THE SCOFF PROJECT

The Rain Comes Again

2009-10-18T23:32:00.000-07:00

So the first big rain of the later part of year 2009 has hit. Recieving 1-2 of rain on the valley floor, it was pretty intense. I was luckly able to take all the masonite off the ramp before the ramp and store it in the shed. That would of been a lot of money to waste on the fragile masonite sheets.

Don't worry we already layed in a order for some tarps to come in and protect the ramp from the blunt of the upcoming storms. Bought what we needed at http://www.tarpsplus.com/
We got some nice HEAVY DUTY tarps for the mini mega, if you want to see which kind we got click the link Right Here

Here are a few photos of the ramp the afternoon after the rain....

360 Degree view of the Project

2009-09-09T15:16:00.000-07:00

Myself and my brother John, our photographer finally got some time to take these photographs on labor day. I was so stoked to see how it all turned out! Took a bit of math and about 1 hr 30mins to take all 37 well placed photographs. But the end result is stunning.
You be able to see this new view of the ramp in our latest video released on youtube.
www.youtube.com/skatescoff its guaranteed epic/ entertainment.

NEW VIDEO Updates!!! Prep Work

2009-08-12T00:25:00.001-07:00

I know its been a while since any video on the project has been posted. So here it is my friends.
A 3 part series of some of the prep work done prior to Build Days that I do to ensure the build day goes by as smooth as possible. This prep day happens right before DAY 11 where we installed the rollin back in October 28, 2008. These videos go more indepth with the build, design, and decision made on the projects building. Alot more juice in these 3 videos than the past updates combined....Well almost. Anyways enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

You can find these videos and more at our YOUTUBE channel www.youtube.com/skatescoff

A Little Bit off Focus

2009-07-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm proud to announce the new Scoff website is up and running! Its our best and most true to the core of Scoff I believe and breaks everything down to the what were really about. You can visit it here www.scoffskateboarding.com
So go check it out and read everything on their, its not so much extra content compared to the old one but more revised and better content. Those who check it out and tell us what we think plus a few questions have a chance at winning a FREE Scoff Project Photo tee! So have at it!

So how much did that Cost?

2009-06-29T01:16:00.000-07:00

Thats a question i get asked alot in person and over the net well I sorta wanted to know myself. I've just been guesstimating for a while now and decided to bring our the receipts and see how mush the mini mega ramp has cost so far. Heres the latest photos of the ramp. Adding the 26 sheets of masonite

Photos taken by: John Huewe / Photos taken: June 13, 2009

Building Costs:$2,233.53
Cost Saving/Reusing Wood: -$600 +/-
Additional Costs: $491.02(tools, paint, brushes, ect..)
Total Costs:$2,124.55

Building List:
8ft-2x4 = 70
12ft-2x4 = 240
12ft-4x4 = 6
------------------
1/2 ply = 28
3/4 ply = 6
5/8 OSB ply = 8
1/8 Masonite = 4
1/4 Masonite = 22
----------------------
1,1/4 DryScrew = 5lbs
2" DryStcrews = 25lbs
3" DryScrews = 30lbs
3" DeckScrew = 30lbs
2, 1/2" 10d Nails = 10lbs
-----------------------
Cinder Blocks = 65 blocks
Concrete = 1,280lbs
Coarse Gravel = 20lbs
Latex Primer Paint = 26 gallons
2x4 hangers = 64 pieces
6" Bolts = 6 (1 bolt, 1 nut, 2 washers)
4" Bolts = 8 (1 bolt, 1 nut, 2 washers)

The landing are still needs to be expanded 8 more feet with a 10ft high 16ft long quarter at the end. Which according to my numbers will cost an additional $864 :/ I'm tired of spending money on this beast but it has come a long ways since 10/06/07.
Hope you all enjoyed!

Sorry

2009-06-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

I mainly wanted to let everyone know that I'm sorry for not keeping you guys up to date on the project lately. Seriously I have over 10 blogs I need to write but have been so busy I haven't had time and have left most of you in the dark about the happenings of the project.

Mainly the ramp is almost set for its 1st test runs. A day we have worked so hard for for nearly 2yrs now! A fresh breath of air would hit me and I could feel relaxed that we hit our first major milestone for the project but the lingering doom of State Farm looms nearby which quickly takes away all that we have worked so hard for.....time will tell what comes of it

!Road Block!

2009-05-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

Documented: May 3, 2009

So the other day I was heading over to my local state farmer agent to pay for my car insurance. I figured since I was here I should talk to him about possibly raising the insurance coverage on the house to cover us for the Jump Day. Turned out to be not such a good turnout. According to the agent if State Farm new we were planning on building this ramp to jump it. They would cancel the home owners insurance on the house and since the mortgage is still being paid off the bank would take over the house and sell it. Kicking my parents out of there home(yes the ramp is on my parents property.) Not good new and a douche kind of a move to make. See I understand there concern, being afraid that if someone would sue if they go hurt and then State Farm would have to pay for that.

But truthfully, they don’t know skateboarding. And skateboarding has the lowest sue rate compared to everything else they deal with. Plus as skateboarders we know what were getting into, so if we break our arm its because of our fault and were not going to blame anyone else for it. State Farm is just so use to dealing will all the other sue happy morons out there.

Anyways trying to think of some ideas around this so we can still jump it here at the house. If that doesn’t work, I’m working on some other ideas as second and last resorts. It might come to be we will need to relocate it, if it comes to that. Its sad to think this is the second time this has happened. Right when we near the completion of the ramp something stupid comes up to hinder its progress…..

Scoff Project Photo Tee - Avaliable Soon!

2009-05-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

Here it is! This tee will be avaliable in under a week at our online shop.

BUY HERE

It will be only $12 and avaliable in Black, White, and Chocolate from Small to X-Large. Be on the look out twoards the end of this week begining of the next for these guys to be on sale!
To see the FULL SIZE graphic visit this link

Taking a Break

2009-05-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

Build Weekend: May 2-3, 2009

We hoped to build this week but we decided to take a break. Everyone this weekend had something going on. We’ve been really busy though so I agree that everyone deserves a weekend off.

In the meantime I've been working on a graphic for The project to print to t-shirts. It will be acompliation of photos and blueprints highlighting the epic moments, chill times, and landmarks in the project journey. All sales from these tee will fo directly back into the project to help finish it and upkeep the ramp. Be on the look out for it soon!

Till next week.

Prep Work: Ladders, supports, and rollout decks. Oh my!

2009-05-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

Work done between: April 27 - May 1, 2009

This week I began designing the ladder its design along with the pre-construction of the rails to be added to the sides of the roll-in. I designed the ladder to come up through the hole we created and have 2 large posts used for the back to help support the ladder and keep it from bending when someone walks up it. Mainly composed of 3 large pieces over 20ft long each!

The rails were pretty standard (4ft high and 8ft wide). I tried building the first one on top of the rollin and assembled it perfectly. It was a bit windy and I set it on the edge of the surface it was to be mounted to. The rail sat perfectly. I was amped and decided to go under and screw in the first part of it before clamping it down. My stupid mistake was grabbing the 2x4 hoping that I could hold it in place while I put the 3inch screw down. Soon to find out my hand couldn’t keep the 2x4 from being pushed back and the whole thing tipped over and fell 19ft to the ground hitting a small section of the ladder I just built!

I was disappointed in myself and climbed down to check the damage. Luckily the damage was quite minimal. Only one of the 2x4s had splintered off on the side of the rail. I started constructing the other 2 rail walls and one of the support legs for the ladder.

Later this week I would finish the other support leg and finish the rest of the rails in time for the next build day

Day 20: Lets get this straight NOW!

2009-05-13T08:57:00.000-07:00

Documented: April 25, 2009
Photos coming soon.....

Today it was just Cesar and myself. Dylan still in high school, had prom this weekend so he wasn’t here. I was joking with the guys acting like I was talking to Dylan saying “Since I was never able to go to prom never will you! You are being forced to work today!” haha it was funny.

