a day with duarte

Meet Daniel. He has a job that most skateboarders would probably envy.

He works for The Berrics, he gets paid to travel, he’s best friends with Billy Marks, he busts Steve Berra’s chops from time to time and he’s working on his signature trick- The Big Ass Flip. A bigger flip with a full 360 turn of the body.

Daniel Duarte

This picture was taken about 20 hours into his 30 hour trip to Bethlehem The Berrics sent him on just to help us win The Pepsi Refresh Project. It all started at 1am when NoNo and I picked him up in Philly.

To be honest, I was a little worried he might have been bummed to have to fly from LA to Bethlehem, PA to film the story of a shop all the way across the country you could care less about. But that wasn’t the case.

Daniel handles the filming of a lot of the Berrics Unified Field Ops clips for the site and he is genuinely down for helping the Unified shops. The whole purpose of setting up the Unified program is not to make money because most of the money from the ads we take out go to flying Daniel around the country and paying for the geo-tracking technology that allows our ads to be scene only by skaters in the 610. It is truly run just to support shops that truly support skateboarding.

I’m honored Berra thinks our skateplaza project worthy of flying Daniel across the country with only weeks notice. Regardless if we win this Pepsi Grant or not, I hope you all write Berra an e-mail to say ‘Thank You.”

After we got back on the turnpike we got talking more- how Daniel started working at the Berrics, how Billy Marks made all those ping pong ball shots, how we got Homebase started and by the time we got back to Bethlehem he was just as hyped on the skateplaza as Josh and I were.

Hyped enough to get up at 8am to film the pouring of cement on the first 50 feet of ledges. Keep in mind we didn’t get to bed til 3am. The kid is a soldier.

The concept behind our Field Ops was to tell the story of the shop, the Bethlehem Skateplaza and show the millions of people who visit The Berrics how they can vote for the skateplaza. We filmed the clip so it would be more than just shots of the shop and me sitting in the shop talking about shop. I figured why not show people from across the globe what our town looks like, where we have to skate right now and who’s a part of Homebase.

If you came by the shop that day, maybe you’ll be in the Field Ops. . .

The tables have turned.

Pensyl came down to show his support and talk about how the scene has changed since from the days he spent growing up in Catty. He was also bummed that you couldn’t see Catty from the Lehigh look-out. Sorry homie.

Pensyl, Chad and Daniel schooling the youth on why he should be voting for the Bethlehem Skateplaza. Am I making the point clear here?

GO VOTE NOW!

It’s always a good experience putting people on to the joys of Yoccos. LA might have Pinks but Pinks isn’t “The Hot Dog King.” Plus, they don’t serve perrogies either.

Hope the interview doesn’t come out lame.

It’s hard to explain the sense of pride I have in what we have been able to build with Hombase in the 610. I didn’t set out to make a franchise of stores to take make millions of dollars; I just wanted to do something positive for the 610 skate scene. With the help of all our employees, team riders and all our supporters and customers we’ve build a foundation based on supporting skateboarding that people as influential as Steve Berra recognize as something really positive for skateboarding.

Almost every skate magazine, numerous websites and blogs, Twitters users, Facebook friends; skaters and non-skaters alike have been helping us promote The Bethlehem Skateplaza and maybe. If you don’t feel the support and if you don’t recognize how important this project has become to so many people. . . Get psyched and get involved.

I can only hope the Field Ops translates that to you and the rest of the international skate scene.

After all the filming was done we went back to the Hombease office to dump audio and send it to Zach the Intern.

I was exhausted from running around all day on only 1 1.2 hours of sleep and I had to be up at 6am the next day to drive Daniel back to Philly. I had to catch a nap on Daniel took over my digi while I slept.

Ladies and gentlemen, guest blogger Daniel Duarte’s Picks:

Po resting: Thumbs down.