The Melt Down

The crew is out in Wisconsin again where it became 50 degrees and not even freezing at night. Snow doesn't usually last too long in these conditions....We've found other things to film though...

Such as.....

(notice the horns Zak is throwing out the window-good style)

And karate kid moves...

Its funny how things work though. Even though the temps are super warm we had such an insane day. Hit two of the best spots I've seen in a long time and even though both were a high bust we got what we needed...

Sani Snapshot

Came across this photo of Sani and Burton grom Dave Hableutz we shot Austria last spring. Such a fun day! Sani needed to either back up a little or pinch harder.

Colleen

A milky sky isn't always a bad thing.

Tina's At Mammoth

Jesse was doing methods at Mammoth yesterday that would have made Tina B proud!!

Construction in Tokyo

I had a few minutes while in Japan a couple months back to snap some shots of these construction workers running this crane. For some reason I think the gentlemen look super interesting.

Roadside Attractions

We've spent a bunch of the time in the car the past few days driving around and checking out different spots to shoot and coming across some interesting things along the way...

Such as, the worlds largest snowman

Or a lady Blotto met who didnt know what a blog was....

We've found a bunch of legit spots though and are heading back Monday.

Mr. Fix It

Once in a while its necessary to fix a feature with a little more than snow before the session can get going. On this particular day the feature we were shooting had a less than friendly seam in it.
Luckily Jeremy had done this before and school'd Blotto, Hayward and I into the quickest way of fixing it.

A little filing, a little blow torch, and before you know it.....

Young Hayward was bagging shots.

Side Note: Its official, Zak Hales new name is Hayward, please call him this from now on.....Thanks

Why so serious?

Justin set up a quick studio the other day so I grabbed my Chinese army hat and jumped in.

This is also the way I felt tonight after we got kicked out of 2 spots back to back....the second one taking 3 hours to set up only to get kicked out on the 1st attempt.

Wiscompton

Im not seeing Crenshaw Blvd anywhere around here

Stayin Gold

While Jeremy, Blotto, and I were looking for spots in cheese-head-land we happened to find a interesting spot for a group photo. Its been a great trip thus far with a great crew. Zak Hale showed up about an hour after we shot this....maybe we should go back?

That's A Nice V-Neck

Xmas Day at the Beach

The family brought some Natty lights to this beach spot north of Del Mar on Xmas to hang for a bit.....a couple things to note:

1) Why not drink Natty's on Xmas?

2) Yes, we picked this can up

Z at X

Zack's one of the most fashionably responsible and cool dudes you'll meet...:)

Make A Wish

Shaun did a really cool learn to ride thing at Park City the other day with some kids from Make A Wish Foundation. They came up the mountain and watched Shaun jump into the airbag a few times and then we all went riding. The kids were amazing and had a great time.

Austrian Leftovers

Blotto sent this over yesterday. He snapped it at our European spring shoot last April. Its always cool to see old photos from really fun days.

Riders With Cameras

While filming the other day I gave Hannah the Mark IV to shoot some stills....This is what i got back...HAHAIn Hannah's defense she actually did a really good job...I had to pick on her for this photo though....:)

Chinese Random

I need to get a print of this for my place

St Paul, MN

Old but classy......especially when the moon has a big bite out of it

San Marcos

The day after xmas was a memorable golf day...never have I played with my Uncle, Dad, and brother all at once. Such a fun round in perfect weather.

Justin and I play together all the time. I've never seen him hit the ball this hard though

The Tree

While waiting for someone or other I spotted this tree freezing its ass off in the field. Its Minnesota

Back Seat Driver

On the way home from Breck the other day I got to check out a pretty insane sunset through the cockpit window.

For the amount of time i spend it planes i sure wish i got to do this more:)

A couple more days in Minnesota

Everytime I go to Minnesota I leave with a good vibe from the place. The people there are cool (except the dude at Home Depot) and everything there seems nice. This time around we got to check out a bunch of small towns near the twin cities as well. I cant wait to come back in the summer. This was the 1st strictly film trip i have been on in the while and it was super fun to get back into the swing of things with the video camera. I still wished i was shooting photos the whole time though:)....While everyone was setting up and warming up i grabbed a quick shot of Ethan getting busy...This kid is dope...always smiling and always saying the funniest thing ever.

