After high school ended, things started to really pick up. Taking a year off of school and breaking up with my girlfriend, I found myself with an abundance of spare time. It was filled with skateboarding. Several of the tapes I have are filled with just single days. As the tape goes on, you can see the sun move from the middle of the sky to the horizon, as twilight approached the lights would come out. We'd all be wearing the same clothes, and the tapes are a pretty good example of the day to day life of a skateboarder.
I know "Day in the Life" and "A Day at the Park" edits are pretty common now, but to me, those tapes are a perfect example of what I consider some of the best times of my life.
"All I'm saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life - remind me to kill myself." - Randall "Pink" Floyd, "Dazed and Confused" (played by Jason London).
While I don't consider the 4 years post high school to be the best, they certainly were not the worst. Especially after I turned 18. I discovered the magic of credit cards.
I was working at a Mejier, which is a grocery/everything store that rivals Walmart, but not that well. I worked over nights, and while I hated it at first, it allowed me to sleep from 7 am-1 pm, and pretty much have the rest of the day to do what I wanted. I was at the park for a full 2 hours before people started showing up. Although thanks to coffee, Red Bull, and adderall, I didn't sleep much, even from 7-1.
After a particularly long shift, and being up for 24 or so hours, I walked past a table with a bunch of balloons. It was Meijer's Grand Opening week, and they had a booth set up for people to apply for a Meijer's MasterCard. If you were approved, you were able to use it in the store that day thanks to a piece of receipt paper with your credit card number on it. They gave me a $500 limit. Not much I know, but for an 18 year old it was amazing. I got a bunch of shit I didn't really need for nothing. At least at seemed like nothing.
(The preceding paragraph is a pretty good example of why the US economy is as shitty as it is right now. If you're 18-25, do yourself a favor and DON'T get a credit card. Don't be as stupid as I was)
I bought an iPod (even thought I already had one), a TON of DVDs, and a bunch of stuff for my XBox. I couldn't wait to get home to play with my toys. I only got up to about $400 worth of stuff, and I payed it off within 3 weeks.When I got my first statement, I found out they decided I was responsible enough to handle a $10,000 limit. I wasn't.
I immediately went to Fry's electronics and bought a Sony VX-2100. My dream had come true. I had though about that camera almost every day since my freshman year of high school. Six years later, it was finally mine. This was another one of those deciding moments of my life. I picked up a bunch of tapes, as well as all the coolest stuff. A boom mic, some lights, and a bunch of stuff I never even used. Unfortunately I had to order the Century Optics fish eye, which was given the nick name the "death lens" because of how terribly close you get to the skater, leaving you and your camera open to getting smacked with skateboards and falling skateboarders. I had to spend three and a half weeks filming "rolling long lens" a technique I lifted from a man I came to know as "French Fred". He was the director of "Menikmati" and a few other amazing and inspiring skate videos. The first few clips I filmed came out surprisingly well. I still have clip of a friend doing a kick flip on a 10ft quarter. He didn't go above the coping, but the trick still looked really nice and shot I planned made it look like it was straight out of "Menikmati". But I was anxious for my fish eye.
As happy as I was when my fish eye arrived, I became extremely nervous. I had seen what happens when boards hit the camera, and although it had only happened to me once and didn't damage anything, I figured my luck would be that it happens on the first day. It never did, but I almost threw up at the notion that I would have to spend 2 years paying off a camera that was destroyed.
Thankfully it never did happen, and I spent the next 5 years filming with my friends and drinking Slurpees at 7-11. Some of the best times of my life, topped only by the time spent filming in high school, and my current situation, living the dream.
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