jackassworld

Following our previous night out in San Jose at the Blank Club, a bar owned by former professional skateboarder Corey O’Brien, the guys motivation to get up and do much of anything was greatly diminished. Plus, no one was really looking forward to the prospect of hitting up the new Lake Cunningham skate park first thing out of the gate. So with the help of our San Jose “fixer” Reeps and Santa Cruz music mogul Sneaky Greg, we hooked up a backyard mini-ramp session to ease into the day. Wee Man made workable use of the ramp’s awkward extension, while Chris Pontius finally felt like getting back onboard following his extreme hamster ball experience at Moñtana de Oro.

Mid-afternoon we followed Reep’s over to the new multi-million dollar Lake Cunningham park, which is basically the equivalent to an Olympic training facility for skateboarders. Some real architectural masturbation went into this shapely pile of concrete, the vast majority of which was lost on us. Or maybe we were just being babies because the park required full pads and the people operating it refused to sign the paperwork we needed for filming purposes. Anyway, the park is scary big and I guess it took out three people the previous day, one of which included legendary professional Steve Caballero, who was practicing for the upcoming World Cup/Tim Brauch memorial contest on Sunday, September 28. I’d brashly assumed the place was going to be too big and daunting for the average kid, but there was a 12-year-old girl doing frontside grinds in the big bowl, while a 4-year-old boy was rolling into shit that I wouldn’t even consider doing in full Road Warrior pads. So at this rate, who knows, maybe a whole new breed of X-Gaymes skater will emerge. Hopefully the little bastards will have the foresight not to do any reality TV shows about their dramatic lives. We left Lake Cunningham without ever pulling our boards out of the van and instead grabbed some 12-packs and went over to another backyard mini-ramp construction for an infinitely more fun and relaxing time.

The night eventually ended for us back at the Blank Club, where we learned, once again, that alcohol, Morrissey cover bands, and live webcasts don’t always mix. Dave England committed a few online no-nos that will probably result in our Ustream account being banned, but oh well! Enjoy this shit while it lasts. Thanks again to Corey and Reeps for showing us some good old fashioned hospitality while we were in town!

(photo by Sean Cliver; San Jose, CA; 2008)