JOSH WOOD-STUNT SKATER???????

Josh Wood recently returned to his home in Sacramento, California for a little R&R after training on the ice for the last 7 months. With the ice season over and everyone else taking a step back and relaxing, Josh found another way to "chill". Let's just call it "his way".

If you know Josh, he doesn't like to "rest". He likes to have fun doing physical things. Today would be no different as Steve Harriman, our photographer from the City of Rancho Cordova, captured at least a few hundred photos of Josh skating at the recent marathon site in Rancho Cordova.

This is the same race site that Josh was unable to attend due to prior ice commitments. So with camera in hand and a couple of extra lenses and even a "stick thing" (yes that is MY professional name for the thing that holds the camera still - I think), Steve and Josh took off around the business park to take photos in different areas and at different angles. Steve had enjoyed shooting his very first inline speed skating marathon on March 9th, 2008, and had requested a little time with Josh. He had some ideas that he wanted to try out and Josh was game.

Of course I followed for awhile and then I headed back to the car where I found Ananda Jolliff (who has been living with our family for the last 10 weeks), fast asleep after getting only 5 hours sleep the night before. She had worked at the rink and did not realize that Josh wanted to train so early or she would have been at home and in bed asleep long before the 1am time that she finally plopped her head down on the pillow! In the meantime I told her to catch a few ZZZZZ's while the guys made their way around a portion of the marathon course taking photos.

After about an hour and a half, it was finally winding down and Steve asked Josh if he could jump??


Knowing that I didn't want an injured skater... I jumped in with, " Well typically Inline Speed Skaters usually work to keep their feet on the ground......." as if I weren't even there...... Josh piped in with, " Sure I can jump....... over what and how high?"



My stomach dropped as they both laughed. By now.... do you have ANY idea what was going through my head?? Well you all know how much I LOVE crashes...... I figured if Josh was going to go down.... I was going to capture it on my camera (sadistic? No, I just like crashes! And he obviously was going to jump with or without me watching). So here is part one of the video "outtakes" ..... and a few photos that I took. I still have not seen the ones that Steve shot. If this is any indication, they are gonna be cool!!

Of course we will have those available through Steve's website as soon as they are ready. Enjoy.....lol.... oh yeah.... you didn't think I would show you EVERYTHING today did you????

Yep, ya gotta come back if you want to see more.... video AND photos......LOL Linda
p.s. although the resolution is very low on these still shots taken from my video camera, don't be afraid to click in the middle of the photo to enlarge it and see how crazy this REALLY was!