Caught in mid 360 Caballerial. If the ramp were directly under the
high power lines, Stevie would have probably brushed them more
than a few times doing backside airs. MoFoto.
KT: I'm sitting here at rampside with
some of the boys here at Stevie Caballero's
house. Bob Denike, how's it going today?
BD: Pretty good. Need some brewskies.
KT: Couple of Fosters and we'll be ready
to go.
BD: I got a sixer of Heinies at my house if
you want to stop by later.
KT: Okay. Sure, Bob. Ah, Bob, what do
you think of the ramp here?
BD: It's all right.
KT: Have you seen better?
BD: Ours is better.
KT: You've built better?
BD: Yeah.
KT: Oh, I see.
BD: Wait. Just wait.
KT: Just wait! Bob says there will be a
ramp challenge soon. Bob, I heard you
guys had a little problem with your ramp.
What happened?
BD: The fat biddies next door to where
the ramp was built complained to the city
and both properties are owned by the
same guy so...
KT: So you had no choice but to....
SF: But to move it.
BD: Yep! That's what we did. We moved
it to its present location up on Skyline. It's
a cool spot.
KT: Scott Foss over here adding his two
cents on the ramp controversy. Scott?
SF: The city only listens when the wrong
people are talking.
KT: There you go. There's a real skate
dog speaking his mind...as Stevie
Caballero continues to rack up maneuver
after maneuver, look at him go, let's
listen... (The sound of Stevie dropping
into his ramp and shooting across the
bottom and up the other side is heard. My
tape recording then goes silent as he
launches into an outer rail grab, stalling
handplant for close to five seconds and
lands it.) Okay, things are rolling right
along here. Come on over here for a
second, Steve. How's the ramp doing, is it
holding up?
SC: Yeah, it's holding up okay.
KT: I noticed a couple of pieces getting
shredded there, what's the story?
SC: It's because of the heavy rains we've
been having up here. I've gotta buy
another can of Thompson's Water Seal
and paint it again.
KT: Steve. A little word about the ramp
here, you want to reveal how much it cost,
you?
SC: Total amount...close to $700 to $800
bucks. A lot of people pitched in.
KT: How long did it take to build?
SC: Well, it took about two weeks
because we didn't have all the wood to
start with.
KT: What prompted you to build a ramp in
your own backyard?
SC: We didn't have a pool. Winchester
had closed so there was no place to
skate, vertical wise, so I decided to build a
ramp. And then I started hearing about
other pools so now I skate backyard pools
and my ramp.
KT: Uh, Steve, there seems to be a little
problem with dog crap surrounding the
ramp. You going to do something about
that?
INTERVIEW:
STEVE CABALLERO
SC: (laughter) Yeah, I'm going to build a
fence so the dogs can't get near the
ramp.
(At this point the taping is taken over
by Scott Foss while KT and MoFo angle
in for some photos. Scott options for
interviewing Steve while he is engaged
in riding the ramp.)
SF: Stevie, let's here some dimensions!
(Steve drops in and comes up into a
stalling handplant.)
SC: It's 12 feet wide... (He drops back
down out of recorder range and launches
a backside air on the far side of the ramp,
lands it and then comes back across and
lofts another one over Scotty's head.)
SF: It's 28 feet from wall to wall...
(...landing and sliding into a fakie on the
far side of the ramp, Steve comes back
up the wall backwards and stalls on the
tail of his board.)
SC:...and 9 feet high with a foot of vert.
SF: What about the Channel 4 interview
that they did here?
SC: It was pretty fun doing it.
SF: Was it embarrassing for you at school
when they shot some footage during
class.
SC: Yeah..hey wait! Ask 'em who it is.
SF: Oh-oh! Stevie has an urgent call from
Sweden here, it could be somebody
important. We'll have to wait and see.
(After the call we pack up our gear from
Stevie's house and head across town to
Punk Pool in Bob's VW.)
SF: Okay, Stevie. We have him cornered
in the car now so he can't get away for
any sessioning. Stevie, did your mom
object to the idea of building a ramp?
SC: At first she did but she decided to let
me make one because she is pretty cool.
SF: She was thinking about your future
then?
SC: Yeah.
BD: What do you think of the crowds, how
they just come over and assume to
skate?
SF: Really. What do you think of the
hordes of skate fleas that come over?
SC: It's cool sometimes, but sometimes
they get carried away. (We pull into 7-11
refreshments and then continue on to
P.P.)
SF: Well, Stevie, not to interfere with your
Coke and M&M's, but we're getting back
to business. I understand you just got a
call from Sweden and they're asking you
to come back next year maybe, huh?
SC: Yeah.
SF: A month straight with McGill, that's
kind of putting out a lot of sacrifice for your-
self.
SC: Well, it's only going to be three
weeks.
SF: That's almost as big of a sacrifice. It's
like the difference between a 50-megaton
bomb and a 100-megaton bomb landing
on your house. Either way you're in trouble.