For those of you that don't know, Falcore is a twenty foot wide, seventy foot long, nine foot tall, wooden skate ramp, located in a private El Paso haven. The ramp took over eight months to completely finish. Falcore has had blood, sweat, and tears poured into it! It is surfaced with one of the finest ramp materials available, skatelite. Like many other projects that men have undertaken, Falcore started simply as an idea. So, I am here to tell you a little story... A story of the rising of Falcore.
"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Make sure you check out the video at the bottom!
CLICK ON IMAGES TO ENLARGE
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| Falcore April-May 2010 |
In 2006, some El Paso natives moved back into town from Colorado. They had been working at Durango Mountain Restort, as lift attendants. Hyped from the skiing and snowboarding, they wanted to keep the vibe going in El Paso. There were also some people in town who wanted to get in on the action. Since there isn't much snow in El Paso, everyone in the group started skateboarding. However, the last time all these guys had ridden a skate was in middle school.
So, after riding a few of the weak, weathered, rusty, pre-fabricated skateparks around El Paso, and watching the Cheese and Crackers video one-thousand times, all of these guys wanted to build a skate ramp. So, the project was undertaken in 2007, to build a legit mini ramp.
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| "2007 Mini Frame" |
After completing the ramp, there was a huge party to celebrate. Luckily, someone special attended this party, Matt Talley. This was the first time any of the group had met Matt. Matt and the owner of the ramp, Philip Sullivan, would soon become good friends.
The Talley family, was the family that owned Blade-N-Skate. Blade-N-Skate, was a local skateshop and indoor skatepark. When they closed Blade-N-Skate, the Talleys took the mini ramp from the shop to their backyard. The Talleys' ramp was awesome, because it was covered with Skatelite! At the time of the party, this was all irrelevant. However, later this would become a crucial factor in the making of Falcore.
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| The condition of the ramp in November 2009 |
So, a year or two went by after the making of the "2007 Mini Ramp". The owner, Philip Sullivan, even moved to Los Angeles for a short period of time. The mini ramp sat in the rain, wind, and sun. It took a serious beating from the elements. Upon Philip's arrival back to El Paso, the ramp was wrecked. It was going to need completely new layers to be skateable again. The ramp was basically seen as a loss, and a waste. Until....
Matt approached Philip, and offered him his mini ramp. Matt's parents were trying to get rid of the ramp and were going to trash it if nobody wanted it. It was fortunate that they offered their ramp to Philip, because it is likely that all of that skatelite would have gone to waste or to someone else if they hadn't!
When Matt offered the ramp to Philip, he was filled with a sudden joy and ambition that he had never felt before. Philip spent the next few weeks planning out how he would use the two mini ramps, and cleaning the spot where he would build his plan.
These were the two final plans that made the cut. There were originally about five different plans, but the second plan, "New Plan", was the one that was chosen. Many people put their input in on these plans. There were even talks of a mini mega, and a twelve foot wall. When it was all said and done, the plan for Falcore was legit.
Once the plan was complete, it was a serious amount of work to clear off the debris on the pad of concrete where the ramp would be built. The original mini ramp, built in 2007, was completely weathered, and was going to need to be taken down to the frame. The Tiki Bar was in the way of where the plan proposed to put the ramp, plus the Tiki Bar was falling apart.
As you can tell, the site was filthy! There were branches broken everywhere, weeds growing tall, bikes littering the yard, and material all over the place!
Once the site was cleaned, and the material was moved, the next step was to take the layers off the existing ramp, and move the Tiki Bar.
Notice the two quarter pipes from the Talleys' Ramp, backed up to the "2007 Mini" and notice how the "2007 Mini" is down to its frame. Thankfully for the massive cottonwood tree that hangs over the ramp, the frame was somewhat protected under all that ply. There were a few busted studs, but for the most part, the frame from the "2007 Mini Ramp" was like new! The Tiki Bar had also been moved at this point. The place still needed cleaning.
