Red Bull Flugtag 2008
Posted
on
on Wednesday, July 30, 2008
by Ryan
Have you ever heard of Red Bull's Flugtag? If you haven't, it was confusing to me the first time I heard of it, too. Basically, you make a flying craft...
Photos by Angel Carela
Captions and Words by Ryan Clements
Okay, so you make this flying craft, and there are all of these crazy rules you have to abide by, like it can only be 450lbs., it can't have a motor, etc., and you push it off a barge into the water to see how far it can "fly." Well, if that doesn't sound silly enough, to top it off you're also required to have a "gimmick" and some sort of skit to accompany the craft. When Red Bull Sarah first approached us to participate, we were almost a bit hesitant. But since we're so tight with Red Bull an application submission was pretty much expected. We filled out the ap and also submitted a description of what "The Flying Pigs" were going to be doing, which is right here:
Skateboarding has been illegal in downtown Tampa for as long as anyone at Skatepark of Tampa can remember. And considering SPoT has been around for over 15 years, that’s quite a long while. For literally decades now, the Tampa Police Department has been chasing and arresting skateboarders who refuse to abide by the City Ordinance.
Most of the Skatepark staff has been harassed and even arrested at some point or another during their skateboarding ventures. More recently, it seems that TPD has been following skateboarders around Tampa to interrupt various skateboarding events.
It started on Go Skateboarding Day in 2006, when 200+ skateboarders skated through downtown, stopping traffic, startling pedestrians, and pretty much doing anything they pleased. Eventually, Clements, Meronek, Welch, and a dozen or so others were pursued, arrested, and booked.
TPD wasn’t about to allow that situation to go down again, so when the Tampa skateboarders once again assembled at Bro Bowl in 2007 for GSD, there were 50 (yes, really...there were 50 of them) police officers waiting to make sure those bad, evil, destructive skateboarders didn’t get to have any fun in downtown Tampa that day.
More recently, on April 20, 2008, TPD had four of their finest waiting for skateboarders at the Bro Bowl, who were there simply to celebrate a mellow 4/20 afternoon. But TPD was on hand to make sure that everyone was legally parked and to ensure that no music was played during the get-together.
With all of the seriousness of the Tampa skateboarders vs. TPD, it’s time to make light of the situation and show the police officers that everyone needs a sense of humor. So we’re going to dress up like cops and attempt to arrest any and all persons that look like skateboarders.
But our skateboarder is going to be special...we’re going to make him an angel and give him wings. While the supporting crew dresses up like donut-eating cops with short shorts, mustaches, and bad attitudes, our skateboarder will exemplify the goodness all skateboarders have in their hearts.
Up on the platform the silly police officers will be bumping into each other, like bumbling Keystone Cops, in pursuit of the skateboarder. One by one they will be tripped, pushed, and propelled into the water below, leaving the skateboarder atop to fasten his wings and launch into the Bay via skateboard and jump ramp.
That's it in a nutshell right there...and of course it was accepted. But I neglected to mention that we were going to be in character all day, which ended up being some of the best times that we've ever had. We were checking ID's, looking through coolers, and telling people to "STAY CLEAR OF THE POLICE AREA!" Lako filmed a lot of it, but we're going to release the clip a bit down the road in the What's Up Column.
However, Jorge managed to film it POV style when he jumped into the Bay:
And then by the next morning someone had it on myspace. Thanks to you, whoever you might be...
And special THANKS to all of our friends at Red Bull, especially Red Bull Sarah. That was the most fun we've ever had SOBER!
