70 Outside on his backyard chris mega-ramp in photographs by San Diego’s mCpherson North County

OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 71 hair. , 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 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 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 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- 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. first Oakley shades made with recycled the company’s first action-sports athlete.) “It’san amazingmaterial,”he tells me.“When materials; a bamboo Flip skate deck (still in There are plenty of other professional I had my wisdom teeth out, I put some pow- testing stages); an iPath all-hemp skate athletes speaking out on global warming der on my teeth and woke up so much better.” shoe; a Brazilian line of hemp-and-organic- and sustainability, but few, if any, have ac- Nothing about this scene—or any of Bob’s cotton Hurley clothing; and a foam-free tually managed to enact real change in their life, really—is what you’d expect from a Keahana surfboard. sport. Bob co-founded the Action Sports En- skateboarder.The same goes for his business In the adrenalized world of the X Games, vironmental Council in 2001 and, in 2007, interests away from the sport, most of which where athletes tend to be tattooed, caf- took his skateboard to the Capitol to lobby fall under the umbrella of an amorphous feinated, and more concerned with their Congress about climate change—becoming, venture called Burnquist Organics, which style of footwear than their carbon foot- if you’re a fan of useless minutiae, the first even he struggles to define. This would in- print, Bob is an anomaly.The green projects, person to ride a skateboard inside those clude farming here on the rancho, which has along with his New Agey tendencies—he’s a hallowed halls. That same year, he gathered been stalled commercially since his organic follower of the nonsectarian Christian major action-sport brands for the indus- restaurant, Melodia, closed, but he’s in talks Spiritism movement and is prone to stoner try’s first conference on how to go green. It to begin providing produce to local branches speechifying about “fluidic rhythms”— was at his behest that the X Games shifted of Chipotle Mexican restaurants. He plans to have led to a perception among fans that to Forest Stewardship JAMIE MOSBERG continued on page 100

OUTSIDEONLINE.COM Outside 73 BOB BURNQUIST continued from page 73 in the California desert. subtlety, his emphasis on absurd intricacies, Council–certified wood for its ramps and It was skateboarding’s improvisational is almost impossible for a casual fan to appre- then donated that wood after the event to nature that drew Bob to begin with. His dad ciate. It’sone reason Bob may never be as well build skate parks in blighted neighborhoods gave him his first board at 11, when severe known as Tony Hawk.“You would see [Bob’s] like Compton. His current pet project is asthma kept him from excelling at soccer. run and you wouldn’t be terribly impressed. Bob Burnquist’s Global Cooling Challenge, Bob was immediately drawn to the “whole And then somebody would say, ‘By the way, an environmental-education program for individual thing” of skating.“Whatever I did he just did that switch.’The things that he’s middle- and high-school students. was on my own merit—if I fell, it was my able to do from a technical standpoint are Bob is fortunate to exist in the moment fault,”he says. Young Bob quickly became really what makes him spectacular.” when an athlete can translate activism into obsessed; he was winning competitions in Bob dials up a video of his loop-with-gap dollars and not simply into the occasional Brazil by his early teens, but he remained off trick on YouTube. We watch him roll up and box of complimentary granola bars. He’ll the radar in the U.S. until 1995, when, at 18, around the inside of a pipe, jump inverted lecture for 15 minutes on the hypocrisy of he won the Slam City Jam, in Vancouver. In across a gap at the top, and speed down the Kobe Bryant shilling for fast food while 1997, he won his first X Games medal, a other side. The video has, at last count, 1.6 acknowledging “it’s easy for me to say that, bronze on the vert ramp, and was Thrasher million views. I point out a comment that because I can afford to be choosy.”Bob magazine’s skater of the year. He moved to reads, “You are clearly an idiot.” won’t indulge me in the issue of his finances, the rancho in 1999. “I love the comments,”he says, laughing. but it’s safe to say his annual income is well Bob plops into a rolling chair at the desk in “They’re the best. A lot of ’em—like in the into the six figures. his office cabana and walks me through his case of the Grand Canyon—say, ‘All right, As we putter the Rhino back toward the notebook. He stops first at early scrawls of why? I don’t see any reason.’ vert bowl, Bob spies Dora outside her studio. the 2006 Grand Canyon trick. It was just a “Someone always answers for me. ‘Why I ask her what she thinks of her son’s version wild notion until the producer of the Dis- not?’” of art—all the ramps and jumps and stunts. covery Channel series Stunt Junkies called. “I think it’s crazy,”she says. “I don’t watch. Bob explained his concept and the producer ON ANY GIVEN DAY, it’s possible to find But I hear, because people call me.” howled, “I love it!” some pro skating on Bob’s mega-ramp or,just Bob didn’t warn her about his most dan- “That one was on paper for six months,” as likely, quivering in its shadow. North gerous stunt ever, in 2006, when he flew off Bob says. “Sometimes ideas are in here for a County is home to many of the biggest brands a ramp built on the rim of the Grand Canyon, couple years.” in action sports—Hurley, DC Shoes, Quiksil- grinded a rail over the precipice, then BASE- He flips onward, past one sketch for a ver—and also its biggest stars, including Way, jumped 1,600 feet to the bottom. But Dora’s jump over a Boeing 747 affixed with a rail, Hawk, , and dozens of other a mom; she knew. and another for a 100-foot drop off a statue skaters, BMX riders, and stars, “It was terrible,”she says, but she’s more in São Paulo that would best Danny’s Hard many of whom can’t resist the gravitational bemused than concerned. “Lotus is still Rock Cafe height.“I’m extending the offer to pull of the monster that lurks behind Bob scared today.” Danny to come with me so it’s not like I’m Burnquist’s house. It’s like having the Maver- “She’s not scared,”Bob says, pulling me breaking his record,”he says. ick’s surf break in your backyard. away.“Of course she was worried. She’d say, As Bob tells it, he’s lucky to have Danny The mega-ramp’s arrival was a seminal ‘My dad likes to jump off cliffs. He’s crazy.’” around. Without a competitor talented moment in skating history. Danny Way had enough to attempt such maniacal pursuits, spent a year building the behemoth in secret, BOB KEEPS A SPIRAL-BOUND notebook of his rarefied airspace could get very lonely. with funding from DC Shoes (co-founded by dreams in his home office. It’s full of ideas “When I make stuff, I call him and say, his brother, Damon), at a remote camp in the for ramps and bowls and pools, some in ‘Dude, you know what I just did?’” California desert known as Point X. He told bizarre geometric shapes cooked up by him He switches over to his iMac and spools up no one what he was up to and then intro- and Danny Way, who’s also his bandmate in clips of his upcoming, three-years-in-the- duced the ramp to the world in the 2003 film the indie-rock group Escalera (Danny on making part in the Flip video The DC Video. Stiepock remembers being at guitar and Bob on drums) and the only other Extremely Sorry. Bob obsesses over videos like the Winter X Games in Aspen when someone person who understands his twisted vision. these because they maintain his credibility burst into his office clutching the DVD. Both Bob and Danny operate outside the es- in the skate world, which might otherwise “There it was in all its glory,”he recalls. “It tablished professional paths of street and regard him as a stunt guy who cashes in at was one of those moments where you think, I . Most pros are street skaters, the X Games once a year and then retreats to can’t believe what I’m seeing here.” because it’s easier to learn; all you need is his ranch to roll around in flaxseed. The film When Bob saw the footage,his head practi- some blacktop. Vert skaters require expen- segments—shot on the mega-ramp or in cally exploded. As explained in the 2005 skate sive ramps, which means sponsors, which pools and skate parks around the world—are film The Reality of Bob Burnquist, he couldn’t means pressure to win competitions. Bob mind-blowing even to jaded pros. In one se- fathom that his friend had concocted the and Danny participate in these competitions quence, he launches across the 50-foot