Chapter 15
PCHQ Jamming
The night we tore down the MacKenzie park set-up, Facilities hauled it out to the new PCHQ building where one of the huge bays in the back had been swept out to have a skate jam for all the visiting pros who showed up to support the SkateZone idea. By dark the party began arriving. Moose stood by the door checking the creds of those trying to enter. The bay had been swept as carefully as possible but the old concrete was disintegrating and as the skating went on a hazy cloud rose to give the room a fogged look. About half of the lights we rented didn't work so the room had a dim and surreal look to it. Hundreds of skaters had found their way in.
The night we tore down the MacKenzie park set-up, Facilities hauled it out to the new PCHQ building where one of the huge bays in the back had been swept out to have a skate jam for all the visiting pros who showed up to support the SkateZone idea. By dark the party began arriving. Moose stood by the door checking the creds of those trying to enter. The bay had been swept as carefully as possible but the old concrete was disintegrating and as the skating went on a hazy cloud rose to give the room a fogged look. About half of the lights we rented didn't work so the room had a dim and surreal look to it. Hundreds of skaters had found their way in.
The band was loud and the beer was free and the most popular elements to skate were the four small transitions that had supported the wall ride. They had been placed side by side against the huge concrete wall at the south end of the bay and the skaters were taking long high speed runs at them, going up one set of two, carving the wall and back down on the other two. The higher they got, they reached a level where some metal brackets had been crudely torched off the wall, and skaters were starting to get ripped by them. Skateboarding tip: Don't have jagged pieces of steel protruding from the vertical skate surface, in a dim and dusty warehouse in the middle of the night with free beer. Everybody had fun, though...and their wounds all healed.
After the MacKenzie Park event, we had all these portable skate elements, enough to have a small skating area in the PCHQ parking lot, right outside JW's window. The powers that be envisioned amateur skateboarding contests that could be held there, and sure enough they had quite a few of them, called Quartermaster Cups and Am Jams.
Like surfing, skating to me was an existential pastime: a personal flowing kinetic sensual dance. Competitive skateboarding transforms that dance into an entertaining spectacle with its motivation to excel. The contests were an excuse to sponsor public events, make a scene, and share the parking lot Zone with a wider group of skaters. Who won, who lost? I don't know. I hope nobody lost.
The contests were designed as perks for Powell-Peralta dealers to bring their local amateur teams for an event at the factory, show everybody a good time and for the company to spot the up-and-coming skaters soon to turn pro. JW entered one of those contests. He could skate at the level of Powell's own amateur team, but he didn't care for the competition and the pressure. He was already getting all the perks our amateur riders were getting, and more. We had no way to lose and he had more ways to win. Living on the property there, JW was spending more and more time helping us build stuff, and of course drawing pictures of what we had built, but now he was drawing pictures of stuff before we built it, becoming indispensible in the design process. We got to build additions to the topography before each new event, sometimes on company time. I remember the grand funbox we stayed up late into the night to get finished for the next day's contest. By the time we moved the SkateZone inside, JW was the key player in everything we built.
The band was loud and the beer was free and the most popular elements to skate were the four small transitions that had supported the wall ride. They had been placed side by side against the huge concrete wall at the south end of the bay and the skaters were taking long high speed runs at them, going up one set of two, carving the wall and back down on the other two. The higher they got, they reached a level where some metal brackets had been crudely torched off the wall, and skaters were starting to get ripped by them. Skateboarding tip: Don't have jagged pieces of steel protruding from the vertical skate surface, in a dim and dusty warehouse in the middle of the night with free beer. Everybody had fun, though...and their wounds all healed.
After the MacKenzie Park event, we had all these portable skate elements, enough to have a small skating area in the PCHQ parking lot, right outside JW's window. The powers that be envisioned amateur skateboarding contests that could be held there, and sure enough they had quite a few of them, called Quartermaster Cups and Am Jams.
Like surfing, skating to me was an existential pastime: a personal flowing kinetic sensual dance. Competitive skateboarding transforms that dance into an entertaining spectacle with its motivation to excel. The contests were an excuse to sponsor public events, make a scene, and share the parking lot Zone with a wider group of skaters. Who won, who lost? I don't know. I hope nobody lost.
The contests were designed as perks for Powell-Peralta dealers to bring their local amateur teams for an event at the factory, show everybody a good time and for the company to spot the up-and-coming skaters soon to turn pro. JW entered one of those contests. He could skate at the level of Powell's own amateur team, but he didn't care for the competition and the pressure. He was already getting all the perks our amateur riders were getting, and more. We had no way to lose and he had more ways to win. Living on the property there, JW was spending more and more time helping us build stuff, and of course drawing pictures of what we had built, but now he was drawing pictures of stuff before we built it, becoming indispensible in the design process. We got to build additions to the topography before each new event, sometimes on company time. I remember the grand funbox we stayed up late into the night to get finished for the next day's contest. By the time we moved the SkateZone inside, JW was the key player in everything we built.
