The agent informed me that because of the way my ticket was booked, I would not be able to claim my bag in NYC and it would be checked straight through to San Diego. I informed her that I would be spending the entire day in NYC and needed to have my bag there with me and that I would gladly recheck it that night for my trip to San Diego. I told her that as a "one hundred thousand mile gold plus premier executive with the frequent flyer program" I had done this before and knew there must have been a mistake. She didn’t like that much. She said something about my thinking I could just get away with anything because of my mileage status and then something else about code orange security. We went back and forth a bit until I asked to talk to her supervisor. That got her really mad! She said I was talking to her and that was how it was going to be. She started to take my bag and pull it on to the luggage belt, but I wasn’t going out like that. Before she could lift the bag, I ripped off the bag tags and noticed a woman approaching that had heard the commotion–her supervisor!

With as much as I’ve travelled, I know the rules. I knew that it was FAA law that a passenger cannot check a bag in for a flight sooner than four hours before the departure time. My flight from New York to San Diego didn’t leave until six o’clock that night so there was no way they could legally check it through. The super was much more pleasant to work with and she set things straight. While she and her disgruntled employee discussed the situation, I decided I wasn’t comfortable checking in my board and pads anymore. I was supposed to do a photo shoot at the Chelsea Piers Skatepark upon arrival and I couldn’t afford the risk of my bag not showing up in NY and me not having my gear. I took out my board and pad bag and checked in the rest. I wondered if the peeved ticket agent I’d just proved wrong was going to reroute my bag to Topeka as some sort of twisted revenge.

It was now 5:15 am. I tried to put the little episode behind me, but that kind of stuff just gets to me–especially at five in the morning. I had a precious forty-five minutes before my flight left and I was dreaming of fruit smoothies. That all changed when I got to security. The woman at the checkpoint didn’t even take my ID and boarding pass. She just told me to turn around and go back and check in one of my bags. My blood pressure raised a few notches and I recited my knowledge of the FAA laws for carry-on bags under a "code orange-high" national security alert: "One carry-on bag and one personal item (such as a brief case or purse)." She seemed unimpressed and told me that was correct and that I had two carry-on bags. I countered saying that I had one carry-on bag (my board and gear bag) and one personal item (my computer bag). Even when I pulled out my computer to show her, she was adamant that I had two carry-on’s. While I was arguing with her, I watched three other business men in suits walk right through security with the standard huge roller bag (one carry on) and the bulging briefcase computer bag (the personal item). Any one of their combinations was almost twice the amount of stuff I was trying to carry on. I thought to myself that if I would just travel in a suit with a roller bag I’d spare myself a lot of grief. I almost pointed that out to my security friend, but knew that any further efforts to reason would be futile. Instead, I channeled my anger into finding a solution. She shrugged and I walked back down the hallway to get organized.

I couldn’t check my computer bag. It would be smashed for sure if it ever made it to New York. I couldn’t check my gear bag because I needed guarantee that I would have it when I landed. So I did the only thing any self-respecting pro skater would have done. I padded up: helmet, elbows and knees, still sweaty and stinking from the day before. Now I had plenty of room to make my two bags into one. I put my whole computer bag inside in my gear bag and strolled back to my friend at TSA security. She tried to play it cool and just checked my ID and boarding pass without comment but I’m sure I looked ridiculous. Bright yellow helmet and full pads over my clothes in the middle of the airport. To the other travelers I must have looked like I was some lunatic safety nut that was petrified of flying on an airplane for the first time. As I cleared security I started to enjoy my little costume because it worked. They couldn’t say anything. I thought about how funny it would be to just finish the rest of my travel that morning in full gear. When the pilot called for seat belts because of possible turbulence ahead, I’d adjust Velcro on my elbow pads, click on my helmet strap and grab the arm rests like we were going into orbit. It’s fun to mess with people.

As it turned out, my connecting flight in Washington D.C. was delayed over two hours and I didn’t catch up on any of the sleep I was hoping to while on the plane. When I finally arrived in the city, I went straight to the skatepark. We shot the photos we needed for a how-to section in Nick Jr. Magazine and I went straight back to JFK to catch my flight home. I did enjoy teaching some of the cutest kids a few tips though. One little girl even knocked out a tooth! For the record, I had nothing to do with it. It was before I even showed up and she wasn’t even skating. She just tripped and fell while walking over to the skatepark from the front office and popped a baby tooth out. Oh well, I hear kids get good money from the Tooth Fairy these days.

