Jumping Tractors

August 04, 2006 @ 1:04 PM

Tractor Jumping

About a year ago, my friend Cristiano Passarin told me that he wanted to do a funny photo jumping over a tractor with all his friends around, and accordingly he asked me to go and take the picture. And so it was, that the following Saturday we drove to the place he had in mind, some fifty kilometres south of the Italian city of Verona. It was the deep country side, an area famous for the authenticity of its inhabitants, who speak their own dialect and are known for drinking a lot of beer and wine.

I went with pleasure because the guys there are really friendly and funny: genuine people that enjoy the real essence of skateboarding.

They have built a skatepark there, in a shed in the middle of the fields. Inside there is a miniramp, a street course, an old green Citroen Diane with holes in the tires and some tractors used by the owner of the place to work his land.

On the day we took the picture, the mood was very upbeat and everyone was happy to be part of this crazy project: we drove the tractor outside the hangar, set up a quarterpipe, jump ramp and plywood in all the relevant positions. Then, we had everyone hold some typical farming implement, and told them to look as furious as they possibly can.

Everything was set.

When everyone was ready, Cris started to warm up, and right when he pulled a perfect japan grab, Riccardo(in the black and white hat)’s grandfather strolled past and accidentally walked into the frame.

He was looking at this gang of young guys acting like idiots, standing on and jumping over his tractor, brandishing his work tools like sailors, on his property with some guy he’s never seen before guy taking pictures of the whole thing for posterity.

He didn’t say a thing, but his hopeless face was talking by itself.

His name was Natalino, and despite the fact that he would have preferred to use his own shed to rear his rabbits and his chickens, he allowed his grandson and his mad friends to build an indoor park and skateboard there whenever they wanted.

When I printed the picture I was pleased to see how good it come out in itself, but his unexpected presence in the frame gave the photo something else.

Some time ago Natalino passed away, and this is dedicated to him.