I just stumbled upon this Youuuuutube thing which trips out your clips. Check what it does to the old clip of me skating through a warehouse, but then that led to me sharing with you some history on how this clip came to be.
I made this video with full intentions of ripping off Mark Gonzales I mean who hasn’t been inspired by that dude and wanted to mimic his style? I didn’t want to rip him off, but man, it was fun as shit doing so. If you take a look at the Gonz skating through a museum video you can’t help but admire everything about the act of it, just simple cruising past priceless artworks, what’s not great about that? So when I saw this up at the RVCA store off Haight street I knew I had to do something similar.
But I had just moved to San Francisco and I hardly knew anyone, how could I pull this off? Up at my job we had these white Tyvek suits we would wear when we were clearing out poison oak, which I became really good friends with one too many times. So I borrowed one or two and held on to it for good measure. Along my journies through the streets of SF I managed to acquire 2 bicycles for $10 a piece, and one complete cruiser skateboard for $5. Not to mention all the free food charities and churches would give away. SF is a friendly place if you look in the right places.
I never could find a use for the cruiser board but after skating Third and Army one day I would always watch the sun set on this graffitied building I had noticed on my first trip into the city. There was a piece by TIE who got shot in the back of the head by a rich author after climbing down from a building one night in the city. No charges were ever filed and the author got away with a clean slate. Bummer.
So one day I biked out to this building and found an entry inside. It was incredible. I gotta admit, exploring a massive graffitied building byself in a new city is kinda intimidating. The first time I went there I was a little fearful about what lay around each corner. Used needles were strung everywhere and all I could imagine was encountering some drugged up junkie who wanted whatever I had. But it never happened.
After exploring the whole building I knew I had to film something here, but you see that was easier said than done because I lived on the complete other end of San Francisco, approximately 6.5 miles away, which ain’t shit if you got a car, but if your on bike, it’s a little more complicated. I also wanted to have 2 boards for certain tricks, so I had to make multiple trips and I ended up stashing one board underneath some rocks along the water for a week straight. Luckily nobody found it.
On my first attempt at filming here I took care of some good stuff, I snagged a little broom and that thing came in great use. The place was filthy, years and years of bird shit, dust, and decay had covered the ground in 3-4 inches of gnarness. Wearing that tyvek suit definitely kept me in better health. After the first filming session I biked back home and started editing away and I realized there were still a few more things to be filmed. So I went to work for a week, then returned the next weekend to finish up. This time I scared the shit out of some kids by accident who were painting inside. They were probably 13 or 14, 2 boys and a girl. They were hyped on the building, just as much as I was. They didn’t seem to give a shit about whatever I was filming which is understandable, if I had seen me in an all white suit I probably woulda written myself off too.
Anyways the film turned out pretty good and it’s probably the most fun I’ve ever had making a clip by myself.
A few years later I would return back to SF and 2 of my good friends wanted to go in the building so bad, but my entry way had been sealed shut permanently.
Thanks again to Mark Gonzales for creating some shit I could rip off and have a great time in doing so. And if your wondering about the music I used to watch this animated film called The Snowman when I was younger, the song is from that. It’s not your normal rough and tough soundtrack to put to skating, but eh, from time to time my mind just needs some relaxation and a break from all the chaos.
Watch the normal version here, and if your computer can handle it watch the tripped out version here.