Skydiving.

I went skydiving for the second time. Someone asked me to describe it to them, I did, and they loved it. Here it is:


most of the day you sit around waiting for your turn. the weather is gorgeous, made even better because its been crappy all week. not a cloud in the sky, sunny, hot in the sun, cool in the shade. You're with a close friend. don't have to talk, just chillin. you see the first jumpers land- people are literally flying to the ground at like a 45* angle, and then in the last ten feet, go from 35mph to dead stop, and float, about a foot off the ground. then they literally step down from the sky, and the chute billows around them. you're pumped.

you suit up. its just a jumpsuit over your regular clothes. no chute even attached. you meet your instructor, nice guys. one is a slightly more brash guy, beard, nickname, gruff, thats a good word. The other guy is younger, clean shaven, tells you about how his wife jumps too. You're told the jump is at 10,000ft.. Thats two miles, you say to yourself.. and it fades quickly, as the lil' plane is here. The four of you pile in: Yourself, your friend, the two instructors. the pilot is already in, and the plane is cramped. You can't actually see much but the sky above from your spot in the plane. Small talk, the whole way up. At 10,000 feet, you start hooking into your instructor, checking straps, closures, everything. You tell him you're ready. You laugh in your head, as on the ground, you clearly remember the skydiving quote: "At 10k feet, 'No' sounds like 'Go', and we go anyways.."

You look at your friend, and its the first time you share a look of panic, excitement, fear, happiness, and a real concern that here you are legitamitally taking a risk that says "I may never see you again" and its very real. but you shake it- nuts to the reality, you guys are like brothers, you smile, and you say "seeyalaterbyeeeeeee"

the door opens. it is suddenly very loud, very windy, and very cold. and oh yeah.. you can see 2 miles down.

You're instructed to put your feet out on the platform. Then you look at the "platform" and suddenly question EVERYTHING as its a whopping 12" square. You put a foot out. Then the other. But this is new, you've stuck your arm out of a car on the expressway - its hard to control. Not too often you have the same experience with your legs!

With both feet out, you're under the wing. you can see down, its like google maps, but real. You're also freezing cold, and are having trouble trying to breathe normally in 90mph winds. Ze goggles, ze do noshing!

Your instructor pulls your head back and and tells you he's ready. "Like this, ok, ready (leans forwards), set (leans back) and then we jump on "go", ok? ARE YOU READY!?"

for a moment, you laugh at the machismo, the pump-up, the cheese of it all.

and then he leans you forward on "READY" and you realize you're halfway out of the plane. "Set", and you're back in, temporary safety, warm fuzzy relaxation..

GO!!!!!!!!!!

its like you can't breathe. everything that you've ever been told about things you shouldnt do, its all right now. for a split second, incredible panic sets in- the heart rate skyrockets, the breathing stops, and jesus christ... your feet are still on the platform.

and then they're not. and there is silence. and you're not cold. and its not real. it's like dying and being born at the same time. the acceleration is faster than any vehicle you've ever been in, yet nothing is pressing against you. your stomach doesnt ball up, drop, or come up... its pure blissful falling.

SNAP- back to reality, you're falling at over 100mph with nothing to catch you, nothing between you, the noise is more intense than any concert you've been to, your face is smushed like old astronaut testing videos. you're terrified, and somehow in your head laughing maniacally. for a split second you catch a glimpse of the plane - its almost impercievable, you're already that far away. it's like every 'first time' of everything you've ever done, good or bad, all over again, all at once.

and for a moment, you actually look around- straight ahead, you can clearly make out the CN tower, and the entire toronto skyline, 60miles away. lake ontario shimmers, as does lake erie. You can clearly see niagara falls, and the mist- it must be hundreds of feet tall! looking downwards, you can see all of buffalo, you can see rochester another 60 miles away, you can see way south, way north, you can see the curvature of the earth ever so slightly. Then you notice the orange glow to your left - the sun is setting, and its beautiful.. to your right, the full moon is clear and crisp in the sky - something you didnt notice from the ground.

and you feel so. so. so incredibly small, unimportant, miniscule.

and then you breathe. and the air at 120mph and 7000ft has never been so perfect.

you see a hand. its your instructor. he gives you the 'five-five' signal, meaning you're already at 5500ft. 5500 feet? you've already fallen a goddamn mile?! then he taps your hip three times, meaning, 'pull the chute'.

and you reach down, grab the handle, and pull, just as instructed. and nothing happens.