May 24, 2003
Every year a Boston radio station puts on a big rock festival a la The Warped Tour. It’s called the River Rave and I’ve done demos there a few times in the past. This year they said they had a big new thirteen-foot ramp. I was siked because it had been a week or so since I had skated vert. I arrived to meet Dennis McCoy and Joe Johnson who would be helping out on the BMX side of the demo and Mike Frazier, Neal Hendrix and Boston local, Crazy Horse, on the skate side. From the parking lot behind the fence, we could see the ramp and it looked ok. But when we walked up next to it we realized that someone had made a grave error. The decks stood thirteen feet off the ground but they neglected to notice that the flatbottom was also four feet off the ground. That gave us the biggest transition mini ramp I’ve ever seen. There was zero vert, which meant you had to ollie into every air you did. I thought for sure one of us was going to lock up and go over the bars by the end of the day.

Dennis, Mike, Neal and I decided to get as far away from the ramp as we could before we were scheduled to ride it for the first demo. We found the inflatable playland they had set up across the venue. Mike and Neal started off on the joust. You climb inside an inflatable boxing ring, try to keep your balance on these sketchy little lily pads and then smash each other with big padded clubs. Mike smashed Neal who then smashed me. Then Dennis and I got in the boxing ring next door. In this ring your boxing gloves weigh about fifteen pounds each and are about twenty-times larger than normal gloves. After only about a minute in the ring, swinging our arms at each other, we were too tired to go on. I got more worked in the playland inflatables than I did skating the vert ramp all day.

May 24, 2003
There’s not too much to write home about when you visit Indianapolis, that is, of course, unless you visit on Memorial Day weekend for the annual Indy-500 race. Such was the case today, when I woke up early again for another morning TV interview. SoBe had one of their Love Buses in the 500 Festival Parade and I’d flown in to ride atop the bus and wave at people. I had once been the Grand Marshal at a local cultural parade in San Diego, but this was different. People come from far and wide to see the Indy-500 and the parade the day before.

There were an estimated two hundred thousand race fans lining the streets when we lined up for the start of the parade. All the drivers were there, waving from one float or another and there were even a few celebrities. I’ve never gotten too excited about meeting celebrities, but when I saw Paula Abdul on the guest list I started to remember her ‘80’s pop career. I thought it would be funny if I met her to introduce myself by saying, "Straight up now tell me… what’s your name?"

One of my teammates on SoBe was scheduled to ride on the bus with me and help me wave, but he missed his flight the night before so I was on my own. Just before we got started there was a high school color guard getting ready to march. One of the girls yelled up to me and said she’d read my new book. Cool. They all looked a little nervous but when the SoBe bus fired up and started cranking up some 50 Cent they were inspired enough to set off a little dance session right there. From then on, they were pretty loose and we started out on our three-mile parade route. I began by just standing on top of the bus waving at kids and flipping my board around but grew tired of that pretty quickly. I jumped down onto the front of the bus and bonelessed off the hood. The crowd went nuts! Not bad for a boneless. I started skating around ollieing man hole lids and doing big G-turns. All the while I tried to remember to smile and wave. As soon as I climbed back onto the bus, I realized what I’d started. People didn’t want to see me just sitting there waving at them. They wanted me to skate! So I repeated my boneless off the Love Bus and started in on my three-mile skate along the parade route. I’m happy to report that I made every kickflip I tried and even a few 360 flips. Not bad, considering I was rocking my vert board with its huge wheels. A big crowd pleaser was the ho-ho plant, so I did one every once in a while when the parade slowed down or took a turn. About half way through we hit some cobble stone road that made even an ollie pretty rough. By the end of the parade, I was sweating good and my ollies were lacking pop. I was glad to be done. It was a fun morning and I even made it to the airport for an early flight to Boston. Demo’s tomorrow. I heard it’s raining there…

Sunday May 18, 2003
Last night was the finals. As planned, Bucky and I brought it home for the USA. My first run went just as I had planned with a varial 540, four flip tricks and a lien rodeo. It put me in the lead and I was stoked to have some of the pressure off. By my second run I was still in the lead and I had nothing to lose so I added a few flip tricks to my line and went for a 720 at the end. I missed the grab, but the buzzer went off while I was in the air. I bumped my score up a bit and I was happy. Bucky was in third place when he dropped in for his last run and he loves the pressure. He killed it and bumped me out to take first. We had talked about our strategy as team USA before the contest and we agreed that we needed to get first and second to add our points to the overall standings. We just never agreed on who would get first and who would get second. It was a really fun contest and I was happy with the way I skated. I’m sure team USA is going to take it in the overall standings. It makes sense, after all, the U.S. is where all these sports were invented.