© 2017. 2022 John Oliver
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mail@unclejohnsweb.com
The night we tore down the MacKenzie park set-up, Facilities hauled it out to the new PCHQ building where one of the huge bays in the back had been swept out to have a skate jam for all the visiting pros who showed up to support the SkateZone idea. By dark the party began arriving. Moose stood by the door checking the creds of those trying to enter. The bay had been swept as carefully as possible but the old concrete was disintegrating and as the skating went on a hazy cloud rose to give the room a fogged look. About half of the lights we rented didn't work so the room had a dim and surreal look to it. Hundreds of skaters had found their way in.
The band was loud and the beer was free and the most popular elements to skate were the four small transitions that had supported the wall ride. They had been placed side by side against the huge concrete wall at the south end of the bay and the skaters were taking long high speed runs at them, going up one set of two, carving the wall and back down on the other two. The higher they got, they reached a level where some metal brackets had been crudely torched off the wall, and skaters were starting to get ripped by them. Skateboarding tip: Don't have jagged pieces of steel protruding from the vertical skate surface, in a dim and dusty warehouse in the middle of the night with free beer. Everybody had fun, though...and their wounds all healed.
After the MacKenzie Park event, we had all these portable skate elements, enough to have a small skating area in the PCHQ parking lot, right outside JW's window. The powers that be envisioned amateur skateboarding contests that could be held there, and sure enough they had quite a few of them, called Quartermaster Cups and Am Jams.
Like surfing, skating to me was an existential pastime: a personal flowing kinetic sensual dance. Competitive skateboarding transforms that dance into an entertaining spectacle with its motivation to excel. The contests were an excuse to sponsor public events, make a scene, and share the parking lot Zone with a wider group of skaters. Who won, who lost? I don't know. I hope nobody lost.
The contests were designed as perks for Powell-Peralta dealers to bring their local amateur teams for an event at the factory, show everybody a good time and for the company to spot the up-and-coming skaters soon to turn pro. JW entered one of those contests. He could skate at the level of Powell's own amateur team, but he didn't care for the competition and the pressure. He was already getting all the perks our amateur riders were getting, and more. We had no way to lose and he had more ways to win. Living on the property there, JW was spending more and more time helping us build stuff, and of course drawing pictures of what we had built, but now he was drawing pictures of stuff before we built it, becoming indispensible in the design process. We got to build additions to the topography before each new event, sometimes on company time. I remember the grand funbox we stayed up late into the night to get finished for the next day's contest. By the time we moved the SkateZone inside, JW was the key player in everything we built. The band was loud and the beer was free and the most popular elements to skate were the four small transitions that had supported the wall ride. They had been placed side by side against the huge concrete wall at the south end of the bay and the skaters were taking long high speed runs at them, going up one set of two, carving the wall and back down on the other two. The higher they got, they reached a level where some metal brackets had been crudely torched off the wall, and skaters were starting to get ripped by them. Skateboarding tip: Don't have jagged pieces of steel protruding from the vertical skate surface, in a dim and dusty warehouse in the middle of the night with free beer. Everybody had fun, though...and their wounds all healed.
After the MacKenzie Park event, we had all these portable skate elements, enough to have a small skating area in the PCHQ parking lot, right outside JW's window. The powers that be envisioned amateur skateboarding contests that could be held there, and sure enough they had quite a few of them, called Quartermaster Cups and Am Jams.
Like surfing, skating to me was an existential pastime: a personal flowing kinetic sensual dance. Competitive skateboarding transforms that dance into an entertaining spectacle with its motivation to excel. The contests were an excuse to sponsor public events, make a scene, and share the parking lot Zone with a wider group of skaters. Who won, who lost? I don't know. I hope nobody lost.
The contests were designed as perks for Powell-Peralta dealers to bring their local amateur teams for an event at the factory, show everybody a good time and for the company to spot the up-and-coming skaters soon to turn pro. JW entered one of those contests. He could skate at the level of Powell's own amateur team, but he didn't care for the competition and the pressure. He was already getting all the perks our amateur riders were getting, and more. We had no way to lose and he had more ways to win. Living on the property there, JW was spending more and more time helping us build stuff, and of course drawing pictures of what we had built, but now he was drawing pictures of stuff before we built it, becoming indispensible in the design process. We got to build additions to the topography before each new event, sometimes on company time. I remember the grand funbox we stayed up late into the night to get finished for the next day's contest. By the time we moved the SkateZone inside, JW was the key player in everything we built.
All Rights Reserved
mail@unclejohnsweb.com