The crew just put the finishing touches on the 2012 ramp at Now That’s Class and I stopped up to grab this footage so you all can see what you’re in for when you join Paul and friends tonight for their Winter Skate Jam.
This is by far one of the most interesting ramps that I’ve ridden anywhere. Not too small, not too big, and tight in all the right places. Simply put it’s a very solid build that’s just weird enough. I think Jerry would have liked it too.
It was put built by a group of volunteers over a two week period. Genaro, Julia, Jacob, Charlie, Dale, Paco, and Corey are the people that I was aware of that handled the design and construction and Donnie Billington even chipped in with a little direction on how to blend the corner.
Come up tonight (1/27/12) to Now That’s Class, buy a drink from the bar to show your support, say thanks to the Paul for letting this happen and also to any of the folks who chipped in. Most importantly give it a whirl and have some fun!
They’re going to have their Winter Skate Jam this Friday January 27th with The Plain Dealers, Crazy Joe Gallo, Shitbox Jimmy, and Teen Vomit performing. Should be a good time so I recommend checking it out.
Gary’s work included some boards with figures painted on them that had lights in the eyes. They looked demonic to me but only at first glance. He also had some oversized comics that told stories about the everyday people that I’m guessing Gary deals with in real life. The fact that the stories are probably based on real people makes them even more hilarious.
Donny Humes’ work ranged from cans attached to a skate deck, to a blown up ticket for skateboarding, to oversized black and white copies of photos. He’s been running the Smelly Curb zine since the 80s and from what I can tell it just went digital.
I’ve been exposed to the work of Jay Croft longer than any of the other fellas at this show since he’s a hometown guy originally from the Akron area. Jays pieces consisted primarily of the wood block figures that he’s been known for as well as a little guy that looked like it was made out of paper machae. I just realized that I did not take any pictures of Jay’s art so you’ll have to get by with what you see in the background above.
Russ Pope has a style that exposes brush strokes and carries through the different pieces that I’ve seen from him. This show was no different in that sense but regardless his pieces ranged from heads painted on cut wood slats to framed works to boxes and some canvases too.
On an aside, Russ was nice enough to sign my first skate helmet on the opposing side that he signed back in 1990 at Berea Triangle when he was there for a demo with Small Rooms Lazyboy tour. It was an odd moment realizing that the first signature occurred what felt like a handful of years ago but was actually 22 years ago! After I settled into the fact that I’m old (at least older than when I was 12) the idea popped into my head of how cool it was that after all those years we were all brought together again for a short night. Another point that Jay Croft brought up while we were talking about the demo that happened back in 1990 was that there were about a dozen people there at that demo who were also at the art show that night. Most of us didn’t know each other back then but as we rolled on through the years and the heard thinned out we all have come to know each other.
Well enough reminiscing about the good old days. This shows was a great time with some really fun and creative work by these four guys. Hopefully they can put together Part Three show sooner than later!