April 27th, 2006 Hudson Valley, New York’s Coheed and Cambria hit up San Jose State University Events Center in San Jose, California on their co-headlining tour with Avenged Sevenfold. Co&Ca drummer, Josh Eppard, called up his Uncle John The Baker to let him know he’d be close by- approximately an hour and a half drive away from Richmond, California. April 26th John Eppard hopped on his skateboard and began the 60+ mile trek south, to the other end of the San Francisco Bay. John skated about 40 miles, before he had to call a friend to pick him up and bring him the rest of the way to the show.
Later that year after a show at Burnt Ramen Studios John set out to finish what he’d started that day- a long distance skate from Richmond to San Jose- along with 3 friends… at midnight. 3 hours deep, the group took a pit-stop in East Oakland to rest up for the remainder of the journey. By the morning the fellowship was down to 3, but they skated on, for about 5 more hours, to Hayward. At that point, the troop was knocked down to two- JTB and Jared Power. Allegedly the third skater had called his mom to bring him home. John and Jared, however, forged ahead about 10 more hours to Sunnyvale.
In May 2009 the two hooked up and skated with a few others from Richmond to San Jose hitting up and playing Instant Asshole shows along the way to raise money for Adaptive Action Sports and Local Hard Core Kids Scholarship program. Dubbed, “Skate Til You Die!” after an Instant Asshole song (available only on 7”), John and Jared are going to do it again!!!
May 28th, 29th and 30th will be the second annual Skate Til You Die! benefit skate extravaganza… complete with live music every night!
Anyone who wants to join at any point of the passage can do so. Here’s how it’s goin’ down… The benefit will be kicked off 7:00 PM on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at Burnt Ramen Studios in Richmond with music from cht, Rhygin HC, Speed Wobbles, Follow Blindly, and John’s Instant Asshole. Admission is $5 and there will be no age restriction. Around midnight, when the show ends, John, Jared, and whoever else will “get the show on the road” with a 3 hour midnight skate to the Instant Asshole house in East Oakland.
After a good night’s rest, the crew will skate about 8 hours to Fremont on Saturday, May 29th, 2010. From there they’ll take a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train or be driven to Gilman Street in Berkeley. The show will be at 924 Gilman and start 7:30pm. The 24 year old all ages drug/alcohol/violence free DIY venue has been in the news lately because of an asinine recent rent spike. The historic west coast safe-haven for punk rock is in danger of shutting its doors (and maybe even turning into a hipster clothing store - well, that’s what happened with east coast’s CBGB). There’s more info on the situation and what you can do to help keep the punk project alive in Berkeley here. Oxnard’s classic punk band (one of the founders of “Nardcore” - not the legendary Bad Brains masterful guitarist) Dr. Know will be performing along with Instant Asshole as well as Minneapolis’ In Defence, and Bay Area reps Deadfall, Fix My Head. Admission is $8. Soon as the show ends, skaters have an hour and half skate back to East Oakland for sleep at the Instant Asshole house.
Sunday, May 30th, 2010 the skaters will get transported to Fremont where they’ll recommence rolling down to San Jose. The near 6 hour skate will end at a venue/house to be announced. I’ve seen this line-up posted around the web saying they’ll be at “Secret Generator Spot.” Instant Asshole, Follow Blindly, Duck And Cover, We Must Dismantle All This! (Urbana, Illinois), Vigilante Death Squad, D.E.G., Rhygin HC, and San Jose’s Mental Disaster.
With the funds raised, Skate Til You Die! will be making a donation to The Melanoma Research Foundation in memory of Douglas Gillespie, a pioneer in extreme sports and in the development of sports recovery nutrition. Another portion of the proceeds will go to their Skateparks That Rock Foundation, specifically for music at the infamous Skatopia.
You can participate in a number of ways. Obviously you can sign up to skate any stretch or the length of the tested course (you can do it! Hell, John’s 47 and did the skate to Fremont from Richmond a few weeks ago). You can sponsor a specific skater. You can also donate flat out.
Scope out The East Bay Express’ article on Skate Til You Die!
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/eastbay/skateboarding-down-the-bay/Content?oid=1369699
> Official Skate Til You Die! page
> follow Skate Til You Die! on twitter
John The Baker performing “Crack Baby” solo at Blakes on Telegraph in Berkeley opening for his other nephew, Joey Eppard’s band, 3 during their headlining tour on October 13th, 2008.
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