Keegan was with us on this trip as well and decided to hop on the hood of the truck instead of walking to the spot....

While Owen and I were filling up the generator with gas these people strolled up...Apparently this mother and child combo have a snow shoveling business...They walk around and shovel things for people....The lady informed me her and her son started the business when he was 12 yrs old..not totally sure why the kid isnt in school but??? Please note the sweet Chicago Bulls starter jacket the lady was rocking.

Look at where we are?

As Owen and I drove down the road in the arctic tundra that is Wisconsin...we slammed on the brakes to take a quick shot of this smoke stack....Its freezing. We looked at each and pondered...where the fuck are we?

Then we went to Famous Daves BBQ

They had a flag in the front

Then Leyland ordered the sampler platter, as usual....he was so excited to eat it, he had to take a photo before she was gone..

Air and Style

Finally to the reason we were in Beijing...The Oakley Air n' Style....I'd never been to this event before and was siked to check it out, especially in China...Chinese law says there has to be a shit-ton of security guards at any spectator event.....They definitely respected the law.

This security guy had amazingly good seats for the Chinese boy band that played after the event.

A little excessive?

The Birds Nest was next door to the venue we were at...I never got a chance to check it out but she was poking her head out the whole time.

Grilo and I had a chance to film some funny video stuff before the event. I caught up with him before he hiked the 7 stories of stairs for the 1st time.

The level of riding was super high...Sebastian Toutant walked away the victor.....The security guards even got a chance to get a quick cell phone photo...Hopefully I make it back next year

Tourism at its finest

We got a chance to get out of Beijing a bit and check out some of the Chinese countryside. The place is def not easy living. Seems like everyone is struggling to survive in a way..

We rode a day at Nanshan...A local ski hill about an hour outside of town....When we arrived there were a bunch of guys making a mogul field with shovels. Right before a park jump?? Not too sure their logic on that one.

The next day we made it too the Great Wall. I hadn't been to this section of The Wall before and it was just as impressive as the other section years ago.

After the Wall we headed to this super low key restaurant in one of the traditional Chinese neighborhoods...The place was amazing. Apparently, this was one of the Emperors old cars...This was before the entire fleet was converted into Prius's.

Jesse enjoyed dinner. And decided that he was going to be Tony Montana from Scarface for the night...Not quite sure how I have all these photos of Jesse?

They Love Mao

Everywhere you seem to go in China there is a picture of Mao....such as this restaurant....Seems kind of weird loving someone so much that brought your country less freedom? (communism)
Before one of the dinners, we had a chance to sit down and catch up on our Chinese history. Jesse read it to us aloud, over drinks.
Ryan, Claude, Todd, and I headed up to the Budda temple one afternoon. He looks directly over the Forbidden City. This is the view Budda has, all day long.
There is no shortage of street vendors to take photos of either....The kite business must be booming these days in Beijing...its always windy

Smell that Fresh Air?

I had some time to walk around and shoot some photos and TL's while in Beijing.

The 1st day we were there was brutally cold and had the worst air quality possible. A little different than when the Beijing Olympics were in town.

Everyone seems to work their ass off in ChinaOn the second day the air cleared and we had some time to head to Tiananmen Sqaure. It was so damn cold. Not sure why these guys didn't have matching beanies instead of baseball hats?

A Nice Historic Flatground Spot

One would think that when you have to walk through X-ray machines to access Tiananmen Square, skating would be out of the question.....

its China afterall, I think they have bigger things to worry about...such as 1.3 billion citizens..

p.s. Jesse and Mao say hi

No Blogging Allowed

Just got back from an amazing trip to China with a couple days in Tokyo on the back end. Both places are great for blog photos and I should have some cool posts in the upcoming days...The Chinese government actually blocks Facebook and Blogspot from internet users....luckily I can jump super high and I was able to outrun them.........................

....actually, Ryan Young and I were waiting for our van to pick us up and I asked him to shoot this photo....The timing wasn't as easy at it may seem. I finally landed it like 6th try.