HesH SesH

It was a long day on Saturday the 11th. It all began when I was awoken by Jonathan Spooner at 10 am. I was catching up on some beauty rest to a text saying, “let’s leave soon.” I had to recall our conversation the night before. He was referring to the Downtown Showdown. Stereo had a video premiere at Hensley’s Pub. It was an awesome video (although it was a bit short).

Anyways I was a little “under the weather” and not thinking straight. I kept trying to stay home but spooner kept bugging me. I finally gave in and we took off. The drive up was gnarly. Apparently the Santa Ana’s were bustin through SD and blew all the shit out of the sky so you could see all the way to the edge of the earth. Through Camp Pendleton we could see the islands off the coast of San Onofre. I always forget that there is even an island off the coast up there because you can never see it. We stopped in San Clemente for some bomb ass carne asada burritos. I have never had something so good in my life. The meat was all shredded up and marinated with some herbs and spices that I have no frickin idea what they were but it was the shit. Excellent cure for “under the weather”.

We finally get to Hollywood. I hate Hollywood. Everything is cramped, the dirtiest and the richest and the snobbiest and the most sinister commercial plastic bullshit all live in symbiotic disharmony. But I wasn’t driving so it’s all good. We began to pull up to Paramount Pictures and it finally set in. We were here. You don’t realize how huge Paramount is until you actually get inside. Spooner and I had a little discussion with the top notch security. The security guards wouldn’t let us in until 4. Apparently it was a last minute lock down. The security guard said, “pull in and turn around and exit over here,” pointing to the opposite side of the booth. Spooner pulled in and called up Chris Gonzalez. We sat in “no mans zone” for a few minutes and Chris came cruising up. When the guards looked the other way Chris jumped in the back of the truck and we pulled into the lot. They weren’t too happy with us so I don’t think we’ll ever be able to do that again but it worked this time.

I loaded up my camera and it was on. A movie set is incredible. When you turn a corner you are suddenly in the middle of Chicago walking down the street. The buildings are at least 4 stories high with balconies, fire escapes and corner stores. This place looked straight of Tony Hawk though. In the middle of the street were

these quarterpipes and ramps and makeshift objects that are completely out of place and not normally in the middle of a city. Girl’s “Three Pump Dump” was the first obstacle. 3 hips back to back going down hill. Kinda cool but nothing exciting. Then there was the Creature “5 points of pure evil”. Only Creature would come up with this obstacle. Basically it is a star with a tall pool coping quarterpipe in one corner, then slanted quarterpipes on opposing sides to finish off with steep ass banks in the far corners. See photos for explanation. On top of all that it was set on a hill and slanted downhill. It was definetely the gnarliest obstacle I have ever seen. Foundation had a 10 stair with a half moon hubba and a star shaped stomp pad in the middle of the stairs. That was kind of awkward but rad. Finally (the one I really wanted to skate) was Black Label’s “dive bar”. It had a tall wide box with coping on one side and a square rail on the other. There were 2 kickers on opposite sides to launch up to the thing. Basically you had to go faster then a box of hair just to skate the thing. Oh and the kickers were not next to the box. Each was set back 3 feet away from the box. So not only do you have to launch up to the rail, but you also have to ollie out and clear the other gap. I saw some guys get broke off pretty bad and some FUCKIN GNARLY shit go down on it.

All of the buildings were rad because once you walk in the door you are surrounded by scaffolding, storage and hot lights. So every single window can be accessed. There were so many unique angles to shoot from. And all the pros knew that too. I was a blip on the radar.