Sick to your stomach

It's the end of the semester at school right now which means my brain is shriveling up into a raisin and acne is more prevalent on my face than it should be. Plus, I just found my first white hair! In my nose. That's right, one of my nose hairs was the first to get stressed and turn white. All the hairs on my head have chosen a different route and are simply abandoning ship. My back seems to be recruiting though, and quite successfully at that... Enough hair talk. Well, I really don't have much to say right now, but I did want to write something. So that picture up above is how my brain feels right now. That was me over Christmas break as I spent the entire time in a NyQuil-induced stupor and watched the cartoon of X-Men and Babe 2 Pig in the City on Netflix. It was actually pretty fun... Anyway, Rachel snapped that shot of me, and I think it accurately portrays what a sick man looks and feels like... Well, you probably didn't come to the blog today to read about body hair and being sick, so I'll put up another picture of skating, an old school kickflipper from back when Dave roamed the Wild West, just so you're not disappointed and sick to your stomach the rest of the day. If you did come here to read about body hair and what not, I'm glad I could accommodate you. Until next time...

Stream of thoughts

I'm really running short on time today, but I wanted to put up something to let you look at. My wife took this picture a week or so ago, and I really like it. I'll be honest, she's a better photographer than me... It took a lot of courage for me to say that just now, but I'm not taking it back. It is within my power to go back and delete that phrase but I will not, for I cannot tell a lie. That's what I told my parents when I told them I cut down the cherry tree. I thought it would dampen their wrath against me. I was wrong, I should have blamed it on bad weather... But that's a lie because we never had a cherry tree. Now you're all confused. Am I lying or am I telling the truth. By telling the truth, I am lying. Try to wrap your head around that one! It's like one of those puzzles that you can't solve but you keep trying to anyway because you want to defy the laws of gravity or something. But take my word for it kids, nothing but pain and regret will come from a life time dedicated to solving unsolvable mysteries. Unless you're fighting for a good cause, then keep fighting. I wasn't talking about moral things, like making the world a better place, I was literally just talking about trying to solve word problems or riddles that don't even have an answer. You know what I'm talking about. Your third grade teacher shared them with you just to frustrate you. I wasn't introduced to these unsolvable riddles until 7th grade, my teacher leaked them in the class because Mark Adams offended him. Mark Adams annoyed most people. It's funny I'm even thinking of him, me and Matt were talking about him the other day. We were talking about the time he fell on the rail when he was learning boardslides. He went down hard straight to his back. Then he ran around and said half of swear words because saying the entire swear word is bad but saying half of it is not bad. So he ran around for a couple minutes going, "FU! SHI! FU-SHI!" It was pretty funny. It's one of the videos that Matt found from that old treasure trove of videos we found a couple weeks ago, the original footage of Mike Adams turfing it and threatening to swear all the way. Yeah, he was the friend that was funny for the first 2 minutes then just really annoying the rest of the time. He usually got teachers really pissed off and ruined the rest of the day at school for the rest of the students. So you all just witnessed how my stream of thought works and how I start talking about any old subject and end up telling a story from my youth. Gotta go now...

Epic missionary skate session

So I used to be a missionary for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That's the name of it. I was a missionary for 2 years, and I couldn't skate the entire time. I mostly couldn't skate because I was so busy preaching the good word that I didn't have time to skate. But also I went to the Caribbean and skateboards are not as common as one would hope in that region of the world. But one day, after over a year and a half of not standing on a skateboard, I discovered that right behind my apartment complex was a little skatepark with a halfpipe and flat bars, and these two kids were riding around there. I couldn't resist the temptation, and I asked the kids if I could ride one of their boards. They thought I was this crazy white FBI agent or something in my shirt and tie and all. And yeah, white people are far and few between on Guadeloupe, especially ones dressed up like me, so they thought I was crazy, creepy, and going to get hurt pretty bad when I asked to ride on their board. But they said I could and let me try it out. A frontside 5-0 in a halfpipe has never felt so good, I can tell you that much. It was funny how natural it felt riding on my board after not being on it for a while, but I felt just fine. The kids were amazed and confused because I actually knew how to skate a halfpipe. I even front boarded the little flat bar at the park in my dress shoes and everything. Then, to seal the deal, I did a kickflip to end my skate session. I couldn't resist. That tore up my leather dress shoes pretty bad, and the mark is still there to this day, but it was definitely worth it. I had to color in the mark with a black marker ever couple days so it wouldn't stand out too bad, but like I said, it was definitely worth it.