gap, monster in secret and was “just out there and demos, but they spend much of their lands on the manual pad, kickflips his board skating it alone.”As Bob put it, “Not that time one-upping each other with outlandish 180 degrees while going 50 miles per hour, many people have that kind of motivation.” stunts. Danny is most famous for jumping then drops in toward the quarterpipe—all He immediately rang Danny and said,“I gotta the Great Wall, in 2005, and for dropping without breaking rhythm. skate this thing.”Then he headed to the from the top of the 82-foot-tall guitar at Las Bob’s riding is so “technical”—the word desert, became the second man to master the Vegas’s Hard Rock Cafe a year later. Last No- used over and over (and over) to describe mega, and, by the time he’d come back down vember, he set the Guinness land-speed him—that to show it to someone with an toearth—physicallyandotherwise—thought, record for a towed skateboard, reaching 74 untrained eye,like me,he actually has to slow I need one of these. miles per hour while being pulled behind a down the tape. Chris Stiepock, general Today that prototype ramp is dismantled, vehicle driven by pro skater and MTV star manager of the X Games, says that Bob’s and Danny and Bob together own “Mega

100 Outside BOB BURNQUIST sliding to a stop on the transition. Then, reclaimed by the land. There are many Ramp LLC,”which holds the trademark and because he can’t just leave it at that—bad empty driveways. “It’s good for us,”Bob builds ramps for various events. Bob built karma, dude—he hops in the Rhino and rides says. “Lots of pools.” his version for the rancho in 2006 for a re- back to the top, rolls in again, jumps, lands, We head south and bank over the former ported $280,000 (paid for largely by Oakley and grinds the coping of the quarterpipe, site of Point X, where Danny designed the and Hurley), using roughly 400 sheets of just because. When he’s in the air, you can mega-ramp, then Bob loops back and aims plywood. Because of the topography,where a hear the hiss of his wheels, spinning so fast it the plane toward the Pacific, which glim- hillside backs the roll-in,you can climb a few seems they might fly off. mers in the distance. He points out—visible stairs to the top, whereas the X Games ramp Lizard King practically collapses. Here he from God knows how many miles out—his is accessed via the Staples Center elevator. is, terrified, and Bob has casually dropped in very own private monster.“Mega-ramp at 12 Bob’s is also the only mega-ramp that stays as if this were a backyard pool, wearing o’clock,”he says. “Pretty cool, right? I love up between competitions, making it a fre- nothing but jeans and a T-shirt. flying over it.” quent destination for film crews, who have “Fuck it, dude,”Lizard yells, rolling toward As we buzz past the rancho, Bob talks to knock on his door to ask permission to the edge. “Live life.” about some of his latest notions. He might ride it. Recently, the motocross star Travis His first attempt isn’t pretty, but he has like to skate-jump from one skyscraper to Pastrana backflipped a Big Wheel over the gusto. There are many whoops and hollers another, then launch off the second and 70-foot gap for his MTV show, . and “Holy shits!” as he rockets down the BASE-jump to the street below. He can also The street skater Pat Duffy had a less roll-in, up the launch, and through the air, imagine a corkscrew launch into a mega- pleasant experience in 2006. Duffy, a highly dropping his board and flying along like ramp, and maybe even a double loop, like a regarded pro, cleared the 50-foot gap but someone leaping off a bridge into a lake. He real-life version of what kids build for then lost control as he approached the top of lands awkwardly but safely on his knee pads Matchbox cars. the quarterpipe.He sailed into the air,his legs and slides to the base of the quarterpipe. Is that even possible? spinning in place like the Road Runner’s as he “I love you, Bob!” he howls as Bob and I “I don’t know,”he answers. “I think it is.” dropped 30 feet to the deck. As Duffy would walk back toward the house. “This is the That same question has long been a moti- later describe it, his femur “jackhammered” funnest thing I’ve ever done in my life! vating force for other fringe athletes, includ- his tibia, breaking the bone in three places. Thank you for building this!” ing freeskier Shane McConkey, who died in Up to that point, Bob says, “Street skaters About an