We did the important work today of aligning the roll-in. Remember how it was shifting off to the side about 5 inches. Well it’s fixed now. Mainly the top piece was resting ontop of the next. First step of what we did was unscrew the majority of the cross braces in the next lower piece so we could shift it around. Shoved it over into place and directly lined it up with the straight piece. It was such a pain in the ass. Once it was aligned Cesar held it into place while I quickly went around putting the entire cross braces back in to hold it in place.

Once that was complete I removed the end 2x4 and grabbed my handsaw. I began to saw away the top layer of ply butting against where the top runway piece was resting on it. I was doing this so when I finished the top section would just slip down and be a perfect fit to the next piece. An it worked! Came out great re-screwed the 2x4 back in and secured that section completely. Next was to continue down and just follow the pattern of unscrewing the sections shifting them over and screwing them back in once aligned correctly. We finished in a matter of just a few hours!

I was psyched to see a smooth slope finally established. Rhett then showed up soon after and a bit late for work haha We were about to go on break for lunch and head to Qdoba, but an idea I had long ago on a prep day came back to mind. (Riding down the ramp on a saucer). You know those snow saucers? The round neon colored disk. Well heck yes we did! It was so much fun. Everyone had a blast and even Dan our filmer took a go. You got a lot of speed but not enough to leave the launch ramp, just to go up it half way really. Cesar had the mouth of a sailor when we got up there. He’s a bit afraid of heights and even flipped of a horse that neighed at him when he was about to go haha.

All in all it was a good day. Couldn’t really see any progress but the runway was now aligned but need to be leveled out again. We’ll leave those to the next build days to come…

Cellphone Videos of the Mini Mega Ramp

2009-05-11T10:25:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I pop out my little blackberry and take videos of the project to share with friends and family that want to see it. So I uploaded them to youtube so I can share them with all of you too! Hope you enjoy!

Working on the Support Legs

2009-05-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

So back to the giant support legs. I have them attached to the roll-in and concreted down into the ground. So what’s next?! Oh’ a whole lot more my friends! See if pressure is applied to them then they will want to bend mostly outwards. So the time I spent today and over this week was finishing up the cross braces for the support braces (which I didn’t accomplish much on) and fully screwing in all the ply on top of the roll-in. I got a lot of the wood cut for the supports but the fun part was hauling a big sheet of plywood 19ft up to the roll-in. My solution, I found a long rope and tied it around the ply and the sides so if I pulled it up it would remain straight and steady.
This was fun and scary at the same time because I had that dead weight I was pulling up and had to keep my balance so it didn’t pull me over. Its not like I had any safety bars to keep me from going over. So at last with the rope all wrangled and tangled around my hand I got it topside safe and sound and finished screwing the piece in. It fit like a glove, now the legs needed some love but I became busy with a few other matters and the 20th build day was approaching soon…..

Day 19: Still Working on the Roll-in

2009-04-19T20:28:00.000-07:00

Documented: April 19, 2009

Today was the day to finish the roll-in. But it didn’t happen. How many days are we going to spend on this roll-in! Well recapping on the day it was Dan, Dylan, Cesar, and myself(John wasn't available today). Man we filmed a pretty funny and bad intro for the day all due to myself not talking correctly for a short time haha. You’ll see it in the video update……..maybe.

So we got to work, the plan was too widen the roll-in out and add 2, 2ft sections to the side and secure them down then add there curved counter parts which makes for our smooth transition to the bank. We began hauling the sections up the ramp by the small 16ft ladder we had piling them up. Cesar was hanging partially hanging off the side of the ramp. haha The poor guy is afraid of heights so he was sorta freakin out with nothing under his feet but a 15ft drop. We started with the roll section first and I pounded them full of screws to make sure they were secured.

After those two were finished came the hard part. Dylan came up to the top and both of them were hanging off the sides. I was going to slowly push the 2x8ft section off the side of the roll-in and they were going to hold it against the side of the roll-in. I was laying on top of the bones of it making sure everything lined up. I quickly layed 2 clamps in place to hold it down and gave them a break while I threw in about 30 screws then moved over to the next side and did it all over again. Pretty much like clockwork.

Now that everything was secured I started taking measurements for the plywood that would be sitting on top of it. One was going to simply be screwed in but the other I had to make cuts for. At the backside of the roll-in we have a hole for you to climb through to the deck. A few cuts later I was trekked back to the ramp and we started getting the first full ply sheet up. But for some reason why. (That’s what I get for taking 2 weeks to write these) The builders had to leave early and so we called it a day and only got a few screws in before the ply before everyone cleaned up and headed out….

Day 18: We have gone Astray

2009-04-12T04:40:00.000-07:00

The plan for the day was to finally finish the roll-in. I pre-cut a lot of wood the day before and did a good 6hrs of prep work trying to make sure I had the majority of everything set and ready. Truth is, I should know by now when I think we can finish something by a due date it isn’t going to happen according to plan.

We started off the day installing the cross braces for the new roll-in and while I was finishing up the last of them I had Dylan and Cesar go work on getting few new pieces cut top off the structure. Next we all got up on the top section of the roll-in and hoisted the roll section up and started putting it into its correct spot. See it was a bit difficult getting this piece into place not because of it having to be leveled but this was a critical section for the roll-in and had to be perfect installed in every way. Took us a good 30mins to get it set up and installed and then mounting the last runway piece to the new roll-section seemed to be where the majority of our time was spent today.

See the runway is off to the side about 5inches once the front of the roll-out was installed it gave a legit top marker to align everything with. So then over the next few hours on that one runway section along we experimented taking out screws of certain tension 2x4s(lumber that keeps the runway piece from swaying and falling apart) and even disconnected the support braces to so the only thing holding it together was the roll-in it was screwed to! It was becoming extremely frustrating. We had almost everything disconnected from the top runway and it needed to be moved over another inch or two, but it was magically staying in place with nothing holding it in. Eventually I moved myself on top of the second runway section and lifted up the one we were trying to move. It finally budged! Apparently there was a 2x4 that was just blocked and jammed against the runway.

Now with that being out of the way it was actually sitting on top of the next runway piece. That was unexpected. So I’m thinking we will have to unhinge all the other sections and scoot them down on top of shifting them over till they are straight. *sigh* seriously this aligning is a large pain in the ass. It’s the most importantt work though.

It was pretty awesome while we were moving a section of the ramp over. The lowest section actually a white tailed bunny rabbit came bolting from underneath the ramp! Oh snaps! Dan grab the camera! But it was too late. About 2hrs later Dan was shooting me doing some work when we saw our neighbors dog catch and kill the rabbit on my property and carry it over to their side haha Felt bad for the rabbit, but it was pretty cool at the same time. So Dan was on a schedule and had to leave practically as we were finishing up with re-aligning/ checking the sections. Plus his battery was just about out.

I did the end of day speech and closed it off but I insisted that we at least get the main roll-out platform up and in place. Cesar came and sawed part of the top 4x4 posts so that the 4x8ft piece would slide on nicely. Next was a fun operation, you see in the photos we have a large wooden ladder that our neighbor kindly gave to us to use. I stood halfway up that while Dylan was going to push the piece up to me and I would carry it above my head and hand it to Cesar who was a few feet above me. Then I quickly crawled to the top and Dylan and Cesar pushed it up to me. After we got the most of it over the post we started shoving it into place until it butted against the other piece. We threw a few screws in and called it a day. It was a good 6.5hr build day that day. Everyone was craving some Qdoba after that and we met up after at the skatepark to finish the day.

Check out the FLICKR SITE to view all photos from DAY 18

Day 17: The Last Piece is Always the Hardest

2009-04-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

View all photos from today at our Flickr site!

Sorry for the late post guys. 2 weeks late, not good! Today was a crazy day! Most certainly the most dangerous day for myself and difficult for the both of us. Rhett was out late in the mountains the night before and Cesar refused to wake up early (8am) so it was just Dylan and myself today with Dan rockin the Canon, but John (the photographer) made prior arrangements and had to be somewhere else. So all the photos you see in this post is the day after our progress.

Well mainly today we were going to finish the runway and add the last 6ft piece. Sounds easy right? Well we tried walking it up the existing runway…didn’t work. We kept sliding backwards and we were thinking how the hell we were going to get it up 15ft to its new home. The rope we had was too thin, ok then, our last option…. heave it up the side of the structure. Yep this 6x4ft 40lbs chunk was going to be heaved upward. With Dylan on the bottom he pumps it up and starts pushing it against the structure till it get up to my hands and I was pulling with practically all my back could handle. It was not an easy task I finally took all it into my hands and pulled it the rest of the way up.

