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Tony
Hawk’s “Boom
Boom Huck Jam” and
Barry
Zaritzky’s Hall of Fame Presentation Wow, what a cool show!
Ok, I’ll fess up. I know
you all are wondering how the hell I got up center stage at the Huck Jam while
you all were up in the nosebleed section. I
am feeling completely guilty (must be my Catholic up-bringing) that all my buds
weren’t up there with me. Here’s
my confession: About a month or two ago I realized the Tony Hawk BBHJ was coming
to Ft. Lauderdale. I had just
missed seeing Barry at Alan’s ramp recently and wanted to give him his Hall of
Fame Trophy from the KFSJ. A light
bulb went off in my head, “Hey, why don’t I simply email Tony Hawk’s
website and see if we could surprise Barry at the BBHJ with his Hall of Fame
Trophy!” (Yeah like I’m
really going to even get a reply email back!)
I figured it would be much more appropriate and meaningful to Barry
rather than mailing it or just handing it to him at Alan’s ramp one day.
Surprise! Tony’s staff
member Lenore emailed me back saying that Tony thought it was a good idea too!
Wow, I was kind of shocked to get a reply…but on the other hand I
thought it was such an appropriate idea how could they pass this up. Meanwhile,
Alan Gelfand got us all tickets to enter and watch the show, about 30 of us I
seem to remember. Believe me guys;
he sincerely thought these tickets were front and center.
He feels way guiltier than I do about that.
My
wife and kids are looking at me like “Geez Dad this is great but we kind of
need binoculars!” So I
figured I got this Hall of Fame award thing lined up…there must be a way to
snake some seats down below in conjunction with this thing. I grab my family and head down to the lower area; I’ve got
an “All Access Pass” and figure I can slide the wife and kids along past the
ticket checking attendants. We run
into Alan Gelfand, Sharon, and Robbie Weir on our way. They instantly pick up on the espionage and before you know
it we are all first row dead center of the half pipe! Alan is completely guilting out trying everyone’s cell
phone in the nosebleed section with no luck.
I’m waving my arms hoping they’ll see me and join us. We had left up there FL Legends Dan Murray, his son Andrew,
Kelly Lynn and Gabriella, Chuck Dinkins, GBM, Johnny Miller and his daughter
Taylor, and others I know I am leaving someone out (sorry). Hopefully they will all talk to us again….. The
Floor Manager, Ray Woodbury, told me that after the band I was going up to do
the award presentation. I figured
it would be a good idea to bring Alan with me to help present the award.
It would give it more validity with his popular name, and it would mimic
the method we did up at the KFSJ, which I knew worked.
Last song from the band…BAM, before I knew it the two of us were center
stage on the top of the roll out deck of the half pipe!
Rick Flair introduces me and I’m on!
Alan figured there were 10,000 people there!
The video guy has his camera three feet from my nose, and I realize I’m
even on the big screens around the arena! If
any of you have kids, it’s right now that my guilt washes away; cuz I figure
my kids right now must think I am fucking Superman!
They will NEVER forget this. I
do my brief intro as to what the trophy is about and how we did the KFSJ at Kona
and the Hall of Fame and how Barry couldn’t be there cuz he was on tour with
Tony and hand the mic to Alan to “officially induct” Barry to the Hall of
Fame. Alan did great, the crowd was
stoked to see him up there as well. A
local legend! Barry was super
stoked as he held his Hall of Fame Trophy up high all the skaters, bikers, and
moto-crossers were all up there patting him on the back and taking personal
pictures with their cameras. It was
a very very cool moment. Barry
totally deserved a moment like this. As
a lot of you remember we were all trying to get him to show up last April. I had more people ask for his email address than just about
anyone in trying to get him to show up. The
guy is more loved by FL skaters than anyone I think. Well
regarding the show, I’ll steal Al Porterfield’s words a “sensory
overload”. Watching these guys
ride was AMAZING. The motorcycles
were flying over our heads…the skaters and bmx’rs were flying and spinning
out of the ramp all together at times too!
All of them made it look so easy. Tony
even pulled a 900, the crowd went nuts! After
the show we were able to go to the Tony Hawk “Meet & Greet” which is a
“backstage” access type thing where all the riders are sitting at a long
table with their promotional flyers and Sharpie pens for autographs (another
great addition aimed more for the kids). There
were probably 200 people waiting in line for this.
I compared it to waiting in line at Disney with my 3 year old daughter to
meet Minnie & Mickey Mouse. I
don’t mean that in a bad way, just a different demographic.
We stood in line for over an hour to meet the guys each one at a time as
we made our way down the long table. The
cool thing was each one of them looked my kids in the eye, shook their hand, and
for a few seconds made them feel like they connected.
Got their autographs and a pile of promotional placards. I could definitely see why these guys have “Action
Figure” toys made in their likeness, are in video games, and make the bucks
that they make. They all deserve
it. The reason I say that is I
could see it in my kids eyes, Ryan 12, and Stevie 7.
My kids were completely blown away, stunned.
On
the way in earlier Robbie Weir had said to me, “Traditional Sports are over, this is the
new thing.” And I realized he was
right, my kids looked at these guys like the kid in that old Coke commercial
with Mean Joe Green and the jersey toss. As we are leaving with our loot in hand my 7 year old son Stevie says to
me all tired out…”Dad, this was the best day of my life.”
If
you are reading this and you did not go this year…definitely put it on your
calendar for next year and if you don’t have kids, bring a nephew or a
neighborhood skater kid you’ll be his hero….oh, and buy the best possible
seats you can get! |
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