hour later, Bob’s phone buzzes. Italy’s Dolomites in March while filming a called all the time.”But for a while after that, It’s a text from PLG: Lizard nailed it. “He’s stunt combining skiing and BASE jumping in “all calls just stopped.” got the right mentality,”Bob says. “Or the a wingsuit. Nonetheless,peopleremaincurious.While wrong one, depending how you look at it.” “We all know what we’re getting into ,” I’m at the rancho, Bob’s friend and fellow pro Bob says when the subject is broached. “You Pierre-Luc Gagnon, or PLG, pops by with BOB’S LOVE OF FLYING is not specific to live with that much risk so you can have that some fresh meat: a street skater known as skateboarding.He’shad his pilot’slicense for much fun. I can guarantee you Shane experi- Lizard King (Mike Plumb to his relatives), years, has completed more than 500 sky- enced some stuff that no human will experi- who’s wiry and abundantly tattooed, with a dives and 14 BASE jumps, and has recently ence. That’s progression. We can’t hold back raspy smoker’s voice and the bug eyes of a begun to experiment with the wingsuit, progression, and we can’t hold back evolu- man who gets amped for a living. which is essentially the architecture of a fly- tion. We keep going, and we don’t know how Bob greets them in the driveway and tells ing squirrel applied to humans. tosayno.” PLG to take Lizard out to the ramp “just to You don’t have to tell Bob that he can be a Watching Bob smoothly pilot the plane, see what he’s getting into.” walking (skating, jumping) contradiction. I’m struck by how much he reminds me of Minutes later, Lizard King comes back He’s well aware. “I skydive, I fly, I travel to Philippe Petit, the eccentric French tightrope looking as if he’s seen a ghost. He can’t stop skate. There’s no way I’m carbon-neutral. walker who casually strolled back and forth pacing. “I’m not even over there looking at it Look at all the wood I use.”He says this from between the World Trade Center towers in and I’m having a heart attack,”he says. the helm of his hybrid Toyota Highlander, en 1974. Physically, they’re analogs—living “Exactly—because you know what you’re route to a small airport where we’re picking Plastic Men—and they share a disarming about to do,”says Bob. up a rented Cessna for an afternoon flight. calm, what Danny Way calls Bob’s “Zen, PLG and Bob discuss a trick Bob’s been “What I do is live my life, do my thing, and one-with-ramp mode.” working on; I can’t begin to follow the jar- try to make progress toward something,”he Bob tells me he hasn’t seen Man on Wire, gon, but Lizard King hangs on their every adds. “I do more than the average guy, but I the documentary about Petit’s Twin Towers word. “You guys are fucking out of your definitely need to do more.” walk, so I explain that what stood out to minds,”he squeals. “I don’t get how you are Bob does most of his flying out of a small me most wasn’t the guy’s courage or the like the most mellow people I’ve ever met, airstrip close to Lotus’s school. We hop into a physical completion of the feat but that he because you’re total fucking nutcases.” vintage white Cessna with blue stripes and stopped in the middle, on the wire, thou- Lizard King snatches a bag of pads from he fires the old bird up. He’s in an abundant- sands of feet above Manhattan, savoring PLG’s Mercedes and comes back.“I’ve never ly pocketed vest that holds a flashlight, his the moment with a smile, as if he didn’t been more intimidated by anything in my asthma medication, energy bars, maps, want it to end. entire life,”he says, then exhales deeply. flares, and a hydration reservoir—basically “That’s it,”Bob says. “That’s what he lives “I wanna get you psyched,“ Bob says. “I’ll everything he’d need to survive if he were to for. If I had time, I’d be smiling in the middle go out there with you.” crash-land in the wilderness. We roll onto of the air, too.” And so Bob, wearing no pads or helmet, the runway and, just like that, are airborne. He thinks for a moment. “Actually, I am, performs step one of mega-ramp desensiti- It is sub-prime central below; the ghosts but you’d have to hit pause to see me.” o zation: the crash landing. He tears down the of stillborn developments haunt the land- roll-in, sails off the kicker, and ditches the scape. Some are half built, and you can see JOSH DEAN WROTE ABOUT ANDY board over the gap, landing on his butt and the lines of tract-home plots slowly being RODDICK IN JULY 2008.

102 Outside