A Trip to Travis Parker's House

Travis Parker is someone special. He is a retired professional snowboarder that now lives in the Tahoe area. A couple of seasons ago, I scheduled a trip to visit with him at his house. He still rides a ton and gets shots for editorial or for use in his company Airblaster. The guy just lights up a room. He is one of the nicest guys you will ever meet and is about as down to earth as anyone. He works hard and enjoys life.

On this particular trip, I stayed at his house and shot some photos with him over a couple of days. We shot in the backcountry with our snowmobiles and found this unusual tree to take some shots on in the evening near his house. Later we grabbed a nice meal at a restaurant across town with my brother Mike and his son Nick. It was just a timing thing and we all enjoyed a nice meal with a few beers.

After returning that evening, and still sporting a nice buzz, we headed to the garage for a quick improvised music session. Travis was just learning to play the drums, but has that fun, innocent approach that is contagious and makes everyone want to sing along. What a great trip.

Ricky Carmichael

 

A few years back, I had the job of working at DC Shoes.  This meant I was able to work with some pretty amazing athletes. DC was making a big push in the MX scene and one of our pros was Ricky Carmichael. Ricky is considered by many to be the greatest MX rider in history and has the wins to back it up. He was in his prime and had a very disciplined approach to his riding and training. I had shot a couple of times with him and the photos I had taken landed in a few people's hands, including the Senior Editor of Racer X magazine's Davey Coombs. He thought my angles and style were unique to MX and my background in action sports gave me an "eye" that the other photographers in that industry didn't have. This meant that I was able to get my photos published right away and I didn't have to go through a lot of trial in order to prove myself. Ok, it helped that DC was a big advertiser with the magazine as well.

Over time I was able to make a nice friendship with Ricky and we developed a great working relationship. This is something I probably took for granted and only realized later that he would only choose limited people to shoot with since his work load and training often took most of his time. He needed to trust me and respect what I could get. He also participated in a sport with a lot of danger and liked that I was able to work quickly.

His schedule included the Supercross season that usually starts in winter and ends toward the beginning of summer when the outdoor "Motocross" season would take over. That meant that only a short period of time was available to do extra work and get in some off-season training. Since I needed to get some shots for DC's advertising and some extras for editorial, etc., I was invited by him to stay at his house several times and get incorporated in to his routine. 

This routine consisted of waking up and cramming the day with MX. He would hit the road bike for a couple of hours with his trainer. His trainer was a ex-cross country racer and made a name for himself with a very unique style of training. I envied this, and would have loved to go for a ride with them, but knew my boundaries and waited for his return. After all, this wasn't a group fun ride. He then would eat (very strict diet) and continue with his training at the gym. Only after this would he hit the track for some disciplined turns and testing. Oh, and he also needed to trust me since his training routine was a much guarded secret and was coveted by many of his competition. I could then grab my camera and get some shots. He was a great professional. I knew I could easily disrupt his training, but I respected his space and tried to stay as non-intrusive as possible. He also knew this, but often would take the time to stop and do any requests I might have. This would go on for hours till he and I were done. I got a lot of shots and saw some amazing riding.

Later, it was time to grab some dinner. Ricky was quite the host. He often would take us all down to the local Outback Steakhouse for a nice meal. Ricky is a good ‘ol boy from Tallahassee and likes things simple, so the Outback was the cat’s meow. No drinking for him (at least not during his training season), but heh, my workday was over. He also knew everyone who worked at the restaurant and everyone loves him. It was steamed vegetables and roasted chicken for him and usually something a bit richer for me. What a day.

Now you might be thinking that this makes him out to be a pretty boring, but that is far from the truth. The guy is hilarious and has a very sarcastic sense of humor. Unfortunately, the media can take things out of context and he is very aware of this and his image, so he takes great efforts to be careful about what he said and did in public and this meant that often he came across as having a flat personality. Fortunately those that know him are aware of this and know the real truth. I respect the hell out of him.

BTW, the top shot is a whip photo I did that was later bought by Fox Racing. They made it in to a poster and shows how technical his riding can be. The lower shot is just one of the hundreds of turns he did during his training to perfect his cornering skills.

Different is Sometimes Better?