Whew! Ok great it’s up. Now let’s get it in place. I was going to have to butt it against the other piece and rest it on the back supporting 2x4s. Another problem now I’m 5’9” and the piece it needs to butt against is 7ft tall. Crap! and it was rotated the wrong way. What we were about to do could have been done a much easier way, but no, blindly chose the more difficult and fastest to pursue route.

Dylan managed to get himself ontop the runway barley hold on. I was going to heave the piece up towards him and balance it halfway on the tip of the runway. Don’t forget Dylan is consistently fighting to hold his grip on the slope of the ramp. Once balanced on top we rotated it 180(flatspin) and then the most sketchy part of the day we had to flip it also (cause it was laying on its back) so we pushed it halfway over the edge and I put myself off the side of the ramp just standing on a few measly 2x4s 16ft above the ground with nothing underneath. I tried to find the most comfortable position I could.

Dylan and I were talking constantly throughout this making sure everything was fine and I was slightly yelling at him cause if he didn’t do what I instructed of him it put me in greater risk of falling or losing my grip. He was stubborn but I’m guessing it was because we didn’t feel to safe either trying to keep this piece of wood from slipping and sliding down towards him. So the plan was once I got on the side wear the piece was overhanging Dylan would hold down the edge on his end and I would push up forcing the piece to stand up and then we rotate it again once I and bring it down flat again. Wow! Easier said than done! Dylan wasn’t able to hold it in place while keeping his grip on the runway and kept sliding the piece kept on sliding back at an angle now and then it hit him. It was so obvious! Grab a freakin 2x4 and screw it down into the ramp to keep you from falling. But that left me in a tight spot.

When Dylan sled off he left the whole piece to me, hanging off the side. I was clasping onto the runway and holding the piece up with the one available hand I had while Dylan rushed around grabbin the screws, screw gun, and wood. It felt like a good 5 minutes went by before he got back up, my abs were sore and my body began to vibrate from holding the piece in place… it was slowly slipping. Dylan finally got the 2x4 in! Thank god we let it slide back a few inches to the 2x4 and began to roll it over again. It worked and Dylan wasn’t slipping anymore. Finally rotating it over we pushed it back up and heaved it up and over the back supporting studs. A few minutes later it was in place and needed to be screwed and secured. I was just happy to get that piece done with! Man sketchiest day ever on the project and I’m sure both Dan and Dylan would agree.

Simple enough next on the agenda for the day was to install the second main piece of the roll-in and mount it down into the existing 4x4. In about an hour we did that and added a set of horizontal braces to keep the width the same on both ends. All in all it was an exhausting 5hrs of work and I really wish John was there to catch the photos of it but you’ll see it when the DVD comes out of this documentary film. Till next week!

-Jason Huewe

Qdobe Mexican Grill feeds the Project

2009-04-11T00:25:00.000-07:00

Yep that's correct, Qdoba is now making sure the builders, filmers, and photographers stomachs are all kept full! With there monstrous burritos, weighing nearly 3lbs(feels like it), its like eating 2 burgers! Check them out here at www.qdoba.com they just open a restruant here in Clovis at the corner of Herndon and Fowler for those of you locals reading the blog. But they have over 400 stores nationwide, so if you love hefty mexican food be shure to check them out.
- Thanks again for the food Qdoba, much apprecaited!

Giant Assembly

2009-04-10T04:26:00.000-07:00

So basically today I assembled the giant support legs for the side of the rollin. Measuring 16ft long their like giant prongs, the purpose of these is to take stress off the back end where the majority of weight will be. I have 2 built for each side, I'm thinking I might need to get 2 in for the back end also.

They will connect to the 4x4 legs on the roll-in and then slant down and bolt into a 4x4 piece that's been concreted into the ground securing it all together.

More Building

2009-04-02T22:03:00.000-07:00

So after the windy day I got back to doing more prep and built the next runway piece for the runway only 6ft long this time around. Again re-using some old 2x4s and scrap plywood it was assembled in no time. I also pre cut the support legs for the piece and the the bottom braces to fully mount the bottom of the rollin. I love these days just me and my tools, peace and quite, working out everything in my head without having to worry about other things...

Day 16: What goes up must go Down

2009-03-29T22:25:00.000-07:00

March 29, 2009 View more photos at: www.flickr.com/minimegaramp
The main thing that was crazy about today was the wind! Holy smokes! Working up 12ft in the air with constant 15MPH winds with sometime 30MPH gusts was intense! Other notes is Dan the filmer wasn’t able to come today so we enlisted the help of an additional builder to help film. Cesear Tapia is the name and filming is not quite his skill. Haha He did alright, but audio was shot because of all the wind. Dylan and Rhett also showed up to help today.

Mainly we started construction on the new rollin because the old one wasn’t high enough for the new runway. Rhett and I started building the front and back support sets for the rollin as Dylan started prepping the old one to be removed. Yeap were going to drop the 6ft rollin 12ft to the ground and replace it with its new 8.5ft brother.

After we got the pieces made me and Dylan finished removing the screws and plates that held the rollin in and in a big push rolled it off so it came crashing to the ground! It was a epic scene for the project. Next was fun and well interesting. Especially with all the wind we were going to try to install the back section of the rollin. I tied a rope to the very top of the section for some to check incase it tried to roll away of tip over once in place. We hauled it up and Rhett and Dylan were on top of the runway helping to pull it up. I got the feet at their new bases and we started pushing the piece up so it stood tall. Unfortunately we weren’t tall enough to really do that so John. The photographer who’s been taking all these amazing photos of the project came out to help out.

He got up on the ramp and scooted forward into areas were he wasn’t feeling to comfortable and Dylan came over to help support his body so he didn’t sway to much (remember the 15MPH wind?!) We started pushing it up and then one last heave. Holy f**dge it started rotating over! Rhett gave the rope too much slack and then caught it keeping it from rolling over the back. That was a scary moment right there. Once it was stabilized we quickly anchored in some screws and got the first part in.

An that’s mainly all that happened on Day 16 not much but some pretty epic carnage of the old rollin. We’ll be takin it apart and using the 2x4s in there and re using them in the new rollin and the runway as you’ll see in the film.

Planning the next Build

2009-03-24T10:30:00.000-07:00

So over this week I’ve finished adding the cross braces to the most recent section of the runway and realigned the legs to the correct angle. I began preping for the next section, the rollin. Also we all know it’s going to be higher than the current one we have installed right now. I spent a few hours today taking measurements and drawing up the new dimensions for the rollin and last runway piece. It appears the new height for the ramp will be just less than 20ft tall! Total tack length is just around 72ft long and the rollin is at a 29 degree angle.

See where the tip of the 2x4 is? Thats where our new rolling height will be.
But now I’m just trying to figure out the game plan and get things ready for the build day next day.

Day 15: Almost Death, Cahos, and Progress

2009-03-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

March 21, 2009 We all came back for another build day (Dan and Dylan) this time to try to add the next runway piece. I was hoping to have another builder assist Dylan today but we figured we get started while waiting on Rhett to come by a few hours later. There was a large storm system that was suppose to be rolling in again this evening and the clouds were a prominent reminder of that.

We started the day talking about getting the ramp lined up… see it’s been having this problem as you see from the pic above. We ended up disconnecting the flat-bottom so we could rotate the bottom transition piece. Mainly when we first started assembling the ramp back on day 9 and 10 the structure wasn’t completely lined up with the ramp and flat-bottom. So after much hustling and shoving pieces from the left to the right and the right to the left we got it into the right position. Thank God we didn’t concrete that section in yet! We also had a small offset with the last runway piece we installed last time and quickly resolved that issue.
Next on the agenda was getting that beastly runway section up the ramp. Good thing Rhett showed up…he wasn’t even really planning on being here to build today. So with his butt on the ramp we got started. I felt like we were playing football. Rhett and Dylan were in the back going to lift the runway piece over the support legs I was positioned upfront doing the finesse work and lining up the mounting bolts while Dan was walking the piece up the ramp. Dylan and Rhett were tripping out and they had good reason too. They only had a few 2x4s to stand on and I even added another one for them to help them feel more comfortable. This is defiantly one of the most difficult and dangerous times of the project.

