boring...

Sorry, I know I haven't updated this thing in a while. It's winter, alright. There is snow on the ground, and I can't really photograph a dark skatepark without any flashes. I'm still waiting on my insurance money so I can purchase new battery packs, as well as pocket wizards for my strobes. I suppose I could shoot snowboarding during the day by using a sequence, and it just so happens that a good friend of mine, Matt Bujok, is in town. He snowboards, and I could shoot it during the day, but nothing has been planned out.

Anyways, as a quick update normally goes, there isn't much to talk about. Hopefully soon when I get some insurance money, I'll be able to purchase some gear to start shooting, and get some photos up here.

Since I just wasted 2 minutes of your life, get them back by heading over to my buddy's skateshop website to see what's new with the shop team, and product wise.

Click Here to go to the website.

Every Skater's Dream

I was in class, and thought that this video would bring a smile to some skaters out there.

Click Here to see the video

New Beginning

Trevor Nedea - Nollie Tre Flip

I am back in the game with some new camera gear. As some of you may know, I switched from Canon, to Nikon. Anyways, the above image was the official first sequence shot with the new camera, as well as my first sequence ever shot. Still waiting on my insurance to come in from my old camera gear, which reminds me, I need to call that lady back!

Anyways, I'm hoping with this gear, it will allow me to do much more with my photography, since my old camera couldn't shoot 9 frames a second.

out of the bag

Well, I was trying to keep it a small deal, and hoping that not a lot of people would know, or at least find out..but now apparently, the entire Fanshawe Campus knows, all of my family knows, all of my parent's and brother's friends know, and all of my friends now know, so it's not really that quiet anymore.

Anyways, if you aren't in the loop, about 2 weeks ago, all of my camera gear was stolen. Yeah, not cool. The years of saving, and updating are now gone. I do, however, still have my plastic Holga with 1 roll of 120 film left. I also lost both of my laptops which had a shit load of school work on it.

Luckily, my gear is covered by my insurance, and so I'm simply waiting on the money so I can buy the gear again.

I was originally shooting with Canon, but with the cheque coming soon, I hope, I will be switching to Nikon. I'm hoping with this new gear, I can get back to some solid skateboard photography. Plus, with the new Camera, I'll be able to shoot sequences, which will make things a lot easier if I'm in a lazy mood. The change was not hard to do either due to some great advice from another photographer (Thanks a bunch Worona!) who I also think is very under-rated for his quality of work.

Even though by the time I get the gear, the weather will be shitty, it will give me time to get adjusted to Nikon, as well as some other toys I plan on getting. (It is impossible to find another Bronica SQ fisheye, and I can't afford a Hassy)

Yeah, new gear is on the way I hope though. As Big Black once said..."The Future is Lookin' Bright!"

The Joys of shopping

This is what my credit card will have to endure once I get the money. All my photo gear was jacked and I was lucky enough to be covered. This will only cover a portion of the gear I had stolen. Cool.

Drag can be stylish

During a session at London's Central 3 set, AJ decided to warm up with a kickflip. Normally AJ has his kickflips dialed and would land it first try. This wasn't the case. He fell somewhat badly 3 times in a row. So as either punishment, comedy, or sheer desperation, he decided to tuck the bottom of his shirt through the neck, to give it that "look". Anyways, he landed the kickflip 1st try once his shirt was in it's "special" way. Maybe he should consider keeping his shirts that way when skating...hell, it may even become the next skinny jeans, or potato sack pants phase.

Dave can Backside Flip

Yeah, Dave has solid backside flips. They are popped excessively high, and have excessive amounts of style. Anyways, here's a recent shot from when we skated The Red Brick 8 set. Personally, I hate it, but these kids can rip it to shit!

burr

With the fall weather coming in, and the lovely colours that are starting to form around the city, London has a lot to offer in terms of "artistic" shots. I won't be shooting those until my new battery comes in. Gotta love paying $320 for a battery. These photos were shot a few weeks ago when my heel was wrecked. I'm back to skating though after 2 and half weeks of not standing on a board and barely walking. 

 

Dave Hn...something er other with a Backside Flip (sorry Dave, your last name is impossible to remember)
 Jay Chesterman with a Nollie Shuv

I don't know if I ever posted this photo. I know I meant to at one point only because it is a trick over a person. That's always a fresh idea. But of course, nothing will compare to Mike-Mo's Switch Flip over Malto. Nate's kickflip over Juan in this photo took 2 tries. Hearing stories of Mike-Mo, I'm sure his was first try.

