Rebuilding a dream

Sometime around 1989, this 6 foot tall 8 food wide ramp appeared behind the backyard of Mike Tag’s parent’s place, perfectly fashioned with all its design flaws from 3/4′ ply and whatever wood was laying in his Dad’s barn. Built with out ramp plans, and ridden in the same manner, we learned some early lessons on this behemoth. We’d never seen many ramps in real life, let alone built or ridden any…

The ramp at Tag’s is a Friendship Building Monument – it was one of the first times we decided that if we wanted to see something cool happen, we had to do it ourselves. Waiting around for someone else to make something for us to ride was never an option, or even a consideration.That was 30 years ago and this ramp stood throughout all that time had thrown at it, until a winter storm finally knocked it over earlier this year. The idea that this beat up old ramp was still standing became like a symbol, a shrine to the irreverence of our youth.

Putting it back up was like rebuilding a dream, literally resurrecting an old fashioned idea, a relic from our past, It was important to me, but it also serves as a metaphor for when things don’t always go your way. Nothing gold can stay, but we can work hard to keep what’s important to us, alive in our hearts!

Steve Crandall

Coffee sipping pilot of a red FBM frame and a Nikon camera.