Tribute to Nick

Pushing through a back trizzle on the top side

Nicks spinning ninja kicks

 

Nick thinking dangerous thoughts...

Nick thinking dangerous thoughts and Matt encouraging him...

Frontside half cap rocket launch in the yellow haze of the sun. There were children cryin
and colors flyin all around the chosen one.

Frontside halfcab noseslide spin slide grind slap regular... switch....... I don't know what this is called...

Today I have the honor and privilege of presenting you Nick Edwards' part! I've been wanting to talk about this one for some time now, and it finally made its way up in line. Few people will understand, yea, few will comprehend all depths, heights, power, and beauty of Nick's part. The drama, the falling off of the board, the wrist guard, it's all in his part. To be able to fully understand Nick's part, you would have had to have been there from the very beginning. And few now live who remember it... When I say the beginning, I don't mean of this video, but I mean back when we were in full swing filming for our first video... Man, those were the adolescent years for Bolts of Thunder. Its pimple-ridden, rebellious, angry years. And Nick was at the forefront of it, dropping off of roofs, breaking bones, and fighting old men in the streets. You don't get more raw than that. Skating and filming with Nick isn't like skating and filming with your run-of-the-mill skate friend that you occasionally see at the skate park. It's an experience, a roller coaster ride of thrill, danger, and excitement.... Where I'm trying to get with this is Nick's got real personality. A fun, good personality that you don't get out of most people. He's not some robot kid that you can kind of skate with but can't really talk to or relate with. You can hang out with Nick, have sleep-overs with him and build forts in the living room. That kind of stuff. It's fun just doing whatever with Nick, whether it's skating, swimming, or hanging out. Those that know him well will totally see his personality everywhere in his part. That's what I'm trying to say...

I will be bold right now and come straight out with it: Nick's part is the entire embodiment of what Bolts of Thunder stands for. Yes, I will be so bold. And what does Bolts of Thunder stand for, you ask? It stands for cheating and splicing two tricks together to make it look like you really landed the trick when you didn't. It stands for being unnecessarily over-dramatic when it's not called for at all. It stands for plots and story lines that don't make sense. It stands for doing tricks you're not sure about, but you do them anyway. It stands for being a man with responsibilities and skating nonetheless. It stands for landing a trick but falling off your board, but refusing to fall off, so you just ride away anyway. Bolts of Thunder puts the fantasy in front of skateboarding, and the F-U! back in fun. I can think of very specific instances all throughout Nick's part that illustrate these points perfectly. Yes, I believe Nick's part is the embodiment of Bolts of Thunder. Now I'm not saying that other parts are not Bolts of Thunder material. We wouldn't put a part in the video if it didn't have Bolts of Thunder written all over it. But not every part has all attributes. I believe that Nick's does. Call me crazy, but I'm stickin with it.

So filming for Nick's part was unique compared to filming for all the other parts. Nick went through a couple different stages of filming: the yeah, let's film! stage, the love-hate stage, the I'm over it stage, then pulling out triumphant stage. Seriously, Nick threatened to not have a part in the video, but we just ignored him and kept filming him anyway. We all knew in our hearts that Nick's a Thunder Bolt for life, and he couldn't just withdraw himself like that. But let me give you some of the context so you know what Nick was up against in filming for the video. First off, he was graduating college, so he had all his school work. At the same time, he was flying all over the country having interviews at graduate schools, so he was gone for a couple months traveling. When he was at home and wasn't at school, he and his wife Kim were getting ready for the baby that was coming in late April. While all this was going on, he got sick a couple times and was out of commission for weeks at a time. Then to top it off, Nick almost broke his ankle in March which put him on the sidelines for about 2 months. His baby was born in April which made him busy, and he had two jobs this summer while getting ready to move to Rhode Island for grad school. So believe me when I say that Nick had more than his fair share to cope with the past 9 months, and filming a skate video wasn't his first priority. But Nick came out from behind and butchered skate spots left and right, taking no prisoners and leaving no survivors. Nick came out from all of this and filmed one of the highlight parts of the video.

I would just like to say that I really miss Nick. He's off to grad school in Rhode Island, and we might not see him for a while. But Nick is a true Thunder Bolt through and through, and he'll always carry the fire in his heart. He's going to do amazing things with human minds, and we'll be able to trace back every major event in his future life to Bolts of Thunder, the great organization it is. Nick, we miss you, we wish you the best of luck out there!!!! Your part's awesome, it's one of my favorite I've ever seen, and I had fun with you. Let us know whenever you're back in Provo. And share the blog with your new professors and peers...