After muscling it up and getting it rested in place we started adjusting the legs to the correct height. Me and Dylan butted heads quite a bit today. Both of us were bickering over how the legs were to be mounted to the support frame. After wasting time, I decided to let it go and go his way to prove my point. It was a valid idea/point he was making and it wouldn’t hurt to do it. Maybe I was just too set in my ways.

We did have a very scary moment while leveling out the piece, Dylan almost had a tragic fall back 10 feet. It was the most hilarious moment at the same time also. Cause he was sitting down and lifting up one of the legs of the runway with his foot helping me adjust it so it was leveled. An as he was leaning back, I quote! “Man I can hold this position for days.” Whoosh! The 2x4 came out! It was not screwed down and it slipped out! His foot flew up and his body flew back with his arms above his head. Luckily and I don’t know how, but his arms caught another 2x4 that was about 3ft behind him. It was a miracle literally… I tried to re-enact it and that 2x4 behind him was extremely hard to catch.

Anyways got that out of the way and finished installing the piece. There was just a few for the cross braces, we didn’t get in. Anyways a good day everyone had to leave somewhat early and well. We ran out of tape we had to conserve through the day because I lost the other blank tapes we had. So sadly we didn’t get Dylan falling on video…sigh… it happens.

Till next time!

Making plans

2009-03-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

Dylan came over the other day to help with some prep work. We did some painting of another sheet of ply and added it to the next runway piece. We also worked on reinforcing the launch ramp and discused the problem we discovered last time on Build Day 14 Mainly the runway on the ground (flatbottom including the launch ramp) is at a diffrent angle compared to the runway pieces on the support structure that is concreted into the ground.

We decided that it be best to move the whole flatbottom to the stuctures angle. Obvious choice since the struture is conreted and can't be moved. So we will have to make these changes next build day. Dylan and I also rotated the last runway piece 180 degrees cause it was put in the wrong way. Wasn't too hard this time around but it was getting dark fast and we only mounted one of the support legs in. Just a chill time for about 2hrs getting some small work done on the mini mega....

Scoff Project Websites

2009-03-10T22:51:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let people know of additional content on the THE SCOFF PROJECT and the building of the Scoff Mini-Mega ramp you can visit us on any of these killer websites

Photos: www.flickr.com/minimegaramp

Videos: www.youtube.com/skatescoff
www.shredordie.com/thescoffproject (videos coming soon)

Profiles: www.myspace.com/scoffshop
www.grindtv.com/skatescoff
www.go211.com/u/scoffskateboarding

Enjoy!

Day 14: Back to the Rollin

2009-03-07T20:36:00.000-08:00

March 7, 2009

View more photos on THE SCOFF PROJECT at Flickr

Wow finally time we started work on the runway to rollin section. I've been pushing to get it done and finally figured that we can try to get it done with only 2 people(including myself) it was a scary concept. Having to haul a 4x8ft section that weight about 50lbs up on to a slanted slope was going to be no easy task.

We had yet another new builder join the crew. Dylan Bittner an 18yr old talented vert skater WITH prior building experience was joining me today and probably had a harder job than he knew he was getting into. More than I even really knew. Starting the day off introducing him to the ramp, what the plans were for the day and after that he voiced his concerns about it and poping open a few Monsters we got to work.

We got to work be beginning on the intial transition leading up the runway. It wasn't at the same angle to the next runway section so basically we stripped it of all its old plywood braces and replaced it with solid 2x4s, also raised it about 3inces to match the same angle as the intial transition. It took us a bit longer than expected but we got it done and out of the way with. Next was the hard part, trying to get the 50lbs runway piece up and bolted in.

For safety reasons I screwed in 2, 2x4s near the front of wear it was going to be added. So that way Dylan can hold it up in the back and the 2 front posts would hold near its position while I tryed to finesse the piece into place and line up the bolt holes getting it were it needed to be. Dylan prepared and got on the runway(I screwed in some 2x4s to place his feet on) I picked up the piece over my back and pushed it up to him. Slowly but surely I pushed it farther up the structure and it started closing Dylan in till he was pinned against the ramp! The poor guy was trying to hold it in place so it didn't slide down and I rushed around to the bottom of the structure and tryed to maneuver it around the 2x4s I just installed. Quickly picking it up and trying to lifting it over those support legs. Dylan is the kind of guy that as he would say "I'm just skin an bones. I have no muscle!" He pulled a Hulk while laughing though the whole ordeal. haha Being pinned under the ramp he pulled the piece up and pushed up the section above his head! I did my best to quickly insert the bolt to stabilize the front and we took a small break. haha we laughed at how rediculous it was. Getting back on it we grabbed to other 2x4s that I already cut and screwed them into the structure so he could rest his back end on them.

Whew! Talk about tension Dlyan looked like "Mr. Planet" or something holding his pose with the ramp above him haha But no the man was sore so he took a break while I started adjusting some of the support posts so the ramp was at the correct height and WOW adjusting it to the new angle is going to make the rollin higher..were estimating about 18-19ft now. Dlyan came back a short while later and helped level out the piece we just added. Next step was to add the cross braces to keep it from shifting and swaying side to side. After the hardest part was over we wanted to skate the thing before the sun fully set. My and dylan quickly grabbed a piece of ply and cut one to size and "tap" screwed them down onto the unplyed section. This is where we noticed a problem. Were the first runway piece met with the one we had just added today, they didn't line up correctly..........................Not a good sign. One was off by about 2 inches. The reason is we didn't bother to stiffen and straighten out the first piece so the warping was never fixed. It was the end of the build day so we decided to save the fixin for another day and skated it anyways just getting a feeling for it we started mid way up the built runway and almost made it up to the lip of the ramp. Dylan's ankle was recovering from a fall and didn't want to test it from the top...but I did. It was a bit sketchy, no rollin, just basically stepping on my board from a steep angle. Pumping out and grabbing my board I got about 10ft out from the ramp! I was stoked to finally be able to get it partially rideable again! It has been a long time.

The sun way setting and we all put in a good 5hrs of hard work. It was a good day to finally see runway come together and it had grown now also cause of the angle change. Dylan was sore and Dan was not so tired this time around though the battery kept on dieing. Didn't get a full charge the night before and John(the photographer) was still snapp-in shots till the days end.

Looking forward to the next build day when we will fixing the line up problem with the runway pieces and adding another runway piece to the runway.

Day 13: Workin on the Second Half

2009-02-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

February 28, 2009
Well today it was obvious we weren’t going to get all the builders together in one place for putting up the runway. So the prep work I did the week before setting up the landing bank was put to good use. We had a new young builder Rhett Renburg coming to help out a friend of our filmer Dan Stolling.
After grabbing a few Monsters we got to work. Rhett assisted me in leveling out the new flat bottom piece and along with the launch ramp which was sinking to one side likely the work of all the rain we’ve had lately. Rhett displayed his hulk skills today lifting some massive pieces so I could get pieced of wood under to help level the ramp out. Seriously though leveling may seem small but it is one of the most serious things to do and therefore takes a longtime to make sure everything is fine.

Next on the agenda was to rebuild some of the supporting structure for the launch ramp itself since we stripped it of its main 4x4 supports. We sawed off the additional wood that was left over, took out the 2x4s that were next and replaced them with the 4x4s we used before. Made sure the tip of the ramp was leveled and screw our cross braces in. It was funny and a bit serious at the same time. Rhett was holding the wood in placed while I screwed in a few 3inch screws to the 4x4 and we forgot the 6ft long level on the ramp……It came down hit the camera lens and Rhett on top of the head! Luckily the camera was fine and Rhett had a little red line on top of his head along with a good sized bump. All in all everything was fine and we continued building.
Before we moved on to start plying up the landing bank myself and Rhett tried chugging a MIXX Monster drink, we both fell half a can short of it all in one breath. An Rhett feeling empowered by his hulk skills lifting the ramps tried smashing the can using his forehead…..It didn’t go so well. We ended up putting 2 sheets up on the bank when the cameras battery ran out and the days light was getting darker. We decided what the hell! Lets have some fun and plyed the bank up just enough so we could ride down it onto one of the large runway pieces.

