Day Nine:
When we talked about whether or not to come out here, Grover said his biggest fear was that we were going to end up working right until we had to leave and not get a chance to skate the ramp. This morning we woke up and it was snowing outside. Yesterday we quit early so Gordo could go to a party. Today we spent the entire day doing what we could have finished yesterday if we had put in a full day. Gordo called to check on the status of the Skatelite and found out that although it supposedly shipped on Friday it would take 7-10 more days for it to arrive from Tacoma Washington. We might have to leave before it even gets here! It was donated, so we can't complain. Although we feel we can and therefore do so. Off to the job site.
First we had to shovel and sweep off the ramp. It was overcast and snowing at a fairly constant pace. We began to finish the first layer almost up to vert. It took a long time because everything was wet and slippery. We would work on one area and the snow would melt underneath our feet and then turn to hardpack as we moved to the next area. The ramp was slippery as hell, which made me feel right at home falling all over it. We kept shoveling off the rest of the ramp at regular intervals. The promoter came by and seemed to be upset when I told him that since we were at the lowest spot in the parking lot, as soon as the snow melted it would all collect in one giant lake under the ramp. We told him this why we had to spend a half a day shoveling snow and chipping out ice before we set it down there. We told him this when the other promoter suggested that we put the ramp there. I guess those guys didn’t realize that it might snow in the winter in Utah. Winter Olympics? Hmmn… In the meantime, Gordo was supposed to be welding the coping sections together as well as welding on a bracket that we could use to screw in the top so that adjusting the coping would be easy. He asked for black pipe but received galvanized steel. I don’t know jack about welding, but apparently galvanized steel is harder to weld and thus requires a stronger machine - 220 instead of 110, which is what we had. It also gives off noxious fumes. Gordo managed to talk the general contractor of the Ice Village into welding the pieces into 32 foot sections, but he was understandably not willing to have a guy on his dime spend a couple hours on the brackets. I don’t think it would have taken that long, but what do I know about welding? Nothing. Gordo then entertained us with some old school breakin' on the flat that came to an abrupt end when he caught his shoulder on screw on the flat. On a less painful note, it turns out the Skatelite is in fact scheduled for delivery on Thursday morning. This word comes straight from the horse's mouth at the manufacturer, and gves us hope that we will finish in time to skate. Joy turned to anguish as we realize we will probably be busting our humps right until the time that we leave. Were it not for the snags that were mostly out of our control, we would have been ready for the Skatelite on this very day. Then we could have relaxed and skated a bit with the locals before we had to leave. Either way, Grover was correct in his early prediction that if we didn't nail down a delivery right away we would be waiting around for it to arrive.
Our pal Casey actually showed up ready to work! Aside from his dog Ajax, he brought a broom and a shovel. We felt a little bad since we were moving so slow because of the hazardous conditions. The air compressor started to trip the circuit breakers at the restaurant, causing one of the mangers to haul her huge rack outside and ask us to disconnect it. Her snotty tone was probably justified since it was cold as hell outside and her register was on the same circuit. Casey then offered to bring some air hoses and a better compressor. We couldn’t let him be responsible for supplying us with the proper tools to do our job. We thought that was Gordo’s job. We did let him regale us with a story of a vert ramp that he used to ride as a youngster. It turns out that a kid had built a ramp and his parents wouldn’t let anyone skate it. They kept it locked up. Casey’s crew scoped out the situation and determined that the only time they could reliably skate it was every Sunday when the family would be at church for a couple of hours. They hoped the fence and cut the chain on a link that was under the raised flat. They put their own lock on it so that it would still work for the owner and they could unlock it at will as long as the owners didn’t find out. It worked for a while until they got greedy and satyed too long or else the family came home early. The ramp died a premature death because the kid wasn’t very good and couldn’t learn from anyone. It fell into disrepair because they didn’t want to put money into a ramp that wasn’t being used much. Go figure. Casey was bummed out by our new wave station so we let him put in a Black Sabbath tribute record which had about one good song on it. Tribute albums always suck.
The sun came out a little and the snow stopped for about a half an hour, which raised our spirits considerably. Then it all went down the crapper as a steady snow with big heavy flakes descended. There was nothing to do but clear the ramp for the millionth time and set up an impromptu curling session. If you don’t know what curling is, go talk to a Canadian. The same old guy came by for the millionth time in two days to tell us how good a job we were doing and ask a bunch of questions about the ramp as if he hadn’t already asked them. He also like to tell us how he used to do this sort of thing, mainly framing work. He’s a nice guy, but a little needy. We shoveled the ramp for the millionth time and made plans to meet Casey at a Vans store in the mall that had a mini half pipe in some sort of display window. It supposedly had a top layer made out of birch. We got there and were rewarded for feeling like dorks walking through a mall with helmets and skateboards by finding out that the tore it down because “it wasn’t working out” for them. I bought some Spitfires for 20 bucks and we split. Then I went and did some laundry and sat amused as a hippie kid put a huge old comforter in a washing machine that caused the motor to burn out and stink out the laundry mat with smoke. Tomorrow we plan on putting up the platforms and the second layer of ply if we can catch a break with the weather or get a hold of one of those big turbine heaters to melt the packed snow and ice and dry the ramp. Our rallying cry has quickly become “It’s only going to be a temporary ramp.” I have not so secret hopes that we can talk the skateshop that just opened an indoor park in Portland into shipping it to Portland in exchange for free memberships for our crew. The Skatelite alone would cost over 5k. The ramp was originally going to go to the Bonless warehouse before their future became uncertain. Anyway, I’m beginning to think that I might not want people to know I built this thing since the water and Ice on the first ply certainly can’t be good for it. It also seems to have been promised to several conflicting groups, so it probably won’t happen.
Props to the staff and management of the Orbit Grill for flowing free coffee, soup chilli, and for letting us store our wood in a nearby warehouse. They’ve been overly helpful to us for no apparent reason. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one thing about last night. The glowering guy who didn’t flow at the skatepark during our first session turned out to be the owner, Mark. He used to have a vert ramp at the previous location but it didn’t bring in any money. The only people that rode it were old timers or infamous figures who didn’t want to pay to get in. It seems you can’t take the scrounge out of that generation of skaters. I can’t blame him for not flowing since the rent at the park is cheap per square foot but still ads up to $4,200 a month. I don’t know how he keeps the doors open. He’s got another one in California and he had a deal fall through to put one up in Portland of all places. Portland is great place to skate, but the core locals are intent on supporting their own, which is good. I sure had a lot to write about a day in which we didn’t accomplish very much.
Next Day The ramp critic and a boring video.
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Intro - Building Days: 00 - 01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 - 06 - 07 - 08 - 09 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - Aftermath |