I thought of these pictures last night that my companion took because I saw a couple of my old missionary buddies yesterday. It's funny some of the stuff that I remember so well but then I can't even remember some of my companions' names. I guess that shows how much I enjoyed being around those ones. Anyway, I found these pictures that my companion took of me during my epic missionary skate session when I had a full head of hair and my skateboarding privileges were temporarily on hold. Good times...

Official Announcement of Bolts of Thunder's Next Video!!!!!!!

This post is a celebration of youth, or at least being young of legs. Weston Colton, for example, might not be the youngest kid on the block, but he can still launch himself through the air on his skateboard because of his young legs. So these are a couple pictures from our skate outing this last weekend, taking advantage of practically perfect weather in every way and having fun. It was good fun, we got to take some pictures and film some stuff... I think I might as well just come out and say it now: Bolts of Thunder is going to make another video this next summer! Yes, we have decided that it is once again time to show the world what old men on skateboards are capable of doing. So this is a callout to all thunderbolts that do not live near us (Dan, Dave, Nick, Brandon - you guys know who you are) to film what you can in our absence and send it our way, and you'll still be a part of our next adventure. We wouldn't think of doing it any other way... So we were out this weekend and Weston, as usual, tore up whatever he decided to tear up, and we had some fun skating. These two kids in that last picture were really cool. They hung out with us and cheered us on as we discovered new ways to pull hamstrings and bruise heels. We told them to check out Bolts of Thunder and that I'd put their picture on the blog. I kept my end of the deal, kids, are you keeping yours?...

I will end by telling the everyone the world over to be on the look out for the next edition in what is apparently becoming the Bolts of Thunder trilogy this next summer. Probably around July. Probably mid July. As in July 15th. Specifics to follow, so stay tuned...

Strange talk

Since the beginning of time, passion has driven mankind to accomplish wonderful things. Like nosegrinds on rails into banks. That's all I can think of, but I'm pretty sure it's inspired other stuff too. That intro has nothing to do with the rest of this post, but I couldn't think of any other way to start it... So Ben and AJ are Bolts of Thunder's newest recruits, they just don't know it yet. I keep telling them that they're trying out for Bolts of Thunder and that there's only room for one person on the team. I don't know how that's possible when Bolts of Thunder is more of an idea than a team, but it keeps them going. So they've both been strutting their stuff lately, trying to catch the camera's attention and hopefully land them a spot on the team. Well don't tell them that they don't have to try out, we pretty much have an open door policy, because we want them to keep shredding. So this picture was taken the first time Ben and AJ skated together, and we told them that they had to compete for the spot on the team. Ever since that day, I've taken scores of pictures where either AJ or Ben is skating and the other one is lurking maliciously somewhere in the background or foreground, plotting their next move to overtake their foe. This is the first example, and there will be many more to come. Don't believe me? Alright, here's another one:

Believe me now? But don't get the wrong idea, either. Ben and AJ are tight as might, thick as thieves, they just really want that spot on Bolts of Thunder. Again, don't tell them they're both on, or they might turn down the fire a notch, and we don't want that...