Here is a panoramic after the clean up...
Unfortunately, it didn't look much cleaner.
The flat bottom of the existing "2007 Mini" was too tight, and needed to be extended.
The before and after pics of the flat extension.
Now that the "2007 Mini" frame was legit, it was time to connect the Talleys' ramps to the back and make a table top.
This is what the table top would look like, with the Talleys' ramps on the left and the "2007 Mini" on the right.
A better view, including the Tiki Bar.
The next phase of the build was to start adding to these basic frames. The extensions, double roll over, large roll over on the table top, the vert wall, and the entire south side of the ramp all needed to be built. First line of business was to add the extension and build the double roll over.
The beginning and end of the extension framing.
One of the double roll overs.
Here is what the ramp looked like after those pieces were built and added.
There was one problem with the site. The concrete on the South side was uneven. The concrete would have to be leveled, or filled with something to make the base solid.
The lower pad was filled with rocks, pallets, and dirt.
During this time, the big roller was added to the top of the table top...
Another issue that came up, was that the huge tree next to the ramp needed to be trimmed. There was a massive branch that was in the way of the big South wall of the ramp.
Notice the big roller on the table top.
Now that the ground was level, it was time to build the big south wall. This thing would be eight feet tall, all the way aross the width of the ramp.
The two far sections, are sections left over from the Talleys' mini.
The big side was was coming together at this point! The posts went into the ground three feet and concrete was poured in to make sure the big wall had enough support.
When funds were low, the flat on this side was going to be built with scrap material and pallets. Luckily funding became available, and the flat bottom was built with actual studs. The big South wall now needed to be finished. Thanks to some really dedicated and solid friends(Zach Zuniga, Cameron and Austin Weyant, and LJ Shamaley endured some of the coldest weather of the year to help with this crucial part of the ramp), the big wall was built within a few days.
When this side was built, it was the middle of January, the work was done until 2 AM, and it was about 22 degrees outside.
Notice the pallet flat bottom.
The next items on the agenda were to build the vert wall frame and to remove the pallets and frame out a legit flat bottom.
Flat bottom legit and complete!
Vert wall complete!
This picture was taken right after the vert wall was complete, and right before the pallet flat was replaced with actual framing.
Now that the frame was complete, it was time to start putting on layers of plywood.
First layer on the South side.
In the picture, the right(North) side was mostly complete with two layers.
From a different angle.
Finishing the first layer on the South side.
Finished with two layers!
After building for more than five months, the ramp was finally layered and skateable! The ramp was going to need to be protected from the elements! Also, the double roller was intense! The ramp needed to be painted and the roll over needed some adjustment.
In these pictures, the ramp was getting painted, and you can see the adjustment to the double roller.
Painting and adjustments complete!
The ramp was in this condition for almost a month, and was skated heavily at this time, until the rain started to become an issue. The ramp was going to need protection to withstand the elements. The ramp was going to need Skatelite!
Sometime around May 2010
For a while, there was a little bit of confusion on what was going to be used to surface the top layer of the ramp. Masonite is an inexpensive material, however it is not very protective, and would go bad within a few months. Adding a third layer of Wood would be better than masonite, but is more expensive and still would be subject to weathering. Laying metal sheets is an option, but this would have been costly, and extremely loud. Skatelite is always the best choice, but at $110 dollars a sheet, it was a little bit unreasonable in price. The ramp was going to need about fourty sheets, so with shipping this would have been well over five thousand dollars for skatelite...
What could be done about this? Were there any other options?
Luckily, a friend, Eric Smith, happened to find someone selling a massive vert ramp with skatelitle already on it. They lived in Arizona, and wanted to get the ramp off their property as soon as possible. After talking with them, and setting up a plan, it was off to Prescott, Arizona, to pick up this fifty foot long, eleven foot tall, twenty foot wide vert ramp.
