BACkYARD Skateboards

Here’s my second “mellow” teaser for my in-progress VX1000 skateboard movie “Piss” I say it’s mellow because of the song, which is an archaic Modest Mouse track titled “Super Saver Day.” This song reminds me of being a kid grocery shopping with my mom at Food 4 Less. It was there that she bought me my first ever skateboard magazines—one issue of Transworld and one issue of Big Brother. While checking out, the cashier rang up the magazines and asked, “Who’s the skateboarder?” to which I proudly raised my hand, albeit only having started a few months prior. The cashier was named Jeff and was probably in his late teens or early twenties. He said he was a skateboarder too and I immediately looked up to him. For my birthday that year I told my mom all I wanted was to go “street skating” for the first time. I was either too young or too dumb to go by myself or with the few skater friends I had, so my mom went back to that Food 4 Less to find Jeff, and she asked him if he would take me and my little buddies street skating for my 12th birthday. So on April 3rd, 2001 my mom pulled her minivan full of groms up to William Allen White memorial park in downtown Emporia, KS and Jeff was already there trying to heelflip the two stair. Even though I never saw him land one we all thought he was so good. After an hour or so of eating shit we were all ready to bail. Before leaving Jeff came up to me and handed me a present—a VHS copy of Powell Peralta’s video “Propaganda” (that apparently had been rented from a video store and never returned). My very first skate video. We lost contact over time—I honestly don’t remember ever seeing him again after that day and I never knew his last name. I wish I could tell him how much that meant to me, and how it may have potentially lead to me making my own skate video 20 years later. Also, love you Mom ♥️

Just some good ol’ boys 

TB