If you checked the Tony Hawk Woodward Article, you may remember that I had mentioned we were gonna rent a boat since we had an extra day off. Well, we did just that. What happened after we actually got the boat was a lesson in boating safety by yours truly, Brad J Lilley! It was an ordinary non demo day. The sun was shining, the temperature was in the mid to upper 80's, and we were heading down to Kings Point Marina on Lake Norman NC to rent a boat. I'm thinking this is gonna kick some serious ass - cruising on a lake with some liquid refreshments and doing some swimming at a place called the "Sand Bar." Now I'm sure you have seen those so called spring break videos, right? Well that was the picture I had in my head on how this day was going to go. I asked the crew if they had any sunscreen and Lohtsy, the tour public relations person tossed me some SPF 30. "That will work" I said and started to apply the goop. Also on the boat was Ryan the Tour communication guy, Mike the dude who brings the entire package of sponsor signs, and me the self-proclaimed Captain of the boat.

Koston floats blind over the shiny car.

We are finally at the boat and getting our instructions on how not to destroy the thing from Byron the dock guy. Did I ever mention how I never paid attention in class very much? Anyway, we are flying along about 35-40 mph with me at the wheel. I am fast approaching this gap between 2 islands when I noticed some rock signs. I figured if I were 75 yards from the nearest rock sign and 75 yards from the shoreline I would be safe, right? Wrong, I watched the depth gauge go from 80 feet deep to 3 feet deep in half a second and as that one TV cook named Emeril would say "Bam!" The prop and skeg made contact with some rocks, shattering the prop and ripping the skeg fin in half. Cool, I have been captain for 10 minutes and I've managed to destroy a boat, now that's called batting a thousand. We limp back to the docks with a screwed up prop and Byron the dock guy tells us it happens all the time with tourists like myself and even gives me the chewed up prop. Check back on EXPN.com for the next article from Florida I am sure the prop will come into effect somehow.

The next morning was great, big blue skies and temps were in the low 90's, it was going to be a hot one. But the weatherman was calling for afternoon rain at 60%. I wasn't worried because we've had to deal with rain before and it always seems to clear up in time for the Dream Team to hit the surfaces! Ten minutes before the guys were to arrive I was talking to the crowd on the mic. I told everyone it wasn't gonna rain. People started to boo me, I guess you are not supposed to mention the R word when there is a chance of rain, oops I said that word, and sure enough the skies opened up and the wet stuff started dumping down. I guessed I jinxed it. Oh well, we had a back up plan anyway. Hang Loose Skate Park also has an indoor skating rink. We had arranged to bring in a genuine NASCAR race car - #31 Mike Skinner's car. The boys were going to jump it with their boards and bikes. The car jump was made of a launch ramp, 2 landing wedge ramps and an 8-foot roll in for speed. Also brought in to the kiddie rink were 2 metal sliding rails and a 2-foot wedge ramp.

Hawk's b/s 50-50 on the scissor lift.

The Dream Team arrived, walked into the place and the crowd of about 4 thousand went crazy and started jumping over the rink wall to get a better look. It was controlled mayhem! Markovich was kickflipping the car. Tony was the first skater to bust the car jump from the roll in, but after that it was on! Shaun White pulled a 360 grab over the car gap. Koston was doing phat backside 180 kick flips over the car. The crew pulled in a scissor lift so they could grind the gap. Tony busted a 50-50 across it, Shaun White cranked out a nose grind across it. Rooftop did a back flip over about 20-30 kids. My favorite highlight was when I brought the Mayor of Cornelius NC out so Tony could ollie her. This demo was like a tribute to the demos of the eighties when skating cars was an art form. Back then we used to be able to destroy the car after the demo. This car actually has an owner that wouldn't be too keen on us destroying it in a true skate thrash manner.

What a day, the demo gets rained out and we go inside and to put on a flat ground skating bonanza. Big props (there is that word again) go out to the staff at Hang Loose Park in Cornelius NC, The Mayor Jan Beasley, the people of NC, and of course Kings Point Marina Lake Norman NC for not charging me a ton of cash for boat repairs. Next stop Merritt Island Fun Plex in Coco Beach Florida with the final party at Typhoon Lagoon at Orlando's Disney World, one of the best wave machines in the world!

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