Greetings, FC folks,
I am new to the FC space, so please allow me to introduce myself...
My name is Lee and Ryan from RBT and I have known each other since High School and shared the same best friend for over thirty years. Our buddy Bruce was the bass player in my high school band (I played lead guitar) and Ryan and Bruce ran track and cross country together. We have gone camping together, gone skiing together, gone to concerts together and generally hung out with each other all through high school and college. We have been lifelong friends, music fans and cannabis enthusiasts
As you may have read in Ryan’s posts, our dear friend Bruce died from complications of pneumonia back in 2018, leaving us both devastated. Bruce was a CrossFit junkie, and exercised all the time, but was working overtime at his pizza restaurant to get out of a hole that a shady partner had put him in. He started feeling run down and basically by the time he went to the doctor it was too late, he was diagnosed with pneumonia, had to be intubated, he had nasty blood clots that caused his organs to fail and he died in a coma about two weeks later. Not at all the way we pictured life ending for our dear, dear friend and like I said, devastating and life changing for both of us. But on the positive side, every cloud has a silver lining, every storm has a rainbow, blah, blah, blah... Many of us who shared in Bruce’s friendship have connected since then to grieve and heal and help each other through the big loss we all feel in our lives. Friends whom I haven’t spoken with in years and who hold wildly different political views than my own now text me regularly and check in. I tell you it’s just one big love-fest (as long I just stay off their Facebook pages, lol).
It is that shared experience of grief and loss and healing that brings Ryan and I together now. I have been living in SoCal for about twenty years now. Bruce visited me out here more than any other friend, and he and I drove together across the county from NY several times as I got settled over the years. I had always hoped he would join me out here one day.
I had no idea how much Bruce’s stories of our travels inspired Ryan, but recently Bruce’s younger brother, whom I keep in touch with, got a hold of me to let me know that Ryan was out here and was asking for my number. Was it OK to give it to him? Of course, I said “any friend of Bruce’s is a friend of mine” (I thought it was pretty cute that he asked, too). And I knew about Ryan and his products from my last visit home to NY, when I visited the RBT workshop.
Long story longer, Ryan and I hooked up at a campground by the beach just a short bike ride from my house on a recent Friday afternoon and stayed up until early Saturday morning telling stories, sharing memories and keeping the healing going by keeping our friend’s memory alive. And over the past ten days, we’ve caught up on each other’s lives, he’s gotten to know my family and I’ve gotten to learn more about RBT and his situation. And as they say (cliche alert) “a friend in need is a friend indeed”: the more we got talking, the more Ryan laid out his problems and the more advice I started to give, well pretty soon it dawned on us that I might be able to help him get things up and running for RBT again, with a new outlook, attitude and home base here on the West Coast.
So that brings us up to the new and the now. Last night Ryan and I spent a few hours doing quality control on about twenty brand new Splinter v2s. We checked the glass for cracks (found 3) as well as the wood (found 1) and then we ran about 6 volts of current through each (half again as high as your average 4.2 v battery will fire) to test the resistance and burn off any excess oil from manufacturing. Then we jammed a 19/19 stem mouthpiece into each cylinder and jiggled it around to make sure everything was seated properly. I’m happy to report that all but the four cracked ones passed the test. But hey, if Ryan and I hadn’t taken the time, those products could have shipped and we would have had some real pissed off customers. And life, as we have learned, is too short for that...
So moving forward, I’m going to do my best to take some of the stress off Ryan and help him with some of the day-to-day tasks that genius-engineer types find so disdainful, (like in Office Space: “I talk to the customer!!”) so he can pursue his California dream of visiting every skatepark in the state while designing new and improved products for the benefit of all mankind, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah. I’ll be handling customer service and will do my best to answer your questions, solve your problems and steer you in the right direction if you can’t make up your mind. I work full time and do have a life and a wife and some kids and also am a surfer and a beach bum, and if the waves are flat I go mountain biking, but I will commit to getting your shit shipped out on time, and on the regular (which will be once a week, Mondays or Fridays, haven’t decided yet. Wednesdays might be better actually). I’ll stay in touch with info about sales, contests, upcoming events and all that shit that my kids are going to have to teach me to do on the instagrams (don’t hold your breath for a TikTok channel).
As far as my preferences and habits when it comes to cannabis, full disclosure, I primarily smoked pipes and joints up until now, but recently switched to those dandy vape pens full of concentrate once my kids started noticing how those people puffing at the beach smell just like Dad when he’s in the garage. They have worked out great so far for keeping it on the down low. I did have one of those old school vapes, with the box and the dial and the big long surgical tube, but it is hiding from me in a closet somewhere now, probably due to jealousy over the pen.
But, not long ago, a good friend of mine who is a medical patient kicked me down an ounce of Fruity Pebbles and another of Gorilla Glue that he grew himself. And DAMN do they taste great in the Splinter! Way better than the pipe. Like the difference between Meister Brau and Stone IPA different. Oh, the flavors! Oh, the terpenes! I don’t grow, but if I did, I would definitely be vaping my crop. It brings out the characteristics of your bud the way those Riedel glasses bring out the tannins in wine. I am definitely developing an appreciation for the niche these products occupy.
So that’s me, that’s what ‘s going on with Ryan and RBT. I look forward to becoming part of the FC community. I‘ve already spent some time lurking and looking at some of the threads Ryan shared with me, and really dig the passion (and compassion) in some of these discussions. I’ll do my best to adhere to those standards, keep things cool, calm and collected and help the community thrive and grow.
Take it easy,
Lee
I think I'm squared away - thanks for making this an easy decision friends!
