Jeremy Wray breaks down his infamous opening line from planB's SHS.
interview: tim anderson
Did Rodney do the pogo for every try?
When I started doing the line toward the big gap we just thought it would be funny to have Rodney just randomly doing some freestyle in the background as I skated by. He was into the idea and it just worked out.
Did you go to the spot knowing you were going to try this line, or did it just come together naturally?
We were filming lines from the stairs and making a right to hit the circle gap and the corner ledge at first. After filming a few lines, some of which ended up in the video too, Danny [Way] suggested that I try to do a line to the big gap.
Do you remember who was filming?
We were filming with Dan Sturt that day. I had stayed the night at Matt Hensley's house which was skating distance from Carlsbad High School. I would actually spend most weekends staying over at Matt's and filming around the area for the upcoming Plan B video Second Hand Smoke.
Had you landed the fs flip down the gap before you tried it in a line?
No, although I had skated the gap before and filmed a few things on it already on other days, I had never tried to frontside flip it yet.
Were there any variations to the line?
At first I was trying to fill up the line with a lot more flatground tricks, but the cracks there are so heavy I would always end up sticking on one and having to start over before I even got to the gap. I decided to simplify the line and make sure I got to the gap, because that in the end was the whole point. I figured I could always get one good one on film and try to improve it on the next tries until I got one I was happy with.
How many tries did it take?
I believe that the one in the video was about the 4th try that made it to the gap. I had a few tries mixed in that missed a flatground trick somewhere along the way.
What board were you riding?
I was riding a Gino 101 board. He had a really good shape and it was the closest to my shape so I would usually ride his board or Fabian Alomar's back then. Around this time it was normal not to ride your own pro model. If you did it was seriously frowned upon by the entire street community. This trend probably started over at the World Industry camp and spread to just about everyone.
Was anybody else skating the gap or stairs that day? If so do you remember what was done?
There were a couple other guys skating the stairs and doing lines to the circle gap with me that day. If I had to guess who, it was probably Pat Channita, Ronnie Bertino, Pat Duffy and/or Rick McCrank.
Do you remember who was there that day, hanging out at the bottom of the gap?
The person you see jump down off the wall covering his face after I made the frontside flip is Colin McKay. Beyond that, it was mostly just local skaters who happened to be there that day. The one thing you don't see is Danny Way skating behind me and Sturt off camera. He was watching the line and wanted to see the whole thing go down so he skated along with us and split off to the right to see the Frontside Flip from the bottom.
You won't sound egotistical answering this, but do you realize this line is kind of a big deal?
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