The breakdown of the RUFUS crew was Jenks, Skyler and Stewart in Jenk's Honda Civic. Then Zach, Garner, Coltrane and Me in my Civic. Jenks and his crew got to Jackson around noon on Friday. My half of the crew did not get to Jackson until around 10pm. So we had to wait two hours before things got started. Got our camp set up in the meantime and just waited ambivalently. Then 12 midnight finally came as Frank Henn explained the rules and handed out packets. Mostly he explained that each challenged had to be captured on video and uploaded then linked to the SkateMs Facebook (FB) page. You had to make sure in your description on FB the Team Name, the Skater and Trick were in there or you would not receive credit. Finally there was your tour guide if you needed one. Garner picked from a hat and we received Tyler Holloway from Vicksburg.
It was at the moment we received the packet along with Tyler that emotions changed. I went from being ambivalent to excited and fully motivated to do whatever we had to do. Everyone else on the team was the same. They went from "Why am I here again?' to lets get in the car and start knocking these challenges out one by one. Every Team jumped in their cars and headed out except for Brazen. They got their packet and went back to camping.
Must have been 12:45 A.M., we pulled up at a warehouse just outside of town that was said to have ramps, ledges and rails setup. Guess what? All the teams were there, the place was a madhouse. We shot a few clips, Skyler lost his skateboard and we fought skateboard traffic for about two hours. It was chaotic, not great for filming but fun never the less. We probably did not get back to the tent city until 3.
The next morning we got rolling around 930, is my best guess. Brazen and had rolled out early before anybody got up. I guess they figured that skating at midnight was waste of time, I would have to agree. We went back to look for Skyler's board and shoot some more video. We got some mad clips but we did not find Skyler's wip. From there we went to a train bridge overpass, shot more clips and got our one and only Mystery Guest challenge with Tate Nations, a popular local photographer in Jackson. It was onto Frank's backyard bowl from there, some pizza and some rest for me. After Frank's we headed downtown to a popular spot for stair set tricks and more shooting of video. At this point we had learned that you need to be editing good shots versus bad shots during the process of shooting. At first we had collected a mass of clips and only a small percentage of these clips were usable. Going through and trying to delete bad clips was tedious and could drive you insane after a while. So the filmer, on who's ever camera phone, would shoot a clip and then immediately delete the clip if it was bad. That way you only ended up with good clips after the spot was done with. By midday the whole team effort was taking off, everyone involved were playing their parts, it was exciting to see it all happen. The last spot we hit was Rampage indoor park. Luckily they let us in for free, we filmed our tricks and then called it a day for skating but not challenges. We were not done. Jenk's crew headed to Home Depot and my crew headed to Florence to get a Tattoo on Zach. Both Crews Rendezvoused around 930 to finish uploading video and try to relax at a local friend's house. By midnight we were done. We headed back to our campsite where mass mayhem was getting started with libations and campfires while Jenks and Skyler headed back to Memphis. By 3am we retreated to our tents since the fire department was not happy about our camp fires which they put out. We had no idea we were subject to city ordinances even though we were on a huge grass lot with no buildings around.
Sunday morning had come and gone, by sunlight everyone was huddled in my car trying to escape the downpour of rain that had bemoaned us in the night. I guess this is where a cheap motel would have been nice or maybe tents with rain flys. Waking up in a puddle of cold water was not clearly ideal. O well, it was all good after a good breakfast and a visit to a Men's room.
At around noon that Sunday Frank and his crew had all the skate teams assemble for an awards ceremony and BarBQue cook out. Brazen came in first, Dirtbags in second and Rufus in Third. We were not that far off from first and second, if only we had gotten all our clips uploaded, the kissing the homeless guy challenge and been a bit more organized who knows. Garner won the Daisey Duke challenged and we got third. They said that Garner ended up in the background in a bunch of other skate teams videos, it was hilarious. Some might say that our team had the most fun. Our team was really stoked to even just get third. It was a pretty good showing for a rookie team in the end as the other two teams who won had done this last year. We learned so much on this attempt. It was more fun than anything else. Big props to Tyler for being our guide, we wouldn't have done nearly as well without his knowledge. Big Props to Frank and SkateMS for putting it on, it was so much fun.
This is so inspiring videos! Longboard sessions we always live on in my heart, it's what got me into this game! Some time I ride Backfire Longboard .
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