A Picture Perfect Parade

Under a second perfectly cloudless day, thousands of people came out to get up-close and personal with the Rose floats that glided down Colorado Blvd Jan. 2, in what many called a perfect parade.
Tournament officials estimated more than 100,000 people came out, Monday after the parade and all day Tuesday, to walk up and down of Sierra Madre and Washington Boulevards past all 44 floats on display. Many of the spectators got to meet with float riders who told their tales of the parade.
Brandon Yamawaki, part of the pro skate team on the Kit-Kat Clock float hung out all day Tuesday answering questions. Yamawaki said riding in the parade was a much different experience than the hours they spent practicing skateboarding off of, and onto the float.
“We actually never had a chance to ride it until the day of the parade when it was moving,” he said explaining they went through four different ramp designs for the float. Moving, he said, added a lot more intensity.
“With all the unexpected sudden stops, the float was very jerky, with everybody stopping,” he said. “We would be riding and go to do a turn, all a sudden the float would stop, and we’d get thrown off.”
Other crowd favorites included the Natural Balance float featuring Tillman, this time, the surfing dog. The 119 foot, 131,950 pound aquarium looking float made the Guinness World Records as the longest float in the world beating out Natural Balance’s own record, two years earlier, with their snowboarding float.
Geeks and gamers also lined up to have pictures taken in front of the Paramount Pictures, NAMCO Bandai Games America, and Microsoft floats, featuring the USS Enterprise, Transformers’ Bumblebee, the Power Rangers and a giant Xbox Connect.