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 wouldn’t 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. Because of the weather, 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 the Skatelite even gets here! It was donated, so we shouldn’t complain, but of course we do so anyway. 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 become 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. This why we had to spend a half a day shoveling snow and chipping out ice before we set it down there in the first place. We said the same thing when the other promoter originally suggested that we put the ramp there. I guess those guys didn’t realize that it might snow in the winter in Utah.
Gordo’s task for the day was supposed to be welding the coping sections together and tacking on brackets 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 current – 220v instead of 110v, 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? That’s right! Nothing. Gordo then entertained us with some old school break dancing that came to an abrupt end when he caught his shoulder on screw that was sticking up in the flat. On a less painful note, it turned out the Skatelite was 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 grim determination as we realize we will probably be busting our humps right until the minute we leave. We should 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.
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 lame accomplishing so little in front of him, but it was 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 offered to bring some air hoses and a better compressor, but we couldn’t let him be responsible for supplying us with the proper tools to do our job. He wasn’t even getting paid. Where was Gordo anyway? Casey regaled 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 and were still skating when the family got home. The ramp died a premature death because the kid wasn’t very good, and forced to skate alone, he couldn’t learn from anyone or progress. 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 CD which had about one good song on it. Tribute albums always suck, and the Dickies cover of Paranoid wasn’t even on there.
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, very beautiful unless you are outdoors actually trying to build things and operate power tools in the middle of it. There was nothing to do but clear the ramp for the hundredth 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 thousandth 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 three times already. He also liked to tell us how he used to do this sort of thing, mainly framing work. He’s a nice guy, but a little desperate for human interaction. 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 ramp that you could skate. It supposedly had a top layer made out of birch, which sounded fancy. At the mall we felt like dorks walking through a mall with helmets and skateboards. A fun session was avoided when we got there and learned management tore down the ramp 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. A hippie kid put a huge old comforter in a washing machine and burned out the motor, filling the laundrymat with foul 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 outdoor 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 hopes that we can secure a post-olympic resting place for it at a recently opened indoor skatepark in 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 in the long term. 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, and chili, 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 in a different location but it didn’t bring in any money. The only people that rode it were old timers or marginal industry figures who didn’t want to pay to get in. The nerve! We would never… oh wait. 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, although cheap per square foot, still adds up to $4,200 a month. I don’t know how he keeps the doors open. He’s got another one in California and recently 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. 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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