“St. Louis could have the best EUC park and daredevil school in the country. We're already called the deadliest city in America. Why not get paid for it, and give our kids a future.”
Brian Rafael Také
01 The gate
How it stays clean.
Not by hoping. By the gate, the list and the rule. Violence doesn't get in because the people who'd bring it don't get in.
- The gate
One way in. Every car checked in at the entrance, every ID matched to the list, every bag opened. No weapons, no exceptions. Show up drunk or high and you don't ride that night, and the second time you don't ride again.
- The list
You're in because we know who you are. Apply, meet the crew, and someone already inside vouches for you. Under 18, a parent signs and is on file. City kids ride free; county kids pay $5 at the gate. The camp isn't a public park. It's a club with a gate, and the gate is the point.
- One strike
Once you're out, there's no getting back in. Not next season, not with an apology. Everybody inside knows it, so everybody inside protects it. The privilege is the security.
The build
What gets built.
Not a skate park with a wheel lane. A school with a track, a yard and a door. All of it lit, all of it behind the gate.
- The loop
A lit stretch of park road closed to cars after 10. Long enough to reach 40 and brake it off clean, with one bend to learn the lean. Cones first, then the clock. Everybody learns to stop before anybody learns to go.
- The yard
A ramp yard on the grass beside the loop: 33-inch kickers for first jumps, the same 20° kit the season rides, a landing deck that moves, and a foam pit for anything new. Nothing goes to full size until it repeats at ground level.
- The door
One way in, with a light and a list. A trailer for gear and the whiteboard: pads, helmets, spotters' vests, tonight's wind and the numbers for every ramp. Behind it, the loaner wheels for kids who don't have one.
02 The night
Late, in the park, nobody around.
The takeover happens at night in the street because that's when the city hands over its streets. Give the night a better place to go.
- When
After 10 p.m., lights on the loop, lights on the yard. Weeknights are training. Saturday is the stunt night, with a crowd and a gate, and Charlie Brown on the mic before the ramps open.
- Where
Forest Park: a lit loop of road closed to cars, a ramp yard, a foam pit. It's the finish line: every jump this season points here, and it's the petition's first ask.
- The ladder
Rookie, Pro, Engineer, the same three tiers as Solve the Jump. You don't ride the ramp until you can solve the ramp. Ground level first, every time, and nothing gets tried until the numbers repeat.
To everyone about to say this is too dangerous for kids: they're already doing dangerous things, every weekend, in the street, with no gear and nobody watching. I'd rather be standing next to them.
A night
How a night runs.
Weeknights are training. Saturday is the stunt night, with a crowd behind a rope and Charlie Brown on the mic before the ramps open.
- 10:00The gate
Check-in at the one way in: ID to the list, bag open, a parent on file for anyone under 18. Gear fitted before your wheel comes off the car. Nobody rides without a helmet, pads and a spotter who knows their name.
- 10:30Ground
Everybody rides the loop first, whatever belt you wear. Then the board: tonight's numbers for every ramp, lip speed, gap, landing. You don't line up until you've solved your line on paper and someone has checked it.
- 11:00Send
Attempts in order, one at a time, spotters on the landing, the ramp lead on the radio. Land it three times and you move up. Miss, and the foam pit is why we have one. Lights off at 2. Home before the city wakes up.
The belts
The ladder.
Three belts, the same three tiers as Solve the Jump. You don't ride the ramp until you can solve the ramp.
- White · Rookie
Ground school. Falling right, stopping right, the lean and the brake. The loop at speed, cones to clock, gear on every time. You graduate when you can call your own stopping distance and hit it.
- Red · Pro
The yard. Kickers first, then the 20° kit at 33 inches, then the gap opens. Your numbers on the whiteboard before every attempt, three clean landings to move a ramp up. You start spotting the white belts.
- Black · Engineer
The ramp at full height and a line of your own, with the math to show for it. Black belts teach: they run ground school, check the rookies' numbers and stand on the landing. The top of the ladder is turning around.
The same belts as the Superhero Wall. A black belt here is a black belt there.
