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Crosstoberfest features new venue
Only 4 Shows Left for Company of Fools Velveteen Rabbit! read about it on PaGe 8
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ERC Beat on National Weatherization Day Page 7
Don’t Miss The List By Lara Spencer Page 13
O c t o b e r 2 6 , 2 0 1 1 • V o l . 4 • N o . 4 3 • w w w.T h e W e e k l y S u n . c o m
Jedson Blue Waters
BY KAREN BOSSICK
Hailey’s Halloween Hoopla is second only to Hailey’s Fourth of July celebration in the number of participants it draws, said Yellow Brick Road Owner Kim Garvin.
Five Days of Halloween PHOTOS & STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK
C
hildren and adults alike are invited to perform a little practical magic at the first ever Witches Tea in the Wood River Valley. Zombie fans are invited to dress up like zombies and parade through town, dragging their feet, casting blank stares at passers-by and moaning up a storm on the Valley’s first Zombie Walk. And Calvary Baptist Church and other local churches will offer their annual Fall Harvest Festival for those who want to have fun without rubbing shoulders with pint-sized devils with horns on their heads. It’s all part of five days of Halloween revelry. Here’s a rundown:
THURSDAY
WITCHES TEA - Parents and their children are invited to don pointy hats and point their broomsticks to a free Witches Tea from 3 to 6 p.m. at the Inn at Ellsworth Estate, 715 S. 3rd Ave., Hailey. The event is “a little spirit rally” to get ready for Halloween, said Chamber spokesperson Geegee Lowe. It will include a chance to exercise some practical magic decorating cookies and trick-or-treat bags. A witch’s brew of tea and cider will be served, along with other treats. And there’ll be a scavenger hunt, as well. The Witches Tea is actually an old tradition that started back East in 1908, said Kim Garvin, who owns the Yellow Brick Road. That tea has inspired dozens around the country, including one organized by the Black Hat Society for three years running at Earl Holding’s Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City. “We just thought it would be a fun way to expand our Halloween Hoopla,” said Garvin.
FRIDAY
ZOMBIE WALK - Fans of the drooling undead yearning to eat living flesh are invited to make a spectacle of themselves as they parade from the Hailey Cemetery to Albertsons from 7 to 9 p.m. Organizer Karen Brown said she got the idea from an annual Zombie Walk that Boise has had for the past six years. “It seemed like a really fun idea. Just another reason to get all gored up!” she said. “I personally have a zombie fascination and love dressing up, when at all possible, so I decided to throw my own Zombie Walk. I already have around 20 people besides myself who plan on doing it.”
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
HAUNTED FOREST - The woods
continued, page 20
J
edson Blue Waters likes to live life on the edge. The edge of a concrete skate park, that is. Nothing’s as sweet to this 9-year-old as standing on the lip of a skate park bowl as he anticipates how he’ll drop in and sail across its flowing contours, around the 16-foot-diameter concrete pipe and up its 14-foot vert wall. At 4-foot-2 and 75 pounds, this Woodside Elementary fourth-grader powered by Vitamin Water, chocolate ice cream and his Mom’s fried chicken is a national champion on a skateboard. He’s been besting skateboarders older than himself at just about every competition he’s entered since he was 6, including the Concrete Rodeo Nationals. Barely any kid his own age has a chance once he’s performed a couple air-to-fakies, 360s, alley oops and axel stalls in which he hangs off the edge of the concrete rim. That distinction earmarked Jedson and his skate park buddy Ben Parker a place in the Sun Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Fun Never Sets campaign a couple years ago, along with other Sun Valley champions like mountain biker Rebecca Rusch, American Birkebeiner winner Kate Whitcomb, Olympic skier Morgan Arritola and X Games gold medalists Reggie and Zach Crist. And when City of Hailey broke ground on its new rodeo arena and ice rink last year in a project that doubled the size of the skate park, officials asked Jedson to represent the skate park at its ground breaking. “He doesn’t just put his board on the edge and drop in like most skateboarders do. He’ll skate along the edge and do an air off side to allow him to dive in with more momentum. Things like that — that no one else really does,” said his father Lamar Waters. “He does things a lot of people try to do but don’t. There’s a rule in skateboarding you have to do something three times in a row to own the trick. And he does these things 99 percent of the time.” Jedson has been joined at the hip to a skateboard since he was a toddler
when his parents Lamar and Karen bought him a Walmart board to push around the house. When he was 5 he spotted the Hailey skateboard park — one of more difficult parks there is — as his parents were driving down the highway. “Stop!” he exclaimed. “I want to see what they’re doing!” Jedson watched for a half-hour and begged his parents to take him home to get his own skateboard. The park has been his home away from home ever since. “I can easily spend eight hours at a time here when school’s not in session,” said Jedson, who tucks his head full of tousled curls under a powder blue helmet covered in Board Bin and other logos. “My favorite is the 360—it’s like spinning through the air.” At first, he learned by watching the older boys who took him under their wing. Some of his best friends have already graduated from high school. As he began outgrowing their tricks, he turned to videos featuring Tony Hawk and other top skateboarding athletes. “Tony Hawk—he’s crazy, real crazy,” said Jedson, who’s also seen Hawk in person. “Huge tricks. Unbelievable.” Now, Jedson is coming up with his own tricks, winning the admiration of skate park visitors and his father, who makes the trek to the skate park every day to watch his son. “I’ll come even if I’m in a walker,” said Lamar. “I love to watch him. He’s like an Olympic ice skater—he makes it look effortless.” Though there’s no place he’d rather be then the skate park, Jedson does appear to be as well rounded as the skate park’s contours. He plays hockey, skies freestyle and even won Rotarun’s Arkoosh Cup in his age group last February. And he’s a good student, as well, reading at nearly sixth grade level in third grade. But all that takes second place to the concrete at the curve of the highway. “I love it here because I meet people from everywhere,” he said. “And I like seeing how good other people are. I like seeing if they can beat me, if I can beat them.” tws
“I can easily spend eight hours at a time here when school’s not in session.” “Tony Hawk—he’s crazy, real crazy.Huge tricks. Unbelievable.” “I love it here because I meet people from everywhere. And I like seeing how good other people are. I like seeing if they can beat me, if I can beat them.”