It was a fun treat just being able to ride a section of it and we got some serious speed off the bank also…Soon after the filmer and Rhett had to leave and we made plans for the next build day…Hopeful to attack the runway again and get some of it finished. After they left I took a break and continued on the bank screwing 2 additional sheets in. Still needs a full sheet at the bottom and a partial at the end.

For more photos of DAY 13 visit www.flickr.com/minimegaramp

Prep Day an More

2009-02-22T17:11:00.000-08:00

So I was back doing prep work and since I wasn't exactly counting on all the builders showing up for this coming day I figure I'd prep the landing bank incase. Removed the old 3/4inch ply stips that were being used as tension bars and with every support beam I added 2x4 cross braces. I also painted an ass load of wood. Big rain is expected and I didn't want anything else to be put under the weather until it was covered in the latex paint. I ended up painting....

x2 8'x8' runway pieces for the landing bank
x The rest of the landing bank itself

x2 Sheets of plywood

x1 Last runway piece for the launch ramp

I also continued past all that and cut the launch ramp down to size. It was at 8ft 6inches and was going to launch skaters off at too high an incline. Its has now been nocked down to 6ft 8inches which sets it up at the perfect angle to appraoch and land on the bank. An picked the bank off the ground to rest on some concrete blocks, then started leveling it out. It was alot of work to do by yourself in 8 hours.

Moving into Place

2009-02-15T23:45:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the late updates friends...
So another build day went down the day but I was not going to allow it to go to waste. I had some of my family members over and took advantage of it. With 4 of us we picked up the landing bank and moved it into position. The landing back was settled into the right alignment but tettered on the un-even ground.
No worries though, that will be fixed in the days to come. Theres currently a 23ft gap to the sweet spot on the landing bank but once the the roll-out deck when its finished, there will be a 20ft deadmans gap between the two.
As for now though I will be preping the landing bank incase more delays for finishing the runway continue. Till next time..

Another Flake Day

2009-02-07T14:33:00.000-08:00

Well weather man said it was suppose to rain on our build day, so i told everyone that we probably were not going to build, but just in case I would give them all a call today and let them know.
To my surprise it was nice cold damp and sunny out in the morning! Heck yes! We can have a build day and get the runway installed and finished! So we had some new builders planned to come and help with the ramp. This day was going to be a really difficult one cause we have to haul really heavy pieces up the runway and mount them in place. An if the ramp wasn't completely dry it would be to dangerous(it had rain a whole inch the last day!)
An no one answered there phones over the next few hours....I'm disappointed but I guess its my fault on this one. I told them we probably wouldn't build so they most likely crashed and slept too the afternoon...
As of right now I'm with Dan doing some editing for the next video update. It goes over the prep that I do personally to set up for the build days to make sure they move smoothly..Lot of good info in this one...so keep your eyes peeled for it. Till next time

Painting the Monster

2009-02-04T14:18:00.000-08:00

So we've had some pretty good rains come in recently and the new structure for the project hasn't been protected yet. I was finally able to paint the ramp a week later when the wood dried out and spent a good 6hrs getting every inch covered in paint. I used a high latez based primer paint. You can usualy find it at Home Depot for about 60-$80 in the 5-gallon bucket....

News here says it should be raining in about 2 days for thursday to friday and hopefully we will build again on saturday...but we'll see how acurrate that news is..

Day 12: What the heck happened?

2009-02-03T18:22:00.000-08:00

Febuary 1, 2009

DAY 12: If someone was to walk onto the filming today they might have thought we were released from the looney bin. Such a strange and playfull day at the project. We were expecting to install the rest of the cross bracing in today, for the rollin and last section.
No builders showed though. Greg was in San Fran cause he got an invite to the new Alien Workshop video premier and the others were home watching the Super Bowl cause their parents wanted them there for family... All understandable I guess but I was determined to keep on working if there were no builders.

It took us a while just to get started, it was such a nice day and I think we felt too relaxed and took our time. In between everything it was a goof off. From everything being in "3D", Builders Corner w/ Scoffman, Mr. Hand, camrea wars, and time watches.... I do believe I finshed just one section of cross braces out of the 20.

So yea we documented what we did and how we did it and what tools were used. So the main juice for that day was covered. Inbetween days I will be finishing the cross bracing by myself and hopefully get the ramp painted with waterproof primer to help it better cope with the weather. Next saturday if we don't get rained out will be the next build day and well finish plying up and installing the runway pieces. Can't wait to put out this video update! haha
-Scoffman

Rockwell Time Joins the Project

2009-02-01T22:50:00.000-08:00

After a few months finding a date I met with the guys at Rockwell Time this weekend in San Fransisco at the Monster Supercross event. Found them out and had a chat with them about the Scoff Project, Scoff's mini mega ramp. We had talks and discussed business and everything came out well. So I'm glad to announce Rockwell as a presenting sponsor for the project. There going to help get the project out there and finish it up! You may have seen their solid watches, giant big rig with 12 flat screens, or found them on myspace

Overall Rockwell makes some fine watches, bold, sturdy, and solid. Perfect for if you in a fight in the back ally or shredding your nearest high school and don't wan't a watch that will break after a few falls.

They all wanted to something special for all of you and the people that have been following the the progress of the mini mega ramp. So when you feel up for getting a new watch enter in the promo code "TSP" short for The Scoff Project and it will automatically nock 10% off the price!! Pretty good deal in times like these, plus the sales of the watches using the "TSP" code will go towards to help fund the rest of the mini mega project

You can visit there web store HERE and learn more about them at their website www.rockwelltime.com

Again big thanks to Rockwell an don't forget to check them out! an use the promo code "TSP"

Back from ASR

2009-01-28T16:53:00.000-08:00

So I was in San Diego over last weekend at ASR. An I was lucky enough to see that ASR was holding a mini mega ramp demo put on by the masters of Mega Ramp. It was a real treat being able to see their 30ft beast and talking to some of the guys and builders behind everything. I have alot more respect for them and learned quite a bit. I asked if they thought the dimensions were good and they looked at me and sorta laughed. They said they wanted to keep their jobs and continue to feed their family haha So I didn't persue it any further. A few of them did nod there head in approvement of the progression of the ramp and how its coming along. That was the main highlight of my weekend there.
For those of you who don't know what ASR is visit www.asrbiz.com
We hope to get one more build day in here before the next week. We'll cross our fingers and hope...

Day 10: Video Update

2009-01-19T12:32:00.000-08:00

To subscribe and watch it in High Quality visit our channel at: www.youtube.com/skatescoff

Small Delays

2009-01-19T12:17:00.000-08:00

So the weather has been too cold or too wet cause of all the fog to build since the last build day we had. Then when the weather was clearing our builders couldn't cordinate and no work was done last sunday...
As far as now goes the weather is all cleared and were hoping to get some building done soon here. I will be gone to ASR friday and saturday and we'll hopefully build on sunday again. Till then keep on checking back for video updates from past build days!

NEW Video Update! Day 9 inside look

2009-01-01T00:10:00.000-08:00

Day 11: Adding the Rollin

2008-12-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

December 27, 2008

DAY 11
Luckily the rain stopped about 2 days before today’s build. The ground still wet and moist and the fog was still lingering after 8am. We planned to build at 9am and the build crew wasn’t going to be able to make it out today but we still needed to push forward with getting the 16ft rollin up in place. Otherwise if it warped out of place with anymore rain we would have to rebuild it.

Dan showed up and we chilled inside till things warmed up a bit more outside; it was about 42 degrees. Soon after I enlisted the help of everyone the filmer, my brother and photographer John, and was able to get my dad out to help us heave the largest part of the ramp a football field away.

Finally getting there, we dropped it in the 2ft holes and it was leaning massively forward and off balance. We propped it up with our ladder till we were able to figure out needed to be done. Digging out some dirt from the holes and adding some back in others… We were finally able to level the rollin and add its basic braces in place to midly secure it. Thanks a lot to John for sticking around and helping me with today’s build.