..and then it does. BAM! like a car crash, like running into a brick wall... you nearly come to a stop. your neck snaps down, your legs flail wildly in front of you. and everything is quiet. you let out a 'whooooooooooooo' and so does your instructor. He asks how you are- "Great, absolutely great" you reply.

You figure, the chute pulled, so life is good. All you hear, is the slight buzzy-almost-deaf tone in your ears... and the little flap of the chute above you. It is so serene, so quiet. no cars. no animals. no bugs. Your instructor asks you to 'flair' or practice for landing. You grab the chute handles, and pull down - you're in control.

everything stops. really, honestly, dead stop. no noise now at all, not even the chute. you've stalled, 4000ft off the ground, and everything is perfect.

The rest of the trip down is just steering, looking around. you smirk at the fact that your google maps skills are actually paying off, identifying the airport you took off from, from your driving directions!

The scary part is about 70ft off the ground - skimming treetops, you can see peoples faces, identify things on the ground, and it dawns on you that falling from this height is scarier than stepping out of the plane!

as you come blasting towards the ground, your instructor tells you to flair on his command.. you panic a little, isn't the ground coming up fast?!

FLAIR!

and once again- a dead stop. One foot off the ground. You feel less impact than stepping off a curb, and the next step is to sit down. the chute billows to the ground behind you. its over.

instantly, nothing matters. nothing matters at all, whatsoever. you just don't care. you think of the chemicals blasting through your brain, but, ugh, whatever, you don't care.

Your friend lands safely in the same fashion, about 15ft from you. there's a ridiculous high five, a hug, laughter, and you help the instructors gather the chutes. Everyone is laughing, talking about the view. Your instructor thanks you, you thank him, and he says stop back sometime and jump again. in your head, you're already planning the next jump.

as you and your friend walk slowly and confidently to the parking lot, you both pause as you hear over the loudspeaker "We need two more for tandem jumps, two more, open slots. come to the registration station if you're in"

you both look at each other... and laugh. next time. next time.

besides, you're so relaxed right now.. its cool. let someone else try it. you'll be back.

for the next couple days.. its like nothing can bother you. people ask how your weekend was, and you say you went skydiving. they absolutely freak out! and yet your response, now having done it is, "its no big deal. lots of fun. safe. a blast. like a week long vacation wrapped into 7 minutes. you even fit sightseeing in there."

you'll never forget the view.

-jtf

officially a nerd.

Alright, so I caved. I broke down and got an iPhone. I've resisted purchasing apple products for so long. Alas, my desire to refrain from mainstream product placement has slightly failed me. I've had phones that have had great data ability, had phones with more camera ability for sure, lived without wifi, And even had slimmer phones too.

But.. This thing rocks. Also with the ease of everything on here, I'll be updating more often.

In other news, greg and I are firing up the old autocad and solidworks in order to refine existing designs, and experiment with interesting new concepts. Shooting for ultralight revisions for the current set ups, and who knows what for the concepts.. Expect to see carbon top tubes, sleek pivots, and attention to detail. Concepts.. Hmm. Maybe dual air shocks, or inertia valved linkages. Maybe linear bearings?

Ps watching tv, just heard michael Jackson went to liz taylors sleepover party... Creepy.

Pizza and a movie today, jukebox jury tomorrow night!

alright alright

new format, new updates, going to keep up on it, yes, blah blah, heard it before...but yeah, tonight it begins.

what me update?

rather busy lately, but i have a boatload of photos and stories and the whole nine yards. Hell, maybe I'll even get relatively conversational! We'll see. I need to get back on track with my schedule thought- staying up til 2 and then being busy as fuck is really hard on a day to day basis.

I'll start loading and updating tonight/this weekend..

No pics? How boring.

I am feeling that this weekend may lead to a lengthy conversational writing for self reflection. Sound stupid? Probably is.. But I have a general feeling thats a cross between contempt and anxiety and boredom... and I kinda like it.

we'll see. I really do need to get some sleep. Tomorrow I am putting the Hella's on the Audi. I mean why not.

Cleveland Rocks? No, we do.

We decided it was time for a Ray's trip. Just Andrew, Greg, and myself. It had been three years since we last went by ourselves. Skatepark! Rock and Roll Hall of fame!


Without further ado, I give you, Cleveland Ohio, NY/Draco style.

Greg and I left Rochester at about 9.30 with coffee in hand.
We got to Buffalo at about 10:45. I think we loaded Andrew's truck by 11.15pm.



^^Company rides.

On the road in Pennsylvania, we decide to calibrate Colo's new tire size.


