Going back out West: Jason Ellis, Perris Dropzone etc.
Nov 6th was the next Stand up for Skatepark in Vegas with X playing!! I was excited to have another jam with the masters, and I’ve been trying to see X since I was a little kid, but I threw my back out working on my new house and could barely walk…. So last minute I decided to go back west in support of Jason Ellis. He was having an Ellis Mania at the Hollywood palladium. …and I arranged to jump out of a hot air balloon on the morning of the 7th before my flight back.
I’ve toured with Ellis on many tours and he may be the funniest human alive. He would make tour fly by and always stand up for me if there were any bmx haters around… He rode his board like I like to ride my bike. I’d see a big transfer line and the only person who would beat me to it would be Ellis. He goes big and I must state Jason Ellis may be the wittiest dark overlord of our century. The dude makes me laugh and shake my head constantly when he’s around.
The hot air balloon jump didn’t work out because the winds were at 40mph + at around 5000 ft, next time…. so we went to the Perris dropzone and got 3 jumps in. Then, Rooftop dropped me off at the airport. thanks roofy.
On Nov 13th I went to Stew Johnson’s the Anthem premier in Austin. I saw a lot of OG greats and hung out with Sheps! I love that man. Ain’t nothing changes but his limp.
Dec 3rd I went to Vegas to raise some money for TJ lavin.
Dec 8th I went to Portland to meet up with Lew and show my film at Nemo to all the rad local. Ryan Barrett brought me by Burnside to let me drool. I should have brought my bike… We had an auction and were able to raise some money for Mike Vincent! Mike needs all the support anyone can give, so if you can spare some for a brother please give, press here.
Hangin out with Tony Hawk, Perry Ferrell, P Diddy, Ben Harper & Spike Jonze
Saturday, Oct. 16 – I got to do a show with Tony Hawk and gang for Tony’s Stand Up for Skateparks. This was another big “getting back on the horse” moment for me. I hadn’t ridden with Tony for about the same amount of time I hadn’t jumped out of planes!
We got there and the weather was looking bad. The one time it rains in LA, it has to be the day I was going to ride with vert royalty. We are all sitting back stage and I notice Perry Ferrell and Ben Harper hanging out! I find out Jane’s Addiction will be performing before us! Awesomeness! I talk with Perry and Ben. I had never met Ben before, but I met Perry about 15 years ago. We were introduced when he was looking for someone to help dream up some ridiculous sport style extracurricular events for a new festival he was thinking of creating in Israel called “Jubilee.” Obviously this was before the times had changed that would make this not the most embraced idea, but either way it was amazing to get to know Perry.
So, it was looking like we weren’t going to do a show because the rain wasn’t letting up. Jane’s Addiction took the stage and destroyed it! I was moshing like I was 11 again with my brother’s punk rock army. Perry saw me moshing and stopped the show for a moment and talked about the first time we met. I was pinching myself.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4YNmGSAjDc’]
After the show, nobody was feeling a vert session with the rain. Unfortunately, I got this “Do or Die” mindset after being called out by Jane’s amazing show and got on the ramp. Everyone was shaking there head, but sorry… I dropped in and started pumping the ramp. It was feeling sweet, but the lip felt soft. I remembered Tony’s ramps are a little bigger and the flow is a little strange at first. I remember thinking last time I rode this I had to just trust the lip and lean into it. I launch to about 9 or 10 feet out and look down to see that I’m going to case the lip hard. I knew there is no way my shoulder would take it. The next thing I know I’m ejecting off my bike to the flat bottom…
Okay, this was my first run on vert in an official show (besides the one I did at the Tribeca Film Festival) in more than 3 years and I’m riding in the rain and eat shit the first run. WELCOME BACK….
I didn’t have elbow pads on, so both elbow are bleeding pretty good, but when I stood up nothing seemed broke and I didn’t hit my head too hard to jack my balance, so I picked my bike up and got back to the deck of the ramp. I popped out and saw Tony looking at me all like, dude WTF. I said, “I was going to case front wheel…” Tony said, “Uh, yeah I saw…” Then he gave me his elbow pads. Thanks Tony.
