Where are we right now?
Currently, we are in Windham, New York. Welcome, everybody.
What is this establishment we’re at?
So this is the business and property that I grew up on. My dad came up here in the mid-seventies and bought the property and he was running the bar and restaurant since then, until he passed in 2017. It’s been over 50 years that he was cranking away. I grew up in this area, in the business, but I was never really like pushed into it or anything. My parents wanted me to just do whatever I wanted to do. I’ve recently come to the realization that this is the direction I need to put in my life into. So as of last year, I’ve fully tried to take on the whole beast.
How did the idea of making a bowl come about?
I moved back into Windham full time after traveling a lot and living in other States. I came back because I need to be in a position to take care of my mom and help this place still run without it just getting, bought out by a lot of people. After I knew I needed to move back into town and try and get my whole life figured out. my whole thought process at that time was I want to just have a little quarter pipe that I can just do like a back disaster on and just have something to feel good about. And it just so happened on July 25th, that ‘s on my dad’s birthday, was this pivotal day where Jasper had randomly stopped by my house after checking out a job site up here in the mountain. I was like, ‘Hey, what, would you think about getting a quarter pipe built, right over here?’ Not even at the pool. We walked up there and took a look around and we just said, let’s do this.
There was already an old pool up there right?
Yeah. A few years ago I had this dream of doing it. I cleared the whole thing out and then just kind of bailed on the idea for a couple of years. Then I came back and cleared it all out again. And from there, it was just on. Jasper has been the pure inspiration throughout my whole entire new life that I’m beginning.
How long ago did you did this project start? Would you say?
It started last year on July 25th. Yeah, that day I went to Home Depot. I picked up 22 bags threw them in a Rav4 . The thing was sinking.I was like, I’m loading up as many concrete bags as I can, and I’m getting them up there because I need a fucking quarter pipe. I’m doing, whatever it takes to fucking make it happen.
(Jasper) The day that we walked up to the pool. He sent me the photo that night of the bags stacked on top of the wall. So the quarter pipe happened first, I told him that if he got the concrete, we could make it happen. He sent me a photo that night and it was like, wow, he’s pretty serious about it. So then we made it happen. It was super simple. There was like two pieces of wood involved and the demo saw to cut out the floor. He had the concrete there. We added water.
(Johnny) To me it was the biggest deal ever to have a quarter pipe in my backyard. Then from there, it was like we can put a corner here. I don’t know much about the process of building a skate parks, I didn’t know how to do it the right way. After learning about it, the dream just kept getting bigger and bigger. Even before we had this idea of it happening so quick, just the thought of it being completed in five years or whatever, it just kept me going. I was full on going around and filling my car with rock, any fucking rock back to find it and just throwing it in, like one of these days I’m going to fill this whole fucking pool out of my Rav4. Because I know how busy Jasper is. and I just wanted to do as much as I could to get it ready. Get it that much closer, to concrete. With the right minds put together, everything came out so fast.
How would you say the design came about or what do you think about the design and like how did it get there? Like how did it end up the way it is maybe Jasper can help with this one.
Jasper: The key element of the whole project was that we needed material. So Johhny calls our friend Colton who has an excavator to make a driveway to the pool, so he can bring up rocks in the Rav4. I’m working on that park in Lansdale and Colton calls me and says, dude, John called me and he’s talking about making a driveway up at the pool. I’m like, Oh wow he wants you to bring the machine over the house. Incredible. Colton can make the Rav4, fill up like a hundred times in 30 minutes, you know,. And then it’s a year in 30 minutes. He showed up with his excavator, dropped it into the pool in like the middle of the waterfall. The demolition of the wall was huge. Corey ran the demo saw for like fucking eight hours on the wall. It was insane. And then once that happened, we started having material because everything behind the wall was dirt and we wanted to dig it down. So we had all this stuff to bring into the hole to start filling up the trainees everywhere. It’s becoming way more of an endeavor than we ever imagined from mixing up 20 bags. But we can’t destroy the pool and be like, all right, see you later. We’ve demolished the pool. We have to finish it. There is no stopping us at this point. So that’s when John was like, okay, whatever we need, go buy all the material, all the lumber, the steel, the dirt to get everybody moving. It was not easy to be able to commit to this thing. If it’s done in five years and I bought a pallet of concrete every two months, that ain’t that much money. But if I take five years and put it into one week, that’s a lot of money.
Anything to say about the crew here?
It wouldn’t have happened without everyone. Thank you Jasper Kahn, Colton Boehlke, Justin, Cory, Ryan Cardone, Matty Sorano, Caleb Elsbree, Brandon, Billy, Tavita, Jesse Novak, Jesse 5thpocket, Sloan, Marcus, Clint, Ever, Andrew, Ronnie, Pedro, Conor, Eric, Keith, Jerry Mraz.
