Loaded Boards Chubby Unicorn Review

Check out my new review on Skateslate! I put the Loaded Chubby Unicorn through some serious field testing, so let me know if you've got any questions about it. The deck goes on sale tomorrow (Dec 4th) so get ready!
Stay chill, skate happy.

Loaded's New Steed: The Chubby Unicorn Photos

 The Loaded Chubby Unicorn. The pudgy mythical beast in all its cushy glory.

 Behold its delicious curves. Its cradling concave. Its inviting platform.

 The simplistic beauty of its coy inlayed graphic.

And the whorl of features that can sometime be too much to wrap your head around, but is ultimately what makes me so excited about having my grimy little hands on this board. I have been and will continue to get well acquainted with this equine creation in preparation for my upcoming review. Check out Skateslate around the date of the product release (Dec 4th). For now, you can read more about the magic and craft that went into this board on Loaded.

Getting Intimate with the Loaded Kanthaka: Preview Photos

 The Loaded Kanthaka. A reliably speedy and agile steed.

Ready for popping, sliding, and general all around gnaritude. Those curves, like waves of grain, amplifying your ultimate shredding experience to a higher state.

A graphic to remind you of what else lay out there, reminiscent of the old Tan Tien proto graphics.

This board makes my feet happy and has flare with room to spare. I have been and will continue to get intimate with this street slaying stallion in preparation for my upcoming review. Check out Skateslate around the date of the product release (Dec 4th). For now, you can read more about the essence of this board on Loaded.

Deville Bomber Wheels Check-In

So yea, I posted a link to my review on skateslate not too long ago. Just wanted give a little end of the line report on the Deville Bombers. They finally cored, but they lasted me a lot longer than I figured they would. Yea, they coned a lot, but they never really flatspotted (until the very end when I did hit the core) and they stayed pretty damn circular until the bitter end. Above is a photo of their demise. The Sector 9 centerset raceform is there for a 70mm size comparison (stay tuned for a new review on the raceforms! feel free to check out my one from awhile ago if youre bored).
My final opinion on these wheels? I would definitely buy them again.

Your Current Writer and Photographer

Maybe some of you want to know what I look like? Probably not, but here's a self portrait from a few weeks ago anyways. I kept the half beard for a little over a month, but then birds started getting caught in it so I shaved the rest.

World Record Highline

 Well, maybe some of you know, and maybe some of you don't. A slacker friend of mine, Jerry Miszewski, recently set the new highlining distance record at Cosumnes River Gorge: 451 feet long across the gorge with about 18 feet of sag. Now, if you remember, he also holds the record for longlining at the moment of 500m. Let it be known, Jerry is a monster (in the best way possible)!

 Showing the size of the line in comparison to a person (he's a little over half way where he's sitting)

Chris Rigby working towards crushing the line while being a speck in the sky.

Early Grabs

A fellow skater friend of mine, Arthur, going about as big as you can go off this tiny kicker. Taken after hours at the Davis Longboard Club first official session of the new year. The main reason he has precisions is because he kept bending his cast truck hangers...ha!

Elf Portraits

Of lovely women

Happy Feet

My opinion: feet are meant to be used, not hidden in shoes. The above shot is from over the summer. A self portrait after wandering through the sierras barefoot for a few hours. The earth is better felt with unshod toes. The below is a shot I took for my friend, E.P., helping her out on a school project. She had the idea and I executed. Climb trees barefoot.

Rocket Netting, Goose Catching

Ever wanted to blast a net at a bunch of geese and then go wrangle em down for banding and measurements? Yea, me too. Well, we didn't get to blast it at a bunch of geese, but we did get to use military grade explosives to shoot it and then get the experience. Super fun. Hopefully I'll get some more opportunities like this. Being a wildlife major is wonderful.

The Vistas

How much you wanna bet that the people in the photo above were looking at something like the photo below?

Grainy Harmonica Players

I couldn't tell you why I like this super grainy, seemingly uninteresting photo that much, but I do. The veins in the forearms, the awkward stance, the texture on the shirt, the ripped jeans in the foreground. I just like it. This was taken at a long ago house show of the Washington-based band Camp Wisdom. Check them out, they're deliciously modern folk inspired crazies.

Far Off

A few shots that remind me of each other. Above, friend and unknowing model K.S. at the shore of some lake on the way to Zion, UT. 

Another friend and unknowing model, E.L., looking out over the grass fields near the Sutter Buttes.

And last, but not least, photography friend and housemate G.S. trying to get the right shot on a day hike in Zion, UT.