So I heard some other people yesterday talking about this new Bolts of Thunder video that might be coming out in July, or something like that... It was an old guy at the Chinese imported spices health food store. No joke, he had virtually no facial hair but the two hair follicles that grew on either side of his upper lip and hung several feet down. Wisdom radiated from his very presence, and reason flowed forth from his lips. He never opened his eyes, but he pointed at his shelf where he kept his personal items. Only, for being a man of considerable age, he owned very little as far as personal items, for how can one really own something, man?... All he had on his cherished shelf were two dvds, the first and second Bolts of Thunder videos. Good choice, if you're only going to own two things in this world... In pointing at the shelf, the old man asked me, "What do you see?" "Two videos of great value," I responded. "Yes... good, good... But what is missing?" In gazing upon the shelf, I noticed a third dvd case, but it was empty. "You are not whole until this case is filled. Fill the case my son, and you will fill your wandering soul..." the old man told me. "Look, I just came here for ear candles, not a lecture! You just lost a customer, old man!" In leaving the shop that day, I vouched never to return... But then I went back in and got my ear candles. Actually, that's a lie, I don't use ear candles. Anyway, so there's all kinds of strange talk from strange folk about strange videos made by strange people coming out some time soon. I'm just telling you what I heard. Again, not that I know anything about Bolts of Thunder. I mean, what do I know?...

No more messing around: Announcement of Bolts of Thunder's next video?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to announce or phantom skater from Monday: BEN!!! Yes, that's right, Ben. No, he does not have a last name... Actually he does, but I don't remember it. But it's Italian, I can tell you that. So thank you Zak and Benny for your guesses. Zak, Matt filmed this trick, so I think you get points. Benny, your name has Ben's name in it, so you get points too. And I'm pretty sure Ben likes cookies and someone somewhere along the way might have called him "Cookie Monster", so I think you get two points. You win!

As you can see from Rachel's expression and that slur of cuss words proceeding from her mouth, we are no longer messing around. With good weather on the way, we're heading into full skating swing, including filming, photo taking, and skating all the time. There's even talk of another Bolts of Thunder video coming out to fulfill the trilogy... But who am I to say? I don't know anything about Bolts of Thunder... But look at that 5-0. I mean, are we messing around? It doesn't look like it. All faces in the photo agree that we are not messing around. And if we're not messing around, then what are we doing? Making a video is not messing around... I'm just talking now, I really don't know anything about Bolts of Thunder, so I'll just stop right there. But yes, people, Ben is the Phantom Skater, and he 5-0s crazy skinny rails with American Flag back drops...

The Future

I know I'm getting to you late today. School requires it. And also volunteer time at the canning place. I smell like spaghetti Os and vomit, which are pretty much synonyms for each other. Anyway, by way of a reminder, you have one more day to guess who our mystery skater is before I unveil the shocking truth tomorrow. If you're confused as to what I'm talking about, read yesterday's post. For today's post, I am giving you a preview into the future of skateboarding for us all. Yes, Matt is paving the way for the 21st century with his raptor armed spin arounds, and he's doing them in style. Rodney Mullen would be proud...

Phantom Skater

Like I promised, we're back with all new stuff. A fresh start, if you will. We were starting to stink and, well, be unfresh. Yes, we were not fresh at all. Stagnant, very stagnant. I'm actually thinking of the causes of malaria, not the blog, so I will get back on track. Ok, a fresh start to this blog, not malaria... So today's featured Thundie is a phantom skater, one that appears and disappears without a moment's notice, leaving all bewildered in amazement at the stealthness and awesomeness of his appearances. And in keeping his identity stealth and awesome a few days longer, I will not tell you who that is skating that rail. I took the picture out of focus with only his legs in the picture on purpose so that you would have to guess as to who this phantom skater is. I will announce his true identity on Wednesday, so you have a couple days to respond. Those who guess right will have their names go down in the Bolts of Thunder hall of fame archives, which is a highly coveted place in history to go down. So you best get guessing on it, you've got two days to comply...

