A Moment With Melch...

So, an old friend of mine, Patrick Melcher, is in this video here. He's one of the skateboarders, the one wearing the hat and tank top, you can see him clearly in the beginning of the vid sitting out of the Mini Cooper when they roll up to tha partay.
Pat (patrick) is a Midwest native from Rockford, IL. that I officially met back in 1995, but I prolly saw him as a lil grom waaaay B in the D at famed the skatepark Rotation Station, which gave many Midwest skaters a place to showcase their ish and make a name for themselves in the Big World.
Rob Dyrdek, Steve Berra, Jesse Neuhaus, Andy MacDonald, Dave Goelz, Bill Danforth, John Drake and many others entered many NSA contests held at that park, and went on to make a name for themselves.

Patrick grew up skating under the wing of a local Rotation ripper by the name of Eric, who showed him everything from flow, style, and a moar than a few bags of tricks. Which led to him to getting a pro model on John Lucero's company, Black Label & Death skateboards.
Living the life, he moved to L.A. continued skating, and started to get DJ gigs. He's still skateboarding to this dei as you can see from the video, and part of the L.A. party scene.
He's one of the most friendly dewdz in skateboarding and a non-drinker.
Now if that's not a good role model or the story of a small town boi'z american dream, I don't know waht is.

As of the end of this post I am currently listening to "Driving On Holy Gasoline" by Zodiac Mindwarp from the album "Tattooed Beat Messiah" released in 1988 on Vertigo records.
They used to open for Guns & Roses when this came out.