Tree Swallows, Barn Swallows of the Eclipse

 Photos from a long time ago (Spring 2012, oh yea). Most of this is from when I was doing Tree Swallow banding for a grad student last spring, which was one of the most fun field work I had done. Pictured above is a first year female Tree Swallow, ready to fight me to the point of discomfort to protect her eggs.

 This shot is from a very strange nest that was initially House Wrens, but was then taken over by Tree Swallows mid season. The white eggs are Tree Swallow and the brown speckled are left over from the House Wren. Of the three that hatched, two were Tree Swallows and one was a House Wren! Sadly, the house wren didn't make it to fledge this year. There was a storm soon after hatch and it did not survive.

The typical Tree Swallow nest. Quite the decorators.

Ready to leave the nest which means ready to be banded!

A shot from right before the eclipse in Spring 2012. The Barn Swallows were going wild above Putah Creek.

Deville Bomber Wheel Review

So, it's been quite awhile, but maybe i'll try and be better at posting a little more? I spent most of my summer without a computer so things feel a bit strange, but I figure with the raining months coming I can catch up on my backlog of photos...maybe. 

Regardless, here is a review I did before the summer started for Skateslate. Check out the goods on some slippy slide wheels by Deville. Review HERE.

Memorial Day Weekend

I will be getting lost in the woods with some friends. 

Dervish Sama Review

Hey guys, check out my review of the Loaded Dervish Sama on Skateslate! It’s a hell of a ride.

Scaly Friends

  Some of my scaled (some more than others) friends from when I was in Utah over spring break! Some really gorgeous specimens. I was on the lookout since my friend is really into that sort of stuff. I told her I would take pictures of anything I found so that she could ID. I held up on my end of the bargain and so did she. Phyrnosoma hernendesi (greater short-horned lizard) above.

 Coleonyx variegates (western banded gecko). 

Sonora semiannulata (western ground snake). Yay wildlife!

Paleofitness

I had never heard of "paleofitness" until I read an article on it. It was an interesting concept, but then it hit me that this is essentially what I already do. In fact, all of you have probably done it in one way or form when you were kids. It is essentially just playing with one stipulation: do it outside. And so now, whenever asks me what I'm doing while I'm climbing around in the Fig tree (pictured) in my backyard? Well, I can just say I'm doing some "paleofitness" and sound all official about it. Maybe I can even convince them to join me and play a bit. There aren't enough adult playgrounds.

Botanizing

 I was chastised for not posting that much lately. We'll, what have I been up to lately? Botanizing. Yea, I'm taking a class at the moment called California Floristics. Our textbook is the beautiful and massive Jepson Manual to the Vascular Plants of California. We are covering how to identify all the major families in California as well as many of the genera by sight identification. Oh man is it tough! I kind of wish we were learning some non vascular plants too, though. Moss is pretty cool.

Get your plant on!

Home-made Pottery

As it turns out, a few of the people in my house either spin their own pottery or have friends/family that do it. Either we, we end up with tons of gorgeous clay bowls, pitchers, platters and mugs and I'm loving it. I really need to try out the wheel again (since it has been years since I last used one). Hopefully, it will be in a place like this.

B-Gebz Backflip Sequence

Friend and Pro-slacker, Brenden Gebhart, sticking a solid backflip at the highline festival a few weeks back. This guy has lots of energy, but somehow comes off as an overall chiller. Don't ask how, it just works. I recommend checkin out his teas (if you're at interested in that sort of stuff), they're pretty rad, too.

I'm Ready for Some Highlining

This weekend!

Patiently Waiting

A few shots that remind me of each other. I really love the top one. Also, this old photo of mine kind of fits the theme of wait too.

Folk Inspiration

Went and saw a small, house show about a week ago. Damn it was good to hear some live music, it had been such a long time! My buddy was traveling with his band, Camp Wisdom, and a fellow band, Sunshine & Irony, down from Washington and they made a stop in Davis. Really enjoyed it, great stuff. Now I'm on a bit of a folk binge, so if you've got any suggestions of good bands, let me know.

Rock Textures

Here are a few texture shots I took while in Zion National Park. Not something I do much of; I find it incredibly difficult to capture the rock as it really appears in nature.

It really is astounding to me how little I know of geology. Really fascinating stuff that shapes the entirety of the world around us. There is just so much knowledge out there in the landscape.

Rock Climbing

I've been neglecting climbing these past few weeks. Mainly because last quarter was beyond hectic. I think that now that I have more free time I'll be able to utilize my pass a bit more. My hands are growing week from not being used enough! I need to rectify that...in fact, I'm going to go climbing right now. Peace!

There Are Two Things You Can Stare at Forever...

Fire and the ocean. Well, I know that is at least true for me. Burnt through that spring break like fire going through some logs of dry pine.