This page: Ryan Wilburn floats an
alley-oop on clouds of cotton
candy at Burnside.
That page: Aaron Suski pops a
sweet frontside ollie while suck-
ing on a jawbreaker at the Blood
Banks in Tucson, AZ.
here next weekend, right? And then I'll pay you back
your money.
That night I went to work, and I still had Big Chocolate's card
in my pocket. I showed it to my manager, Mike, and he just about
fell on the floor laughing. He came up to me like half an hour
later, tapped me on the shoulder, and said, "OK, now, don't
think I'm a fag or anything, but.. He handed me a card that
said "BOOTY RANGER," and it had a little picture of a guy
with a lasso roping a girl with a huge booty. All the employ-
ees got into it, and everybody was laughing. Big Chocolate
became the evening's entertainment. I even drew a little car-
toon that had Booty Ranger getting lessons in macking from
Big Chocolate: "See, Booty Ranger, if you wanna get the bitch-
es, you gotta make some cards. Chicks dig cards..."
Epilogue: A couple days later. I was talking to my
friend Adam, and I told him about Big Chocolate. It turns out
that Adam knew the kid back in the day, and that Big
Chocolate actually was sponsored. He used to be one of the
best skaters in his neighborhood. Evidently, when Big
Chocolate started high school, all his friends quit and joined
gangs but he always kept skating and was hoping to go pro
someday. Then, one day, he was skating downown and got hit
by a car. It was serious. He had to relearn how to walk. That's
why he got all weird and messed-up. This guy almost died for
skating and is still so hardcore that he skates even though he
can't afford griptape. Not only is he skating, but Big Chocolate
is out there injecting a little bit of pleasant insanity into peo-
ple's lives everyday. And some people wonder why I love skate-
boarding so much -Nico Berry