This years street jam we played it pretty close to the finish line. We always start planning for it super early but when it comes down to wrapping everything up, it’s never done until the last week. This year we weren’t done until the morning of the jam. A couple people were on the fence about the last spot since the risk factor was super high. We had a feeling someone was going to the hospital.
Another issue we had was the hunt for an HVX. A couple filmers we were relying on coming to the jam couldn’t make it so a last minute call went out to Proto to hook it up. Now that all the spots had been Bondoed, there were two cameras and three filmers to swap between, someone to lead the jam and a motorized scooter to tow around 17 people at a time, we were set.
The first spot we hit wasn’t too far from Wilson skatepark and was supposed to be a somewhat easy rail for people to hit. To our surprise, only a handful of people were into the rail. There was also a yellow pillar at the bottom that made it risky to try certain tricks. The people that weren’t riding were either running to the store to buy drinks for everyone, climbing the railroad bridge or getting on top of the roof and poking holes into peoples ceilings. The spot ended up lagging out a little so we packed it up and headed to the next spot. Big shout out to Proto for sponsoring this spot and throwing in extra money for some of the winners.
The second spot we decided on the day before the jam. It is a cool spot to film a line but we didn’t exactly think about people wanting to hit the ledges from both sides which made for one big cluster fuck and a really hard time to film because nobody took turns. A lot of people battled it out and tried to get tricks, while others stood and watched the chaos. Scooter Zone ended up sponsoring the ledges and through out some tricks that needed to be landed for some quick cash.
We pushed pretty far to get to those butter benches and had a long trek back to the third and fourth spot. Pretty much, the second we got to the spot, people were already hucking themselves down the 4 block. We aren’t even sure how people had the energy after that mile push back. So many tricks went down here and it was very fucking pleasant to watch. The trick to land was a 180 down the gap to half cab up the curb. It was pretty intense to watch multiple people attempt this but out of nowhere, Reece landed it first try. The Shop had the cash to back up that request and the spot was shut down. We moved to the front of the building.
Issac killed himself, landing a triple heel that immediately lead him into chugging a beer and showering himself with it to clean off all the dirt on his back from falling.
Once we moved to the front of the building, we were at the spot Aztek was sponsoring. It was a skinny flat rail that had riders squaring up and getting use to it. Mark "Black Momba" Williams ended up hopping on for a back lip and lost balance so he kept his foot off and landed a one foot back lip which was pretty amazing to watch. That sort of set the tone for this spot. Only 5-10 riders were into the rail but they were attempting some solid tricks. We probably would of stayed there another 30 minutes if the cops didn’t show up. Some people were stuck cleaning up in front of the cop while the rest made their way to the final spot.
The last spot was a doozy. It was a very tall 10 flat 10 that went straight into a tunnel. The likely hood of someone eating it hard was about a 10. We ended up having a decent amount of money left so we told everyone, whoever tricks down it gets $100. That made some people line up and others gather around to watch the mayhem. With the first person aka Dennis pushing fast at the stair set, everyone was keen to see if he was going to make it. Both wheels touched ground with relief. It was hard to believe someone landed it first try. With that out of the way, we all wondered what was next. Before we knew it, Nick was pushing fast at the set and threw the gnarliest 360 anyone has ever seen. It looked like he was going for a nose dive at the end but really he was just throwing in some extra flare. Collin walked up, realizing nothing gnarlier was going to be thrown and handed Nick the rest of the cash we had on hand. Every year we don’t know how we are going to top the year before but to our surprise, it keeps happening.