We had to call it after 3-4hrs, it was a pretty laid back day at the project. An since we were short 2 builders today, the cross bracing for the rollin wasn’t finished and the legs were concreted in. We’ll take care of the legs tomorrow but save the cross bracing for the next build day when we have more people to put it up faster. Only 4 more build days till the first test run! Hopefully in February it will happen.

Have anything you want to ask about the Scoff Project? Email us at theproject@scoffskateboarding.com and we’ll get back to you and maybe even post your question up here!

Till next time...

The Trip for Wood was nothing Easy

2008-12-06T19:20:00.001-08:00

Ok so today i am going to pick up a whole unit of the 2x4s enough wood to finish the structure for the mini mega ramp. Mainly today I was suppose to rent a trailer at 10am and meet up at an undisclosed location to pick up the wood at 10:30am. An I had a errand to run with my car at Toyota before all this. Well Toyata took their time with my car when i brought in my car and I got out late. This was 9:45am when i left. I went back to base to pick up the truck and drove it too U-Haul to rent the 12ft trailer i was going to need. It was 10:15 when i got there and they started to hook up the truck then another problem!

The man looks up at me and asks "Do you have a brake light adapter?" What? I ask him what are you talking about. Well aparently our adapters weren't the same so the brake and turn lights on the trailer won't going to work. So I ran to one shop close by and they didn't have an adapter in my size and then i went to another and they didn't have one either but suggest that I might be able to build one from scratch. I'm like the what the hell, I have to have this to pick up the wood. 20mins later out of spare parts from the shop i built a adapter that would fit the truck and hoped that i wrired it correctly.

Drove back to U-Haul and connected the trailer again. We tryed out the adapte i had built. Ok left turn signle works, brakes work, right turn signle doesn't work! So close! I try a few more wire combinations and it doesnt help. The employee said that it was ok and since the majority of my lights worked I could go. Finally! So I'm off and hit the freeway.

30 mins later after onlly going a max of 55MPH I came to a big construction site and i met with the pastor of West McKinley Assembly of God, John. Him and his friend hoped in the truck and directed me among piles of industry equipment, sand, rock, and dirt to a hidden spot where most of the wood was that they were keeping.
The guy was going to load it by forklift and since our trailer had walls we had to raise the floor by adding pallets so he could set them on top. After a few minutes he drop a good 600lbs of wood on the trailer.
On the way back was really sketchy. Haulling all that weight and driving at high speeds (still under 55MPH) at times the trailer would start whipping back and forth and I would have to cruise down to keep it under control. Even all the big rigs were passing me! That was a new experiance, all in all I got the wood back safe and sound
and it took a good 3hrs to unload everything into the shed. Were lucky to have found this for as cheap as it was and a few were warped/molded from recent rain but about 244 of them were still fine. I'll be looking foward to our next build after christmas.
All of you have a Merry Christmas!

The Fog Moves In

2008-12-02T21:20:00.000-08:00

So over the last 2 days we have had intense fog in Clovis and the project, being built away from the city its been engulfed in it. This is not too good for the ramp cause the tarp can't protect against it and we just have to hope the protective paint holds.
The fog has been so thick that you can't see more than 20ft in front of you and looks like a fine mist blanketing the entire air. Its suppose to let up tonight and I hope so. We need the ramp to dry out so we can build again this week. I'll be picking up a shipment of 2"x4"x12ft this Thursday. We used our mighty skills and found a deal on craigslist.com to grab a whole unit (280 pieces) for only $150! So I'm stoked on that and looking forward to building a quarterpipe at the end.

Important Prep Work

2008-11-14T22:32:00.000-08:00

Scoff project under wraps awaiting the rain

We are still waiting for the batch of new 2x4s for the project, but in the meantime I've been busy preping and pre-building a few parts of the project for the build days so that they will go by smoothly. We've added an additional 4ft piece to the flat bottom of the ramp. We figured that the riders would need more time to setup to hit the ramp comfortably and we plan to fix a problem we had with the ramps tranny back in 2 day which we never mention but will be explain on film (theres a good reason for it.)

Next on top of that I've built the basic structure for the rollin to get it ready for us to haul up and drop in its post holes. It going to be really tuff. As a side project also we've started building a skatepark away from the mini mega ramp completely out of scrap wood and old ramps to show what amazing things you can build out of nothing and how to get the wood to do it. The park building will be in the extras of the DVD and we might drop a few photos on here when it nears its finish.

Good News and Rainy Days Begin

2008-11-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I've been searching Craigslist latey for cheap prices on wood. Luckily enough for me I found the perfect listing. Some church was planning on building a new building from wood and then decided to make it from metal. So now they have tons of wood that there not going to use. Hell yes, you know what this means?! 1 unit(=280 peices) of 2x4s for under $200! Not only will it finish our build but it will take care of the quarter pipe we've been wanting to build, but couldn't afford!
So yes! It will be a full mini mega ramp now. Making the build time a little longer, but it will be worth it.

An the project has had its first rain this year, so we covered a few things up with the parts and moved them in the shed. Suppose to have rain friday through sunday this week. An we probally won't have anouth build day for another 2 weeks (cause waiting to pick up the new wood)
But in the meantime were going to level out the whole ramp and move everything into its respected places and mount it all down so our time doesn't not go to waste.

Day 10: Another Piece to the Ramp

2008-10-29T23:53:00.000-07:00

October 18, 2008

DAY 10
It’s sort of strange to think now over a year has gone by and all this has only been done in just 10 days. Well it’s another day as we build onto the existing support structure and now its 8ft 10inches high at its peak. We have one new builder that joined us, Vince Mallow and we had Greg Love back building again.

Today we ran into a few issues adding the second piece and mounting it. Because of some minor miss-alignments on the first one it caused some support 2x4s not to fit properly and then we had to go back and cut some more wood to fix the problem and then fix it so it matches with our plans for the next support piece. It was frustrating. Remember back when your teacher was telling you about math and you laughed at her saying you were never going to use that? We’ll I take it back haha Never thought we would be doing this back then.

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.

Day 9: A New Day

2008-10-29T23:42:00.000-07:00

October 11, 2008

DAY 9
Finally back after a long drought of money, flaky filmers and case of THE MAN.
We get our feet wet again and build the whole new section of the mini mega and the support structure. Mainly the plan is to build a large and super sturdy railing system that we will just screw the original runway of the ramp to and then bring it back up to its formal glory before the government had us tear it down.

Sporting a whole new crew and filmer all amped on getting this done, we have Greg Love and Garret Turner building with Dan Stolling behind the lens. The day before Jason had set the main posts in ground and concreted them in setting the base for our new structure. It was interesting day practically training the new build crew about everything, but it all went pretty smoothly and spot on. When this new structure is done it will look pretty close like a roller coaster haha Well that’s not far off cause it will be one hell of a ride!

At the end of day we mounted one of the runway piece and found it had warped over the summer it was out there. We’ll be working on getting everything true through the week before the next build and probably won’t be adding any more runway pieces up till were full finished with the support structure. Till next week.

One Door Closes another Opens

2008-10-29T23:25:00.000-07:00

September 24, 2008
Well the friend I saw who said he would film flaked. No suprise I did meet a really good kid named Dan with a good head on his shoulders thats down for the project and has an XL1. Well see how it goes with him, I'm working on a getting a new crew together also. Lost touch with some of the old build crew, Shane and Jarred. I'm psyched that building is going to start again soon, its been a long time waiting.

Getting Ready

2008-10-29T23:21:00.000-07:00

September 12, 2008
I've been saving up some money and recently went out to Home Depot to get some more lumber in expectation of starting the build again. Don't know for sure when its going to happen, I met up with a friend today which I didn't know but was a filmer. We'll see what happens there and hopefully he doesn't flake. I'm going to have to get the crew back together again and see if everyone down to begin.

Time Passes and Patience Becomes a Virtue

2008-10-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

July 8, 2008
Nothing has happened lately. Actually nothing to be exact, ever since the day we were taken off I've been workin my ass off to get things organized again and its not happening. We have no dependable filmers of the moment so I'm currently looking to pick up another local filmer and its hard cause they need to understand its all volunteer work.

