Week Three

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

Monday March 28, 2005 - Lodi High School (Lodi, California)  Today's show at Lodi high was a great time to say the least. We had two scheduled assemblies back to back, and the setup area was a huge asphalt area just behind the main campus. The weather was finally one our side as well. We were treated to blue skies, dotted with fluffy clouds and perfect temperatures for riding and skating. Both assemblies were of decent size, and the kids really seemed to be into the Milk message, as well as the anti smoking facts.

We also had a tour first today. One of the teachers drew a special picture for the show. It was a drawing of a cow with huge utters, smoking a cigarette. A circle was drawn around the cows head with a slash through it and the caption read , "smoking is bad". Another circle was drawn around the cows utters, minus the slash of course, and its caption read, "milk is good". Not only did the teacher draw this picture, he made tons of copies of it and passed them out to all the kids in the first assembly.

It took me a few minutes to finally figure out what the picture was about, but once I did I made sure that I got a copy of it for myself. Besides the great drawing, the kids of Lodi high were treated to some top notch riding. Marc Englehart was spinning perfect 900's and decided to take it a step further and make a 1080 for the second show. Jimmy Walker landed a wild looking flair and tried some of the new tricks he had learned over the weekend at Camp Woodward. The rains have subsided and week 3 of the 2005 Got Milk Gravity Tour is off to a great start.

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Tuesday March 29, 2005 - McClatchy High School (Sacramento, California)  Hello everyone! It's Jason Hines here with the news about our show at McClatchy High School in Sacramento, CA today. Let me tell you this school was AWESOME!

Our second show for week 3 of the 2005 Got Milk? Gravity Tour picked up right where Lodi High School left off. It's amazing the amount of energy that the students in the Sacramento area bring to the shows. Although the day started off sketchy (rainy all morning) I don't think we could have picked a better day or a better show! With the help from our friends at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, we dropped into one of our best shows thus far on the tour!

When we pulled our ramp truck "Nancy" into the school, we found our spot on the basketball courts between buildings right next to the athletic fields. This location was great as it was central in the campus and it's always fun to talk with all the students about the upcoming show. To say the show lived up to expectations was an understatement!

Jimmy Coleman, our Emcee, chatted over the PA while the boys all warmed up. Today's show featured the same awesome lineup as last week, which was Jim Burgess, Tas Pappas, Gabe Weed, Jimmy Walker, and Marc Englehart. With the good weather, awesome riders, and really awesome students, it was inevitable that the show would start to get nuts. Jim was throwing HUGE airs with every type of technical combination despite the high winds. Tas stomped out a bunch of kick flip variations before dropping a giant 540 which drove everyone nuts. As always, Gabe amazed the crowd with his mega-spin combinations and seemingly endless bag of tricks. Marc and Jimmy, fresh off a weekend of training at the Woodward West Action Sports Camp, threw down some amazing tricks. Walker showed the crowd some of his new 540 variations and of course ended with his signature flare. Marc threw huge tricks including a 900 and a 1080!

After the show it was time for autographs and trivia. The student who won the grand prize answered 4 separate questions in one shot! This would have been unheard of had our guy at Lodi not answered 5 separate questions yesterday! However, it's just a testament to how cool the Sacramento area is! The autograph session was awesome although I think Jimmy Coleman's son Tristan stole the show be signing more autographs than the pros. I think we have a future star in the making!

We would all like to say thanks to Mr. Douglas, all the administrators, and especially the students at McClatchy High School for being great hosts and we look forward to seeing you guys again real soon!

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Wednesday March 30, 2005 - Foothill High School (Sacramento, California)  Today we were at Foothill High School in Sacramento. Fortunately for us the rain has moved out of the area, but the high winds have decided to hang around. We had one assembly today right before lunch. The whole school came out to the blacktop and crowded around. Despite the wind, the guys still went off like it was nothing.

Jimmy Walker did a flair in his intro run, that's what kind of day it was. We probably had about 1500 students packed around the ramp and they were an enthusiastic and well behaved bunch. We finished the show right before lunch started, and most of the kids hung around during lunch to get autographs and chat with the riders. Before we left, everyone did an interview with some students from the school newspaper and shot some video. Another successful day in the books, next stop, Roseville.

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Thursday March 31, 2005 - Roseville High School (Roseville, California)  Hello everyone and thanks for checking back in with the 2005 Got Milk? Gravity Tour. It's Jason Hines here with the play-by-play recap of the action. Our show today was at Roseville High School in Roseville, CA. This was a super cool looking campus but unfortunately for us it was super hilly too! The steep slopes of the street meant setting up the halfpipe was a bad option, so we went with plan B and set-up a huge BMX flatland venue. Today's shows were all about Gabe Weed, one of the world's top flatland riders.

The huge flatland area was great because 1) it finally gave Gabe a chance to show us what he can do on a BIG area and 2) there were HUGE crowds watching the show! These were lunch time shows, but I don't think anyone at Roseville High ate in the cafeteria today.

The first show started with Gabe doing some warm-up tricks while tour Emcee, Jimmy Coleman explained our purpose for being at the school and who we represent, including Got Milk? and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. All the while, Gabe rode, rode, and rode some more.....all the way to the trivia contest at the end of the show while the crowd was going nuts! We actually had to persuade the kids to go when the bell rang because they were all milling around the Got Milk? tent.

The second show was just as great, but in this show BMX vert rider, Jimmy Walker joined the action for a few minutes and decided to pull a trick out of his flatland bag and bunny hopped 5 people! Not bad for a guy who rides vert 100% of the time! After the shows, the pro athletes signed tons of autographs and the trivia contests were awesome. It was also very cool to visit a school with so many skateboarders, inliners, and BMX bikers in its student body. It was a beautiful day and an awesome vibe that was perfect for all of us to witness this example of Flatland Artistry.

On behalf of the whole crew I would like to thank Nancy Veilleux, the administrators, and all of the students at Roseville High for inviting us in. Also, I have to send special thanks out to Gabe Weed. His performance was a testament to his commitment for spreading the message of Got Milk? and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

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Friday April 1, 2005 - Woodcreek High School (Roseville, California)  Today was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for doing shows at Woodcreek High School. The temperature was around 70 degrees and the ramp was set up in a perfect location on the quad in the center of campus. We did two shows today, both during lunch and the kids and faculty were very impressed. Although the lunch periods were short (only 30 minutes) we crammed that half hour with some great action on the ramp and lots of info about the California Milk Advisory board and plenty of anti smoking facts.

The kids were also stoked on the Woodward West cards we were handing out as well. In the first show, Marc Englehart decided to try a 1080 in his last run and he pulled it first try. In the second show, some of Marc's adrenaline rubbed off on Jimmy Walker and he decided to wrap up the show by doing a perfect flair. It was a great way to wrap up the week. Special thanks to Brian Mcnulty for getting us such a great area to set-up and perform in. The tour resumes on Monday, talk to you then.
-- Jimmy

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