My next run I got up to about the same height I crashed at and felt like I was working the lip right, so I spun a 540 to spite my slam. These are the shows I love, but I know it’s not going to be pretty. I pulled it and threw a flair on the next wall and flew out. Redemption.
That was a great day! It felt like a reunion. Sergie Ventura’s huge crucifix airs, Neal Hendrix’s fastplants, Lincoln Ueda’s riding his board like a magic carpet, Lindsey Hawkins is the man, and Tony’s a machine! It was an honor to be a part of it all. The rain just made it more fun. I got to do a triple stack with Tony and Lincoln! That felt good. I slammed on an ally oop (weird) but pulled a no handed 540 to a flair to a tailwhip. It had been a while since I linked that together and it made me smile…
After the show I auctioned off my bike. This has been a tradition since the first StandUP fundraiser I did. Back in 2005 Pamela Anderson bought it. In 2006 P Diddy bought it for his boy, then in 2007 I got t-boned by an 18-wheeler and I hadn’t been back til today.
The great Jason Ellis auctioned it off and the GREAT Ben Harper bid highest for it! I’m floating on a cloud at this point. Ben Harper! A lot of heart went into this bike. This was the bike I retrained my body to ride with an arm that doesn’t work anymore. I wanted someone to adopt it that understood the heart that went into this bike. Thanks Ben. I was living the dream today.
After the show, I went back to my hotel and got a call from Spike Jonze and Rinko. We met up to get some ice cream. After the delicious ice cream, Spike heard Jackass 3D set a weekend record # at the box office, so we went to this ridiculous Jackass billboard on Sunset Blvd and shot this picture, to savor the moment. Spike is the most unofficial official player I know. heh heh. …here’s to never growing up!
New site and tons of updates
It’s been a longtime. A lot has changed in the digi world since I’ve kept my website up-to-day and I’m claiming this time I’m going new school and updating my ways to be able to share more regularly.
Let me do a little catch up. I won’t go too far back, but let’s start at Oct 13th 2010. This was a multi-tasking week I put together in LA. It was the weekend Jackass 3D premiered and on Wednesday the 13th we had a friends and family premiere at the Chinese theater across from the Roosevelt in Hollywood.
I flew in with Jaci to check out the reining kings of ridiculousness survive another movie as I watched them throw a brick at Hollywood by breaking all the rules and setting records… Then, Jaci went home and I stayed in town to attend the Anaheim Film Festival on Friday for a showing of my documentary “The Birth of Big Air” with the all mighty Seth Casriel (editor) and Priya Swaminathan (producer), two of the great powers behind my doc.
BUT that meant I had two days in LA with no plans, so I brought my skydive equipment and I called up Rooftop (Mike Escamilla) and went to the dropzone. I’ve been skydiving since I was 16 and have had several hundred jumps, but an 18-wheeler hit me Oct 27th 2007 and wrecked my shoulder beyond repair and I hadn’t been healthy enough to skydive since! I had started flying my paramotor and paragliding again, but hadn’t jumped from a plane and reached terminal velocity in 1574 days, 4.3 years!
I had been training and building up my confidence. The last time I was in Florida I went to the wind tunnel and brought my family and flew it to make sure my shoulder would stay in socket with my new shoulder brace. Gianna and Jet took their first flights too! Awesome. Jaci flew too. You could tell she’s had a 15-year ballet career and takes yoga and pilates every day. I haven’t seen better form in jumpers who have thousands of jumps….
Well, the time had finally come to get back in the sky. Here’s some jumps we had. Mike is filming in this one.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLExJqIStYA’]
Perris Jump 1 – I forgot to tell him to NOT grab my arm because it may come off… you’ll notice how he is flying up to me to dock (grab my arm) and I’m backing up shacking my head.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15TB0RCvYtQ’]Perris Jump 2 – I wanted to see how my arm would do flying on my back and Rooftop (Mike) came flying by.