I got up at five this morning to catch the first flight home. Rebecca and I are going up to San Francisco tomorrow to see my brother and his wife’s new baby girl. I’m an uncle. Time to practice up on my bad uncle jokes...

Thursday May 15, 2003 San Antonio, TX
REWIND a bit and we’re back in April. The Hawaii trip with Rebecca was sweet. Just five days of lounging around on the beach and doing as little as possible. That, in itself, is usually a tough one for me because I’m such a spaz I hate sitting still. But I actually enjoyed lying around for a few days. We broke it up a little by renting a giant twelve-foot long board and paddling out to surf tandem on the Wakiki waves. Amazingly, we both stood up and cruised a few times. That is, until I got a little overconfident and ran to the front of the board to lift Rebecca over my head like the real tandem couples do. Needless to say, we were quickly thrown back into the sea.

The first weekend in May is always the Slam City Jam contest in Vancouver, BC. This year was the tenth year of the contest, and a special one for me because the first one, ten years before, had been my first pro contest ever. This marked my tenth anniversary as a pro, the tenth anniversary of Slam City Jam, and the tenth year since World Cup Skateboarding started running events. We’ve all come a long way. One of my favorite reasons for going back every year are the several cement skate parks in and around Vancouver–the best of the lot being right next to the contest venue in Hastings Park. Hastings has cement bowls graduating from four to ten feet or more and hips and spines to boot.

I arrived on Thursday in time for a quick session at the bowls before things got too crowded. I woke up early on Friday to get some practice on street, then I went over to the vert ramp. It didn’t take too long to get used to that one because we were skating the same ramp we had for the Huck Jam tour. By three o’clock it was time for the bowl jam. There’s this crazy cat named "Rene-Rene" that heads up the festivities at Hastings every year. Sponsors kick in cash and Rene-Rene hands it out to deserving skaters for performing the most worthy tricks. Ok, yes we all skate around the bowls whoring our skating for cash. I did some doubles with Stevie Cab that was worth a hundred bucks and I aired over Rene-Rene and took a fifty out of his hand on the way. For the next half hour I tried a kickflip frontside air transfer over the hip from the deep bowl to the shallow–clearing the mid bowl. It was chore not only to do the trick but to dodge the number of people skating the park. In order to get speed enough to make the gap I had to pump a line around most of the bowl just to get there. Three out of four times I started, someone would turn up in the way. Eventually, Rene-Rene started clearing the bowl for me when he saw me dropping in. That helped and I made it a few tries later. My efforts were worth $150. With my newfound financial independence I took a break for a slice of pizza and a root beer before I headed back over to the vert ramp for more skating.

As part of letting Slam City use his ramp, Tony Hawk had offered to do a demo to raise money for his skatepark foundation. I’d promised him earlier that I’d skate the demo with him but I had no idea that I would have skated so much that day. I was tired, but also fired-up to skate the Huck Jam ramp with the same crew from the tour. We skated for a while. I made my 720 and Tony made his 900 and the crowd was pleased. Then we got together for our doubles/triples/quadruples line from the tour. I can’t believe we all remembered it–first try without a fall! It was a good way to end the demo. A few skaters that had never seen the routine from the Huck Jam told me afterward that, with as much vert skating as they’d seen, our finale was some of the most impressive. I had skated from nine in the morning until nine at night, pretty much non-stop. I slept soundly that night. The contest went well the next day. I placed top thirty in street and got second in vert behind Sandro Dias who has been on a tear so far this year. I made my rodeo 540 but wimped out on the 720. Such is life.

With the start of May came the start of my book tour. "Dropping in with Andy Mac" hit the bookstores on May 1st so I’m obligated to get the word out as much as possible while I’m on the road. Last weekend I went out to Chicago to do the grand opening at a new Skatewave park just outside the city. I got there a day early to make the media rounds for my book and also to grant a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. The Foundation grants wishes to children with terminal illnesses. Thirteen-year-old Josh and I got together for a session at a cement park right on the river. He was a bit nervous at first, but I hooked him up with a new Andy Mac board, a set of my shoes, and a pad set, and once we started skating, he loosened up. Josh is a strong dude and I feel lucky to have been able to grant his wish. The guy from the Foundation that set up the meeting has the official title of "Wish Granter." I think that’s a pretty great job and I’m glad I got to be a Wish Granter, if just for a day.

