(This is a true story)
(The anniversary of my friend Flint's death is once again upon us. Sould be in a week or two. I gotta admit that I have been missing him a lot in the termoil of my so called life. Good friends like him are rare, I shoulda held on tighter to him. I was thinking of yesterdays article "centrifugal force" and it reminded me of this one time Flint and me were skating. I hope you enjoy…)
If you know anything about flint it was that not only was he a great improv skater, it was that he attempted to ollie or jump any gap he came across. Board or blade didn't matter, I have seen him try to jump some silly stuff before. Usually its just funny, sometimes it was spectaculah!!!
One day Flint and me were skating by the Burger King on Juan Taboo. The Bank on the upper lot had a small wall with a small gap dropping into the BK lot. Flint looking for a crowning achievement for the weekend looked at this and decided that this obstacle was his "piece de resistance".
To make it a little more interesting Flint had decided on rollerblading that day. I was on my board having bladed last weekend. We had been switching off from blade to board to keep it "fresh", you know to break up the routine. We got a lot of shit for it but no one could deny the good time we were having.
Most skaters took the BK gap bout midway where it was a foot of planter with 9 or so inches of wall to a 5-6 foot drop with a two foot gap that in the drop was irrevelant. This was not good enough for Flint. If you go north along the wall it gets higher with a much deeper drop. Flint decided to take the BK gap at the top.
At the top of the lot the BK gap weighs in at : 4 foot gap to the 1 1/2 foot tall wall to a at least 7 foot drop with at 3 foot gap at the bottom landing in a slight incline. In short it was no laughing matter.
As Flint got ready, I stood at the bottom of the gap and a few yards south so I could see over the wall to watch. Flint was taking dry runs at it trying to work up the courage when a guy known as "the Matrix" walked up.
Matrix was a pretty damn good rollerbladers. I seen him take rails on his blades that most of you wouldn't walk down. He taught me to rollerblade with Flints help. He had a vice for burgers and could be seen walking to BK from time to time.
Matrix asked me what's up and I filled him in. He was a little alarmed that Flint wasn't jumping yet. We stood there and watched Flint take several more dry runs.
Matrix finally upped the ante, he told Flint that if he made it down the gap, he would buy him a whopper meal. To seal the deal I told Flint that I would buy him a pack of ciggarettes if he made it. Apparently that was enough to light the fire under his ass.
Matrix and I stood together on the bottom of the gap and watched Flint go back to his starting point. He paused to adjust his skates, and took off sprinting torwards the gap. Matrix and me began cheering and whooping, egging him on. He reached the gap, jumped and sailed though the air.
When Flint cleared the wall you could tell that he began to think that this wasn't a good idea. I could see it in his face and by the way he began swirling his arms that he was actually trying to hit the brakes in midair. A look of pure panic and terror was visible on his face as he drifted weightless through the air.
Flints rollerblades then made contact with the ground. His legs bent to absorb the shock of landing. He then curved left, stopped and looked at us.
We began moving simultaneously, Matrix walked to the BK and I went to the Walgreens to buy ciggarettes, Marlboros to be exact. When I came back Flint was still standing in the lot. I handed him the pack of smokes and we went into Burger king together to join the Matrix inside for a burger or two.
There are lots of cameras these days. I got a camera, a pretty cool one from my parents in my bag and as well as a pretty decent one on my phone. I'm sure all of you have cameras on your phones. People take pictures of family and friends, even loved ones. They ussually just store them or post the pics on Facebook. Little handy cameras weren't around when Flint jumped the BK gap. I had a Video camera but we weren't filming that day were were just having fun. Point is I'm glad I didn't have a camera, I captured that moment in my memory.
You can lose memory cards and phones, the internet may crash in the coming zombie appocolypse, but even though Flint is no longer here on this earth I will always have these memories to look at.
Flint, man I miss you, wish you were here…
-B
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