One for the books

I'm waiting in the computer lab right now for some phantom employee that was supposed to show up half an hour ago so that I can check out a camera. So while I'm suffering here at school, I thought I'd make you suffer with me. So this is a picture of Matt and Dan on a undercover skate mission. You might recognize this as the rail that Dave smith grinded in his Bolts of Thunder part. If you don't recognize it, then I'm telling you right now, this is the rail that Dave smith grinded in his Bolts of Thunder part. So when we first met Dave, he hadn't skated in like a year and a half or something. Maybe he'd roll around on his board or whatever, but never skated rails or anything big. So when we met Dave, we rekindled a once fueling fire inside his bosom, a love for skating that had almost turned dormant. So the first time we met Dave, he was riding a 7.6 wide board with spray painted gold slip-ons. We didn't know if he was for real or what, but Dave quickly proved he wasn't messing around by getting all his tricks back and jumping down rails again. So I had just bought my video camera, and we were excited to go use it. So the first day we filmed, Dave, our friend's girlfriend, and I went to this rail because Dave wanted to smith grind it. We set up Julie, our lady friend, as an undercover agent on the road to inform us of any po-lees that snooping around in the neighborhood. So Dave looked at the rail for a second, I got the camera set up, and then he just went for it. There were people walking up and down the stairs, Dave had to weave around them as he rode up to the rail, but he seemed unscathed by the whole set up. I was on edge because of it all, but he just went for it. His first try he grinded it perfect and jumped off. I thought he'd get it next try, so did he. His second try he did the disastrous rail-shank smith grind maneuver where you ollie up to the rail, put your back truck in smith position, then fly through the air onto your face at the bottom because you missed your back truck on the rail. That's how fast it happens too, all of a sudden you're flying sideways in the air without your skateboard any more. You're usually more concerned about your skateboard too when you land on your face. I mean, where did it go? Did someone steal it? Oh, no, it's on the stairs, ok, good thing... I thought someone had stolen it. So that was Dave's second attempt. I thought he'd throw in the towel right then, but he got up super fast and went for it again, only to do the same exact rail-shank smith grind maneuver. Then he went back for a 4th try! I thought he was crazy, I wouldn't try it again. He stuck it 2 times after that, but slipped out on the downhill landing. Right after his 2nd stick, Julie yelled out the code word that a cop was coming for us, so Dave ditched his board in the bushes, I put my camera in my bag, and we started down the long set of stairs right after. "Excuse me!!" The cop yelled behind us, but we kept walking down the stairs like we were innocent bi-standards and oblivious to his existence. "Excuse me!" he called again, but we didn't stop. Then Julie, the resourceful quick-thinker she is, stopped the cop to distract him. She said, "Excuse me, officer," so he stopped and turned around. Then she said, "you're walking too slow..." and walked past him. That distracted the cop for just enough time for me and Dave to hide behind a hedge of bushes at the bottom of the stairs. We re-conned with Julie, then sent her back up the stairs to grab Dave's board from the bushes. She said the cop was looking for us up and down the stairs, but we were too clever for him... So she got the board, we got into my car, and drove off. As we were driving off, the cop pulled up right behind us, but he didn't recognize us, or see our skateboards in the back window. He turned off onto another road in hot pursuit of the skaters that had alluded him... Thanks Julie, we owe you for that one... Not that we're ever really going to give you anything, but we'll simply say "thanks" and call it good. So after this experience, Dave and I both wanted Dave to get the smith grind. But Dave rolled his ankle skating my flat bar, then hurt it again on the treacherous south provo rail, so he was out for a couple months. On the day of this picture, Dave wanted to grind the rail, we went there, I took this picture of Matt and Dan, then it started raining, and we all felt too much anxiety to do it this day, so we left. We came back a couple weeks later, and Dave smith grinded it no problem. By this time, Dave was back into action and jumping down rails again. I was really happy when he rolled away...