The grand opening demo the next day went well considering that it started raining a half hour after I got there. I wasn’t going to get much skating in anyway, but just as the downpour started, I broke my board while playing Skate with some kids. I signed a bunch of stuff, did an interview about the positive attributes of safety gear and headed for the airport.

I flew to Texas a couple days ago for the first ever X Games Global Challenge. That’s where I am now. It’s just another TV show for ESPN, but it should be fun. The idea is to put different sections of the world together to compete in a team format. Bucky Lasek joins me as the vert team and we’ve got Eric Koston and Chris Senn over on the street side. Practice was today. The ramp is pretty good. It has a hip in it that is going to affect everyone’s line in one way or another. I found a way over it today without dropping to the bottom so if I can do it in the contest, I’ll be happy. There was an athlete reception party tonight, but people here in San Antonio are much more interested in their Spurs beating the Lakers and advancing to the NBA finals. There are still people honking their horns and going nuts as I write this.

Tuesday May 13, 2003
January was, thankfully, pretty uneventful. I got to spend some much needed time at home with the wife who was getting ready for her first half marathon as part of her training for the San Diego Rock ‘n Roll Marathon in June. I consider myself an athlete. I ride a skateboard and if I go a day without breaking a sweat, I feel like I didn’t get anything done. That being said, I think you’ve got to be a little nuts to want to run that far of a distance. I watched her leave from the starting line; I went and had a relaxing two-hour breakfast with Grandma, and then I strolled back over to the finish line to see her come in. That’s when an astonishing reality hit me. My wife had been running for the past two and a half hours…non-stop. When she does the marathon in June she’ll be at it for close to five hours without stopping. I can’t run to the corner and back with out great suffering, never mind 26 miles. It’s on my wife’s "life list" of things to do so I’m backing her and I really envy her. She’s doing something in sports that I know I could never accomplish.

I hired a new PR agency starting this year. They’re going to help kick-off the Andy Mac brand this summer. I’ve been working on Andy Mac Skateboards with my long time boss George Powell. We should have boards out by mid summer. Andy Mac Shoes hit Payless stores for Christmas thanks to all the hard workers at Airwalk, and I’ve been really siked about the response so far.

In February, Rebecca and I went down to Australia for the World Cup contest in Melbourne. I had not been down under in two years and it was Rebecca’s first trip so we made the most of it. Swatch was the presenting sponsor of the event so they were nice enough to hook us up with a little vacation time in Sydney before the contest. We went on a dinner cruise in Sydney Harbor, saw a great Picasso exhibit at the art museum and some awesome sculptures at the Museum of Contemporary Art. We tried to get to the Opera House but there was nothing playing on the night we wanted to go. We ended up at the Comedy Club instead, watching Australians make fun of the Crocodile Hunter. I even got to skate a sweet little cement park right on the beach just outside the city.

Over in Melbourne, the contest was pretty fun. It was in the same arena that the Australian Open tennis match is held. Two years ago I got to see some of the match and all I can say is, skaters have more fun. The crowd seemed very happy to see all the skate pros in their hometown.

In the street contest I broke my board doing a shuv-it out of a 50-50 on the flat bar and had to finish my run on my vert board. It’s a bit more challenging to get those 360 flips around with a wide board and 62mm wheels, but it worked ok. I skated well in vert but didn’t feel confident enough to throw the 720 into my line. Sure enough, just after the contest ended-- while skating the best trick comp-- Rebecca called me out. "Oh, you want a 720 right here?" I asked jokingly as if I can do it on command any time. I was pleasantly surprised to nail the first one I tried. It’s funny how that works. It’s all confidence. I often get nervous about having Rebecca with me at contests, mostly because I know how boring it can be for her to sit there watching all day. But this time, Rebecca had a plan. She had just recently learned how to knit. By the end of the weekend, she was quite the speedy knitter and showed me her new five-foot long scarf. Sweet.

March 6^th was Rebecca’s birthday and I surprised her with a surf trip to Hawaii compliments of my United frequent flyer miles. Because we were right in the middle of moving–out of one house and into another–we pushed the trip to April.