Lessons learned

Yes, I'm back from my little trip this week. I know you're all wondering what I've learned at this informative meeting, so I'd like to share with you some of the highlights:

-I'm better at pretending like I know what I'm talking about than we had originally anticipated
-Eating 3 solid meals a day and not exercising all week wreaks havoc on your digestive track
-Snow-showing gets your bowels moving
-Snow serves as a suitable substitute for toilet paper while snow-showing/skiing/snow recreating in general
-Whoever designed hideaway beds did not try them out before he made millions selling his idea. He would not have put the bar in the middle of the flimsy mattress if he had

There were other things, but those are what's really sticking out right now. Anyway, I should be back and at it all next week, and I've got a new little stash of pictures I need to put up, so keep on the look out. For now I will leave you with Dan Shaw pushing through a back lip in a halfpipe. I'm excited to put up these pictures because I'm going to see Dan in a couple weeks! Word on the street is that Brandon, his cousin, might be there too, which would be awesome. Yes, we need a good old fashioned reunion skate session...

Mezzo Giorno in Paris

I was just watching the bonus features of Bolts of Thunder Gone Wild, and I remembered a picture I took back in the summer of Dave in Paris that I never put on the blog. Don't ask me how I forgot it because it's such a rad picture. And don't ask me how I just remembered because I completely forgot it. And don't ask me why I'm watching the bonus features of my own video. It's like sitting at home on a Saturday night to watch home videos... Anyway, I looked up on my hard drive, and sure enough, there's the picture of Dave doing a front board on one of the ghettoest rail rigs you've ever seen in your life. We supported it with crates that we wedged in between the rail and a pole that stuck out of the grass. It was super ghetto and wobbly, and it scared the crap out of me to skate it. But I had to because we spent forever setting it up, I was in Paris so I might as well have, and I told Dave I'd back him up if he went for a 50-50, which he did. Yeah, Dave's crazy for all of you who don't know him. His a great friend too, so he's not so crazy that you can't have tons and tons of fun with him. Because you can. And you do. Anyway, I wanted to put up these pictures, then I saw that one of Matt hanging upside down to film Dan, and I couldn't not put that up.

Another item of business. I'm going to be out of town most of next week, so I might not be able to write all that much. I won't be far from town, but I won't be in town. It's a school trip... If I have time to write, I definitely will. If not, then I'm sorry, and I'll write as soon as I'm back. Promise.

Treasure Trove

I'll admit, I've been trying you as of late. The posts I've been putting up lately have challenged you, questioned you, and occasionally asked you to think. I thought I'd give you all a break today and just give you something easy to enjoy. David Law is easy to like and watch skate, and this crooked grind is especially easy to like. I do not crooked grind. I cannot crooked grind. Well, I can do them, I just can't land it yet... But I got into one on the red curb over at our parking lot the other day. And as I thought about it, I've landed more kickflip crooked grinds than I have regular crooked grinds. I landed one crooked grind once down the bigger hubba at the St. George park. It was when everyone else was learning them and I was falling behind by not adding that trick to my bag. So I landed it, and I walked away. Like Ben Affleck on Pearl Harbor. I landed it, walked away, and never touched it again. Also like Ozzy and the junk, except I really haven't been secretly landing crooked grinds all these years while saying I can't do them. I really haven't landed a single one since that day at the St. George park. You see how easy it is to get me off track?

So Matt and I stumbled upon a treasure trove of our old skate videos yesterday!!!! It's one of the biggest finds since the Rosetta Stone and King Hut's tomb. So me and Matt were extremely thorough in filming all of the homies in St George when we were growing up. We're talking about when we were 14, 15, 16... Those years. Well, 17 too. And I guess 18 and 19 for Matt. Either way, back in the day, we pretty much had sole proprietorship our friend Nick's grandma's video camera that he told her he would borrow for a weekend. We had it for years, and I don't think she never even noticed. It eventually died because we were trying to skate the handrails at the Bluff Street church and a cop gave us pursuit, so we fled. In our haste, we knocked the video camera off the wall and onto the ground, and that pretty much did it in. Every time I think of that incident, two things usually come to mind. The first being one of the angriest and most sincere "F" words that I've ever heard and that was ever pronounced in Washington county in that year came forth from my friend Nick when the camera fell. The second being that the cop wasn't even chasing us, he was just turning around in the parking lot where we were skating. He hadn't even seen us... But either way, that was one of the final blows to the camera. I can't remember whose camera we used after that, but we found someone's camera to use... Probably Matt Pace's and Justin Griffin's.

