Posts Tagged ‘skate ramp’

Falling off a motorbike may have held up my plans to fly a plane (London)

Monday, July 26th, 2010

All things considered. This summer is going pretty well. London is warm and sunny. Friends and family are well and in good spirits. The skateboard ramp we built in Peru in December 2009 got a 6 page write-up in Concrete Wave skateboard magazine (available in all good newsagents/skate shops). I’m also really enjoying my flying lessons but a potential problem has come to light.

To obtain your Private Pilot’s License you have to have flown at least 45 hours (a proportion of which are solo), pass a number of theory and practical exams and pass a CAA medical examination. The flying lessons with EFG Flying School, at Biggin Hill, had been going well so before committing the next chunk of money I decided to get my CAA medical examination completed. I didn’t want to pay for a lot more lessons and then find out I couldn’t fly solo for medical reasons. I’m fairly fit and healthy so I didn’t think it would be a problem.

Unfortunately I may have been too honest when I completed the pre-medical questionnaire. Within the multitude of ‘yes/no’ questions about my family medical history, previous operations, etc. they threw one in about head injury or concussion. Not thinking much about the consequences I mentioned my motorbike accident in Belize last year, due to the head trauma I received. Those that read the blog may remember that the accident was in the middle of nowhere and although I was seen by some extremely well qualified doctors they weren’t Belizian and there are no medical notes, scans, x-rays, nada… It was only as I was relaying snippets of this information to the doctor during my medical and I could see his face dropping further with every new detail that I wished I’d just answered ‘no’ in the first place. To cut a long story short, he’s going to have to refer my case to the CAA and ask them for advice. So what should have been a formality (I am otherwise fit and healthy) might turn into a show-stopper or potentially costly round of brain scans. Seems that nothing is ever easy…

It wasn’t a totally fruitless visit though. In what was a rather surreal moment during the medical I discovered some interesting facts about my old school house-master. Bear with me on this. Part of the medical involved an ECG scan, where the doctor stuck 8 electrode-pads to my body (4 of which were on my chest). The hairiness of my chest meant that before he could stick the pads, the doctor had to cut away some of the hair to make 4 bald patches. He must have thought, as hairdressers do, that cutting hair is a good time for small talk so he asked where I went to school. Turns out he went to school with, and was best mates with, my old house-master (15 years before he was my house-master). I also now have an inkling why my house-master was so good about all my misbehaviour at school. Seems that he was quite a tearaway in his time. Who would have guessed it?!

I’m hoping we can get this ‘previous head trauma’ thing sorted, especially as I had already started building the website for planning this adventure and have sunk a fair bit into flying text books, lessons and the medical test. Guess I’ll have to wait and see.

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By ‘eck, we’ve done it! Cerrito del Virgen has a new skateboard ramp.

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

The final screw went in at around noon on Wednesday 6th January 2010 and the first kids were skating on it about 5 seconds later.

New Skate Ramp in Cerito del Virgen

I do product development and project management for a living and I’m no stranger to a bit of construction work. However, I’m proud of this project for a number of reasons.

I arrived in Hunchaco on Saturday 5th December and I met Hannes later that day. Hannes mentioned the idea of building a (small) skate ramp in the area a on the 9th. Within 4 weeks of that date we managed to find a location, raise the money, design the ramp (and then re-design it), buy the materials, prepare the foundations, measure and cut the frame, move the parts to the ramp site and then build the thing. Also bear in mind that this was a side project. Everyone involved (and by the end there were quite a few) was doing this in their spare time, around their current job or volunteering project. We had to borrow most of the tools, so often we worked with less than needed or the slightly wrong tool for the job. It was logistically tricky as we had no water or power on the site. This meant that whilst preparing the concrete foundations we had to carry water from neighbours nearby. During assembly we had to buy power from a neighbour and use extension leads to reach the ramp. If they weren’t there we couldn’t work. We also had to cut the frame off-site before transporting and assembling it there. This made the final assembly a little more tense because until we actually screwed the thing together I didn’t know for sure if it would all work. Final assembly wasn’t made any easier by a multitude of 3 to 9 year olds climbing and sliding down anything they could reach. I just managed to keep the grumpy old man in me from telling them to stop enjoying themselves though. It is for them after all. 

