Yep, i've got poison oak again... At the moment, I'm shivering with my window wide open and no shirt on (because i'd rather freeze than itch) while working on some graphics for Golden State.

Last week, I went up to San Luis Obispo to shoot with Evan Bissel and some others (David, Kevin Pabinquit and Dan Troyan) for two days for Golden State. We started shooting Wednesday afternoon, not long after I got there. It had been raining up until that day, so I was hoping it wouldn't so we could shoot. On the way up, there were a few small cloudbursts, but fortunately that was it! The spots we shot at happened to all be within 10 minutes of walking from Evan's truck at most. The first shot I was setting up (a small lip to a landing down a hill) had amazing light. The fog was thin enough to show sunlight coming through it, toward me with green hills below in the background. While I was getting this shot setup, Evan was eyeing a steep cliff to roll into up the trail a bit. I think he had a harder time getting up the cliff, than down it. He ended up getting stuck about three-quarters of the way up. David went up to help him the rest of the way. By helping, I mean getting his bike and tossing it up a few feet up the cliff. I somehow made my way down a narrow ledge, 15 feet up without falling to get the shot. Surprisingly, Evan dropped in, rode it perfectly and didn't ride off the edge of the trail below (the only runout was the two foot wide trail). By the time we went back to get the first shot I had setup, more fog had rolled in, blocking the rays of sunlight and green hills. I waited 15 minutes in hopes of it clearing up, but it didn't and we moved on... We setup a few more shots and then headed back into town after it got dark.

The next day, we got up early and were pushing up a trail by 6:30am. My backpack was stupid heavy, with the extra bag on the back of it (which is probably 23lbs). I don't even want to know what the whole thing weighs. By the time we finished that trail, it was about noon. We were starving so we went to Firestone Grill. He got a burger and I got a tri-tip sandwich with blue cheese. He had to back by 3, so we didn't have a lot of time. We got our food and were off to the next trail. Hiking up this trail, I knew I was screwed, seeing so much poison oak, especially on the lower half. By the top, we met up with Dan Troyan, who I got some shots of as well. It was so windy, which made it a bit hard to walk with my backpack even. The wind was whistling through holes in my camera gear. We made our way down from the top, shooting sections we decided were worth it with the time we had. The last shot was going to be down a section called pussy crack, a narrow channel into a rollin. We didn't have much time, because the sun was dropping behind the ridge. I was ready for the shot and evan was about to hit it, when Dan noticed a rotor bolt was sticking out and crooked. It didn't happen. It was a good decision not to hit it at that point, but we were both disappointed we didn't get the shot. The light could have been better anyway, so we'll have to re-shoot it.

The week before that trip, I was on the Santa Barbara City College trip. I was really hoping for a storm, which never came. There was no powder, so I ended up being in the park most of the time, hitting jibs. I was having such a good time getting better at rails and ledges in South Park that the lack of powder wasn't a big deal. Jibs Galore, the left most run, before the border-x course which is full of jibs (like the name implies) is so much fun. The Grand Prix Olympic Qualifiers happened to be in mammoth that week, so I couldn't pass up an opportunity to shoot an event like that. I shot halfpipe Wednesday and then slopestyle Thursday. I still need to finish going through my shots and get the gallery up. Some of my photos from the trip last year are, on this page. I also made a video of last year's trip, which was my first video ever.

We rode all day friday, left a bit after 4 and arrived back in SB at around 11. At 7am, the next day, I left for fontana. I shot most of practice and ended up only getting about 2 practice runs. The silty off camber, then s-turn section in the middle of the course was changing so much. My first practice run down it, I was fairly fast and smooth. My second run through that section was a mess, taking all the wrong lines and forgetting how I hit it the previous time. I ended up getting 17th out of 30. It's not great, but I was happy with it considering I was shooting the whole time during practice and racing expert instead of sport.

Since then i've been at home, for a while for the first time in a few weeks. It's been pouring here and dumping in the mountains. I'd like to go snowboarding at the end of the week at mammoth if I can figure it out before I start school on the 26th.