Indoor Training

Living in California means you often get spoiled by our weather. We can ride our bikes year round, but there are times when Mother Nature throws a curveball. December of 2010 saw a solid week of rain. Not the drissle for 20 minutes kind either, it was non-stop for what seemed like an eternity. At first I welcomed the much needed rain to our drought plagued Southern California, but since it started to extend in to our weekend ride and was showing no signs of letting up, I needed to dust off the trainer and do some pedaling indoors.

My trainer rarely gets used and there is a good reason. It is boring as hell. Sure there are ways to spice it up and I've heard of guys with all sorts of computer simulations, rollers, etc., but the reality is that it will never be the same. There is no way to match the adrenaline, the cornering, the wind in your face.  This is what makes riding unique.

Where's my sun?

Cuyamaca

When I lived in San Diego, I had a group of friends that would get together and ride on a pretty regular schedule. We would load up the trucks and go to east San Diego more often than not. The mountains out there are big and you really get away from it all. It's one of the only places in Southern California where you can find big trees. This is a shot of our group with me in the blue t-shirt facing the camera.

We had just got done climbing up to Cuyamaca Peak and stopped to take in the views and fuel up. The peak is about 6,600 feet and takes a lot out of you. The trails there are just awesome. This was shot way back in about 1991. Check out my rig, it's the one with the yellow Rock Shock Judy SL fork which was pretty awesome in their day. That was one of my first rides. It was a Mongoose hardtail, and I put on XT V-brakes, grip shift and climbing bars with Panaracer tires. I would pinch flat the hell out of those tires in the rock gardens. We thought we were the shit. Ah, memories.

Tecate

Recently we were invited to go down to Mexico to tour the Tecate plant. It was to be an article in our magazine and looked kind of interesting on paper. Anyways, we thought we could have a pretty fun adventure and we drove down at the crack of dawn to east San Diego where we would board a train for a nice tour. The train has cheap tickets and is fairly rustic.

We settled in and took in the views, which by the way, aren't exactly that nice once you leave the 'ol US of A behind. I don't think anyone down there had any idea about the concept of recycling or even something as simple as a trash can. Anyways, the train chugs along much like a bay cruise and right through the heart of the desert. We decided to post up in a car that had the side door open with only a chain to keep us from going further. It was a nice day, not too hot and we enjoyed a few cold ones. As we approached the factory with anticipation, we noticed a big group of people who we had traveled with on the train had the same idea. I did notice, this wasn't exactly a fun, let's get down and party kind of crowd, instead it resembled more of an AARP convention, with hipsacks, Dockers, and  ends up playing bingo rather than tying one on and ringing the bell. After getting off the train we were corralled like cows and lead to something "special."

Like a bad "Love Boat" rerun, we were put in front of a pretty cheesy Mexican "authentic" dancing squad (let the golf clap begin). Of course this was done below huge Tecate banners and we were handed one "Free Sample" beer. If we'd like to have round two, we were going to have to shell out our own hard earned dough. That was going to be pretty much required when you are sitting in plastic chairs for about 2 hours.

Shortly after, we were whisked in to a theater where we were shown a movie by the folks at Tecate. In reality, it was a bad marketing scheme with 30 minutes of my life I'll never get back. Oh, and by the way, no cameras allowed in the plant. We felt as important as a fly on the wall. Ok, maybe that's a stretch, since they did appoint us a PR representative to hand us a photo CD with pre-approved images for our use. Awesome.

Not long after, we tried to slip out the back without creating a PR nightmare for our magazine (well we were trying to do a story on the factory with hopes that the company might increase their advertising budget for us) and find a local tavern to enjoy a bit more of the local scene. Well the Tecate plant is huge and one of the only reasons why the town exists. In fact, they make a lot of beers; Tecate, Sol, Bohemia, Modelo, etc., along with soda like Pepsi. If you think all those beers are made by some tiny, cool garage type operation, with some guy in the background who happens to be the second most interesting person on the planet, you'd be way off. The plant stretches for as far as the eye can see, and a huge part of the Mexican economy. You are more likely to see a forklift or a huge bottling machine than anything else. You think Anheuser-Busch is big, this thing may just rival it, in fact its just part of a huge network of distribution and manufacturing worldwide. Only this company isn't exactly used to the big marketing budgets of the American breweries and have about as much tact as Spicoli. So other than some quickly thrown up tourists shops in town, there wasn't much to see or do.

