Week Four

View Diaries for: HS Tour - Week One | Week Two | Week Three | Week Four Week Five | Week Six | Week Seven | Week Eight | Fairs & Festivals

Monday April 4, 2005 - Center High School (Antelope, California)  Mother nature tried to deal us another blow over the weekend. Heavy rains moved into the Sacramento Valley area throughout Sunday evening. The weather reports were looking grim for Monday, but fortunately we awoke to blue skies and no rain.

Our show today was at Center High in Antelope CA. It was still a little chilly and somewhat windy, but most importantly, it was dry. We basically had the same crew, except this week we swapped out BMX rider Jim Burgess for fellow BMX pro Jason Davies.

We did two lunch time shows today and the ramp was feeling good. It was feeling so good in fact that Tas Pappas actually went for a 720 in the first show. He came close, but wasn't quite able to make it. Marc Englehart was trying 900's and Jimmy Walker capped off both shows by doing perfect flairs. Overall, it was a great day, and a perfect way to start off week 4 of the tour.

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Tuesday April 5, 2005 - Del Oro High School (Loomis, California)  Time for another update from the road. Today's show was at Del Oro High School in Loomis California. Loomis is a bit off the beaten path from Sacramento, but it was definitely a cool campus. Our setup area was in the quad right behind the main building of the school, and there were lots of tall pine trees to complete the look. We did two lunch shows today without a cloud in the sky and the temperature actually went from warm to downright hot today.

Tas Pappas and Jimmy Walker thought the ramp felt great, and that showed through in their riding. They were both blasting airs over the railings. To cap off the day, Marc Englehart was having a tough time with 900's, so he just decided to skip it and go for a 1080. He made it second try.

We also had another tour first today. There's a student at Del Oro named Wesley Zeidler. He's a cancer survivor and has organized an upcoming spaghetti dinner at his school where all the proceeds will go to the kids in the oncology center at a local hospital. Not only is he giving the money to the center, he's taking the time to go in to the center and talk to the kids and see what they want and need. To me, that's a great story and I felt compelled to put it in my update today. Wesley, you rule. The world needs more people like you and I am proud that the Got Milk Gravity Tour brought us to your school.

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Wednesday April 6, 2005 - Rocklin High School (Rocklin, California)  Rocklin High School busted out all the stops for us today. They had us set-up on the track that surrounds the football field. We had one side of the ramp right up against the fence between the field and the bleachers, and we had our barricades with signage on the other side. The idea was to have most of the students sit in the bleachers, and the rest who weren't able to see could come right down on the field side.

Not only did we have a great setup area, but John Thompson also arranged for us to use the school PA system and patch our audio directly into the system that they use for their football games. Combined with our sound system, the audio was great. Everyone within 2 miles of Rocklin high school got an earful from me about GOT MILK? and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Our show was an assembly and the entire campus came out, about 2700 students.

The crowd was way into the show and enthusiastic, despite the intense heat. Rocklin high also took our program a step further. They had some leftover money in their anti-tobacco budget so they printed up 250 anti-smoking t-shirts and had student council members throw them out at the end of the show. This was by far one of the best schools I have ever done a show for. I want to personally thank John Thompson for going that extra mile. He didn't just arrange an assembly, he arranged for today to be something the students of Rocklin high won't ever forget.

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Thursday April 7, 2005 - Will C. Wood High School (Vacaville, California)  The tour moved on from the Sacramento area and we are now in Vacaville, about a 40 minute drive from the bay area. Our show today was at Will C. Wood High School. Last night the weather forecast called for rain all night and for most of the day. We awoke to colder temperatures and cloudy skies, but no rain.

We did one assembly on the blacktop behind the school, and the whole campus came out. The wind picked up right at showtime and made things a little sketchy but that didn't stop Marc Englehart from landing a 900 first try or Jimmy Walker from landing a perfect flair. Gabe Weed's flatland skills were top notch once again as well.

We did our normal trivia questions for the GOT MILK? goodies and afterwards I noticed one student had actually taken notes while I was announcing during the show. He had every fact and number I had thrown out, written on one of his hands. If that's not an A+ effort, I don't know what is, so I gave him a GOT MILK? jersey and he was super-stoked. One more show in Vacaville and then week 4 of this tour is in the books.
-- Jimmy

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Friday April 8, 2005 - Vacaville High School (Vacaville, California)  That nasty weather we managed to completely avoid yesterday has caught up with us today. We woke up to cold gray skies and it has been pouring rain since 3 am. Our show today was supposed to be on the football field at Vacaville High but needless to say, that wasn't going to happen seeing as how the field was saturated by setup time.

Jason called up John Alongi and got fired up about plan B, the Gabe Weed flatland show. Fortunately for us, Vacaville high has a covered outdoor lunch area. Armand and Martine, our ramp experts, set up the GOT MILK? tent and some barricades and made Gabe a nice little show area. Even though it was covered, it still got pretty wet from the runoff. That's where the school maintenance guys kicked in. One of them was cool enough to bring down a leaf blower and spent a good 30 minutes drying the area with the blower and towels.

By lunch time the area was dry enough for Gabe to ride. The rest of the boys signed autographs and it was the Gabe and Jimmy show. Gabe did a solid 40 minutes of flatland while I talked to the kids about GOT MILK? and the California Milk Advisory Board as well as plenty of nasty facts about tobacco use. It was a great time and the kids were into it, despite the weather. The hardest part was that by the time we left, it was sunny and clear. That's it for week 4 of the 2005 Gravity Tour. Week 5 starts off Monday in Yuba City.
-- Jimmy

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