On Saturday, May 13, friends and family of Tim Brauch held a little party at the Palo Alto Skatepark. It's been one year since Tim passed on into what I hope is his idea of Heaven. Three hundred people showed up throughout the day; family, friends, fans, members of the Beautiful Men's Club, professional skateboarders, horrible skateboarders, old skateboarders, and very young skateboarders. Some came early and stayed late, others stopped by for a few minutes. None of that mattered. We all showed up and skated and talked about Tim, as well as Phil Shao and Kit Erickson and Billy Strubing and Curtis Hsiang and Chris Robison and Jeff Phillips. Jai Tanju had some shirts made in Tim's honor, and someone had made a whole bunch of stickers in honor of Tim, Phil, Billy, and Kit. "Tim Brauch—Never Forget." "When You Skate He Skates." "Tim Has Left The Building, But Will Not Be Forgotten." Lots of stories were retold and shared, lots of people tried to do blunts, and the hips that Tim had so dialed were pounded in Tim's honor.

My sister Laura and my 12 year old nephew Taylor never got to meet Tim, but Taylor is just getting started at skateboarding and wanted to go to the jam. I assured them it would be OK (Laura wasn't sure if it was only for friends of Tim's) and we made plans to meet near Sacramento so we could all pile into one car. Early Saturday morning we hit the road to Benicia Skatepark, then went to the Alameda Skatepark, and then on to Palo Alto. Taylor got to skate at some new parks, and got to meet a lot of Tim's friends. Laura could tell what kind of guy Tim was simply by the love that flowed throughout the park for four hours on that Saturday afternoon. Although some people I spoke with had some reservations about the whole thing being "kind of weird," I loved it. I got to see some old friends, I skated a little bit, and most importantly, I got to introduce and share with my family some of the love and friendship that Tim Brauch had brought to me. I think of Tim everyday, but taking the time to travel and skate and share made this an even more special time for me.