Halfpipe Ramp for Avril Lavigne + TikTok + Tony Hawk

Our team rider and friend, Greg Lutzka, has been friends with ModSun, a well-known singer and artist, for a number of years. Both of Lutzka and ModSun are originally from the Midwest and came out to California to follow their dreams. Tyler, the CEO of OC Ramps, met ModSun with Greg a number of years back. When initially meeting, ModSun had mentioned that he wanted a skate ramp for his backyard. The only issue was that he was residing in Hollywood, California at the time and, due to this, spacing was tight.

Fast forward to the present year, ModSun is dating the number one Canadian artist Avril Lavigne. Avril has a beautiful property in Santa Monica, California and fortunately has the space in her backyard to accommodate a skateboard ramp. ModSun then reached out to us and said, “Hey! Let’s get that mini ramp going for the backyard.” He provided us with the colors which he preferred the ramp being which were white, pink and neon green. We set up a 3.5 ft tall x 8 ft wide x 23 ft long mini ramp otherwise known as our signature 8 ft wide mini ramp. We did double layer of plywood on this ramp with the top layer being the neon green color which ModSun had requested.

On the day of the installation, our team headed out to Santa Monica and began the set up. The assembly went smooth. I mean, there are worse locations to be building at. A cool thing to note is that we assembled this ramp in the late Spring 2021 and were able to see whales migrating. Although it was difficult to physically see these beautiful animals, we could see them spouting water from their blowhole. It was a beautiful, sunny day getting work done and watching the waves break. We were all tempted to get out in the ocean and surf while building the ramp. ModSun and Avril were super stoked to have us there. It only took a few hours to assemble and they were shocked at how quickly it went. As we left, we ended on the note of setting up a BBQ and skate session for the summer season.

A month later, we heard from Avril again saying that they were loving the ramp and wanted to add on to it. She wanted to add another 8 ft in width, making it 16 ft wide in total. She wanted the height of this additional ramp to be just a little shorter than the original 8 ft wide mini ramp. The new addition was to be 2.5 ft tall opposed to 3.5 ft tall. The idea was to make it so that this ramp could be accommodated for any skater from beginners to advanced level shredders. Implementing the two different heights accommodated multiple skill levels for skaters and for some extra fun for those who want to skate at both heights.

Our crew returned to Avril’s and went through the installation of the additional ramp. We did some additional touch up paint to the original ramp to make sure it all looked cohesive. We also had to do minor leveling so that the new ramp was aligned with the previously installed one. Again, the goal was to build this new addition but make it look as though it was one, solid ramp. Just as with the original ramp installation, everything went smooth and our team prefabricated all of the materials by predrilling and precutting.

While we were there building the additional ramp, Avril did mention she had something in the works coming up with Tony Hawk and the two of them producing social media content together. She had mentioned she was approaching the 20-year anniversary for her hit song Sk8er Boi and that her collab with Tony Hawk was to commemorate this anniversary. It is crazy to think how quickly these 20 years flew by as majority of us are familiar with that song and when it came out. We were unsure of what was in the works for these two but we were excited to see what was to come out.

Avril also requested a few basic street obstacles so we set up our micro spine, speed bump, and bump to rail. She wanted these products to keep on her side and front yard. These were to act as portable ramps which could be brought out when her and ModSun host social events. A perk to these three products is that they all have handles on their sides to make it easy to pick up and maneuver. They are also great products which are fun for any level of skater.

We wrapped up the day and headed back home to Orange County. Avril and ModSun said to look out for some fun posts which we loved to see!