Homies

Yes, that is Dave levitating midst the great Earth Wind and Fire. His roots go way back to the disco human rights movement of the 70s, and he's brought those roots straight into Bolts of Thunder, old school style. And yes, that is Dan grooming Brandon while Brandon boardslides straight up and over a hostile bank to barrier. So this post is to fill you in on the ice cream man friends section of the video. Shall we get started?

First up is Chad James. In my phone he is known as "Chad Skater". Whenever I meet a new skater, I put their first name in my phone then "skater" after to remind me that they are friendly towards Bolts of Thunder. Ben, for example, is "Ben Skater". The list goes on as I've met quite a few new skater friends in recent months. Chad has the meanest, angriest, most vengeful switch and nollie flips I've ever seen. It's a shame we didn't capture any on film, but we've currently got filmers working round the clock, stalking Chad and documenting his switchness. We'll get a shot. Next is Weston. You know Weston, and you love his photography. We only skated with him two times during the entire filming of the video, so he doesn't have much. Had we skated with him another handful of times, he would have filmed enough footage for his own part. We'll see what the future brings, but I, for one, would be a huge fan of another full Weston Colton Part. Brandon Miller is on deck next. He's Dan Shaw's cousin, which automatically means he's a ripper and he's awesome. I love hanging out with him because he's always down for whatever. He's not the guy that you just skate with and then say your good byes, but you can chill with him late into the night, trading war stories and what not. the only problem is the 700 miles that currently separate us. But Bolts of Thunder can conquer all, and believe you me, this is not the end of Brandon Miller. I can't remember who's next, but I think it's Coleman. Coleman has a super mean heelflip, and he throw it up and over every obstacle he comes across. He's a super nice kid, too. David Law. This footage was filmed during the only skate session we had with him since our last video came out. He can skate anything and everything, and he makes it look good. That fridge was super awkward for me to skate, but he made it look like so much fun. And that is quite an impressive beard he was sporting at the time. Thanks for the grills, David! Zak Smith is Zak Smith. He's a ripper of the highest quality, and he can every single trick I can think of. Dead serious. And he can do them all super clean, too. He filmed almost all those tricks in a 3 day period. He needs to film more and get himself a full length part... Dave McDonald... He's one of my favorite people to skate/chill/hang/chat/sit/or talk with. He's right for any occasion because he's always down for whatever. We filmed these tricks back in October one weekend when he randomly showed up at my doorstep. We thought he was in Paris, but he was having visa issues and had to stay in the country for a couple months. So he randomly came up to Provo and hung out for the weekend. It was way fun, and we got a couple tricks of him. He didn't even have a board, so he just used Matt's old school board and Matt's filming shoes. We've got big plans of reuniting in Europe again soon and tearing Paris to bits. Every time I think of Paris, I think of that hubba ledge down the double set that Dave worked himself on, then I think of getting bird crap all over his camera and all over all of us. It was at that spot, and we must have set the camera down in bird crap while we were filming. Except this isn't your standard issue bird crap, this was like an ostrich had taken a massive dump and we put the camera in it. We all got it all over our hands, and Dave had it all over his pants. We had to ride the subway home for an hour, and we all felt and smelt like crap. It was our last day in Paris, so it was a fitting way to end our trip. It was way fun though... Dan Shaw. Don't get me started. I could write a book on the fellow, and I really want to. He's one of the coolest people you could ever know in your life, and he is super man. I will just sum it up with that, he is superman, and he is indestructible. This is a classic Dan part with harsh tranny skating, ripped pants, and mega airs out of obstacles that weren't made for airing. He's amazing, and I'm way proud of his little section.

I guess that gives a quick recap of the friends section. It's one of my favorite parts we've ever made, and I think it represents what Bolts of Thunder stands for pretty accurately. That last trick is of Matt trying to boardslide down that ditch hubba. That thing is insane, and Matt's the only person I know of that's tried it. I set up on top and rode down, and it was super scary, so bonus points to Matt for actually riding up to it and trying to boardslide down...