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.