman, but it would’ve been classic to see the looks on their faces as she was talking about the “provincial children” and other assorted insanities.
Okay, so I obviously didn’t shoot this, but I wanted to post it because it’s so damn good. This is the type of shot I would see in a magazine 10 years ago and say “I have to learn to shoot photos like that.” And to think, it’s taken me this long to figure out how. Although, I doubt I could ever shoot a photo even half as good as this.
jefferson pang, 1998. influential situation.
bird’s eye view from a few nights ago. i really need to stop taking my camera to the park.
jon sava, up the Athens Park Euro, while doug films. right about now i’m guessing you are glad i haven’t posted for a while, right?
since i’m dumb, i can’t figure out how to leave comments with photos in them. so here’s the photo i was referring to, entitled “totally pacsun advert”
I present to you theProgram’s first HD footage. Enjoy the high definition experience.