Anyway, yesterday me and Matt found in one of my old boxes around 10 or 15 two hour long VHS tapes filled with our old skate footage!!! I knew the tapes still existed, but I seriously had no anticipation in finding them again. So last night we watched a couple of the tapes, which is just scratching the surface of all we have to watch, and we stumbled upon several little gems including the episode of Justin Griffin breaking his foot, when he boardslid Pineview, my ollie over the Burger King gap, frontside flip off the baseball diamonds drop, Matt with a full head of hair ollieing gaps, and in general just chilling and hanging out with each other. It was funny to watch all these videos because it brought back tons of old memories that I had completely forgotten. Also, it made me realize that the funnest parts of skating - hanging out with Matt and all my friends, laughing, having fun, and throwing skating into the mix of all that - have not changed a single bit for us. It's funny to see that 12 years ago or so, we were still out doing pretty much the exact same thing we're going to do this afternoon: meet up at a spot, do a couple warm up tricks, talk about nothing important but still enjoy it, try to land a new trick, film something if we feel like doing something, and during all of it laugh and just enjoy ourselves. I'm really glad to see that we weren't overly serious about skating when we were teenagers, and we're not all that serious about it now. When I say not serious, I don't mean we don't enjoy it because we love it. We seriously skate just as much now as we did when we were teenagers. Sometimes life gets busy, but for most almost 30 year olds, I'd say we're doing just fine in keeping up with our skating regiment. We haven't lost sight of what's really fun, and we haven't gotten caught up in all the trends and whatever other people are doing. As a quick side note, I'm glad that I can watch those old videos and not be the least embarrassed of what I was wearing, the tricks I was doing, the music I listened to, or any of that... We're still having the same fun we had back then, and I really don't think things will change for us as we get older. Sure we'll be busier and all that, and we might not be able to skate all that much. But when we do get out there, with our kids or whoever, skating will mean the same thing to us as it did from the very get go. And that's something to be proud of.

So now that we've found these tapes, we're going to go through them, and you're probably going to be hearing a lot more stories on the blog in the up and coming days from our childhood. Just to warn you.

Garrett's new video!!!

Eye hath not seen nor ear heard such marvelous lamp leg skating. That's all I have to say to sum up this trailer. To be honest, I always prided myself on having strong, robust legs. This lamp makes me feel threatened and hostile... This is another trailer put up by fellow Thunder Bolt Garrett Taylor for his new video. It's bound to be awesome because it has amazing skaters in it and because Garrett made it. If you want to watch some good skating, order a copy of this video and you'll see all the good skating you can handle... Oh yeah, and Garrett said that me and Dave have tricks in the video, so for all of you hard core Jon and Dave fans out there, which I'm sure there are many, you'll get the chance to watch us strut our stuff in this video. So order now!

Beauty and the Beast Occupying Wall Street

Remember that old 80's show of Beauty and the Beast? I think Beast lived in the sewer or something like that, and Linda Hamilton from the Terminator movies was in it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then look it up, because it revolutionized daytime TV watching and gave Sebastian Bach and Braden Sofranski dressing tips for the next 30 years. The only memories I have of watching the show are when I was sick as a little kid, and I had to stay at home and watch day time TV. Those were the most painful TV watching experiences I can remember because there were no cartoons or any good movies, just painful soap operas for lonely stay at home women and sick children. By the end of the day, sick or not sick, I tried my best to convince my mom that I was no longer sick and fully capable of playing outside with all the other kids. Years of practice taught me how to keep a straight face and hold in coughs when they were banging on the door during these mother son interviews, as they were. It required the development of serious abdomen muscles and a desensitization of every feeling in my body. 20+ years later and I still don't feel a thing... Anyway, the Beauty and the Beast show was just amazing.