Before taking the trip to Arizona, the ramp needed to be painted and surfaced with tar paper, to protect it from the elements. Roofers use tar paper under the shingles to protect the roof from rain, sun and wind.
Chizzle laying down some tar paper. Notice the ramp was green from being painted a few times over.
Also, when the Talleys donated their ramp, they donated about fifteen sheets of skatelite. This skatelite needed to be put down!
At this point, the whole ramp was almost covered with tar paper, and the skatelite from the Talleys is down.
From a different angle.
The crew then took off towards Arizona to pick up the vert ramp. This was around July 2010.
One of two trucks and trailers used to take the beast from AZ to TX!
Massive ramp!
Killin' it! This was all in one afternoon! Notice the other truck behind the ramp.
This is what was finished... At least on this trip.
The trip to Prescott, Arizona, was tiring and tough in general. It was a ton of work, but was worth it to get so much material for such a good price! Even currently, there is material left over from this ramp. A special thanks goes out to the crew: Johnny Ortiz, Morgen Sullivan, Kim Sullivan, Maggie Sullivan, Patrick Sullivan, Philip Sullivan, and Nicole Ingraham. This is a tough bunch! It would have been impossible to take the ramp down without these amazing people! A second trip was later made, to go back and get the rest of the material, but that is another story...
Once the crew returned to El Paso, it was time to layer the rest of Falcore with all the skatelite from the Prescott ramp. Also, a last minute change was made to the frame. James Hosoi (yes, this is the same as Christian Hosoi; they are related) came up with this idea; a steep bank wall was added between the extension frame and the vert wall.
Here are the pictures of the finished skatelite layer....
Exciting moments after completing the skatelite layer.
Everyone in this picture had been working since early in the day. The skatelite layer was complete late at night, but everyone was too stoked and had to skate! One of these guys doesn't even skate, but was there throughout the whole build.
A solid crew.
The ramp was holding up well, even in the rain, it stayed true to its form. The only issue was that the skatelite had been painted on one side, and it changed the texture.
To make the ramp smoother and more uniform, the right(North) side's skatelite would have to be turned over. It had been painted and the texture was changed. Also, there was a frame of a smaller mini, next to the vert wall. This frame needed to be moved due to danger factor, so yet again, the crew went to work.
Here are the final pictures of Falcore...
Buttery Fresh! Chuco Fresh!
Simply amazing!
Since the completion of Falcore, a few pros have ridden the ramp. Some of which include Correy Duffel, Sierra Fellers and Angel Ramirez. Check out this Thrasher video of the Foundation crew when they went on tour. The ramp shows up at :30 seconds.
ESPN was covering the Foundation Tour, and the ramp made it onto ESPN.com. To see the post, click HERE.
Special Thanks: Sullivan, Talley, and Zuniga families, as well as Nicole Ingraham, James Hosoi, David Beck, Blaine McNutt, Eric Smith, LJ Shamaley, Bailey Leverton, Cameron and Austin Weyant, Patrick McNeil, Eric Fletcher, Alf Torres, Pete Landerman, Tony Acuna, Marc Puma, Gilbert Martinez, Jimmy Lee Medina, Luis Galindo and Shaly, and anyone else who threw in for the process of building Falcore.
NEED SOMETHING CUSTOM BUILT, OUT OF WOOD? LET US KNOW! WE CAN BUILD DOG HOUSES, SKATE RAMPS, SIGNS, DOLL HOUSES, TREE HOUSES, SWINGS, PERGOLAS, TABLES, AND DECKS/PLATFORMS/STAGES
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT: CHUCOFRESH@GMAIL.COM
3 comments:
Good god! So stoked that you undertook this craziness and made it happen!EPIC!
Great work, glad some of Blade n Sk8 is still in use! Ceci Talley :)
My blood, sweat and possibly some of my dignity went into the making of this epic monstrosity. God bless you and god bless the United States of Chuco Town!
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