SDK History Pt. 10

Alright Part 10 here we go! Today is a little different, a few years ago I wrote a book of short stories about my days filming videos. The following is taken from that book.

 This is a story about stories, with my brothers Craver and Lesen. When everyone is together it is the best, but if I can only get 2 people out filming I will gladly take these 2 gentlemen. When that car door slams shut and the 3 of us are on the loose ANYTHING can and will happen. It only seems funny now because we lived through it. One of those crazy adventures was a road trip the 3 of us took to Osoyoos BC to visit a friend of ours. Most of the trip is missing from my memory but luckily there is a video for it on YouTube titled SDK OSOYOOS. There are so many videos I don't even know the name of the one where Lesen shot fireworks at Craver or the time he tried to blindfold Lesen while he was driving then started waving a baseball bat around. Times spent on the tracks are the best days. I just searched LESEN CRAVER on YouTube and it was amazing to see how many days we have spent on the hunt or just having a blast no matter what the weather conditions. I have an image burned into my memory from a time when we were hiding from train workers in blackberry bushes. I can still picture the wide eyed look, sweat pouring down, blood slowly mixing with the sweat , nobody is talking or moving and the sound of breathing seems too loud. I was always scared. I still get scared filming train paintings, probably always will but that feeling after when we get back to the car and drive off into the sunset, dirty , dehydrated, covered in blood and grime! That is the best feeling in the world. After more than 10 years we are still the same people but we live farther apart now, work, school, life etc. It is rare when we can all get together these days but we will always film videos.

 

Here is another short story about Big Miles. First of all I have to say that Big Miles is not like you and me. He is the scariest, most bad ass writer I have ever documented. He is also one of the nicest. Miles prefers to go alone but every now and then I get the phone call and it's go time! The first time I went filming with him I didn't know him very well at all. We get to the spot and it is a train car in the middle of a business underneath 2 cameras!! I ask him about the cameras and he says "there is probably nobody watching them". So he gets started and amazingly enough he is finished in 30 minutes. As we are packing up to leave a train engine comes around the corner and blocks us in the dead end. A worker leans out and yells at us, Miles looks at me and says "what do you think we should do?" LOL! Here I am thinking he has this all planned out so I decided our only option is to go through the trees towards the business and hope for the best. We pop out of the dense bushes but we are right in the courtyard lunch area and all the workers are on lunch break, 50 or more people. Now I am sure we are going to jail or getting beat by these angry Surrey workers. I look at Miles and say well what now? He casually pulls a joint out of his smoke pack, lights it, takes a huge puff and says "Balls of steel bro, balls of steel" and he walks towards the crowd, all of them move out of his way and we leave through the front doors into the street! I didn't think we would make it back to the car, my hands were shaking, we didn't say a word to each other and it was months before he invited me out filming again. That was over 10 years ago or more. Today we are like family and although he doesn't have time to film much, we still get together every once in a while!

 

Naks One SDK. Wow, what can I say about this guy. I once nick named him Naxel Rose because his energy is so intense sometimes I wonder if he is alone in his own universe. I don't have a favorite but the way this guy has progressed over the years inspires me to work harder at my own craft. Once on tour he said to me "on tour, everyday is saturday!!" This guy doesn't know how to have a bad day and that is why he is part of our team. A few years back we were painting a wall dedicated to Keep6 who was away for a while. Naks and Craver decided it was a good idea to hop on the trains that were passing by slowly and paint them. After a few successful attempts Naks foot slipped on the stairs and goes into the train wheel! It was the outside top of the wheel so luckily he didn't get sucked in but now he is hopping down the train track on 1 foot trying to get his leg out!! After 5 or six hops he does a standing push up type move and flies backwards onto the rocks, tumbling down them and cutting himself up pretty good. Craver collapses on the ground in shock and I stand there frozen!!! As all of this is happening I see a KEEP6 whole car passing!!! WTF! The 2 videos are on YouTube titled TRAINS KILL KEEP6 SAVED YOUR FOOT! and TRAINS ARE DANGEROUS SDK. Then there was the time Naks slipped on the edge of a cliff in Whistler BC, I went to help him and fell even farther, it was all caught on camera at the end of the video SDK WHISTLER (YouTube) We managed to get rescued by Snak The Ripper, Vision and the rest of the guys. Just one of the many times I almost died filming these videos. The next day a young couple died at the exact same spot where we almost fell into the river. 

 

Then there was the time my uncle agreed to drop us off in an industrial area at midnight dressed like ninjas with ladders, he didn't ask any questions :) It's about 5 below freezing as we get started, about 1 hour into the job the loading dock door opens right beside us, Craver and Keep6 take off one way and I decide to go through the ditch to meet up with them, big mistake, got soaked up to my waste in nasty ditch water. The worker doesn't see us so we wait until the door closes and head back in.. Another hour or so goes by and I try to move my legs but my pants and shoes have frozen hard as a rock. Just then I hear ice crunching like a car driving on it, I peek around the corner and there is the cops looking with spotlights into the yard about 50 feet from us. I try to run over to the train where Keep6 and Craver are hiding, but just as I get to the train, I slip on my frozen shoes and land HARD on my ass, shattering my tailbone. I was moving so fast that I continued to just slide off the loading dock and fall into the small area between the train and the loading dock. I am in crazy pain and in big trouble. I just want to cry and give up. We had to get me to hospital immediately but if we try to leave the cops will see us. My brothers drag me from under the train and carry me into the forest all while hiding from the cops that are parked right beside the train now. We have to lay in the frozen bushes for about an hour waiting for the cops to leave. We are cold!! Just as they leave and it's time to go I tell the guys that I can probably make it another hour if they think they can finish in that time? So we carefully make our way back into the yard and they get back to work. After another hour I can't hang on, i'm in so much pain i'm almost passing out and my feet are frozen to the bone. I admit defeat, can't go on. I had to tell the guys the bad news, without being able to finish the painting we go to leave, but we have no car, and no phones. We decide to go into a 24 hour shop and use a phone, hahah the look on the peoples faces as 3 bloody ninjas walk in the front door :) SDK! To this day my tailbone aches constantly.

-Q