Necroing this aged thread for the sole purpose of getting to hear the Ethan Fowler story @Loady McGee has on tap.
Over to you, Loady.
Alright, here goes.
In 2006 the Foundation team were scheduled for a demo/signing at my local shop in a small town in Sweden with a skate park just outside the shop. Unfortunately , it was raining so the whole team just sat inside the shop behind the counter. The shop owner had pre-produced a bunch of square sized flyers which the team members could sign for the kids.
The kids lined up from left to right by the counter getting their flyer signed by each team member and Ethan was sitting far most right, being the last one to sign the flyer. The ceiling in the shop was made of some sort of rubbery material and Ethan noticed this. When it was Ethan's turn to sign the flyer, he signed it, then he would just throw it straight up into the ceiling to see if it would get stuck (in the same way those card throwers can throw playing cards you know).
Luckily, Ethan failed to get the flyers to stick to the ceiling so the kids just picked up their flyer with all the autographs from the floor after he'd thrown them. This went on for a while and no one said anything but it sort of became this weird game that everyone in the shop was silently focusing in on. Which kid would be the unlucky one to have his flyer stuck in the ceiling too far to reach?
Then bam! One flyer got stuck in the ceiling. One chubby kid, maybe 10-12 years old became the goose in this duck, duck goose type game. The kid didn't know what to do. His friends laughed at his misfortune. Now, you would think that Ethan or the shop owner would simply grab the sticker and give it to the kid but no. Ethan just kept on signing and throwing flyers and the shop owner didn't seem like he could care less.
The kid realized he had to try to grab it himself. He started jumping up and down but wasn't even close to reach the ceiling. You could see how the kid became more and more desperate. His friends stopped laughing and instead tried to help him but they couldn't reach it either so they went and got a chair the chubby kid could stand on to reach it. The Chubby kid stood on the chair and was just a few inches from grabbing the flyer when Ethan noticed what was going on.
"DON'T YOU FUCKING TOUCH THAT!!!", Ethan screamed right in the kid's face as he stood on the chair with his fingers hovering the flyer. The whole shop went silent. The kid just froze for a few seconds then just stepped down from the chair without getting his flyer. Ethan turned his head back towards the counter and continued to sign flyers and eventually the silence turned into to the usual murmur and the signing continued.
I watched all this from a safe distance and it was such a surreal moment. I found it hard to describe in text but it was truly weird and not good weird. You could touch the awkwardness in the air. There were so many adults there (the shop owner and a bunch of parents) and no one stepped in. Everyone (including the other team members) just went silent by sheer shock. I can only imagine how humiliating this must've been for the poor kid. All eyes were on him and his absolute helplessness in the situation at hand. If Ethan was his favorite skater before this event, I very much doubt he was afterwards.