Today was our eighth day of practice for this year’s Boom Boom Huck Jam show. The crew is as follows:

Skateboard: Sergie Ventura, Lincoln Ueda, Bucky Lasek, Bob Burnquist, Tony Hawk and me.

BMX: Simon Tabron, Dennis McCoy, John Parker, Kevin Robinson, and Mat Hoffman.

Freestyle Moto-X: Dustin Miller, Carey Heart, Ronnie Faisst, Clifford Adoptante.

So far we had pretty much worked out all the routines we needed up till the finale. Tony and I sat next to the ramp at nine thirty in the morning discussing what might work. Somehow we convinced each other that a quadruple stack was a good idea. It never occurred to us that trying to stack four riders over and under each other on a half pipe had never before been attempted. It also seemed to have slipped our minds that it wasn’t even noon yet. Sure enough though, with very little warm up, we found ourselves trying to work out a quadruple stack.

The idea was that Kevin Robinson was going to roll in at speed. He would crank one air and Lincoln would come in with him. They would crank another set up air and then Tony and I would drop in. I would air under Lincoln and Kevin, while airing over Tony doing a grind. We didn’t get that far. Kevin and Lincoln started and just did the doubles, both blasting pretty high. Then I came and we made our first try at the triple stack with the three of us in the air–something that hasn’t been done to my knowledge. It felt okay but we thought we’d try it again for timing before we added Tony.

Kevin rolled in and blasted his first air. Lincoln came in with him but was a little late on the drop-in. I was timing off Lincoln and trying to drop a little later than him. The result was that I ended up being way too late. I was just reaching my peak when I knew things were not going to work out. Kevin was already on his way down and heading right for me. We knew we were going to hit. In a split second I tried to fall faster to get out of his way and Kevin tried to stay in the air longer. Obviously, gravity is gravity and it took over. Kevin’s front tire hit me in the back. Somehow I was pushed to the side as Kevin went straight over the bars to his head and shoulders, literally inches from where I was knee sliding down the ramp. Tony and the rest of the crew were watching from the opposite deck and they all swore I was dead. Kevin is a big guy and his thirty-pound bike was only adding to the train crash. Somehow, Kevin got the worst of it and I was spared. I’ve been nursing some bruised ribs since the Gravity Games and things could have been a lot worse. Kevin got the wind knocked out of him pretty good and he’s got a six inch round ramp burn on his shoulder as well as a broken helmet.

"Good morning!" Kevin said when he got his wind back and realized he hadn’t killed me. That will wake you up for sure! Needless to say we moved on to other things that were a little less trying and a lot safer for the rest of the morning. In the end, Tony, Lincoln, Sergie and I worked out a pseudo-quad stack in which Tony and I cross under Lincoln and Surge who were doing airs next to each other.

Road Food- TV
September 5, 2003

Although I thought I might get to stay at home for a day or two this week, it wasn’t going to happen. The phone rang on Tuesday and it was time to go again. Andy Mac Skateboards just launched at Costco, so off I went to LA for some TV gigs to get the word out.

The first stop was a commercial shoot with Tony in Venice Beach. McDonald’s is sponsoring the Huck Jam Tour this year so they wanted a new ad to promote the tour. Tony was kind enough to invite me along. What he forgot to mention was that they had brought in part of the Huck Jam ramp for us to skate. I showed up with my street board and no knee pads, thinking we were just going to be skating the Venice Beach boardwalk. Luckily I was able to borrow some pads, but skating vert with a seven and a half inch wide street board was going to be a challenge. We did a few doubles-lines for the cameras, and in between takes, Tony tried to throw french fries in my mouth as I did frontside grinds. I almost caught one. My thin little street board was flipping really fast so I threw a double kickflip indy and it worked like a charm. I started trying triple flips after that and actually got it into my hand a few times. I think I could do it if I kept at it.

The next day I was back in LA. This time I was in Hollywood at the Mad TV studios. I’d done some work with Mad TV last year so I knew some of the cast already. One of the directors is also one of the stars of the movie Best in Show–one of my favorite flicks. The sketch we were doing involved Ronnie Feist, Tony Hawk, Bucky Lasek, and myself. The scenario was that we were all part of the wait-staff at the Boom-Boom-Huck-Jam-themed restaurant. An 80-year-old grandmother had come for her birthday as Tony, Bucky and I skated around with trays of food and Ronnie buzzed by on his moto-X bike. It’s all silly stuff, but it was fun shooting it and should be pretty funny. We all had other plans for the night, so we broke out right after the happy birthday song.

I hit the 101-freeway and crawled south with the traffic until I reached the Disneyland exit. I found my way to the ESPN Zone restaurant in Downtown Disney. I was a guest on Sports Zone–the wrap up show for Monday night football. (Except that it was Thursday night?) Anyway, it was the first game of the season and I was late. I jumped out of my car with my board and as soon as my wheels hit the pavement there were two rent-a-cops on mountain bikes behind me.

"No skateboarding!" came the all too anticipated call of the overzealous security.

"Oh I see, you guys get to ride bikes but I can’t ride a skateboard?" I protested just trying to buy time as I kept rolling.

"I get paid to ride a bike," he said, in an attempt to sound important but sounding very self-righteous instead.

"Well if that makes it ok, I get paid to ride a skateboard," I responded and took another push toward the restaurant.

They were both unimpressed and I knew they wouldn’t leave until I picked up my board. I did so just long enough to let them make a turn and get far enough away that I knew I could skate to the front door of the ESPN Zone before they caught back up to me.

I made it in time for the start of Sports Zone and did an interview wearing one of those funny sports caster head-gear-microphones. We talked about the Andy Mac Skateboards at Costco, my new book and the upcoming Huck Jam. At the end of the segment, we went out front to the parking lot to skate around. I did some kickflips and ollied the host while a crowd gathered to watch. I looked for my bike riding security friends but they were nowhere to be seen.

The show ended and I signed some autographs before heading out to my car. All the fans who had just watched me skate were also heading to their cars. Just as I reached my car, Robocop came skidding to a stop on his bike behind me.

"I guess you didn’t hear me when I said no skateboarding!" he yelled as if I was a six year old and he was my dad.

"No sir, I heard you loud and clear the first time," I said rolling my eyes at him, fascinated by the extreme irony of the situation.

Just then, one of my fans came up and asked to shake my hand. I obliged, apologizing and saying that I was in the middle of getting reprimanded for riding my skateboard. The fan said that he couldn’t believe it and shot Robocop a look of bewildered disgust.

"This is what we deal with every day," I said. "It’s part of professional skateboarding."

Maybe Robocop started to figure out what an ass he was making of himself because by the time I turned around and got in my car he was gone.