Somehow we found a great hotel deal on priceline... We miss our exit to downtown, and proceed to self-navigate our way there, based of memories from 3 years ago. It worked out pretty well, so we stopped to ask some people what time the bars close. Unfortunately, everyone we stopped to ask was an asshole and basically told us we were shit out of luck and why did we have bikes?
We got to the hotel garage. Clearance sign says "6'6"" and I ask Colo how tall his truck is. He says 6'11" as we roll in, completely ignoring the sign. I hang out the window and run my hand along the ceiling to make sure we wont hit. There were no issues, but the skickness of the floor made for some spinning tires trying to get around carefully.


We dump the bikes and gear and decide to find a bar. We head down 6th street, full of people, and everyone says the bars are open til 2:30a... but they stop serving at 2am. We are denied everywhere, like 6 bars in a row. Told that 'traffic' might still serve, we walk in. Place is nearly dead. Luckily, our cleaveage augmented bartender says she will still serve us, especially after hearing that we just got in from NY.


We order two shots of Jack each, and a heineken each. Bouncer tells us thats gonna be our only chance, so we order another shot of Jack. This was very similar to our plan in Toronto when I got back from Vegas. Its basically an awesome recipe for debauchery. It is at this point that we notice our bartender is pouring all of these as doubles.. And we are all kinda like, oh fuck... but we man up and decide to go for it. She says we have like two minutes to do it. Without much hesitation, we each tip up one shot, and drink it. Whooo. REpeat for round two. Whooooooooo... sip of beer. Man, this is heavy! So we go for the third shot. Seriously, back to back, all in less than two minutes. Beers are finished, the bouncer is watching us laughing, and the bartender says "You boys are not fucking around..."

Damn straight. Do we ever?


We chat with Don, the bouncer. Greg tries to get us all in a pic with the girl too, but alas. We tell Don about our trip up and our experience with Cleveland locals. His response is that, fridays are quiet, and we should really come back tomorrow for a good time. Duly noted. We thank them, say good bye, and take off.

Back at the hotel, drunk has hit. And it hit good.
Greg gets changed... This is when the camera really busts out.


Obviously the only thing to do at 3am in another city after a bunch of drinks in shitty weather, is to go street ride.


Andrew opens the door, and there are two security guards standing right there, looking at him with a leg over his bike.. "No dice guys."

Buzzkill.

OR NOT?!

Elevator shot. Classic.


We get back to the garage to get some gloves.


There is 585 representin'.


It's slick in there already. Greg ripped a glove.


But we are off. it's like, snowed an inch of snow across everything.


I'm not really sure why he's wearing them either.

We find the cannon, that three years ago, we put a sticker on. Add a sticker, and take pic.


Greg pulls a barspin.


Andrew manuals and the lack of tire track is cool.


I do it too.


Now, a bum hassles us, and I want a picture. He wants a smoke and two bucks. Meet Wilcox West. I resisted the urge to say "Wake up Mr. West...Mr.West...mr.west.."




We move along. I am told to try a sprocket on this ledge. It didn't work.


At this point, a black qx56 with some rims (pronouce: Reeeyyms) pulls up. Driver rolls down the passenger window and calls me over:

"I'll give you $100 if you can hop onto that ledge and ride it."


-Done deal, just back up ten feet.


WRong kid to bet against, Mike.


Ok, well, after the drinking, I mean, I did what I could with an icy ledge at 3am.


Pay up!
"Yo that was sick..."


"... but I saw you dab... I'll give you $50 though."

(Yes I do look deranged)

So with that being said, I mean, what the fuck? Did someone just give me $50? I would have jumped on it regardless.. My first sponsorship, a Cleveland dealer. Awesome. The night just cannot get better.

Or can it? Ps, it's really snowing.


We spend time skidding around.


"Hey let me get a pic!"


"Let me just turn arou-"


We decide to go back to the hotel to warm up for a second.

..and to ride down the stairs. Inside.


He fell down. Loud enough that the security guard came out. His name is Harry! ANd Harry is one of like, 6 awesome people in all of Cleveland. After giving us some shit, he told us to check out the lounge-

"You can make all the noise you want at any hour..."
Dude have you met us? wow. We decide to go for another lap around the block.

We made it to the corner before decided to do a statue pic.



Then we realize its a mall inside! And... the.. dooors.. are open.


Andrew rides down an escalator.

