Banned From The Berrics!!

So the homie (Name removed) got kicked out of The Berrics. He was doing some stealth filming of the BATB (No filming allowed @ The Berrics), and got a little cocky and started filming some tricks afterward. He was caught, and Salman taped over his footage, and escorted him out at which point (Name removed) realized he left his cell phone and Digital Camera, there. Had to go back, and ask Salman to get his stuff (I'm still waiting on my wheels and speed cream...). Salman brought his cell, and camera after erasing all The Berrics photo's off (still photos are allegedly allowed), and (Name removed) is permanently banned. He thought I would be bummed when he told me. I was so proud of (Name removed). There is this blanket of mystery surrounding the Berrics, because it is so insanely private. You can't skate, and if you do there’s a list of rules you have to follow, beyond the "No spitting, no fighting, no smoking..." shit. And really it's a nice park, but not worth all the hype. I can find 30 spots with a 20 mile radius of The Berrics, that are awesome to skate, and you don't have to feed any ego's to do so. Here is a response to the E-mail I received from Salman @ the session I was scheduled for, "yeah, I knew it. I have drill this weekend. I understand that you have 500 people skating these sessions, but the movie was over a month ago. I get a 4 day heads up. I have a wife and kids. I don't get paid to skate. I can't rearrange things to go skate, especially when I made a commitment such as this one. I mentioned this to you a month ago, you never responded. Had I even had some sort of idea, when this session would have been I would have made arrangements with my commanding officer. I work for a living, and would have appreciated a heads up, more than 4 days in advance. I was really looking forward to skating the Berrics. Now it looks like my one chance will not happen. I imagine, since you work to put food on the table you would understand that. I am curious as (to) why you didn't respond to my original E-mail. I doubt too many, if any of the people skating in the Explicit Ills sessions are members of the military, however I am; and time to skate is one of the things I have to sacrifice for that. And as important as skating The Berrics was to me, my obligation to my commitment, and maintaining integrity will have to take precedence. It's too bad. I've been skating for 25 years now, and few things got me as excited as the chance to skate the Berrics. I feel I've been cheated. I only went to the movie premier, so I could skate The Berrics. I E-mailed you a month ago on 3/30/09, asking about the schedule. And now the one thing I was trying to avoid has happened. Thanks, but no thanks. I didn't want the pizza, the soda, the movie, or to be on "The Berrics.com". I just wanted to skate." So yeah I was a little bitch, but in all honestly I held back. I was pissed. I waited a month to get a 4 day notice. I sent this message to Steve Berra, Eric Koston, and Salman. Salman immediately responded from his Blackberry to the tune, "No worries, let us know when you can make it." I felt like a dick, because he recognized that A.) This was important to me B.) I am not a 15 year old kid with no life and C) I went about skating getting into The Berrics legitimately (Instead of trying to get someone to get me in). Things were good, I felt better, and apologized to Salman. Life’s Good! Then I get this: "Well... Although I'm a really put off by your email, I'm sending you an email back to tell you that we have been having pizza parties for the last 5 weeks and have at least 4 more weekends to go so is that enough of a heads up? Step in my shoes for a minute. I have a family too, you think I wanna spend my time and money on the weekends having people skate the Berrics when I already spend 90 hours a week here? No. I don't. But I do it anyway. You can come another weekend, it's not that big of a deal, you didn't have to be such a dick about it.
sb"
So yeah HE's been having pizza parties every weekend. Not me. He's at the Berrics every day, not me. He knows the availability of the park, not me. And they knew who was skating, and when. So how it's justifiable to make me wait a month then give a 4 day heads up is beyond me! Dude's complaining about spending 90 hours a week at a place he voluntarily created, and controls. That's some big balls. I suspect that he realizes how irrelevant he is in today’s skating. I think he's just trying to stay relevant. He's doing a good job, but I doubt we'll ever see a Berra part that can rival his "The End" part. Maybe the bad acting...

I got no beef with anyone there but they did make it rather frustrating to skate even when I finally got the green light. The session was awesome, and I did have a s**tload of fun while skating The Berrics. I have a friend that skates there fairly regularly. He says it's just another park. BUUUT since we have the web site, and featured pros, and cool projects like "United Nations" it seems bigger than it is. I can see pros shred without even leaving Ventura County. So to make a long question longer...who else has been kicked out of The Berrics? And Why?

P.S. "The Homie" took 60 of Steve Berra's dollars with one trick on "Skate or Dice!" as featured on "Skate or Dice!" Posted on 5.17.09, with a cameo by your truley...