BLATT!

Finally got up to Tahoe – gotta love this place, awesome people, awesome lake, flippin’ awesome…

We rolled up at 2AM and crashed at Celia and Eddie’s house for the night – It was snowing in the mountain passes on the way up… and that meant that the zone’s would be good the following day… and that meant sessions were in order… and that meant Brent Drury would give me a shout to shoot out in the AM… and that meant that Fitzy and I would cruise to his spot, jump in the Blazer, and head for the hills… and that meant a real good time… check it!

A day for the books – some good action snaps too… those ain’t for bloggin’ though -

Later -

A

Had some time to cruise around the internet for a few, pretty pumped when I get to find some good illustrative work to check out – Harrison Cady’s got game… check it! (here!)

Drove up from SoCal to Tahoe… The majority of this drive is on the 395, a route through the desert with some fine views of the Sierras, a good drive for sure.

Highlights were Mike picking up a nice new knife at a gas station in the middle of nowhere, some phenomenal billboard marketing scheme for ‘world famous’ beef jerky, and what looked to be some mysterious government funded towers and observatories (no photos of those, I learned my lesson to not take pictures of things like this when I had an M-16 toting security guard yelling at me in Spanish to delete frames at some Argetinian airport… wooops!)

That’s all from the 395 – I’ll post from Tahoe next…

-A

After Moab, I cruised to Arizona to hang out with Grandma and Mums – we lurked around in the heat, cooked and ate some great food, and checked out the zoo! Too much fun!

Mikey Fitz also came into town, and we cruised out to SoCal to meet up with a bunch of friends/snowboard folk (Weird how snowboarding seems to keep SoCal as a hub these days?).

Photos from AZ and the drive to Solana Beach, below – Check it!

That’s that, good 6 hour drive from Pheonix to the coast, now just relaxin’ in the sun – about to go for a quick surf…

Next up – SoCal livin’ and a cruise north!

Later -

A

Redbull Illume is an ‘action sports’ based photography competition encompassing everything from Snowboardin’ to Rock Climbing to Motocross, etc… This gallery allows the public to view the 22 thousand + submitted frames randomly, and annonymously – all during a stage where the panel of judges is narrowing them down to 250 final images…

Since it’s gone live (not more than a few weeks ago) I’ve been peeping this site when I find free time. Amongst the thousands of amazing images submitted, I’ve seen some key snowboard photos from the last few years pop up in this unique image rotator… Cole’s TWS photo-annual cover of Stevie, Adam M’s brillaint snap of K Pearce that landed a cover of PDN last year, various cover shots from the mags around the world etc, etc.. Needless to say, this is an amazing display of a vast amount of work…

Click the link, jump to full screen, and watch the hours disappear… Check it Here!

Cruised from CO to Moab, Utah, where I finally got to ride some trails on Moab’s famous slick-rock… It’s opposites on this one, and tires grip real well – you can climb anything, but it’s real smooth on the way down – I was able to find some fun flow on the Amasa Back/Cliffhanger trail. After my ride, I began the drive to Pheonix AZ – 6 hour drive in the AM > 5 hour ride > 8 hour drive put me in Pheonix nice and early this morning… Sleep when I’m dead is becoming pretty commonplace on this trip… I’m into it!

Check it!

And that’s that!

Later -

A

Rolled into Denver fully ready to nap out – Ryan G, Samantha, and crew had other plans… Straight to the Rockies game we went – I guess I’ll sleep when I’m dead…

The next day was a walk around Denver with Kelly, who was cruisin’ through Colorado on her way up to work in Alaska for the summer…

After cruisin through town I headed over to Boulder to meet up with my Uncle Lenny and go for a quick evening ride up in El-Dorado Canyon – Sooo much fun, hell of a climb at altitude!

Headed back to Denver that night – Next day Sam, Kelly and I cruised around up at Breckenridge with Mr. Gregory for a bit – then checked out Redrocks on the way back down to Denver – such an amazing drive! Thanks Sam!

Whew! Long post!

All photos taken with a fixed 50mm lens – lightest lens to cruise around with I guess…

Next up is Moab Utah!

Later -

Blatt!

After hanging out in Chicago I headed towards Denver, CO. Kind of a hellish drive through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Eastern Colorado, but I snapped some pics from the exactly 1000 mile trek, from the hotel in Chicago to the Door of Sam and Nat’s in Denver… Check em!

That’s that – next up CO livin’ -

Later -

A

So I packed up and left the Eastcoast this past week… I still don’t have to be out in Oregon for my work with High Cascade for quite a bit, but I wanted to take a longer drive and see more of the country this year. Leaving a bit earlier was part of that scheme…

I headed out on Thursday and cruised through the night to Chicago – it was so rad to roll up and see the Sears tower and get ramped up to check out the city. I’ve been to Chicago’s airport ‘hubs’ many many times, but never had the chance to get into town.

I got in around noon and gave Ron Wu a call – he told me to jump over to his studio space for some lunch – shortly after parking my car, I was cruising out on the bikes with his assistant Bob to pick up some sandwiches. Had an awesome lunch with Ron and Bob – snapped a few quick photos, rapped out about bikes, cameras, lighting, New Zealand, sky-diving and The Hulk, for a bit and then cruised out. Thanks for lunch dudes!

Once I left the studio, I headed towards the south side and dropped in on a hotel room. Even though it was warm enough, camping wasn’t going to cut it in the big city, so I went for the next best thing and booked in at the South Loop Hotel. Mikey Fitz got out of work in DeKalb, and took the hour drive in to Chi-town to meet up and grab some drinks down-town. The crowd in the Wicker Park district was wild -  definitely fun to people watch, the highlight being a dude dressed as a Clown getting into a taxi cab around 11Pm… so strange!

Next day was tour day – I couldn’t pass up some deep dish pizza while in Chicago, so Fitz and I walked for hours until we finally found the spot – Gino’s East, it’s the best! The pizza takes about 45 minutes to cook after ordering, and it’s well worth the wait. So good, the real deal for sure. After Gino’s, we walked all over town trying to see the sights – our intent was to re-live Ferris Beuler’s day off, but without Sloan Peterson (babe!), Cam Frye, and ‘ol Ferris it was kind of tricky… So we just ended up checking out the city – which was pretty dang awesome anyway! So many sculptures, people on segways, hell we even saw Waldo – Check it!

Chicago was rad! Next stop = Denver…

Until then -

A

Here are some of my friends blogs:

Brendan M!: http://www.theangrypenguin.org/index.php (Brendan has been posting up photos since I met him – the photos have always inspired. Now he’s living in NYC and his photos of the city have been so sick! Keep it up Brent!)

Jin Saito: http://www.cpfe.net/jinsaito/blog/ (Jin is ma dude from Japan! His writing on this site is mostly in Japanese… good boardin’ and travel photos to check out, even if you can’t read what he writes…)

Pat B!: http://patrickedward.wordpress.com/ (Pat’s been writing from up in Burlington VT – he’s always postin’ up photos and music selections… the goods!)

Check ‘em!

-A