The premier, from my perspective, was almost perfect. Tons of people (and that lil' dog!) came to watch and lots of people were riding the park before and after. Linda, who is the owner of Modern (along with her husband George), was cool enough to keep the park open until 1 am. It was awesome. The Etnies video is insane. I had already watched it a couple times at home but it was so cool to see in jumbo projector-vision. The Deliverance movie was well-received too. The only negative thing that I encountered was one dude being a complete asshole after sneaking in, getting kick out, trying to sneak back in and worst of all, being a total dick to Linda and Dave (a super cool kid that works at Modern). I wrote a really long rant about this, but this shorter version is sufficient.
I realized today that I probably won't get to ride Modern again. Next Sunday is the last session and I'm probably not going to get to ride any of the the sessions before then, including the last one. I have a lot of good memories of that place and have made a lot of good friends there. It would have been five years this July since the park opened (as Vans). I got to ride the very first session, with tons of skaters and chaos. It was awesome. I always felt a little weird about the whole corporate Vans aspect but the park is probably my favorite ever. I know there are a lot of things that could be better and that it's missing some elements (a real wall ride, for example), but the hips and wide-open high-speed lines are my favorite. The quarters, too. I've gone my highest (not that high!) on those six foot quarters and learned lots of things in that park. It's weird and sad that I am moving right as it closes. I'll really miss riding there. I'm sure the new Modern park will be awesome when it opens later this summer, but it's hard to imagine re-creating the hips and lines. It's hard to imagine not seeing the same faces at the park, either.