Day 18: We have gone Astray

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!