Week Three
 

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Monday April 2, 2007 - Chino Hills High School (Chino Hills, California) It’s week three of the tour, and we are still in southern California. This week of the tour takes us about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, to the Riverside/Ontario area. We are going to be in this area for the next two weeks, and our very first stop was at Chino Hills High School.

Chino Hills is a fairly new campus, about six years old, and their football stadium is less then two years old. This is where our show was to take place today. They had us park the ramp truck on the football field, close to the home bleachers, and they scheduled an hour-long assembly for 11:20AM. The students were brought out to the field by class, and it was an endless stream of people. It took almost 20 minutes to get them all out, but when they finally made it, the entire home side of the bleachers was full, corner-to-corner, and we even had students on the field in front of the ramp.

Before the actual show started, the Principal took the microphone and spoke briefly with the students about their upcoming state testing, and informed the students that our show was an “incentive” for them to do good at their testing next week.  Once the Principal was finished with his announcements, it was show time.

We have a few athlete changes for this week. Gabe Weed, Fabiola da Silva, and Dave Voelker are still here, but we swapped out Alex Perleson and Danny Mayer for skateboarder Mike Crum, and BMX rider Rob Nolli. We were glad to see Mike, and surprised he could make the shows. Mike’s wife is due any day now with their first child, so he very well could become a dad this week. Once the show started, the new guys jumped right into the mix. Mike Crum was pulling off frontside heelflips, inverts and lots of ollies. Rob Nolli has so many BMX tricks its amazing. He had all the airs and big flashy tricks, but he also had tons of technical lip tricks to show the students as well. Gabe was amazing as always, and Fabiola and Dave wrapped up the show with flatspins, 540’s, and a backflip.

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We had two shows today, both during the lunch periods. The truck was set-up in the front parking lot, and students were allowed to come out to the lot and crowd around the ramp. At first it looked like it would be a cold, grey, cloudy morning. Right before show time the clouds went away and we enjoyed clear blue skies. The bell rang at 10:46 and the first group made their way out. Gabe Weed started the show with some flatland tricks, and the rest of the athletes showcased their talents as well. The first group had about a 38 minute time slot to see the show, but then the bell rang, and they had to head back to class.

We had a brief 20-minute intermission before the next group came out, and that’s when the “halftime show” started. Dave Voelker brought his kids out for this week of the tour, and my son Tristan is still on tour with us as well. Colton Voelker and Tristan are both very into BMX riding, so they took to the halfpipe for the 20 minutes in between shows. It was really something else to watch these two kids learn the ropes of how to pump and carve a ramp on a BMX bike.

The bell rang again at 11:50, and it was time for show # 2. The second group got quite an eyeful from the athletes. Rob Nolli ended both shows with a tailwhip, and Dave Voelker capped off his runs with a backflip.

Special thanks today go out to Lynn Menius of Centennial High, for having us back to her campus once again. Another big thanks go to the two students who brought us pizza in between shows. I never got your names, but thanks for feeding us.   That’s it for today.  Next stop, Los Osos High, see you there.
-- Jimmy C

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We had two lunch shows today, and we were positioned right in the middle of the school’s concrete quad. This made Gabe Weed very happy because it meant he had some extra room to ride flatland on, and he used it to his full advantage. It was a pretty cool morning, but around show time the sun was blazing and it was nice and hot.

Gabe Weed started both shows with some tricks on the bottom of the ramp, and then used the concrete area to treat the students to some of his rolling tricks that he doesn’t get to do when we are set-up on grass. When Gabe wasn’t riding, the other athletes were getting crazy on the vert ramp.

In between shows, we had some warm-up entertainment again. Colton Voelker and my son Tristan got on the ramp and showed that they definitely have the skills to become future got milk? Gravity Tour pros. After the “Tristan and Colton show” the bell rang again and the second group of students came out. This was a slightly smaller group, and as they made their way to the quad, they were greeted by “Stoney” and Mike from Swiss Dairies, who were busy passing out free milk samples.

In the second show, things kicked up a notch. Everyone went a little higher, and Dave Voelker and Rob Nolli even gave a few attempts at pulling off a doubles run, much to the approval of the Los Osos students.

Special thanks today goes out to Dianne Murphy, our contact at the school, for having us out, and for ordering us pizzas for lunch. She didn’t just order enough for the crew and athletes, but she made sure Dave’s kids and my son had pizza too.

That’s it for today’s update. Time to sit by the pool with the kids and finish off the chocolate milk that the Swiss Dairy guys loaded up our cooler with. Next stop, Etiwanda High.
-- Jimmy C

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We set up in the quad of Etiwanda High School today. This was a school we visited last year on the spring tour, so we were in familiar territory. We had two lunchtime shows today. This show is always a little different compared to other schools, because of the student anti-tobacco class. They set up a table next to the ramp and passed out anti-tobacco literature, and had some really cool and disgusting displays, to show other students just how harmful tobacco really is. They had a plastic model of a human mouth that showed the sores and decay that chewing tobacco can cause. The most shocking display was the “lung display”. They had a model of what a healthy human lung looks like and what a smoker’s lung looks like. If that doesn’t deter someone from smoking, I don’t know what will.

Again we were set-up on concrete, so that gave Gabe Weed some extra room to work his flatland magic. Mike Crum “ollied” and “nollied” every square inch of the ramp in both shows. Fabiola da Silva was blasting big airs today and her flatspins were the highest I have seen since we started the tour. Dave Voelker and Rob Nolli tried to do a doubles run yesterday, but the timing was a little off. They decided to go for it today, and it worked out. They did side by side airs, and even crossed over one another in mid-air at one point. That’s pretty crazy considering the ramp is only 20 feet wide.

After each show Daveee did tobacco trivia with the students for got milk? prizes, and Stoney from Swiss Dairy, passed out free milk samples.  Before we knew it, the bell rang and it was time for the students to head back to class.

Special thanks to the fine folks at Swiss Dairy for coming out to several schools in the last two weeks to sample milk, and to Stoney the Swiss Dairy driver, for all of his help during the shows.
-- Jimmy C

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We performed two shows today, both during lunchtime. The quad was concrete so that gave Gabe Weed plenty of extra room to showcase his flatland moves. It was Mike Crum’s last day on the tour, and he made the best of it. Lots of frontside tricks, and he even pulled a couple of “tailslide shove-its”. Fabiola da Silva was flying all over the ramp. She took a nasty slam at the beginning of the first show, but she got right back up and kept skating. That just goes to show how tough she is. Rob Nolli and Dave Voelker took the doubles run to the next level today. Instead of just crossing over one another in mid-air, they did plenty of side-by-side variations as well. During the second show, Rob went for a barspin, but his handlebars only spun a half turn. This would have freaked most people out enough to try and bail out at this point, but not Rob. Instead of freaking out, he just grabbed his bars and tried to land with them facing backwards. He rode it out all the way to the flatbottom, but then had to knee slide. It was still pretty cool to watch.

That officially wraps up this week of the tour. It seems like we just got started, and here we are almost at the halfway point. The tour says goodbye to Dave Voelker and Mike Crum, and next week we pick up Marc Englehart.  Happy Easter everyone!!!!!!
-- Jimmy C

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