Yes! Its finally on shelves people. The newest issue from Line Up Magazine a surf, skate, art, and babes oriented magazine. Grab your copy today and look for The Scoff Projects little part in this mag. Originally we had a 17 question interview mainly covering the basis of how to build your own mini-mega ramp. haha So it might be pretty epic for those who are inspired by the project. Anyways they finally got ahold of Gershon Mosley whom they have been trying to get an interview for a while and then killing the interew they had with us and moving us to half a page. No worries though any coverage is good coverage.
Heres the spot we got in Line Up.
And since it was never released heres the full original interview with Line Up. Enjoy!
How to build a Mini-Mega Ramp
Justin McLeod
Where did the idea come from?
The idea came almost 2 years ago, when I was just surfing the forums of our local mag Paying in Pain, and one dude posted photos of this narly set up he made in his backyard with plywood, old washing machines, and other crazy stuff. I thought it be sick to build my own backyard ramp and since I had a hill in the back and old ramps, I piled them all up to make some mutant form of a ramp haha
Do you need a physics degree for any of this?
Ummm, naaaaw. Just a piece of paper, a pencil with an eraser, that’s very important, and a crazy idea.
Any lost fingers?
Haha what? That’s the question I usually get asked when I tell people I make fireworks from scratch. But last month my dad actually shot a nail through his middle finger. Ouch!
How much cash is involved?
Well depends how much do you want to spend? The first version of the Scoff Project cost me $50, built it entirely from scrap wood that I picked up from construction sites and old ramps. I actually met a really cool super-intendent who’s son skateboarded and hooked us up with so much wood, it was pretty sick. The one were building right now we’ve already spent $350 on, it’s a mix of fresh wood and some scrap 2x4s we’ve picked up.
Any good ways to finance it?
Well if you and your buddies are strapped for cash, you can kidnap your next door neighbor’s dog and hold it for ransom…… Or maybe not, scratch that. Just save your money, sell some of your old stuff, maybe try panhandling and selling your old board or trucks. Or get a job that always seems to work. For us at Scoff we put some of our own money down plus we have sponsors like Monster Energy, GrindTV, and Grind 4 Life that are supporting the film.
How much time got invested into it?
In the ramp we’re building right now, damn! We’ve spent 5 days building it so far, I think I spent a good 2 days designing it on paper and trying to estimate the angles and cost of wood, drinking monsters, and prepping. I say a good 8 days and counting.
How many people do you need to get it done?
Just 2, but it makes it a lot easier if you have 3-4 people which is what I suggest. We’ve had 3 builders at all times, one to cut and 2 to assemble. Works pretty smooth that way
Any way to get some good wood cheap?
Ah there’s tons of ways! You won’t believe it! We go over this in the film but I guess your going to get a sneak peak into some of our tips. 1 is hit up some local construction sites that you see piles of wood at. Go up to one of the workers and ask them if you can speak to the framing super-intendent (he’s in charge of the wood) and simply ask him if you can pick up his scrap wood for him. Most won’t really care except for your safety, just make sure to respect them and make sure not to make a mess after you take the wood you want.
Number 2 most people don’t know is called dunnage. Find a local lumber yard near a railroad and call and ask them if they have any dunnage they want to get rid of. Now most of you are thinking what the heck is dunnage? Its pieces of wood (usual 2x4) that separate sheets of wood while there in the train. Once they unload they usually toss the spacers in pile till there picked up sometime in the month and disposed of. These are usual perfect pieces of wood.
Or you can go on craigslist.org and a see if there’s anyone in your area that’s selling some wood or maybe giving it away for free. Its like eBay, but its local, so you just pick it up instead of having to ship it.
Did you make friends with the local lumber yard?
Actually I made friends with the girls behind the checkout counter at Home Depot haha
What is your set up like?
Well we have a nice 16ft rollin down a bank. Fairly close to the design of Burnquists mega ramp. Then we have a nice 12ft flat bottom, its very important that you have that otherwise the person will not have enough time to set up for the jump. Like our poor friend Rob, he hasn’t skated the same since. And then we have a beautiful ramp that’s 8.5ft tall and 16ft long. Total length from the rollin to the tip of the ramp is 72ft.
Did you use any templates?
Nope, none at all. For a ramp of this size there really is no templates or guidelines to follow. We just took the basics of building ramps and then put a drastic edge on it. We learned from our mistakes on the first version we built in January 07, and took that knowledge and rebuilt it. The radius for our new mini-mega is 24ft! And it looks beautiful, like you’re going to just float off of it or something. I would say on making your own template use something close to a 3 to 1 ratio. If you want to build a nice smooth 5ft ramp use a 15ft radius on it. As for the rollin start with making twice the height of the ramp, if you need or want more speed you can always add onto it later.
How much did your spot help you in price?
A lot! Because I have a levee in my backyard, and building it up that 10ft levee meant we didn’t have to buy all those extra 2x4s to build a massive framework to support it. It probably saved us a good $400-$600. That and our mini mega probably would have never been built if it wasn’t for the levee. It came with conditions though.
Did it make the build more difficult?
Yea it did actually. Cause we had to custom build the ramp to the side of the levy and try to make sure that everything was level and straight. We practically built the ramp around the levee like a glove. It was the hardest part of our build and then making sure everything was structurally safe also. The thing looks like a roller coaster now!
If you don’t have a levee, are there any other places to start a build?
Hmmm well that I can think of, try to find a hill of some sort will definitely work to your advantage. If you have the space, you can build it flat in your backyard or in a warehouse. It will cost a little more money or more hours scrounging for wood, but it will be sick none the less. Also building it somewhere it can’t be seen or hard to be seen. Cause you don’t want uninvited guest tearing up your ramp. Luckily for us ours is in the country so we don’t have to worry too much about that.
Is it better to build in pieces?
Yea it is, because if something happens you move or need to move it, you can break it down in to however many pieces and move it. Like The Scoff Project, the ramp itself is constructed into 7 different pieces main reasons why is because of the levee its built on is actually shared property between the city and us. See were not allowed to have anything built on it. So the days we do use it takes a about 45mins to take the 4 pieces an assemble it. When it’s not in use we break it down, so not to get in trouble with the city. It simplifies things that way. They also have these giant tractor things the grates and mows the whole levee in a single sweep, its pretty crazy looking!
What’s good and bad about it?
It’s mainly all good. It’s portable! Imagine if we had a mini mega tour across the US, all we had to do was break it down in its pieces and load up a big rig. You know, that be pretty sick! Anything negative might be that if it’s broken down multiple times, the pieces might not fit as well as they use to.
How much air can you expect out of a ramp of your size?
Wow I’ve been trying to figure this out myself. This is where you need physics degree.
Were expecting about a 16-20ft gap and maybe 12-14ft of air. We really don’t know for sure. I’m one of those people that aren’t really good at advance math in general unless it applies to me personally. I searched all over Google trying to find equations to help me figure this out and it was insane, my brain hurt afterwards. I had to find the equation to find the amount of speed the object will generate from a slope at X height and X angle with X weight. Then I had to take X speed and figure it in with the amount of flat space we have to see how much the object slows down too. After that I had to figure the new speed, decreased by gravity at the steepness and length of the ramp, then take X speed and figure it in with the angle of the ramp. I came up with the number 14…Which I had no clue what it meant. haha Maybe it was the number for the gap, the air you might get, or maybe how many hours I was going to have a migraine for.
End-
We took a longer break than normal skating the fun box at the house and after a few scrapes and bruises we were back to building. We finished a little late, but all in all the day was good. There was just way to many sexual references going around that day haha.
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