Aug 26^th 2003
I woke up at five in the morning today in order to make it to the Minnesota State Fair. Skatewave had a mini-skatepark set up for me to do demos on. We were there by six AM and there was traffic! People were waiting to get into the fair at six in the morning! I soon learned that the fair it a pretty big deal in these parts. I did morning TV and radio stuff for a while and got a chance to meet the Mayor and ollie over him. Then, at ten, I started doing demos. One demo, every two hours till six o’clock…all by myself. It was pretty rough going but I hung in there and was happy to make my 360 flips first try at every demo.

The best part of the day was checking out the fair in between demos. It seemed like they offered every food you could think of, on a stick. There was: hot dog on a stick, salmon on a stick, pickles on a stick and for breakfast I had pancake on a stick. There was also fried everything you could think of. There were the usual elephant ears and funnel cakes but what’s up with deep-fried Twinkies? I stayed away from those and the deep-fried candy–Snickers and Milky Way bars. I did however sample some fried Oreos and I must say they were pretty good. I don’t think I’d advise eating them more than once a year though. For dessert I had a nice piece of chocolate covered key lime pie…on a stick. Check the photos, I don’t feel so good.check out the photos

Los Angeles
I’m a busy dude. Since my book dropped on May first, I have been home for one weekend–the weekend of my thirtieth birthday.

The Xgames are over but the media frenzy continues. My schedule has not slowed down. It feels like I’ve been sitting in traffic between San Diego and LA for the past three weeks. First I was going up for the demos at Disney. Then it was back and forth for the Xgames. Yesterday I was back in traffic again. This time it was to visit the folks at the Orlando Jones Show. I brought my assistant Chelsea along this time to shoot some photos. We were on our way to Hollywood but our first stop was a book signing in La Mesa, just outside San Diego. The Yellow Book Road did a great job letting people know I was going to be in town and I was surprised to see how many kids came out at ten in the morning to skate and get their new books signed. Just down the street from the bookstore is a brand new community center–the Joan Kroc Center–complete with a sweet little indoor skatepark. A percentage of the sales from my book from The Yellow Book Road went to the Center. Sweet! I skated with the kids for a while and then signed lots of new books. It was one of the best book signings I’ve done all summer. Thanks to the kids and families in La Mesa for your support and thanks to The Yellow Book Road.

Chelsea and I arrived at the KTLA studios about a half hour late, due to–that’s right, LA traffic. I still had time to get in a little skating though. The plan was to skate around the Orlando Jones Show offices and basically wreak the place. We’d set up shots with a camera crew and I’d just come skating in and smash everything and everyone in my path. I did a frontside rock on one guy’s desk causing him to spill his cereal all over himself. I did a sweeper across another desk smashing a phone and sending files everywhere. The best one was in the kitchen. I ollied off the counter sending cereal and coffee in all directions and landed directly on the shin of one of the show’s writers. We didn’t plan it that way, but he took one for the team and it turned out to be pretty funny I think.

About an hour later it was show time. I thanked Orlando for having me on the show and told him that I had come up a bit early because I wanted to have a chance to show his staff what skateboarding was all about. I wanted them to really appreciate skateboarding. They then cut to the video of me smashing everything. People seem to like seeing things get smashed.

Orlando and I talked about my book and about how they don’t make Big Wheels like they used to. It was a fun show and Orlando is a very cool dude. The show will air in about two weeks. Check back to the site for the air dates. Oh and check the photos!

We spent the night in Hollywood hoping to avoid some traffic. The next morning I had another book signing. This time East of LA in a town called La Verne. Mrs. Nelson’s Books and Toys is a cool store right next to a high school and I was blown away at how many people were there when we pulled in. Because of the crazy Xgames schedule I had postponed this signing and figured it would have turned some people off. That was not the case at all. Mrs. Nelson’s sold one hundred and fifty copies of my book while I was there. There was no skate park this time so I just rolled around the parking lot showing kids the evolution of flat-ground skateboarding. I did everything from the boneless to the 360 flip and of course threw in a ho-ho plant for the moms and dads. I finished by ollieing over five kids lying down, and don’t worry, I didn’t get hurt. Just kidding. The kids didn’t get hurt either. I signed lots of books and was stoked to see so many kids excited about reading. Mrs. Nelson’s had it together. Thanks for hooking it up and thanks to the kids for coming out. Enjoy your reading.

X-Games
Another year of Xgames has come and gone. This year I pulled in the chrome (silver) in vert and a bronze in best trick. Tony and I decided to concentrate on the doubles we’ll be doing on the Huck Jam Tour this fall rather than competing. It was cool to just sit on the deck and be a spectator for once. Doubles is so much fun to watch.

The media frenzy is always the craziest part about the Xgames. This year was no different at the Staples Center in L.A. People really think that this is the only contest we go to all year long. On Tuesday night before the games kicked off, Mat Hoffman and I did the Craig Kilborne show. I did a rodeo 540 and called it he "Kil-air" in honor of the host. Then on Friday I went up to Fox for The Best Damn Sports Show Period. I did a quick comedy bit and then I ollied over one of the hosts the dangerous way
Check out the photos…

I’m finally home for a few days and getting ready for the next media-blow-out contest in two weeks—The Gravity Games. See you there.