Oh well, we did make the best of it and really didn't have too many options. After all, the train conveniently left just shortly after the tour of the plant, and if we decided to skip out and enjoy more of the town, we were stuck for another 24 hours. Wow, chalk that one off the list of things to do.

Brown Ale

I like Brown Ales. Spawned from mild ale, these tend to be a bit sweeter and be a little more malty with full body. Don't go and get your panties in a fix since many don't consider a brown ale that complex, but sometimes there is nothing better. Like having a domestic beer at a sporting event, there are times when a nice brown ale just hits the spot. Yeah, I have a sweet tooth, but there is something nice about having something so simple and so tasty. You can grab a big sip, a handful of peanuts and not miss too much of a conversation, and most of the time that fits the bill nicely.

Great Reading Material

 

I'm a sucker for good books and magazines. A well written and laid out piece takes my mind away to a different place where I can imagine and think about all the cool things in life. For that short period of time, I can forget worries, stress, and problems I might be having. If the photography is good and compliments the story, then it starts to elevate. 

I came across this book when I was reading a blog online. I ordered it and it came by mail a couple of weeks later. Like a kid at Christmas, I pealed open the package to reveal the bright and colorful work of art. It's obvious that whoever did it was passionate and probably didn't create the project with the intention to make a ton of money. It had reviews on cool items, travel pieces, events, thoughts, etc. Some of it could have been left out, but overall I found myself staring at the pictures and admiring the little things that I had never seen before. It showed true craftsman in their own element; painters, athletes, welders, etc., all showing their craft for us to admire. I respect that, in fact, I always respect the work and dedication of people who are creative and have the skills I can only dream of.

I'm sure there are a lot of people that do the same thing as me. They buy these small bits of amusement, browse and shortly after, they retire them to their library that is on display in all of its proud splendor. Okay, maybe some of those pieces end up sitting next to the Porcelain God. After all,  traffic in this area is high and extra time for viewing is always in short supply. Unfortunately, my library is getting too big and if I don't watch it, I'll be walking that fine line of stepping over in to "packrat" status. Then it's time to make room for more.

40 oz. Shootout. Ouch.

Okay, our mag decided it would be interesting to do a 40 oz. Malt Liquor shootout to put to bed which was the best "ghetto" offering. We had to do it in cups unmarked. All I can say is that it was brutal. In actuality the shootout should have been like our political candidates; the lesser of the evils. Yeah it was fun to live some of my dorm room memories, but dear god almighty. Without a doubt, hands down, the worst one was the Steel Reserve. I don't know how anyone can drink this stuff. It was like really bad cough syrup with a very strong aftertaste that hit you like a freight train. I challenge you to take a swig and not make a grimace.

If you don't know, malt liquor has to be labeled as such, because the alcohol content is too high for it to be classified as beer. So a 40 oz. is a big volume of heavy, gutt-wrenching swill and there is a reason it has probably been at least 20 years since I touched this stuff, and if I have my way, it will be much longer before I touch any of this stuff again. The winner? It doesn't matter, they are all terrible and should be avoided like the plague.

Winter Olympics

The 2002 Winter Olympics were in Utah and we were on it. My boss had a place in Park City and invited us to come on out. This was to be a fun trip and there wasn't really any work associated with it, so we could just relax and have a good time. In spite of this, I still had to bring my camera. I invited my brother Robert and we flew out to join the group. Flying to Park City is easy, you can jump on a plane and within an hour and a half you're in Salt Lake City, and within another hour you're in the sleepy town of Park City.

One of the highlights of the Games was the halfpipe competition. The atmosphere was amazing and the crowds were huge. If you ever get a chance to check out a world class snowboard halfpipe, you need to. The walls are very steep and deep, and although it may look like snow, it's mostly ice. In fact, the more ice, the faster and smoother the walls are. That may be scary to the inexperienced, but to these guys, it needs to be that way. As the riders fly down the pipe, it is surprisingly loud and puts a chill up your back, similar to running your nails on a chalkboard. Those razor sharp edges on the snowboard cut and claw at the ice as the go up and down.

When the riders started dropping in for the runs, each would have their own song that reflected their own personalities. The great thing about snowboarding, is that it has evolved to a very technically high level, and the athletes are professional, but what sets it apart from the other sports is that it maintains a lot of it's rebellious attitude and individualism still comes through. Many of the snowboarders are stubbornly proud of what they like and won't sell out at the drop of a dime.

