Erik Ream - Eagle, ID

Cody Law - Eagle, ID

Shawn Kuntz - Eagle, ID

Alternate ending?

Shawn, Cody and Joel - Good Times, ID

Shawn Kuntz, Shawn's parent's house.

This one time, when Shawn’s parents were out of town for an extended vacation, Shawn called up his dad and asked if he could build a ramp at the house. His dad gave the okay, not completely aware of what he just approved. With the permission to move forward, Shawn gathered up the crew, a bunch of wood and started building.

When it was time for Shawn’s parents to come home, the scene which unravelled before their eyes as they drove up the driveway was surprising to say the least. The skeleton of a 6′ tall, 24′ wide, spined mini-ramp, with 8 feet of vert on one side, now stood on their property. It must’ve been over half the square-footage of their house and definitely not what Shawn’s dad was expecting. By the end of the day, Shawn’s father told his son the old adage, “I’m not mad, just disappointed…”

They worked it out and Shawn got to keep the ramp for some odd years. To follow their community guidelines, the ramp even ended up receiving a nice paint job and the same type of siding as their house. It was a fun ramp and plenty of good times went down on it. As Shawn got older and the prospect of him moving out neared, the ramp was eventually in need of finding a new home.

At that point, I happened to be living in a house, with a backyard large enough for the behemoth. I had always wanted a backyard mini-ramp so I asked if I could have it. Shawn kindly agreed and the moving process began. I managed to salvage about half of the original wood used. The rest either got damaged or was left due to increasing laziness on my behalf. Disassembling ramps is a larger pain in the ass than building them.

As life would have it, the wood remained unused in my backyard for a couple years. It wasn’t resurrected until we held a backyard concert / bike jam. It looked nothing like the original but the ingredients were there, including a 2×4 which had “THE BOOM BOOM, THE WICKI WICKI” written on it in sharpie. There was also an extra $1,000 worth of new wood thrown into the mix as well.

As for the spot where the ramp originally stood, when Shawn got married, that’s where the reception was held. A fact which never occurred to me until I started writing this.