70 Outside Bob Burnquist on His Backyard Chris Mega-Ramp in Photographs by San Diego’S Mcpherson North County
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70 Outside Bob Burnquist on his backyard chris mega-ramp in photographs by San Diego’s mCpherson North County OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 71 hair. Danny Way, Bob’s close friend and only true rival (or perhaps the only human crazy Bob Burnquist enough to want to be), says he has “cat genetics” and calls him Gumby.It appears as is a professional skateboarder, if soft pretzels have replaced his bones. but to let that be his definition It’s a warm spring afternoon when I visit Bob at his spread in the arid foothills of the is a little reductive. San Marcos Mountains, in San Diego’s The 32-year-old resident of Vista, Califor- Jake wobbled slightly after landing a 720 North County. Rancho Bob Burnquist, or nia, is, by many tangible measures and (his first ever on the mega-ramp), which Rancho Burnquisto, as it’s come to be especially by metaphysical ones, probably threw off his timing on the quarterpipe. known, is 12 acres and has many amalga- the best all-around skateboarder in the Accidentally pushing himself away from mated parts: The first thing you see is Bob’s world, able to win X Games gold medals on the ramp as he went airborne, he fluttered traditional vertical ramp and bowl, where the halfpipe or lay down eye-popping street and dropped 45 feet to the wood deck below, he shoots film segments and practices for segments for videos, as well as to consis- landing so hard that both of his shoes events. Around it are what he calls his tently redefine what is considered possible in popped off. Bob, who was waiting his turn “monuments,”little-used or retired spe- his sport. He might do this by riding com- to go, thought his friend was “dead, para- cialty ramps cooked up for one-off tricks pletely around the inner circumference of lyzed, in pieces. I was screaming, crying, like the loop-de-loop or the corkscrew. Not a metal pipe (which includes skating upside freaking out,”he says. Jake lay still for eight far past them is a nice stucco house with down) or riding inside a pipe with a gap minutes, then suddenly, miraculously stood two adjoining cabanas, one for his office (which requires jumping upside down) or up and walked away (with a broken wrist, and gym and another for his toys, including doing these tricks—or any of his tricks— mild concussion, and bruised liver and a stack of surfboards, numerous skydiving switch (meaning backwards), or especially lungs), and Bob thought, Oh, shit, I’m next. rigs, and literally hundreds of skateboard by doing the kinds of things he does on the OK, Jake, this is for you. And he rode on decks. There’s a small pool and patio, a plot infamous mega-ramp, a 360-foot-long, 75- down the ramp and won gold. of organic vegetables, a paddock for live- foot-high plywood leviathan that has pushed At this point, Bob can navigate the mega- stock, and, on a large, scrubby parcel at the skateboarding into terrifying new territory ramp with ease, regular or switch. He can rear of the property, the mega-ramp. since appearing on the scene in 2003. spin (many times), land just over the gap on a The rancho is hilly and lush with vegeta- There are only three mega-ramps on short platform known as a manual pad, per- tion. It’s not easy to tour by foot, so Bob earth. One is in storage and comes out for the form a quick trick, then continue on toward climbs aboard his two-seat Yamaha Rhino X Games’ “big-air” events, which Bob has the quarterpipe, where he might fly up and utility vehicle. There’s a subtle unkemptness won the past two years. Another is in Brazil, grind the soccer goalpost he sometimes to the place—pieces of old ramps and deteri- where Bob was born and lived until age 18. He places atop the deck,just for kicks.He can do orating gym mats are lying around, along built that one for a 2008 contest that he co- a front flip over the gap, which no one else with some unexplained dogs. Only one, Dois, produced via his Encinitas, California–based has even attempted. an Australian shepherd mix bearing the scars production company,Zoobamboo Entertain- Tony Hawk says he is “glad” the mega- of 14 puncture wounds (the work of local ment, and also won.It aired live on Brazil’sTV ramp wasn’t around when he was compet- coyotes), belongs to Bob. “There’s also a cat Globo, to an audience of millions. The third ing, and that it “has tested the human limits around here somewhere,”he says. mega-ramp is in Bob’s backyard. of riding a skateboard.”Of Bob, Tony says, Bob maneuvers around a manure pile— Bob didn’t invent the mega-ramp; that “Besides creating tricks previously thought courtesy of Rio, the family horse—and toward honor goes to his pal Danny Way, a profes- impossible, he’s taking existing moves and a stand of banana trees, where we find his sional skater who jumped the Great Wall of doing them at dangerous heights and over wife, Veronica, 40, a beautiful blond physi- China a few years back. The mega-ramp is a frightful distances.”He’s also unique, Tony cal therapist from Brazil. The two have a difficult contraption to envision until you’ve says,because “his motivation is progression; one-year-old daughter, Jasmyn, and each seen it in person, but imagine a wooden ski not fame or fortune.” has a daughter from a previous relationship, jump leading to the biggest kicker you can That’s not to say, of course, that Bob won’t Bob’s being nine-year-old Lotus, whose possibly conjure, one so tall and steep that compete. He shows up at competitions, mother is the pro skater Jen O’Brien. your average professional skateboarder gets mostly because his sponsors encourage it, At the rancho, Bob has re-created a little jittery just peering over its edge. The most and he tends to win: So far he’s taken home 15 slice of São Paulo, where he grew up middle- basic jump goes something like this: You roll X Games medals (including six golds), was class and bilingual, the son of an American in from a platform about the height of a five- last year’s World Cup of Skateboarding vert father and a Brazilian mother. The whole story building, reach 40 or 50 miles per hour skater of the year, and was again the favorite family is here, in fact, though his parents on the 180-foot approach, then launch over in the big-air event at the 2009 X Games. But are divorced. There’s a Brazilian nanny, a a 50-foot gap—there’s trapeze netting if you what actually drives Bob is something else: yurt for his dad, Dean. His sister Rebecca don’t make it—land on a downslope, and zip He’s an athletic freak with a creative mind shares a house up the road with their mom, toward a 30-foot-high quarterpipe that who’s treating his sport more like a blend of Dora, who paints and sculpts and makes propels you another 15 to 25 feet into the air. math problem and art project. Bob Burnquist mosaics. (“I can live with my dad,”Bob You’ll need to land back on the near-vertical wakes up most every morning with one says, “but my mom ... .”)Dora’s work is all face of that quarterpipe, and not on the deck question on his mind: What else can I do? over the rancho, including several oversize up top or the flat bottom below, either of paintings of Bob in action that dominate which spells almost certain injury. TO OBSERVE BOB is to watch a man who the living room. You might recall this was the fate of Aus- seems to have just left yoga class. He’s a He gives Veronica a kiss and asks me to tralian skater Jake Brown, who took a well- walking noodle—six foot two and 180 pounds move to the Rhino’s dusty bed to make documented fall during the 2007 X Games. of skinny limbs, with close-cropped black room as we all drive out to visit Rio and his 72 Outside Burnquist throwing a switch 180 over the mega-ramp’s 50-foot gap Bob can imagine a corkscrew launch he’s a vegetarian. He’s not. But he does enjoy smoothies and drive a Prius. He also into a mega-ramp, and maybe even a double refuses to take sponsorship dollars from any loop,like a real-life version of what kids build product he doesn’t feel comfortable with, for Matchbox cars. Is that even possible? most notably the buzz-drink labels—Red “I don’t know,” he answers. “I think it is.” Bull, Monster Energy—that are the ubiqui- tous cash cows of action sports. (“I hate that stuff,”he says.) Instead he gravitates toward paddock-mates,two goats and a chicken.Bob kick off a line of organic products with an deals that satisfy his inner hippie: Stonyfield and Veronica chatter briefly in Portuguese energy bar later this year. You’ll also soon Farm, Sambazon açaí-based beverages, and (she’s still learning English) about the find a Burnquist Organics logo on a number Toyota, which in 2005 made Bob its first ath- moringa-based organic soap made by a of Bob-approved products, including the lete paired specifically with the Prius.(He was woman who rents a cabana on the property.