This project is more than about building some minature version of the mega ramp. Its about skaters coming together to do something diffrent and for something else besides there own cause. Everyone here has put in alot of time for nothing but maybe a few t-shirts, hats, monsters, and the satisfaction of knowing there in a part of something thats bigger than them. Thats how I feel that it all comes down to anyways.

But I'm not letting go of this project! I've put to much into it already and have sponsors to take care of, that have invested there time and brand into me and this film. Plus to wipe the smile off the faces of the local kids/haters that think it will never finish or that its some myth to make myself look better haha To bad they will never relize that this myth is becoming a reality.

I just need some more time....

Day 8: Do Work!

2008-10-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

April 12, 2008

DAY 8
So finally we get things figured out and got the camera and our usual close knit crew together, minus Shane. The biggest surprise this morning is Jarred is bald! I swear I’m starting to worry about that kid. An we ran out of Monsters! We buzzed through 12 cases in 6 months! Anyways starting around 9am Saturday morning we started building the last structural pieces for the mini mega ramp.

Promoting the recycling and reusing of wood throughout the project we found an old but still solid ¾ in piece of ply to use for our siding, it was actually 4 inches shorter and a 1ft less in width compared to there normal 4x8 foot dimensions. But it was just enough for us to cut out the 6 strips that we needed to build the runway after the landing bank and shorted us 1ft in length from the 24ft mark that we made.

So now were waiting. We will most likely paint and treat any exposed pieces of wood left and just wait till something happens with the rollin of the Scoff Project. Cause as of now the ramp is kicked off the hill and it may come to be that we will have to build our own levee, on our property to finally finish this project. This of course will put us over out budget so if any of you are psyched to see this little monster get finished, please helps us out and send us a small donation via Paypal. We promise to list you in the DVD on the credits as one of our close supporters.

Video of the day the Dreaded Day

2008-10-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

The Nightmare Begins

2008-10-28T13:01:00.001-07:00

March 18, 2008

So one random afternoon Jason was outside working on his car and a city water district truck comes up the driveway. A man comes out and asks him “Is that your ramp back there?” Jason answered “Yes” hoping the man was going to admire it and want him to build a ramp for his kid.
“Well its not supposed to be on the levee, your going to have to take it down” Jason just froze and tried to work things out and give a viable argument to keep the ramp on the levee or just allow 2 days for it to be there. One for the tests runs and two for actual “Jump Day.” The man said he would call his supervisor and get back to me but as of now the ramp has to be removed ASAP from the levee.
This is giving us some set backs which we don’t need for the project, Jason has schedule a meeting on Wednesday to meet up with Jerry Lakeman the supervisor/ director for this levee along with their lawyer. Hopefully everything works out in the end.

March 25, 2008

So a few days later we weren’t able to get our builders to come out and help tare down the ramp. We use to have camera man problems now were having builder problems not showing up and its causing more delays. Besides the point I’m very greatfull for all there help and the city actually volunteered four of there own workers to help break down the ramp. As you see in the photo above we complete broke down the ramp and shoved it inside the gap and scooted the ramp back 2ft also. The apparent rule is nothing is allowed to be built on the levee or within 20ft of it. So were all sort a bummed at the moment, hopefully things will go better tomorrow as Jason has his meeting with the Fresno Metropolitan Water Control Districts supervisor.

March 26, 2008
The Meeting
What can I say, Jason had the meeting today at 11am. Got all dressed up, wore the slacks, dress shirt, and tie with a pair of patent shoes. Looking his best to show that he means business and that he was serious about coming up with a solution so the ramp could at least have 2 days on the levee for the “test runs” and “jump day”. Trying to work and show the points that the ramp was not hurting the instructional integrity of the hill and that they would be free from liability issues. Even that, were doing this to help Grind for Life the non-profit organization were working with.
After much talk and discussion it seemed like they were listening and might be swayed to allow us those 2 days, but no. It wasn’t going to happen, the liability they said on there end is well establish with a 20million dollar insurance plan, but they didn’t want to risk it. (I was just informed a few days later the largest sum of money for a lawsuit case involving skateboarding was only $80,000) That and that they are having to go through a new process of checking the levees and determine there strength for a new certification process they have to go through. So a double “no” on it now; Jason tried his hardest in the best terms to try to work something out, but it didn’t help. He even used the line “Think about the children!” haha Everyone laughed but that was it, just a friendly way to break the end of the meeting.
As of now we have decided to absolutely continue on with the building of the Scoff Project. This set back will not deter us from canceling all the hard work and sweat we have put into this along with our fantastic sponsors been with us throughout the process; it will be finished!

March 30, 2008

There’s a new development in the project. Someone has come forward with a proposition that might greatly help getting the mini mega ramp back up at its 16ft rollin height. Not sure if it will go through though. If you would like to help us out and be a part of The Scoff Project: please leave a donation for us. We would greatly appreciate it and put your name in the credits of the DVD for helping support us. Thank you!

Line Up Mag Coverage and Original Interview

2008-10-28T12:53:00.000-07:00

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-

Inbetween Build Days

2008-10-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

March 7, 2005

Ok so another wacked day at The Scoff Project. We got things planned out and ready. We were to get the camera man here with the VX2000 around noon. An after working a bit on doing some prep work painting a few sheets of ply then screwing it down against the ramp. Our camera guy came and dropped off the camera and said he couldn’t film because he had to take his mother to the hospital, alright good reason, no problem right? We always have at least 3 people building so we will just have one builder switch now. Well, right before that our camera guy got here, Dillan left around 11:30am for some business. Leaving just Scoffman and Jarred with no one to switch over to filming.

So no filming got done that day. We didn’t even bother brining the camera out really. Just finished screwing in a the last of 3 sheets of ply and custom fit the transition (on the way down to the ground from the levee)

Day 7: Finishing the Bank

2008-10-28T12:42:00.001-07:00

February 17, 2008

DAY 7
Alright so now it seems like were getting back in our groove again! We started the day late and again had a new camera man from our friends over at WatchDoIt.com. They brought in a nice HD camera and Jason gave him the layout of the film. Then we stuffed some donuts down and were off building. The previous build day we cut all the wood needed for the landing bank. Its dimensions were to be 8’ wide, 6’ high, and 16’ long. Everything started off alright; the recycled 4x4s that we were using for the base of the bank and the support beams were a bit old and had some rather large cracks. We just needed some longer screws to take care of that problem though. Scoffman was constantly running back and forth to the shed with the blueprints to the bank to make sure all the height of the transitions were correct before they were screwed into place. Jarred Dahl and Shane Mooney were there and built the majority of the bank while Scoffman was making sure the ramp was right to the inch. Then out of nowhere, Brendan Dane popped into the scene about halfway through the building of the bank to come and help us. He’s some guy we found sleeping underneath the ramp one day. Rather nice fellow really. He helped out for a good 30 minutes before he wandered off the property looking for a rabbit to eat for dinner. (Not really. But a man named Brendan did help out on the project for a little bit.) Nearing noon, we closed out with our filmer and finished up filming for the day (the filmer had to leave according to his clock). The ramp was done except for the last few inches which had to be a rollin. We spent another 30 minutes after the filmer left and made the pieces, installed them, and added cross braces to the bank to secure it.. Then with just 4 of us, Jason’s brother John Huewe came out to help move the ramp. It was a pain to move a football field away, but at least we won’t have to move it again. We’ll cover what we did after the filmer left, at the beginning of the next build day, so no one misses out. Almost done!

Mini Mega Ramp Photoshoot

2008-10-28T12:33:00.000-07:00

This day wasn’t an official build day but instead a photo shoot day for the ramp. We assembled it back together and added the sheets of ply on top of the ramp and the whole runway. It looked like it was finished!! Then John Huewe came out with his camera and was taking photos for an up and coming article we had in LINE UP MAGAZINE about the project. You should be able to see it in there next upcoming mag. To be released soon in February or March.

After the shoot we again broke everything down and took off the sheets of ply. We haven’t treated wood yet and couldn’t leave it out in the elements. Heres are a few of the photos that were taken

Day 6: Not the Best Start

2008-10-28T09:27:00.000-07:00

December 19, 2007
The majority of the build group got together plus one to help paint the ramp. Scoffman’s next door neighbor Joe gave us a 5 gallon bucket of outdoor primer paint for wood to us. Thanks Joe! So for 5hrs we just painted the ramp and got the majority of the structure all painted.

