Memoirs of a Gypsy: A Patchy Bearded 12 Yr Old: The 5th Comeback

It was Gabriel Zavala's 32nd Birthday on Tuesday and he enlisted me to help him film 32 clips skating around Santa Rosa, Ca. I've known this dude for a long time or better yet this dude has known me since I was about 10 or 12, just a young grom trying to play s.k.a.t.e. at the old Hood Parking lot. So of course I was down to film him skating for his Birthday. We met up at the Hood and I was taken aback when he started gripping a new board. I was like, "HE's getting serious today!"We started off at his old stomping grounds of Bennett Valley to skate the ledge behind Safeway. I was really surprised to see that the ledge was still waxed when we got there. It was hard to get Gabe started at 1st cuz he really didn't have a game plan, he kept getting distracted by technology or would use the excuse of "I'm re-learning all these tricks." Once he got the muscles loose and his slides sliding he filmed 8 tricks at the 1st spot. WOOO! It was looking good, the tricks were fast and loud and he had 24 more tricks to go. I wanted to get a clip of Gabe at the Ivy gap but I felt he was trying to avoid ollieing it cuz he had said on the way there, "I hope there's a lot of cars in the way..." so I already knew going there was gonna be a bust but I still wanted to see if he'd do it or at least get him motivated to do it. But we get there and Sergio must have called one of his friends to park in that lot cuz the only car that was there was right in front of the gap so he got lucky and didn't have to take the 32 yr old leap of faith. But we caught a break with Moe calling us cuz he had a school yard with a lot of cool things to skate and nothing was too big or gnarly so Gabe had no excuse to not get clips here. I think we had sat down too long cuz Gabe's back and knee started getting sore but he didn't let that stop him from gettig shreddy and clocking some tricks at the spot. It was rad having Moe, Jose and little Mateo there as a support team. Mateo would do a trick 1st try in front of Gabe's face and that got him fired up to do some shuv its and 180s. We got some cool lily pad tricks with the help of tag teaming Moe and Mateo in to do some stunts and Gabe even managed to film a line with only a few tries. Thanks to Moe for showing us the spot and talking shit to get the OG motivated. After that spot we were Rosa Park Bound. Gabe's extremely neurotic and thinks ahead so he knew going to Rosa Park would be good for the edit cuz there'd be homies to tag in and land some stunts. We get to the park and get hyped cuz we see that Rusczyk's car was in the lot. If anyone can get Gabe motivated I felt it could be Mike. But that was not the case. Technology kept distracting the 32 yr old and maybe it was the 4 pieces of bacon he had eaten at brunch that was weighing him down but whatever the case, Gabe's energy started to waiver. But ya can't blame em cuz it must've been past his bed time anyhow. It was a good thing Jesse Palmer, Mikey Smialek, and Anthony Celeri were there to film some stunts on Pat's badass pykrete bench. We managed to film the bulk of the edit there with a trick count of just over 50. Wooo! So we called it a day because the ol' man was getting tired and hungry. It was fun running around with Gabe all day for his birthday, it felt like the old North Coast days, skating in the parking lot and talking mad shit about Gabe's beard. Thanks to all who helped out with filming some tricks and to Gabe for actually getting out there and wanting to shred the streets. You old dude's give us youngins hope for the future of the shred sled. Gabe mentioned he's never filmed a full part and that all his footy he's ever filmed went straight into montages which blew my mind seeing that he's got so many filmer friends. So this is like his 1st actual part or maybe just a Patchy Bearded 12 Yr old's attempt at a sponsor me Tape for Don Brown or Dave Keagy. But really filming parts and sponsor me tapes are fun but we all know we just do this FOR THE LOVE of it. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BILLY GABE! Thank you skateboarding.