Over Thanksgiving I stayed in San Francisco and specifically the Mission district area. That means there is all kinds of restaurants to try. My brother Steve turned me on to a Guatemalan restaurant just down the street from his house and we settled in for some tasty grub. Guatemala isn't exactly known for it's culinary flavors, but rather it's poverty and political unrest. But, as the saying goes, when in Rome... This also means I had to try some of the indigenous beer and ordered up this Famosa Lager. Well, I didn't exactly have a lot of options; it was this or a Budweiser.

Ok, so it isn't going to win any awards, but at least it's part of the vibe. The beer is pretty much a standard lager and blindfolded you wouldn't know this from any other Tecate or Sapporo. However, I have had one of these before in my two trips to Guatemala and not surprisingly, it was pretty much the same. This doesn't mean it was all blah, after all, I can say it put a bit more excitement than ordering up a standard offering, and maybe we've been too high-brow that we often miss these little things in life. Drinking a beer isn't always about holding up the glass to the light, concentrating on the aroma and subtle fragrances, but rather it's the act of sharing a nice evening with friends and family, and isn't that the point?

Chamois Cream

Road cyclists have a little secret. When you spend tons of time in the saddle, things tend to start rubbing more than you would like. Back in the day, riders used an animal chamois in their shorts that wasn't too soft or contoured the way today's modern bibs are. In order to soften them and reduce any rough rubbing that happened, they would often apply a nice cream or Vaseline to the chamois. Think oiling a baseball mitt.

Well, those days are long gone, and fortunately technology has helped with great choices in saddles and molded foam pads in our bibs. But, hours in the saddle can still cause irritation and things can get a bit nasty down "there." Cyclists get what's called "saddle sores." They tend to look like ingrown hairs and get red and irritated. No there is actually no ingrown hair, but a red abrasion, with... well I'll just stop there. Once you get them, it's pretty hard to have them cleared up without extended periods of time off the bike to heal. Oh, and don't let anyone tell you to ride a nice gel, cushioned saddle cover, etc. This is usually advice recreational riders give to serious riders when they stare at our thin, lightweight seats.

The purpose of the designs of our modern seats is to put the weight of your body on the two ends of your pelvis bone. That's why the shape of our seat hasn't changed much over time. You have two key spots, which by the way, can be slightly different from person to person, and then the front which helps to make up the third spot, resulting in a nice 3 point, stable platform. If you aren't sitting on these spots, the weight of your body can shift to the softer tissue and cause big discomfort.

You see recreational riders out on their big, soft, cushy, beach cruiser seat, and they swear it is the shiznit. Well it is comfortable for a short ride, but anything a bit longer, and things get a bit sloppy. Remember the old car seats in your buddy's old Oldsmobile? Those flat, soft seats were comfy, but a road trip showed that a longer ride needed a nice conformed seat that the European cars had.

So now we've come full circle to our bike seats, and even with all the modern versions and fit, things can still rub in strange areas. Nothing better than a nice cream to keep things smooth and flowing. Now there are several types of cream, and there are tastes and preferences, but it is just one of those things that cyclists only talk about behind closed doors with other cyclists.

I've used a few brands in my short  days riding as a road cyclist (most mountain bikers are pretty uneducated about this stuff), and sometimes you feel like you just want to test out something a bit different. I came across this stuff recently when reading a blog online. It's called Mad Alchemy, and it comes in a plastic jar. It showed up by mail along with the cool 'zine the guys had put together. I applied it liberally and went out for a ride. They said to test it in a small area first in order to make sure there would be no reactions, but heh, I like to live dangerous. This stuff is slightly thinner, similar to Chamois Butt'r, and not as heavy or thick like Assos, but overall not bad. It's not going to win any awards in my book, but it does get the job done. Fun stuff right?

Beer Reviews

Part of working at the Beer Magazine is reviewing beers every issue. I'm usually behind the lens, not the taster, but pouring so much beer means a lot goes to waste. There is no way to try everything, so I tend to limit my selection to the ones that fall within my normal tastebuds. Lately it's been Belgian Ales that have been on point. I like the sour taste and malty flavors. Nothing else quite like them. Of course, I like many different kinds of varieties too. These 2 were pretty damn good.