Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Bike Part Sale!


Come check out my house in Davis if you want to pick up some cheap bike parts. Craigslist add here:

I need money to help me fund my pennyfarther touring trip accross Patagonia and to survey rare specimens of bumble bees in the area. Thanks and hope to see y'all there!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

This Photo Just Screams...


Hippie child. I mean, come on. If only she had some flowers in her hair or something...

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Less Hair


For those of you who don't know already, I shaved my head last week and donated everything to Locks of Love . It feels amazing. Here's a before and after shot.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Acroyoga In the Park



So I met this guy slacklining and he invited me to do some acro yoga with him and his crew at the farmers market last week. Being that it has always been something I wanted to try, I couldn't refuse. I must admit that I spent most of my time behind the camera after a few sun salutes and variation to warm up. I did, however, get the "fly" someone for my first time (thats the term for what the person on the ground does). Man it is a lot of work! It is definitely something I want to check out again, though.

note to self: i need to email him the photos...

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Vibrant Portrait


of my bud, Joe, from picnic day. Kind of reminds me of this.

Monday, April 18, 2011

The UC Davis Marching Band-UH!




Picnic day was this previous weekend, and man was it awesome. For those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically the one weekend out of the year where people actually flock to Davis to do...stuff. Generally, there is a lot of public drunkenness, but there is also tons of really awesome stuff like the Parade.

Since i have two friends in the Marching Band-uh, me and my other room mate were exposed to copious amounts of marching practice and heard countless stories of band tradition. Band-uh is like a cult, but with a much more impressive resume. It takes up tons of your time and makes you do some crazy things, but the overall result is amazing. Here are a few shots from the band-uh in the parade, two are of my roommate, Jake (sadly no real good shots of Zakai).

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Slackline Saturdays!


Yeeha! It has two saturdays in a row now that me and a few friends have gotten lines up and spent the hours just slackin. I'm feeling like this will become a bit of a tradition (or at least i hope). This previous saturday we had 4 lines up at Central Park in Davis during the farmers market and it was awesome! so many new people trying it, I'm stoked!

On another note, I just managed to get a setup in my backyard after digging a 4 ft hole in the ground to sink an anchor. Why did I have to do that? Well, I only have one tree in my backyard so I needed somewhere to hook the other end of the line. And now...well, there is a piece of rope and a 4x4 underneath four feet of dirt in my backyard haha.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Eat Your Veggies


Spring means that the weather is nice enough to bust out the grill. It also means that I get to employ my favorite style of veggie cookery: roasting them on the top of the grill with some olive oil and salt & pepper to taste. Simple and DELICIOUS. Here was part my dinner last saturday: zucchini, asparagus, yellow onions, baby portobello, and carrots from my garden. The part not pictured was an almond butter and apricot jam on some ancient grain bread that I decided to grill as well, woo!

Monday, April 11, 2011

So the Bridge I Went to Last Week

So, here is the Bridge I went to last week, yes, this one.
It is pretty rad because it is covered nearly head to toe (that is, if bridges had heads and toes) in graffiti that changes weekly. Talk about a good place to get some artistic vibes going.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I Bit the Bullet and Bought a New Toy

Ladies and Gentlemen...I introduce to my dearest: the Canon 7d. It is an absolute monster and I am freakin in love with it. Got a good deal on a "used" body (it looks brand new to me, still had the box) and...oh yea, you see that red stripe? The 24-70mm f/2.8L USM. God damn this is one fine set up if I do say so myself. It just feels so right. I definitely need to do a lot of homework in order to take full advantage of everything on this. I also shoot with my sigma 10-20mm f/4 on it. On the wishlist: speedlite 430EX, and I may look into getting a 70 -200 f/4 (havnt decided if the IS is worth the extra bank yet though). Definitely going to keep my eyes peeled on craigslist.


A comparison shot to my new set up (7d, 24-70LUSM) to my old set up (rebel xs, 18-55IS) which will soon be sold. The 7d could seriously eat the xs. And quality glass makes everything else feel like a toy.

A Small Skate Journey

lunch break and turn around point at the bridge
nose manuals on the way there...not a cloud in the sky

It was only about 15 miles, but was still a fun push nonetheless. Gorgeous day too. Went out to a local decrepit looking, graffiti covered bridge.

credit for the "decrepit" link: John Kenn love that guys stuff...

Friday, April 8, 2011

Wheel Review: Orangatang Durian 80a

Seriously, these wheels are saweeeeeeet as sugar (hence why I shot them with sugar when I first got them). I’ve had the privilege of putting on some serious commuter miles with them over the past two weeks and I must say, they’re quite appealing to me. So, with that being said, I would like to go out and say that the majority of what I’m going to be talking about in this review is how these wheels perform in a commuting manner. Now don’t worry, I know that they’re intended to be the freeride wheel series from Orangatang and I did test them in that field as well, but most of the miles I’ve put on this new thane is through commuting 10+ miles a day over the past few weeks.

Now, let’s get into the cold hard stats. I’m rocking a pair of the Durians, so they are the 75mm wheel. They come in a variety of 80a, 83a and 86a thane (as well as their other wheels in the freeride series: the fat free and the stimulus). The durians have a 45mm contact patch with benevolent teacher known as the ground and come pre-stone ground. “What does this mean?” you may ask. Well, that just means there is almost no break in time for these wheels. They will slide in a pretty consistent manner from when you take them out of the box, to your first week of sliding on them, all the way till a month+ down the road (if they last that long).

So, like I was saying, I put in some serious miles (okay, nothing as serious as that) on these guys making sure that they were up to par with the previous O’tang wheels I’ve ridden. I’ve got one word for these wheels: PREDICTABLE. Now, that may not sound good, but it is exactly what you want in the urethane that connects your board to the ground. When you want them to stick, they will, and when you want to bust a nice standie to shed some speed, you will have no problem throwing your board out and pushing the wheels sideways. What does all this mean? Again, another awesome all around wheel.

Besides skating everywhere on these wheels over the past weeks, I also dedicated some pure fun time to them as well. Because they are free ride wheels, I decided to take them to the local parking garage and see how they fared. Well, they held up just fine. Obviously, the parking garage took me faster than I am able to push while commuting. They would hold their own on an array of different slides and were able to handle the sharp corners at higher speeds better than I initially expected.

Pros?: well, it’s an awesome all around wheel. What more can you want from it? Skate from your house to downtown and throw in a few slides to keep things interesting. Use em to grip or slip, either way you’ll be happy.

Cons: I’ve always got to address this stuff. Orangatangs are expensive, yes, but you pay for quality. Now I know there are a lot of people who say O’tangs wear out super fast. That is a true. It would probably take me twice as long to go through a pair of Classic Freerides as it would for a pair of O’tangs. But hey, you make sacrifices.

Overall, would I recommend this wheel? Yes. The 80a happy urethane (Orangatang formula) is probably one of my favorite types of thane out there. For dedicated sliders however, you may have to buy a few pairs if you want to keep using. For the mean time, however, I will keep these wheels on my trusty commuter, where they’ll probably stay for a long time.

a shot of happy wheels in a Loaded family
wear comparison on my old O'tang in heats (used to be 75mm)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Spring Fires


It has been a few days since an update, and don't worry, I've got some stuff brewin. It's just been hard to sit down in front of my computer with these beautiful day and stellar nights. Family (as in my room mates and I) have started doing grilling and we finally took advantage of the fire pit we made in the summer. Amazing days these past few have been. 4 bonfires in 5 nights is definitely the way to go. Shirts option as well as all other clothing of course. Hope you're all well, see you soon.