Not shown: I also go to ride down the escalator, unbeknownst to Andrew, who is heading up it... We crash (pronounce, Crayeesh) midway on it and tumble all the way down wet metal and granite to the bottom. Laughing hysterically the whole way.

At this point Andrew decides he MUST manual through this thing downstairs. I think it's a fountain.



Now we head back to the hotel.
How did we score this place?


We found some coffee!


It's decaf, we're going back.





Good times. 3 hours in Cleveland is off to a good start, despite the lame locals.

We woke up. Went to find breakfast. Oh, god... its in that mall..
It WAS a fountain.


We went to Ray's. This is the only still pic of the entire day.

But to summarize, the place is huge, awesome, and will drain you of all energy.

We left there at like 6pm, thinking, foooooooooood.. Get back to the hotel and there is some baller event there... and no parking. We meet the garage guys, who recognize us from the bikes the night before. They let us park right out front in the vip/valet spots for an hour. A quick shower, and we are off to find food.


Finding nothing the digital way, we ask the concierge, who tells us the best burger place is only two blocks away. And he was SO right. We also saw a wedding proposal there!

After that we head out. The camera stays low for a little bit, but here is the lowdown-

Cleveland locals are all assholes. Everything was cold shoulder, no help, mean, rude, etc. We went to a couple bars. One, called Paninnis, had awesome, awesome music. That was cool.

We hit Velvet Dog... Who knew it was bsaically a plus-size bar. Everyone gives me shit, but seriously, it was.

We left in a hurry.

Deciding to try Traffic again, per Don's request, we hit the door. We ask if Don is in, that he told us to find him if we came back down. We are immediately just ushered in, no cover, right past everyone...

We find Don, do a shot with him, and he sends us upstairs to the VIP dancefloor joint.


Now at this point it gets interesting. Greg begins to dance on people, as per usual.
We observe this: (Note gregs face, and the girls hand)


AS if that wasn't hilarious enough on its own, at least from Andrews and my perspective... Greg kissed this girl with a boyfriend... No joke G, it looked enough like it that we panicked... so its fact now! Anyways, after seeing this, and expecting a fight at any moment, we grab Greg and get the hell out of there.

We walk outside and Colo starts to talk to some kid in an Alpinestars jacket. Apparently he races MX and his buddy is a pro fighter.. at least.. as pro as Tap-Out is. His fighter buddy disappears, and he is like, well, I'm gonna check some places out, want to come? And points to a limo bus. I step it up, and I'm like, "Sure, we'd love to...", and we get on.

Turns out this dude is full of shit. Wrong bike names, wrong track names, refuses a last name or a picture. So this was as close we got to capturing "Barto"...


Totally drunk at this point, Greg with the spins, me wondering where the FUCK we are, and Colo wanting to leave this toolbag, we are just like "OK man, cool, catch you later..." and get off.

We wander up to this bar because we hear Fallout Boy playing (you know, at least uncommon for a big bar)... And no one will tell us where we are. However, a guy working there walks out, and we ask, explaining we are from out of town, and he is like, you're here.. get in there, tell them I sent you.
Again, ushered past a huge line and in we are.
Round two of conversational assholism:
Andrew sees a guy wearing a Snap-On jacket, walks up to him, and says "Hey I like your jacket, good tools, nice stuff. You a rep or something?"
...and this guys friend says to colo, cold shouldered, "Wrong guy dude... wrong guy to talk to..." and turns his back. COlo is like, "WTF is wrong with these people?" and we start to leave.

Now, I offer this picture, and don't remember what was going on. Was Greg dancing? Was he striking someone in the face? DId he elbow the guy behind him AND punch someone out? Andrew looks interested.


Anywho, we walk outside. Somehow, after driving in the limo bus the whole time.. we are only a block from where we started. Nice.

We say, fuck this city, we can make it to Buffalo by last call. Alright, true, bad idea. We're hammered. WE head back to the hotel, but not before seeing:
"The Good Twin"


Back at the hotel, its dawning on all of us that tomorrow morning is going to be rough. Luckily, andrew has purchased "Vitamin enhanced water for babies" and I am drinking it.


I pushed andrew off the bed because he was taking up space. I didn't know the 'crevasse' was so tight he could not move.. He could not escape... we had to pull him out.


And thus we called it. Tired, drunk, ridiculous.


We left that morning without breakfast or anything. Soured on all the shitty characters of Cleveland, and knowing that the only part that made it awesome was that it was just the three of us... We got on the road.

I mean, with no drug dealer sponsors or VIP treatment.. Why stay? We upped the ante so hard.

Time for a new city next time.