BONES BRIGADE

I don't usually get star struck. I've seen rock stars, famous actors and NBA legends in person before and I always think to myself "Hey, there's so and so. That's pretty awesome."

Then they're gone and I forget about it a few minutes later.

Last night was different.

The Sundance Film Festival is in town this week. I didn't have tickets to anything and I hadn't even looked to see what was playing, so I just kind of figured I wouldn't be going to anything and I wasn't too bummed. Everything was already sold out anyway. I checked Craigslist and KSL, but all the tickets had already gone up to more than double the original price, so I didn't think too much about it.

Then my friend Casey texted me.

"I got you a ticket to Bones Brigade."
"I don't know what that is."
"Stacy Peralta's new movie about the Bones Brigade."

That's when I got excited. I was never huge into skateboarding because I was always afraid of hurting myself and I never had anyone to skate with. Most of my friends were far more into baseball and basketball than skateboarding, but I did have a few that were. I watched the Bones Brigade Video Show more than a few times and even managed to get a second hand Powell - Peralta board that I rode up and down the street, maybe to the nearest store—which was only a few blocks away. I never had the guts to try any of the tricks in the video, but that didn't stop me from watching it.

Last night Casey, Brook, Brandon, Andy, Dan and I lined up in the basement of the Rose Wagner theater downtown. We joked and had fun like we always do, then one of the Sundance workers came down with an announcement.

"We have some people from the film here and they'll be signing posters for anybody that would like one."

Everyone in our group kind of looked at each other and shrugged. We didn't really care about getting an autographed poster. What are we? 12? We didn't have any room in our homes for autographed skateboard merchandise from one or two random people in the movie.

We joked around a bit more and then we looked up the stairs just as the entire Bones Brigade made their way down. Stacy Peralta was in the front followed by Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Rodney Mullen and Tommy Guerrero.

Every one of us shut up, looked at each other and then back at them.

"Holy shit," said Brook, "that's all of them."

We were star struck. Every single one of us.

Five minutes before, none of us wanted anything to do with a free poster. Now we all wanted one and we wanted it signed by everyone at that table.

One by one we made our way through the line shaking hands, getting autographs and talking to our childhood heroes.

It was like we were twelve years old again and we didn't stop smiling the rest of the night.

Oh, the movie was great too. Funny, touching, heartbreaking and amazing all the way around.

But that 20 minutes before the movie started was the best part of the day.