An Eye For the Creative

I always keep an eye out for little bits of street art. They show up in the best places. Wuuuurms.

Arachnoids

Lovely little critters.

Rocks

yes, yes rocks. Where are they from?

I wish I had my shoes for this. After my road trip to areas of high elevation, I was constantly thinking of where I could climb and always looking for jugs, crimps, and knee-bars. I haven't climbed for, what now? 3 weeks? ridiculous.

Introducing: The Bombsquad Saltflat Throwback

And here is the newest addition to the quiver. I'm very proud to introduce the limited run Bombsquad Saltflat Throwback (i.e. wooden). I've been considering a top mount speed board for a long time now and finally decided to pull the trigger when I saw this one. I'm extremely glad that I did.

The board made of 9 plies of maple, is 37" long and 10.25" at its widest point (right about where your front foot would sit in a tuck). The width tapers down to about 9.5" right before the rear wheel cutouts. The double wheel wells are really well placed and look like they were made with a lot of thought and care. And just LOOK at that graphic. Now that is what I call rad.

Front concave shot is nice and not super aggressive which makes it really comfortable. The rear has a mellow W concave that is perfectly place to make your back foot stick where it should.

Gripped with 36 Gator where it counts and Mob elsewhere. I had so many extra left over Orangatang sticker that I finally decided to use one. Remember kids: Get rad, stay rad, go fast, and keep skating.

Skulls and the Past Life

Slowly, I build my natural history museum from where ever I can. It is not much so far, but it is growing. People sometimes think I'm strange. I just say I'm an aspiring wildlife biologist.

Grasshopper Get me Giddy

After two weeks in the wilderness, I am back! and my god it was AMAZING. I hope I can one day live on a Big Sur reserve. It was honestly one of the most beautiful places I have ever experienced.

On a photo note, I clicked my shutter over 1200 times in the past two weeks, so I have a bit of post processing to do. This means there might be a bit of backlogging before you see any stuff from my trip...I guess you'll just have to wait. Anyways, here are some photos I haven't posted yet. I have a lot of stuff to catch up on.

Grasshoppers are rad in all shapes and sizes.

Longboard Review: The Loaded Fattail

After mucking around in the marsh waters every morning catching snakes for the past week, I couldn’t help but think that I was being a bit ripped off. I mean, yea, some of the snakes were big and all, but none of them were really all that fat, you know? I suppose I was on a search for something plumper, juicier, and a bit more rotund. Luckily for me, I was able to find my feet planted firmly on the new Loaded Fattail recently, and it seems as though my desires have been met.

The specs can be found in my previous post here. I must say that I was a bit skeptical when I first laid eyes on the Fattail; I thought the Ceviche and the Bhangra may have gotten together and created a baby. Well, in some ways I was right and in others I was wrong.

Remember the old description of the pintail? Something like “You will stop sleeping. Sorry, but it's true. Versatile, light and fluid, this board is designed to promote an assertive, dynamic riding style. It'll hold its own on hills, banks, commuting, and beer runs. But if you're anything like us, it's all about the late night parking garage sessions.” Well it all holds true for this board as well. This board is indeed still the Loaded Pintail that you learned to love when they first released it years ago, with some slight modifications. It really comes alive under your feet; full of more spring and rebound than any other board I have been on before (even my Vanguard felt a little damp in comparison). Paired with some high rebound bushings (I have the 80a Nipple barrels all around) and some 150mm trucks, this board will keep the energy you put into the turns and may even spring you out with a little bit more (I was able to get some decent pumping action on this setup right out of the box). One thing is for sure, the Fattail is a little beast of a commuter.

Now, some people were wondering if you can ollie/kickflip/hardflip/backflip this board and while I’m sure you can, I just wasn’t quite feeling it for this type of riding. I weigh 175 and ride the flex 2 with the board at its shortest wheelbase and the tail seems a little too floppy for me to really get a good pop out of it. I would suggest that if you want this board to do more flip tricks and whatnot that you should definitely check out the flex 1, especially if you are sort of in-between on with weight/flex charts like I am.

I was also asked about how the board is for sliding. Well, with my current set up, the board is definitely more geared toward gripping the pavement than going sideways on it, so my thoughts may be a bit biased. As is, it is not really a sliding board due to how flexy it can be. However, due to its fairly short wheelbase, its compactness, and the kicktails, one can certainly adapt to sliding on it. It is easy to flick this board around and is great for low speed sliding. Also, the stock grip that Loaded puts on the deck and the little bit of concave can lock your feet in fairly well.

So, as it turns out, the Loaded Fattail is a killer commuting creature and performs perfectly for plundering parking garages. The updated shape is definitely an improvement over the old pintail in that it provides a bit more versatility to the deck. If you have the chance, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

As a heads up, I intend on writing another review after a month or so to see how it holds up. Keep an eye out and happy skatings!

Off to Big Sur!

hey everyone, I'm off to Big Sur, CA for two weeks starting today. I can only hope that it's beauty can compare to what I experienced in Yosemite last weekend. Of course, I'm sure it will have no trouble in doing so. And yes, I am bringing my camera.

a shot towards the top of the Upper Yosemite Falls hike.

The Falls that we hiked to the top of.

Breathtaking views got better and better every time we turned up another switchback in the trail.

And yes, there were photo opportunities everywhere. I have a new found respect for Ansel Adams.

Twas But a Dragonfly

This guy was patiently modeling for me while I snapped some pics of him right outside my house.

Orangatang Nipple Bushings

Ever want to ride trampolines as bushings? Well now's your chance! I recently got a set of Orangatang's newest product, their Nipple Bushings. I currently am riding 80a barrels all around on my Fattail set up. These bushings have some of the most rebound I've ever experienced. I would even go as far to say that they have more than Venoms SHR.

These bushings are poured with the Orangatang "Randy" formula; apparently they first tested it as a possible urethane for their wheels but decided that it wasn't quite right. Well I think they pretty much hit the nail on the head by pumping out these barrels with the Randy formula. I'm loving the high energy I get out of these when carving and pumping. I'm definitely going to be playing with these guys on other setups.

They'll be available commercially soooooon. Just have to wait for a few batches that were eaten by flamingos while they were in transport (or something like that).