On the mic
Charlie Brown.
Before the ramps open on a stunt night, one man has the mic. He's been where these kids are, and a lot further than most of them can picture. He's my neighbor. He said yes.
The record
- The Tiger
Mizzou's leading rusher in 1965 and 1966. Led the Big Eight in rushing in 1965, one of only two Tigers ever to win a conference rushing title. A top kick returner; ask me about the one return, I'll say top ten of all time. Honorable mention All-America. Also on Mizzou's 1965 NCAA indoor track champions, with the Brewer Fieldhouse records in the 60 and the low hurdles.
- The pro
New Orleans Saints, 1967 and '68. Then the Canadian league: the B.C. Lions and the Ottawa Rough Riders.
- The educator
Thirty years running schools. Deputy Superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools, superintendent of the Wellston district, then Missouri's Assistant Commissioner for Teacher Quality and Urban Education. He has stood in front of more rooms of kids than anyone I know.
The man
- Jefferson City, 1945
Born October 16, 1945. A three-sport All-American at Jefferson City High, and his jersey is retired there.
- First through the door
One of Mizzou's first Black athletes on scholarship. Everything he teaches about handling a room, he learned walking into rooms that didn't want him in them.
- Hall of Fame, twice
Mizzou Athletics Hall of Fame, 1995. Missouri Sports Hall of Fame, 2021.
I met Charlie flat on my back, healing up from my first real crash. He had time for me then. He'll have time for these kids. Only iron sharpens iron, and we found some.
The record is Mizzou Athletics' and the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame's. The rest he told me himself.
The lesson
What gets taught before the ramps open.
Three things he told me. In my words, not his.
- Iron sharpens iron
He asked me what's worth more, copper or iron. Depends what business you're in. Then: how do you sharpen iron? With iron. Copper's too soft. That's why the people running this camp have been where these kids are. Only iron sharpens iron.
- The kitchen
Segregation days. He and his agent get told at the best steakhouse in St. Louis that he can't eat there. The agent walks into the kitchen. Five minutes later the staff comes out, apologizes, and sets the table. Not fear, not money. He appealed to their human side, and got what no amount of anger gets. That's the first skill we teach, before anyone touches a ramp.
- Worth something
Some kids don't believe their life is worth anything. We don't argue with them. We put it on the line, safely, with gear, a spotter and the math, and let them find out for themselves what it's worth.
The money
Where the money goes.
City kids never pay. The rest is counted in public, every month, on this page.
- Free, 314
For city kids: the gate, a loaner wheel, the gear, ground school, the belts. Nobody from the 79 neighborhoods pays to learn to stop.
- $5, 636
The county cover at the gate is the program's budget: lights, pads, spotters, the trailer. Say 200 riders on a weekend: $1,000, and the ledger goes up on the first of the month.
- Sponsors, the ramps
The big things get bought by people who want their name on them: the ramps, the foam pit, the lights on the loop. A name on a ramp, not on a kid. Every dollar public.
03 The park
What St. Louis gets.
A city known for one number gets known for something else: the place riders drive six hours to train.
- The best EUC park in the country
Nobody has built one. A lit loop, a ramp yard, a foam pit and a crew that knows the math. The first city that does it owns it.
- A school that pays its way
City kids never pay. County kids pay a $5 cover, and that's the program's budget: lights, pads, ramps, spotters. Adult memberships, stunt nights with a gate and sponsors on the ramps pay for the rest. Every dollar counted in public.
- A future, not a funeral
Kids who build ramps, spot lines and solve jumps leave with a trade: rigging, fabrication, physics. And a reason to be somewhere at 11 p.m. that isn't a parking lot.
The list
Put me on the list.
Riders, parents, spotters, builders. The list is who we open the gate to first. Signing it costs nothing and promises nothing yet. City kids ride free; county kids bring $5.
You're on the list
Just openedThe list is live
- The gate opens to the list first. Riders, parents, spotters and builders, in the order they signed.
- Under 18, a parent signs and is on file before the first night.
- One strike. Everybody who signs knows it going in.