January 18, 2008

DAY 6
Finally! After a long wait and some delays with our filmer we were able to grab one of our friends filmer from WachDoIt.com to help film for a short period today.
We were beginning construction on the landing bank today and were running 2 saws through the same outlet at once to make up for the short amount of time that we had to build with. So no more than 5 mins into cutting the circuit breakers blew out! We flipped all the switches and that didn’t help, we decided to swap outlets and one of the saws started working then. But after halfway cutting a 16ft piece of a 8x4 in half Scoffman blew out the extension cord.
Just one incident after another, needless to say nothing much happened in the 3hrs we had that day except we got all the wood cut for the bank and all that needs to be done is to assemble it and build the runway.

Day 5: Almost There

2008-10-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

November 18, 2007

DAY 5
So today we started around noon and planned on finishing the structure for the ramp. Dillan was back again and Moonman had work to do again. We only had to build 1 more piece. So we took the runway we built last night and set it up like we did with the rest of them. Custom measured and cut struts with braces to stabilize it. We were almost out of wood, and had to look for some good scrap wood that we could salvage. We ended up taking apart one of our regular 2ft launch ramps we had laying around and using the 2x4s in that.
While Jarred and Dillan were working on cutting some more wood, I had to go grab some paper and pencil and sketch out the rollin. I had to facture a lot of things into it. The ramp was at 15ft so I needed to find the correct angle and then let it rise until it got to the 16ft marker that we were going for. I finally got the plans the plans back to our workshop area and starting tracing out the transition for the roll out deck. A little less than an hour later we started building it and carried it out to do the finally assembly on the ramp. Again once it was bolted in place the struts hammered in and braces attached, it was done. Finally, were done with the structure and the sun was setting, pretty good weekend I must say, we got a lot done.
But it was still not quite over. Haha We had to break it all down now and disassemble it off the levee. Since were not allowed to build anything on it, we had to make it detachable and we ended up taking the top 3 pieces down in about 15mins. Now wiped and ready to take a shower all of us head off with a Monster in hand. Not for Shinoda though, he was getting light headed after smoking and drinking 4 monsters throughout the day. Yikes! Must have felt pretty good! Next time we’ll be working on building the landing bank and hopefully finish this before the end of the year.

Day 4: The Runway Begins

2008-10-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

November 17, 2007

DAY 4
Alright Day 4, we got a new camera guy today. Jeff Shinoda, is his name and the Sony VX2000 is his game. We started as usual early in the morning around 8am, the winter cold is just finally starting to settle in and for us is was pretty dam cold about 48 degrees! Needless to say we all had our hoodies and beanies on.
We started off by cutting some more side pieces for the runway up the levee. This was our first day without Shane Mooney, one of our main builders and luckily Jarred was able to get one of his friends Dillan to come help. After we built the 2 pieces of the runway we had to assemble them at the perfect angle and mount them in place. This is the hardest part of any of our building days to date, reason why is that we had to custom fit the whole runway to the levee, which is no easy task.
Once the first piece was set at the correct angle (Jarred and Dillan are holding it in place) I marked the connecting 2x4s drilled holes through them and mounted bolts to connect the two. Then propping the back of the piece up, we measured the length of 2x4’s needed to for the first supports and then for the back supports. After mounting those we started making our braces. We really needed these braces for stability purposes, with the runway 5ft above the ground it would be shaking without them.
It was very interesting today, both Jarred and I had injured ankles. Jarred’s foot was in cast from breaking a part of his foot, and I had a severely strained ankle that had been recovering for the past 2 weeks. So both of us were limping across the set and trying to climb up the levee and hopping on one foot down the levee to finish building the ramp. Haha We finished the second piece soon after and mounted it to the levy, we were ready to call it a day, but had to finish building one more runway piece to help prep for tomorrow.

Day 3: Starting Uphill

2008-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

October 19, 2007

Day 3
So this time around on Day 3 we had a few problems. One was rain, it had rained earlier that night, and was expected to rain the morning of also. So we decided to move a lot of everything inside the shed. Second was we were missing our skill saw that weekend cause a buddy of mine decided to take it without mentioning it to me. It was for a good cause though.
So with that being said the day started out well. Luckily it didn’t rain that day but was extremely windy, and we were joking if the shed was to blow away what would happen. We planned on building the flat bottom and the initial tranny up the side of the levy this day. Shane and Jarred started building the flat bottom for the ramp, most of the templates were precut a few days before to make sure the day went by smoothly. We started using recycled 2x4s on the flat and after building the 8ft section and a 4ft to be attached to it we had to cut an angled piece for the 1st transition uphill. This is where we ran into problems.
We found out we no longer had the skill saw (what we had used to previously cut the transitions). I search frantically throughout the garage and found nothing but the original hand saw! Heck no I thought to myself, but we had no other choice. After cutting a few inches with the handsaw I quite and went looking once more and found my Ryobi Reciprocating saw, mostly used to cut plastic and metal tubes and sheets, this seemed to be out best chance to get by the day and it worked! For the moment, after cutting through and finishing ¾ of the first template, not only was it not cutting straight but torturing my hand with its constant vibration. I stopped and we knew it wouldn’t be any good to use. We wasted a perfectly good sheet of wood.
All of us brainstormed for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do next and came up with using some of our precut templates for the flat runs uphill. We were reluctant but its what we had to do. After making a few measurements and adjusting for the correct angle, the pieces were cut and nailed together forming the wedge. We moved all the pieces into there perspective places and called it a day fairly early. That plus Shane’s girlfriend lost the cat and he had to go help her find it. Hope you found it Shane!
In the meantime we will have to level the ground and drill holes in the end 2x4s for each section so we can bolt them together making a nice tight fit and hold between each section. That and start building the runway uphill, the hardest part of this whole project. To view a small clip from this day among other video updates please visit our Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/skatescoff

Day 1 and 2: The Begining

2008-10-28T01:49:00.000-07:00

For all of you wondering how this project got started its a long story and you can catch all the prior history to it on the Scoff website at www.scoffskateboarding.com/theproject.html

But since we started this new build last year i will start it from there, on....

October 5, 2007

Day 1 at the Scoff Project was beautiful and at 8am in the morning the sun was beaming out with a light breeze and it seemed like it will be the perfect day. Unfortunately it wasn’t very perfect. Shane Mooney, part of the building crew dropped by on time, but our filmer wasn’t there. We called to find out what happened and apparently he couldn’t make it and never got a hold of us. So then for the rest of the day we frantically called friends to grab another filmer for the rest of the day. We managed to get one by the end of the day, and picked up Jarred Dahl, the last of our building crew. But time was already spent and the sun was setting.

The 3 of us just started some prep, and pre-cut one of the transition sides and a few 2x4s before we called it a day. Tomorrow we will start building the ramp.

October 6, 2007

Day 2
On Day 2 we started filming and building around 9am. Everyone had there opening cans of Monster to start the day and the smell of sawdust filled the air. Finished the transitions of the ramp we continue to layout and build the base of it, then start nailing the studs in. We were moving at a fairly smooth speed. The tranny was coming together nicely with a few exceptions that we later took care of. Jarred the youngest in the building crew noticed a good amount of bees that came from nowhere. He is allergic to them and very afraid of being stung by one so he was dancing around trying to escape them. Jason eventually got him a can of hornet n wasp killer so he could defend himself.

The tranny was about 90% done now and looked beautiful, the transition, and curvature of the ramp was very smooth. We used a 24ft radius to get the angle and the ramp itself is 8ft high and 18ft long. So before we finished it and put the final 4x4 supports in and cross braces. We picked up the ramp and moved it about a football field away (2 acres) to where it will be used and attached to the rest of the runway. After finishing the last of the transition we sat back and just relaxed looking at it thinking how nar it was. We joked around thinking Mexicans trying to get into the US illegally might use mega ramps to launch over the border, or how you only see ramps of this size in the X-Games or carnivals with clowns jumping off them. Haha

All in all we did well today and plan to begin again next Friday and Saturday of October. We will hopefully finish the flat bottom, initial tranny to the levy and about half of the runway. Until then.