Skateboarders ROCK, man!

Last Friday a special surprise came my way. My buddy, Sam, and I were invited to a special skateboarding demonstration with the one and only Tony Hawk, skateboarding legend and ultra-pro-awesome boarder.

This is me and Sam waiting for our turn to do some backside ollies and 720's. I could tell it was really easy to pick this stuff up, because the skateboarders doing the demo were having no trouble at all.

Bucky Lasek is showing off in the upper left corner of this shot. See how high in the air he is? The top of the ramp is 13 feet high - he's even higher. Ask an adult to show you how high 20 feet is and you'll get an idea of the air these guys were catching.

We sat at one end of the 1/2 pipe right at the edge. We had to look up to where the guys started. They would just push their boards to the edge and drop right down the side. CrAzY! It was straight down!

I was absolutely amazed by the things they did on those boards in that 1/2 pipe. Tony Hawk is totally the best skater ever. Did you know that he's the same age as my Dad? He is! My dad can't ride a board like Tony.

This is Sam and I after a wild session in the pipe hanging with the guys. There's Shawn White (of Olympic Snowboarding fame), an 18 yr old guy from France, two more guys that did awesome stuff during the demo, and Tony Hawk. Ahh Mooooom! What's that white glare on Tony's face! Nice... (Mom is hoping Sam's mom will email her a picture without the big white splotch on Tony. Mom is also hoping someone will tell her the names of the guys in this picture as well as the blonde guy doing the trick in the following video clip. Bueller, any one?)

Here's a cool video clip of an awesome trick Tony did with Bucky and another guy whose name my mom can't seem to remember. More cool video clips are below. Tony Hawk in the white T doing the awesome tricks. For more cool photos you can check out Sam's website, too.

This was the coolest thing I've ever seen... ever. Thank you, Tony Hawk for letting us hang out. You Rock!