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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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