Ryan
Captions and Words by Ryan Clements
 When Jorge went to get the donuts in the morning, he actually got the Police Discount |
 Gearing up to get down out back of Skatepark. L to R: Clem, Jorge, Body, and Barak |
 We had to be there at 8am and immediately started harassing Red Bull Ryan |
 This dude was part of the crew across from us, but we kept stealing their thunder |
 The Flying Pigs meet the Thunderbees |
 Pigs need their pups |
 By 11am it was really starting to get packed |
 Officers of the law respect the National Anthem |
 Here is a group that must have thought it was Gasparilla, not Flugtag |
 Uncle Glen, infamous brother of Brian Schaefer, showed up out of nowhere |
 Officer Body giving a citation for that busted shirt |
 This guy got a citation for having too many tribal tats |
 This Red Bull girl was issued a warning for being "too damn cute" |
 The first of many Red Bull girls that were mesmerized by the handcuffs |
 Body has to handcuff chicks to get them to kiss him, but he seemed to have forgotten to take the donut out of his mouth |
 Officer Body was using the same line on multiple cuties |
 I don't know exactly what was going on here, but it looks pretty suspect |
 Wow...now it's starting to get REALLY fun. A female fellow competitor making better usage of the baton than we were |
 Officer Body could have gotten another kiss if he had taken the damn donut out of his mouth |
 All skateboarders, or those that even looked like skateboarders, got arrested by The Flying Pigs |
 The real Tampa Police Department saw that we were having so much fun that they decided to join us. This is actually the Officer that arrested me on Go Skateboarding Day 2006. He's a good sport and really nice guy |
 I think Officer Body reached his goal of eating 29 donuts |
 Finally, Officer Body without a donut in his mouth. Where's the baton?!?! |
 "Oops, I did it again" |
 Officer Body started to get less and less particular as the day went on. The sun must have been getting to him |
 The prizes that we didn't win |
Skateboarding has been illegal in downtown Tampa for as long as anyone at Skatepark of Tampa can remember. And considering SPoT has been around for over 15 years, that’s quite a long while. For literally decades now, the Tampa Police Department has been chasing and arresting skateboarders who refuse to abide by the City Ordinance.
Most of the Skatepark staff has been harassed and even arrested at some point or another during their skateboarding ventures. More recently, it seems that TPD has been following skateboarders around Tampa to interrupt various skateboarding events.
It started on Go Skateboarding Day in 2006, when 200+ skateboarders skated through downtown, stopping traffic, startling pedestrians, and pretty much doing anything they pleased. Eventually, Clements, Meronek, Welch, and a dozen or so others were pursued, arrested, and booked.
TPD wasn’t about to allow that situation to go down again, so when the Tampa skateboarders once again assembled at Bro Bowl in 2007 for GSD, there were 50 (yes, really...there were 50 of them) police officers waiting to make sure those bad, evil, destructive skateboarders didn’t get to have any fun in downtown Tampa that day.
More recently, on April 20, 2008, TPD had four of their finest waiting for skateboarders at the Bro Bowl, who were there simply to celebrate a mellow 4/20 afternoon. But TPD was on hand to make sure that everyone was legally parked and to ensure that no music was played during the get-together.
With all of the seriousness of the Tampa skateboarders vs. TPD, it’s time to make light of the situation and show the police officers that everyone needs a sense of humor. So we’re going to dress up like cops and attempt to arrest any and all persons that look like skateboarders.
But our skateboarder is going to be special...we’re going to make him an angel and give him wings. While the supporting crew dresses up like donut-eating cops with short shorts, mustaches, and bad attitudes, our skateboarder will exemplify the goodness all skateboarders have in their hearts.
Up on the platform the silly police officers will be bumping into each other, like bumbling Keystone Cops, in pursuit of the skateboarder. One by one they will be tripped, pushed, and propelled into the water below, leaving the skateboarder atop to fasten his wings and launch into the Bay via skateboard and jump ramp.
That's it in a nutshell right there...and of course it was accepted. But I neglected to mention that we were going to be in character all day, which ended up being some of the best times that we've ever had. We were checking ID's, looking through coolers, and telling people to "STAY CLEAR OF THE POLICE AREA!" Lako filmed a lot of it, but we're going to release the clip a bit down the road in the What's Up Column.
However, Jorge managed to film it POV style when he jumped into the Bay:
And then by the next morning someone had it on myspace. Thanks to you, whoever you might be...
And special THANKS to all of our friends at Red Bull, especially Red Bull Sarah. That was the most fun we've ever had SOBER!
Ryan