So I know all of you are wondering what ever happened to Beast from that show, and because looking it up on Wikipedia would just require too much effort, you've been in the dark... Until now... So a couple months ago while skating up in Salt Lake, we stumbled upon our old friend!!! Don't believe me? I have photo evidence of it:

 

 

Turns out that being a daytime TV star isn't so friendly at times, and Beast really has been living in the sewers for the past couple years. Hearing that there was going to be some kind of hippy/drugy/homeless people gathering known as Occupy Wall Street and that free drugs and maybe even sex might be available in these modern day Grapes of Wrath migrant camps, Beast thought he'd try his hand in some good old fashioned protesting, Occupy Wall Street style. This type of protesting involves not specifying demands, becoming even poorer because you're camping on week days rather than working, and doing lots of drugs. When we saw Beast, he was hopped up on crack (no joke, I'm being serious right now) and telling everyone he was an ambassador for Occupy Wall Street. Actually, he didn't say that because he was speaking in tongues, but his spokesman hippy buddy was translating for him. Yes, what wonderful representatives for this wonderful group of people. I'm sure that there non-specified demands will surely be met when they approach the delicate situation of poverty and inequality with such class and finesse. Did you hear me rich people, stop being so rich! And start giving your money to drug addicts so that they don't have to prostitute themselves in order to make money for drugs. I think that's what the Occupiers were demanding?...

 

Now that I'm on it, I will say it straight out. I fully agree that there is inequality and poverty in America and especially outside of America, and I think that people should be charitable and help others. But homeless people terrorizing the streets of major cities, is that really going to make your message loud and clear? There should be a better way of doing this. And when you roam the streets high and intoxicated and harass bystanders, I'm sure you're really going to get whatever it is that you want, which we don't even know what that is and neither do you. Anyway, I just had to get it out there. That's right, Bolts of Thunder just got political all up in your face!

Late in the Game

I know it's late, but I still wanted to put up a picture today. Can you blame me for wanting to take care of my blog? So 360 flips are a trick that come and go for me, but they're fun to do while they're around. Rachel took this picture of me doing one a couple weeks ago, and I just got it from her phone. I guess that's it for today, but enjoy!

Money Board

That's right people, Bolts of Thunder is now proud to announce that we are going to start making our own internet video parts that you have to pay top dollar for!!! We are going to police the internet every single day to make sure that you don't secretly upload these videos without our first making money off of it, and we'll go after you with everything we got if you do try and show the video without us getting richer. After seeing Nyjah Houston's Rise and Shine all up in your face, Grizzly dude's Big willie style bangin theory, and Paul Rodriguez's his self him and all about him making money Kanye West video, we knew the direction that Bolts of Thunder must go in. So we are proud to announce that Bolts of Thunder has made our first internet video part that you will only get to see if you pay us money. Yes, that's right, we are keeping our skating secretive and selective for those that are willing to pay money to see it. Our first video part is a 4 minute long tranny/slam section featuring Nick Edwards, called "Nick Edwards: Stand Up Straight and Tall for What You Believe In" where Nick shows us the finer points of frontside blunts and front rocks in harsh tranny. My personal favorites because I cannot do either of them. So for those of you who wish to see this new video, please leave a comment with how much you're willing to pay for it, and we'll see if it's enough to purchase this epic buy. I'd pay an arm and a leg for it because that's nearly what it cost Nick to film it...

Good pug bad pug

My wife took these pictures on her cell phone. I'm proud of her because she knows not to cut off the skater's head when you take pictures. A skater's head is very important, and that's why you don't do drugs, kids! Man, I've been sick all week and haven't been able to step on my board. And it's been snowing out, which the snow gets in the way, too. But looking at these pictures makes me want to run and jump really far. And hope for a soft landing. Or at least a smooth one. But I'm too tired for that right now... Maybe tomorrow.