It has taken a monumental effort to get this thing finished on time and I am extremely grateful to everyone that has helped (both physically and financially). There were a couple of times when I wished I’d never agreed to get involved and it would take much longer to complete than I wanted to stay in Huanchaco. However, these were quickly forgotten when I saw how much the finished product was being enjoyed. Not sure I’ll be doing it again in a hurry though! My volunteer project at the local school is also now finished, so I’m going to relax for a couple of days before getting back on the bike and heading south to Lima. It’s a relief to know that tomorrow there’ll be no more worrying about design problems, digging holes, mixing cement, cutting wood or building.

Roll of honour (in no particular order) is as follows:

Hannes (Germany)- It was all his idea. Other than any of the design work (and some of the trips to the hardware store) we’ve pretty much done it all together. He’s also just clinched a deal with the largest chain of Skate Shops in Germany to supply skate boards and equipment for free! Nice one Hannes.

Juan Carlos (Peru)- Huanchaco surf shop owner. Provided the site and helped with foundations and assembly. He’ll also oversee the use of the ramp and equipment.

James (Australia) – Helped with foundations and assembly.

Morgan (USA) – Helped with foundations and assembly.

Llamita (Peru) – Helped with foundations.

Nemo (Peru) – Helped with foundations.

Matt (USA) – Helped with assembly.

Hutton (USA) – Helped with assembly.

Garen (USA) – Helped with assembly.

Alexandro (Finland) – Helped with assembly.

Christian (Finland) – Helped with assembly.

Alicia (Australia) – Painted the skate ramp surface. She’s also taken the most amazing photos which I’ll direct you to soon.

Maude (USA)- And of course Maude, whose combination of unwavering support and snide remarks have been the backbone of this project. She also painted the skate ramp surface, although if I’m honest, her sections weren’t particulary good. (Maude, There’s still space on the back of the bike if you change your mind.)

Noel and all his friends in Cerrito del Virgen (Peru) – Some helped us with building the ramp. The rest provided a lot of amusement, running around as children do.

foundations

the frame

putting the surface on.

bending the curves

putting the final layer on.

and skate...

DSC_0391

And here is proof (required by one of our sponsors) that I did try the thing… And yes, I was terrified!

DSCF5521

You can see loads more photos of this particular project in my photo gallery, under “Hunchaco Skate Project – Peru“.

Got to go now. Juan Carlos is giving me a free long board surfing lesson. (Did I mention he’s currently ranked 4th in Peru…)

 

Plan your own Motorbike touring adventure.

See photos of Ollie’s trip at the Greasy Spocket Photo Gallery.

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Nearly there…

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

I promised you photos, so here they are.

We have most of the measuring and cutting of the frame done. Another day or so and I think it’ll be ready to move up to the site and assembled. Then 3 layers of 9mm plywood screwed to the frame to make the ramp surface and a 30mm diameter steel bar on the top edge of each curve for “grinding”.  Think of it as a giant IKEA flat-pack (with about a 1,000  screws!)

skate ramp frame

skate ramp frame from the top

Big ehh…

The IKEA flat-pack.

IKEA skate ramp

And here are the 15 concrete foundations all filled and ready to go.

foundations for the skate ramp

Looks like it’s all coming together…


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Never laugh at someone else’s misfortune

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

Just over a week ago Hannes got caught short at the skate ramp site and had to use a torn up cement bag for loo roll. Oh how I chuckled in the knowledge that cement is an irritant to the skin and who knows what would happen if he cemented his arsehole shut! Well, sure enough a couple of days later it was me crouching over a ditch in the corner with nothing more than a handful of shiny brown cement bag. As further penance for my schadenfreude this was the start of a rather unpleasant 48 hour stomach bug that had me curled up in bed with cramps and more for much of the run up to Christmas. Cement bag is not the most absorbent of materials…