This translated well to the crowd as each rider was introduced and prepared for their chance at the medals. They would choose a song, and often it could be a heavy hip hop song, heavy metal or even punk rock. It wasn't too long before the crowd started to latch on to their favorite rider and this just added to the event. Unfortunately, this doesn't come through to people viewing it on tv, and in order to keep politically correct, NBC would often substitute their own music and commentary hoping to make middle America happy. I guess they just don't get it, and that's fine by me.

After the event, it was time to enjoy the town. Park City is amazing. There are a ton of great restaurants and main street lights up. You can bar hop and just take in the sites. I love it there.

Andersen Truck Trail

Andersen Truck Trail is a spot in east San Diego that has been around for some time now. It is an jeep trail that has long ago been reclaimed by nature and now is more of a technical singletrack. We started riding this area in the early 90s and usually did an out and back. It didn't take us long to figure out that this could be shuttled, but it went through part of an indian reservation and the bottom went through about 100 yards of private property, meaning that access has been restricted from time to time.

The trail is pretty good and flowing, but the top is where things get really interesting. Mike King and some other guys took it upon themselves to build a gnarly few miles of heavy terrain so that Freeriders and Downhillers could get their adrenaline fix. This was pushed due to the closing of downhilling at Big Bear Mountain around the same time.

You could bring your heavy-as-all-hell bike there and really push your limits. The two top shots are of my friend Brent "Bikey" Zemel, and he earned his name by really enveloping the whole bike lifestyle. He bought a white Ford cargo van, put racks in the back and rode a downhill Karpiel bike that was so ridiculously heavy that I still get amused by it to this day. Brian Botts in the bottom shot is an ex-pro snowboarder that moved back to the San Diego area after living in Salt Lake City for years. He's a pretty crazy guy and makes me laugh a lot. He's got a lot of natural athletic ability and took to mountain biking easily.

These shots were done around 1998 ish. Back when Freeride bikes were just getting figured out. Our bikes were really pushing it if we had 4" of travel and triple clamp forks were the only way to go. We wore pads and often full-face helmets and had a lot of fun. On this particular trip, I decided to take my camera, and if you can imagine, its not that fun to take your Nikon F5 film camera with you with a flash, different lenses, etc. It's heavy and you run the risk of crashing with the gear, but I felt I had to document our adventures once in a while.

Hockey and Beer- Hell Yeah!

Hockey and beer pretty much go together. Luckily my boss has season tickets to the Ducks and he'll kick them my way once in a great while. The "Pond" is near my house and that makes things really convenient. You can get a big beer and watch the fighting, although those lagers don't come cheap at around $9 a pop. To help with this problem, it's always nice to slam a few down in the parking lot before the game. Ah, it's nice to relive the college days.

Professional hockey is awesome. There is nothing better than watching this hard hitting sport and it really gets the "man" going inside of you. It's all about Testosterone and getting back to your primal roots. Chest thumping, high-fives, yelling at the top of your lungs, it all happens. What makes things even better are the fact that these pair of seats are 3 rows from the ice. You get to see the speed, power and finesse that is professional hockey. Love it.

Figmo?

This was one of my experiments a few years back. I had ridden aluminum road bikes and such, but never a full blown carbon fiber one. I was really getting the itch to try carbon fiber and kept staring at these cheap full frame sets on eBay. They varied quite a bit in price and you could see all sorts of different ones with names you've never heard of.

After a bunch of browsing, I saw some blank frame sets, with headset, seat collar, fork, etc., for about $450. That's cheap, but for slightly more, around $625, I could get something with a name on it, a warranty, background on the factory, etc. I decided to roll the dice and order one up. Heh, I wasn't expecting much, but at this price it was kind of an experiment and I could treat the bike as disposable. I have to admit, it's not the most ethical thing to do by bringing in a bike like this to a high end shop, but thankfully the guys are pretty good dudes. Anyways, the bike is definitely not that great in quality, but how bad could it be? Well closer inspection showed that the rear drop out wasn't perfectly straight and over time one of the rivets holding the cable stop popped off. A quick rivet gun fix later and I was back in action.

So how did it ride? Not that bad to be honest. It isn't very stiff, and the geometry isn't the greatest, but it worked and gave me miles of enjoyment. This didn't help when combined with those Easton SLX wheels, since they aren't exactly stiff hoops, but if I didn't really hammer on the bike, those subtle differences could easily be missed.

Like anything else, my experiment eventually faded and I moved on to better wheels and a better carbon fiber frame set. I retired the Figmo and eventually gave it to a good friend in Utah who was itching to try out the road riding thing. He has it to this day, but I don't think it gets too many miles. That's okay, and it was fun to try. I've been known to do stuff like this from time to time.

Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah

This is Little Cottonwood Canyon In Utah. It's the canyon that leads up to Snowbird ski resort and the trail is pretty fun. Yeah it's an out and back, but access is quick and easy and you can cram a ride in even if you are on a tight schedule. This was in November of 2009 and the hills had gotten dusted with snow from the night. I was itching to ride with my buddy Ron and kind of forced it. Yeah it was cold and things got a little crispy in the morning air. Still a good ride and now I have some more memories.

Party Pose

Sometimes there is nothing better than a good night out on the town. In this case it was at a friend's wedding and when everyone is all dressed up and in a festive spirit, it's time to cut the rug. Likewise, there are times when stories are funnier, and laughter louder (at least in my own mind). Here's a shot from another wedding (Mike McMahon's) and I'm the guy with a tie on my head. Story telling is fun. What a complete idiot I am.

Darden Goes Pop.

Rob Darden is one of those soft spoken guys that doesn't exactly look like an athlete, but when he hits the dirt his skills come out. I shot this at Point X, which is east of northern San Diego county. The spot is gone, but it served its purpose for a while. I think it really shows the height and technical nature of riding those scary tombstone kickers.

Mirra Goes Big!

A few years back, I did some photo shoots with Dave Mirra at Danny Way's SuperRamp in downtown San Diego. Danny really respected Dave and everyone thought it was a good idea to have Dave see what he could do on the ramp. This was the era before the humongous MegaRamp dimensions (the size that is now commonly used in the X-Games) were around and up to this point, the only thing in this scale was Hoffman's quarter pipe that he was pulled in to by a motorcycle to set the world record. Well Dave also thought that with the right ramp, he could break the record which had stood for so long.

The ramp had 18 foot transitions with about 2 feet of vertical, so in theory it was thought he should be able to go about that high above the ramp. The top shot I did with my Hasselblad and I think it is much more interesting, but since we were documenting the height of the air, it was instead decided to use a more front-on perspective. The top shot was also done a couple of days before the attempt when Dave was getting used to the ramp. The photo was never used and a lot of real BMX'ers thought his style in the air was too "dead sailor" and boring. So in to the archive it went and still sits to this day (okay, I'm using it here). The bottom shot is the shot we used along with the shot that Mike Blabac did from the deck (you can see him squatting down) with his Hasselblad and a fisheye and strobe. We used both of our shots in a split down the page and was incorporated in to mainstream advertising (Rolling Stone, etc.) and point of purchase, catalogs and various other DC marketing. This is actually the World Record air and was confirmed by the Guiness Book of Records.

What you don't see is the crash he took in one of his earlier attempts. He went a little too far over the deck and hung up on his back wheel. His wheel "taco'd" and he flew to the bottom on his shoulder. It literally shook the ramp and I still wince thinking about it to this day. Fortunately, he dusted himself off and took it without too much damage. Wow.

Beer Bottles

Shooting beer bottles in the studio can be tricky. The glass reflects all sorts of light and getting it to look natural and have some interest is always a challenge. This kind of stuff is real specific and there are photographers who specialize in it. Anyways, I decided to experiment and add some lighting and go for some sort of glam shot. I used a spray bottle and a few strobes placed strategically. Turned out okay and we ended up using it. Yeah the foreground is a little boring with the black velveteen, but I got to work with the graphic artist who was laying out the article and we incorporated the type and some design elements to work with the duller areas. Overall, it was fun and I do have to mention the beer tasted pretty good too.

Lucky Leprechaun

We were working on our St. Patrick's Day issue of the Beer mag and I had a brainstorm. We needed to shoot a specific beer for the "beer of the month," but the props I was handed and the background wasn't doing much for me. There was this guy Joe who worked with us and he's a really big boy. He also has red hair and looks like a big Irish dude. We had these small foam hats and I thought it might look pretty funny on him. I decided to set up a shot with him as my main focus and try to add some humor. His shirt was actually yellow and was mixed with earth tones, but a little Photoshop work could easily solve that problem.

Anyways, I shot a bunch of photos and did a bit of post production work to a few and gave them to the Senior Editor. The "Dream Crusher" didn't really see the humor that myself and the other fellow workers in my office found, so in the end it was shelved for a pretty boring and somewhat tacky (in my opinion) shot with cheap party store props. Oh well, it still brings back memories.