Dentist Gap

The Dentist Gap is probably the most skated street spot in Albany. I knew about the gap before i even knew how to ollie and i don't even know how i found out about it. It is an omnipotent presence in the skate scene, and entity of its own if you will. People travel from all over to skate this gap. Anyone looking to put their mark on the map heads to the dentist gap to add another ABD (already been done) mark on the ever growing list of tricks pulled over this gap. Here is a short collection of clips - a tribute to one of the best, if not the best spot in town.

Skaters in order of appearance: Avery, Cody Yelverton, Ross Duncan, Mandella Terrell, Brock Russell, Darrell Bentley, Jose Moreno, Luke Voddicka, Jerry Yates, Randy Rouse, and Archy Archberger.

4th of July 2003

A conversation with a co-worker today reminded me of this clip from 4 years ago. This clip the definition of back-in-the-day. It's from the days of the Treehouse on 11th Ave. If you were ever present at this house you'll never forget it.

This clip is from one of the fireworks nights (there were tons) but without a doubt this is the most infamous. I don't know who had the fireworks or who decided we should shoot them off inside. Now that i think about it, it was probably never a question of where we were going to shoot them. Everything was more fun in that house. Fireworks, streaking, bands playing, friendly fist fights, secret parties, potato cannons, bullshit, costumes, hip hop parties, group showers, old lady porn, white trash bitches, thrones, Andrew W.K. dance parties, motorcycles, naked dudes, chicks who get naked for beer but then leave without their beer, crap boxes, broken stereos, broken furniture, broken anything that entered the house... i'm forgetting tons of things but for the sake of time i'm going to stop. feel free to add your own if you think of anything.

i guess the only fitting end to that house was for it to burn down. Commemorated with a tattoo of course.


More old gems to come.

MiniDocu

So i've mentioned this mini-documentary of last years National Go Skateboarding Day i've been working on. well it's done. you can view it by clicking the image on the right. give it a minute to load if it doesn't immediately pop up. (8min long, 50mb).

Basically I didn't have time to put into the video last year, so i went back and tried to put the emphasis into the day that i felt it deserved. you'll never know unless you were there, but it was an amazing, once in a lifetime thing to be a part of. i hope at least some of that is conveyed in this video.

this thing stressed me out. i finally gave up on thinking i could show the true magic of that day and just did my best to show what i could.

btw, thanks again to Greg for comin out and filming all day. bigtime. Da GBGB. it's time for a reunion.

Skimboarding

This is another one of my favorite old clips. This is from my last big production a couple years back called Something To Do for those of you who don't know.

Easter of '05 it rained somewhere between an inch and two inches in the morning, then cleared up by mid-afternoon. David Myler called me up because he'd been telling me about skimboarding puddles and got me excited about the whole deal. My first try i cut my foot on some random peice of glass so i was immediately a bit disenchanted with doing it myself. So as always i had my video camera and just started filming him while he made it look easy. i really had no intention of making a clip, but then the neighborhood kids joined in. If i remember right we told the kids we worked for WALB and it would be on the 6:00 news that night. they were fun. hope you enjoy.

that's the lime sink on 3rd ave by phoebe putney if you were wondering. check out the people in the background in a freakin boat, haha. they were there just paddling around the whole time we were there.

watching this clip reminds me of being faded at gregs house (right around the corner) at 2-3am and taking rebel runs on his 4-wheelers to do donuts in the puddles after it rained. haha oh man. i seriously can't count how many times i should have gone to jail at or near the lime sink. take the harvest moon + gregs house + jackD + lime sink + pine cone + police cars + 3am + run really fast + get clothes lined by tree for example

2nd worst skit ever

So here it is, the 2nd worst skit i've ever produced. I definitely learned why i should never be an actor after this skit. it's sorta long and 30mb so give it a minute if it doesn't pop up.

I think it was about this time last year Greg and I had been tossing around the idea for this skit for awhile. It's called "A Day in the Life of Bret "1T" Bamford - The Greatest Dirt Bike Rider There Ever Was". Pretty weak idea huh. It was basically an excuse for me to ride my dirt bike around and be an asshole. We both finally had a full day to put towards it so i showed up at his house mid-day and we just went for it. No pre-production whatsoever and it shows. We did it old school and just came up with whatever as we went. for how disorganized we were it didn't turn out that bad i guess. it still sucks. I think i've re-edited this thing 3 times now before finally getting something that doesn't make me cringe as i watch it. though i probably will as soon as i publish this blog.

I ended up breaking my coveted pit bike in the process too, which i was super bummed over. you have no clue how hard it was for me to throw my bike down and stomp on it in triumph when all i wanted was to rewind a few minutes and still have a good dirt bike. oh yea, i forgot to mention that when my forks broke, greg shut off his 4-wheeler he was following me on, and the damned thing wouldn't start back up. talk about a crappy sitaution. 2 miles from the truck and two broken vehicles. i called my good friend darren and he was nice enough to come save us on his own 4-wheeler. i know he'll never read this but big thanks to you homie, you my dog.

btw, if you're wondering what my #1 worst skit ever was...HERE is the closest you'll ever get to seeing the whole thing. it's the only part of the skit that isn't completely embarrassing, it's actually quite humorous when taken out of context if you ask me.

like i said, stick around, more to come.

Bret

Concord skatepark montage

Here's another older clip from a few weeks back. Me and Chris decided to head over after class and check out the temporary skatepark here in Knoxville. I met a few guys there and ended up filming a clip. I really liked how it turned out. The skating is really good, and the clip's got a nice feel to it. Almost all these tricks were first try, in other words, these dudes shred.

Stick around, tons more to come.

chehaw park

on my trip back to georgia a couple weeks back Jason and I went to the bmx track out at chehaw park. the track where i destroyed my ankle on a few years back (broke a bone off, spun it 180 degrees, compacted it into another bone - 2 screws and lots of recovery time). it was really fun despite being extremely hot. here's a clip of the 2nd straight with all the doubles, this section is alot harder than it looks. i was pedaling as fast as i could and still couldn't keep from casing that 2nd double.

btw i'll be back in albany another week starting on the 20th, we should hang.

another side note - those of you who attended the national go skateboarding day event i threw last year should stay tuned. i've been working on a mini-documentary of that day. i've spent around 10 hours on it so far and still have a bit to go. what i've got done so far has turned out good so stick around. i'll post it up as soon as i have it finished.