So yesterday's post prompted one reaction: Anger. That's right, people, let the anger fill up within you. Then come at me full speed and swinging, because I'm ready! It's the first post in a week or so that there is no confused reaction, only angry. The dude that's usually confused reading the blog has had enough and is now really angry. I guess he couldn't get what's going on for too long and channeled all of his confusion into anger. That reminds me of my pug dogs every time someone rang the doorbell. They were confused as to what the sound was, looked at each other, then channeled all of their confusion into pure, unadulterated rage and went straight for the jugular. Good thing for the pug dogs though is that they had inches of loose skin about their necks, protecting the jugular from attacking enemies. Anyway, to you, our confused and now angry pug dog reader, stop using those acronyms of yours and you won't be so confused or angry any more...

Now that I'm thinking about pug dogs, I remember when Doty, the older of the two pugs, would steal candy from wherever she could. She loved Dumdums, those little suckers. She would suck on them just like a human, with the stick coming out of her mouth. She looked like a natural. But when she found out it was forbidden for pugs to eat candy, she would take the Dumdums and hide far back under one of our beds and enjoy her spoils. When we caught her, she would bark fiercely at us, warning us of the consequences of getting between a pug dog and its prey. She was too nice to ever follow through on those threats... Except that one time, she actually did bite my sister and sunk her teeth into Ginger's hand. She had to go to the hospital to get some kind of shot, and the doggy police had to come monitor my pug dogs every couple of months. Those were the dark times when Dotty was on probation. No dumdum suckers for her. Tinkerbell, the younger sister, was quite happy to for once play the role as the good pug. She was notorious for being the bad pug...

This spot is just the hottest thing in Utah County since PGJH's front sign blew up 4 years back. You know, PGJH down the street from AF and just up river a little from OP. Man, thinking of all the acronyms that skaters use around here is pretty annoying. Something that gets your blood boiling. Especially when you're sick and tired, like I am today. So you're going to hear it from me... So some skater a few years back, I have my suspicions as to who but I won't name names, decided that saying "PGJH", four of the most awkward letters you could possibly use as an acronym together, was much easier and quicker than saying "Pleasant Grove" which rather rolls off the tongue. If someone is confused when you just say "Pleasant Grove", you can specify the spot a little more and clear up any confusion. That would save you the embarrassment and loss of respect from others by using this acronym. So don't use it, kids...

So that spot really is fun to skate. Those banks are full of possibilities, wonders, and excitement, and adding a flat bar to the mix just makes it even funner. Actually, that reminds me of a story. A couple years ago, me and Nick went to check out this spot and skate it. But when we pulled up, a concerned diesel truck driver pulled up and asked us if we needed any help. Not wanting to turn ourselves in so easily, we told him we were simply lost and were turning around. But he pushed the issue further and asked us the address we were going to. So I told him we were looking for Lindon but didn't know if we were still in Orem. He looked confused, so I kept talking, worsening the situation and reaffirming his suspicions. I told him that some addresses in the area have 2 addresses, one for Orem, the other for Lindon, which is true. But he read through the lines and probably suspected us of trying something much worse than skateboarding on the premises, and he told us to take our dirty business else where. We drove off in defeat that day...

That reminds me of the time me and Matt told the boat salesman that we wanted to look at a boat because our uncle used to have that same model of boat and it had sentimental value to us when we really wanted to scope out a handrail that we thought was behind his property. Turned out to be the wrong property. And just for the record, it was me that made up the story, not Matt, just to clear Matt's good name. And for the other record, we're usually really good at handling these situations, we just let this one slip... So the boat dude interpreted my half-baked reason for being on the property as we wanted to steal a boat, so he trailed about 10 feet behind us and tried to hide when we laughed at the situation and turned around. We got out of there as fast as we could with the dude walking behind us like he was running us out of there. Pretty embarrassing. I guess you win some, you lose some, and you'd rather forget about others.

That's AJ and Ben skating the rail into the bank. I guess that's all I really wanted to say.