The Dag Nasty comes on, just as Tobin cracks an Eggplant on the face wall (with a borrowed board).
Landing it a little sketchy, Lawrence immediately drops in and pops a face high Indy over the Channel to a backside air before Dave even clears the flat. Back to a gnarly tuck knee, hand gripping the pool coping. A little squirly and he decides to
pop out. Kentucky drops in far wall to a face high Madonna over the
channel…
The sun setting behind the trees, a mild 67 degrees. The only difference is
that it is September 18, 2007… I am sitting in the driveway of Fairfax
National Golf Club’s rear pavillion.
17 years ago, I was here the same day, and the above was true, all of it
except the part where Dag Nasty was playing… That is today, and it is
coming off my Sirius Satellite receiver. Back then it was coming out of
Micro’s Red Toyota, or Christian’s Blue Honda, or Brian’s CRX…
Yes, I am sitting here at Cedar Crest, and the air smells the same, it
really does. The sight is atrocious. What was Acropolis for thousands is
a sloped mound of immature trees. Nothing at all suggests that Magnusson
really DID launch over the broom stick in Tobin’s hand, 11 feet, well,
maybe 12, who knows, it was just RAD.
Nothing has B’umble asking you for
your three bucks… Strange, there are no bees either.
Instead, there is evidence of a fire. After the dozing, it appears like
what was left was burned and chainsawed to the ground.
The pressure treated masts which held the catwalk and the roof, little stubs sticking
up. My adrenalin is pumping. My heart feels like I just got here, and
the rumor is true, Midgette, Conroy and Sergie are here to session… No
they are not. It is gone. There is a concrete slab, although not the one
the ramp used for a foundation.
Wait is that Blender over there staring at that kid?
Back then, the Concorde would fly over occasionally. The flight path is
the same, they are taking off to the South tonight. Speaking of air,
Buster just sailed a lien across the whole face wall and stuck it like
glue, not bad for 7 feet out and tweaked to shit..
I know when I heard it was dozed, I came here the next day, climbed the
stairs armed with a screw driver, wrench and hacksaw. I stole the
section of pool coping I used to always drop in from, one block right of
the channel. I have it today. It is an alter of sorts. If you have read
this far, you understand.
Although its gone, it WAS here, and I FEEL it.
I have to go before I get caught here.
Peter Furnee.
‘Go Fakie’
Pete emailed this to me in the morning and I was stoked for the obvious reasons. After reading what I can only describe as a poem I started trolling through my hard drive and the net only to discover a couple pictures that matched his words, right down to the trick/channel and even wall of CCCC. Weird. So if you are reading this and have a photo to match up to any of Pete’s word’s please send it to me post haste!!
Also I gotta say the contributions people have been sending in (Tom,Pete,Dennis,Derek,Bernie,Jay,Irene…etc.etc.etc) have been world class and I have been receiving the emails that prove it. Keep it flowing cause people are reading
thanks everyone!
Ps. I know someone owns the Thrasher or Transworld with Magnussen’s 12 foot CCCC air, so send it to me! (Thanks Mertz!)
Photos:
1) Cedar Crest Country Club Ramp site, 2007
Photo Pete Furnee
2)Dave Tobin Eggplant Cedar Crest Country Club 1986
Photo gbjphotoworks
3)Brian “Kentucky” Boyd face high Madonna over the channel
Photo Jason Oliva
4) Tony Magnusson 11 feet, well, maybe 12
Photo MertzWorld.net
I visited the wrecked remnants of the ramp sometime back ’94-’95. The roof was still up, and seeing the mangled ramp structure was like coming upon the slowly decaying corpse of a long-lost friend, lying out in the woods somewhere. My visit that day was fairly early in the morning, and the rising sun was just beginning to warm the roof, so the expanding corrogated metal was making popping and pinging noises. It was like the whole place still wanted to be “alive”. Before long, the flooding memories, the decaying corpse of the ramp and the “voice” provided by the expanding metal roof became too much. I sat and cried for awhile, then left. I never went back.
For all of that, timing is everything. I just helped someone else locate and visit the site last week. The top photo here is exactly what he described finding… the footers for the roof structure and the concrete pad of the mini-ramp, nothing else. I’m glad the scene I had witnessed was cleaned up. It’s better that way.
Awesome write Pete. That comment about the Concorde really took me back. Check my CCCC page, and yes I have the T-Mag photo on there.
http://www.mertzworld.net/id12.html
Feel the steel. CCCC still my all-time favorite ramp.
rob
I’d also like to note that the line in Pete’s prose that makes me laugh outloud (every time, so far) is… “Wait is that Blender over there staring at that kid?” Brilliant! What a memmory.
Nice One Mertz!!
I Knew I saw that pic somewhere on the net.
Ok People wanna know more about the Blender story! Too much inside baseball for the readers. Who wants to tell it?
jason
wow, that top picture is sad. I’d love to go on an east coast tour of all of the spots I used to skate. Rob when are you coming to skate Culver City? How ’bout Sunday at noon?
Hey Bern you can put this on your East Coast tour list:
great stuff…
Hounddog sent me this link
I tossed it on my blog
my blog is about cycling and life
http://www.gwadzilla.blogspot.com
I touched on skateboard thing
but never to that level
but the energy of the sport still inspires me
I hung with all sorts of folks from the skate scene in the 80′s
high school friends, punk show friends, and messenger friends
great picture
great write up
not a bad time to come up in the world
-jg
My friend Jon and I visited the site at my old home of where our ramp once stood years ago , the trees around the four corners still beared the scars of nails and boards digging into the bark. Very vague footprints were left in the ground from the trannies, you could still hear the ‘yeas!” and the echoing of riding through the trees. Dehls Inc.
So the Blender story goes like this…
One day I showed up and Neil, Joe Lopes and Midgette were in town. Neil was being himself, of course.
Anyone that has seen him in person knows… He is just Neil.
Anyway, at one point he connected that he was at a Golf Course, and swung his board, using the tail like a driver and whacked a can of coke (readying to “coke” the ramp.) clear into the woods. Shortly after, he proceeded to stall frontside inverts, do face high face wall fastplants, a wooly mammouth or two, etc.
At one point, apparently some kid could not hide his fascination with the celebrity in Neil, and was often “caught” staring at him. It wasn’t long after that Neil was on the ground “scouting” this kid out. From behind a tree over there, to peering through the windows of parked cars, Neil was staring back.
If you had not seen the kid stare at him initially, you would have thought Neil was whacko, but seeing it first, it was nothing but a great laugh, and an added bonus to having him at CCCC.
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Nice… CCCC. Here’s some bands and skatin on that beautiful ramp.
http://www.presspit.com/cccc.htm
CHEERS
Pingback: I was the one in blue shorts holding the pool cleaning squeegee….Magnusson, CCCC, 1986 « The House of Steam
I just found a probe over by some trees.
Uh-oh… Umbel’s got the probe. But, as we all know, having the probe is just one thing. What one does with the probe is something completely different. Someday I’ll have to digitize the video of all the guys standing around the campfire trying to describe the probing activities, without giving up too much information!
cccc and ectt epic time and people. cedar crest was the best ramp i ever skated- ever.
Miss them times. The sound of barking coping echoing through the woods is burned into my head along with Master of puppets. Shit gives me chills.