Our Acting Debut

Many people have heard of the professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek, due to his two shows in his past on MTV. Rob created the “DC Skate Plaza” in effort to give skaters a security-free environment with street spots that skaters would enjoy. The first Dc Skate Plaza was built in Rob’s hometown, Kettering Ohio.

I planned a trip with a group of friends of mine to visit the plaza during our exam week. We would all complete our exams early in the week, so we planned the trip on a Thursday. This plaza is very popular and many people drive several hours to skate there. Leaving during a school day was a good idea because the park wouldn’t be as crowded with many kids still being in school.

We left early in the morning and arrived sometime around 8 a.m. As we arrived to the plaza, we were happy to see only a few people there. We skated for about thirty minutes, until we witnessed a huge tour bus pulling up to the plaza. We originally had the idea that a professional team was going to skate the plaza, so we were all excited to see who it was. We waited for several minutes, and the first person we saw leave the bus was Big Black. If you were familiar with the hit series, “Rob and Big” on MTV, you would know that Big Black is a good friend of Rob and they always travel together. We waited a few more minutes and were shocked to see a variety professional skaters exit the bus including Rob Dyrdek, Paul Rodriguez, Ryan Sheckler, and Ryan Dunn from the movie “Jackass”.

The pros spent time skating with everyone at the plaza, and we had the opportunity to speak and ask questions. After speaking with Rob Dyrdek, he explained to us that they were filming a movie called “Street Dreams.” The movie was not a typical skate video, but it was an actual movie to be played in theaters. As more people arrived to the plaza, we were ordered to sit and watch as they filmed several scenes. During the last scene he asked my group of friends if we wanted to be in the background of the scene. We were so amazed yet confused, so it took us a while to register his question in our minds to give a response. We were asked to do a few tricks in the background, and that’s what we did.

The movie only displayed in select theaters, and a Bexley theater was the only place where the movie was being played in our area. We all watched the movie hoping to see our scene, and within twenty minutes, we spotted ourselves in the background. We were so excited that we jumped up and cheered during the movie. This experience was one of our greatest throughout our years of skating.