Grind Read Free Page B

and wheels.
    â€œBoard,” he said.
    Reluctantly I held it out toward him. I had to fight the insane urge to tell him he couldn’t have it. Better he bam bam the board than me. I handed it to him and braced myself for the explosion that I
knew
was going to follow.
    â€œThanks,” Bam Bam said. He turned and started back for the bank.
    â€œWait!” Wally called out, and Bam Bam turned around. “Aren’t you going to…going to…you know…break the board?”
    Bam Bam smiled and shook his head. “I don’t really beat up boards, especially ones I like.”
    â€œBut I’ve seen the videos,” Wally said.
    â€œThat’s different. That’s part of my gimmick, part of my image.”
    â€œYour image?” I questioned. “I thought you did it because you hated missing a trick.”
    â€œI do hate missing a trick, but if I broke up a board every time I missed a trick, I’d run out of boards
and
money.”
    â€œYou don’t miss that much,” Wally said. “I watch the videos.”
    Both Bam Bam and his camera guy burst out laughing again.
    â€œMan, if we showed you all the misses, you’d be watching a ten-hour video,” Bam Bam said. “We only show you the tricks we hit and a few misses that are most spectacular. It might take me an hour to land this trick I’m trying.”
    â€œYou’re joking, right?” Wally asked.
    â€œNo joke. If you stick around you’ll see.”
    â€œBut you’re a pro,” Wally protested. “I thought you were really
good
.”
    â€œI am a pro and I am really good. Nobody lands all their tricks. Tell me, what do youthink is the most famous trick of all time?” Bam Bam asked.
    I didn’t even have to think about it. “Tony Hawk landing a nine.”
    â€œYeah, the nine,” Wally agreed.
    The nine was a nine hundred-degree rotation—he turned two and a half times in mid-air, landing on the board and sticking the jump. He pulled it off at the X-Games, and it remained the best-known trick of all time.
    â€œI have to agree,” Bam Bam said. “Do you know how long it took him to land that trick?”
    I shook my head.
    â€œThe shot you see on the videos, the one where he made it, was his
thirteenth
attempt that day.”
    â€œI didn’t know,” I said.
    â€œAnd he’d been trying that trick, on a regular basis, for thirteen
years
,” Bam Bam continued.
    I gasped. “I had no idea.”
    â€œIt isn’t about the tricks you miss.”
    â€œUnless it’s a spectacular miss,” the camera guy said.
    â€œYeah,” Bam Bam agreed. “What really count are the tricks you make.”
    â€œAnd capture on video,” the camera guy said, holding up the camera. “And then you place them on your web site and videos.”
    â€œYeah, the web site is the key. It’s not the old-school days, when tournaments produced sponsors and money. Now it’s all web- and Internet-related. Now any skater, especially if he has a gimmick, something different, can make a name for himself.”
    â€œSpeaking of which,” the camera guy said, “if we want to add to your name, we’d better get this trick on tape.”
    Bam Bam skated back up toward the bank. I knew that nobody made
every
trick, but somehow I just thought the pros made
most
of them. It made me realize that maybe they weren’t that much different—or better—than me.

Chapter Four
    Bam Bam leaned out of the window of the car and waved as they drove away. We both waved back. Wally jumped up and down like he was a little schoolgirl.
    â€œWasn’t that amazing?” Wally gushed.
    â€œPart of it was. Did you see how many times he missed that trick before he finally stuck the landing?”
    Wally shrugged. “Man, I’m never going to wash this again.” He held up his board,displaying the spot where Bam Bam had