In the fear that everything would be closed form 25th to 28th Dec I dragged myself out to Trujillo during a lull in bowel activity to buy wood for the the skate ramp. This lull was in fact just another calm before a storm that confined me to bed and bathroom for another 16 hours, missing the Peruvian celebrations on Christmas Eve. They do it all on Christmas eve here. Fireworks and church at midnight, followed by eating and drinking into the small hours. Christmas day is generally meant for sleep. Thankfully, Santa gave me a new digestive system for Christmas so I didn’t miss the Otra Cosa volunteer Christmas party and I feel back to normal now.

Right. Better give you a quick update on the ramp.

A couple of issues have delayed progress. The first was Najin (the Otra Cosa manager) asking me to organise the painting of a volunteer house. The second was the recently mentioned stomach bug. However, they are both now over and in the time I wasn’t painting or being ill we managed to get the foundations filled with concrete (with the help of Hannes, James and Morgan)  and over half of the ramp frame measured and cut. It looks rather large. Will update with photos soon.

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Skate Ramp Progress Report

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Firstly, thank you very much to all those that have dug deep into their pockets and donated to the skate ramp project. I’m truly touched by your generosity and perhaps misguided faith in my abilities. I generally don’t do things by halves so I can assure you I’ll do everything I can to make it a success. Now that you’ve forked out I guess I should give you a quick progress update…

As any Las Vegas gangster will tell you. Digging holes in the desert is hot and tiring work and generally speaking you should not dig them unless you’re going to use them. Unfortunately it feels like all I’ve been doing this week is digging holes I don’t use. The first instance was my fault. Hannes (German volunteer and skater), Juan Carlos (surf shop owner) and I spent an afternoon digging 6 holes for the foundations of the ramp. On the second afternoon I was still worried about the slope and instability of the ground so decided to move the location and increase the number of foundations from 6 to 15. (The delay has actually worked in our favour – which I’ll explain later). The second occasion was a classic case of “Do first. Check later”. The builder at the school I’m helping at asked us to dig the first of 6 1.3 cubic meter holes for foundations of a new staircase. The following day a building engineer turned up and told us it would fail earthquake regulations there and we had to move it 1 meter to the left. Yes, that is dig the same hole but next to the original (probably filling the first with earth, sand and rock from the second). Misery!

Now back to the ramp. I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering but  experience of  skateboard ramps. But with the help of Hannes’ memory and the internet I cobbled some kind of design together. However, there were still a couple of nagging questions (about curve radius and ramp surface thickness) that were keeping me awake at night. Fortunately Hannes knows a guy that builds ramps for the World Cup so he asked him to review ours. The good news is that most of it was right and I now have answers for the rest. The bad news is that he has also increased the size (and cost) by 50%. Considering this project started life as a single sloping ramp that could be moved around in the street and it has now become a 7.5m x 1.2m x 2.4m mini half-pipe I can safely say (in project management speak) that we are suffering from a serious case of “scope creep”. To add to matters, Juan Carlos is in Lima for 2 weeks for a national surfing competition and Hannes has damaged his wrist (skateboarding) so can’t do a great deal of digging and heavy lifting, so old muggins here is shattered! (Hannes is doing a great job at the things he can do though and it would have been impossible without him.) It’s hard work up there. One example is there’s no running water so we (well Hannes) has to collect it in a bucket from down the road. We have to borrow the tools from neighbours, so progress can be stalled if they’re not in. It’s also really, really f*cking hot! I don’t know how people manage to do it every day all their lives. 8 hours manual labour, 7 days a week in these conditions is killing me.

On a more positive note. We now have a correct (and professionally reviewed) design. We have all the foundation holes dug and 6 of them 15 filled. Should have the rest done early this week. Fundraising is chugging along nicely and we also have the offer of some help from other volunteers. I’m optimistic.

It has also been fun and I think the locals are starting to warm to us. They don’t see many (any) Gringos up there so we stand out somewhat.

Got to go now as they are closing the internet cafe.

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