My New Home

 These are the homies
 Dave Ayres doin 360 Flips every try in the mini ramp
 Jay Chesterman - Pop Shuv down the Bell 12
 This is the worst skatepark ever made (Although the mini is there)
Here is Dave doin a large ollie over Ian
 Dave also has a lot of pop in his Back 180s

I know I haven't updated this in a while, but the internet at my place is weird when it comes to uploading pics onto this. Anyways, the deal is that since I'm living in London, I have had some time to shoot some pics, as well as have a blast skating. 

College is going well, although it seems that I already know the majority of the work that has been handed out. 

I recently had a dumbass injury where I bruised my heel while being "somewhat" intoxicated at a friends house. I'm not going to say how it happened since it was rather stupid. You will have to ask my neighbours. Anyways, long story short, I have a very seriously bruised heel, and I'll be off my board for a minimum a week. Which isn't too bad, but it could have been avoided.

Anyways, hopefuly I'll be able to update this with new pics as often as possible. Stop by from time to time.

sorry about that

yeah, for a little while I didn't know my Google account to sign in to this thing, so I haven't been able to update for a loooooong time. Okay, here is the summary of my ware-abouts.

I was skating with the homies all summer, and working 55 hours a week infront of a computer screen for Apple. I have since quit that job and gone to college. I'm not living in London, and taking the photography course at Fanshawe College. It's awesome, I have great roommates that are definitely chill. My classes right now aren't too hard, but I'm sure that will become very different with time. 

Where I'm living, there is a bunch of skaters that are super cool. I'm with a tight krew of skate homies. Jay, AJ, and others. Vic Park every other day is awesome. I'll see if I can get my footy from Jay to post on here soon. I haven't really had time to search the city for any skate spots, but the guys that basically live here wanna show me around to see what could be thrown down. 

My actual roommates, Sam, Andrea, Isabelle, and Jeron are a great bunch of people with very different personalities (especially when they are drunk) but it makes it for a great environment to live in.

I have been shooting a fair amount of pics recently, and I will try to post them as often as possible. I haven't shot anything yet here in London, but I have big plans very soon.

Sorry again for the length without an update...I'll try my best to get about 3 or 4 posts a week.

Temporarily Back..

I have the internet back! Well, this is due to the skateshop has an internet connection that can be stolen from one of the stores. Anyways, there hasn't been much going on lately, but the other night we went to the states and hit up the Sunday Ledge spot. Here are some photos from the night.

No update for a bit

I won't be able to do any photo updates for a little while due to something that is somewhat beyond my control. Normally I do all my work on my laptop through wireless internet that I was stealing from my neighbour. As of the past week or so, I haven't been able to get a connection, so I haven't been able to upload any photos. I have the photos on my external hard drive, but my external is linked to my laptop, which is a Mac, and not my PC in my basement, which is, well, not a Mac. So transferring it, would mean re-formatting the external hard drive, in-turn wiping everything out. I don't want that. So in hopes that my next door neighbour will soon turn on his internet, or do something that will allow me to get a connection again, then I'm kinda stuck to my PC for internet, which sucks.

In some recent good news, I have found a new home in London. The place is really nice, and it is right across the street from my college, so it will make for a nice, easy commute back and forth to school with a ton of camera gear. Once I get settled in, and I figure everything out that needs to be done, I'm hoping I can have a few people stay some nights where I will have time off on the next day. This way we can go shred up Western, or Vic Park if someone so chooses to do so.

I know London is a party city, but luckily, since I'm taking the photography course, I feel I will want to stay concentrated more on my studies then a beer bottle. But then of course, there will be those times where the beer bottle will be a great thing to have.

Anyways, I'll wrap this up for now. Let's hope I get my wireless back soon!

Which one, which one

Recently, a few of the guys got together and had a nice generator session at some simple set. Laid down some bondo to fix the crack right before the set, then while it settled we got warmed up, and set up the lights. Started skating, almost got kicked out, but Trevor and I are very sneaky when it comes to getting the boot. Anyways, I got the tricks I wanted to land somewhat quickly, so I decided to shoot some pics. There were a bunch of photos taken, and I was easily able to choose which ones I would post. (not on here though) Just these 2 shots of Trevor Nedea doin a switch kickflip down the set. I shot it in 2 different ways, a long exposure to get the ghost trails, and the stock frozen shot. I am not too sure which one to choose, so I will just show both of them,

You can decide...

Go Skate Day

Yup, it's coming up! I am very excited for this year to see what gnarly tricks will be thrown down. I will be photographing the event that is hosted by AG. Unfortunately, since I have a full time job, I will be working that day. I will be off at 4:30, so this way by the time I get to the spot, everyone should be warmed up, and ready to shred hard. This way I can get right to shooting pics. I hope everyone can make it out this year. Also I hope the weather co-operates since we have been getting nothing but rain and thunderstorms the past 2 weeks. Let's just hope that everything will go over without a hitch....

so sick of the skatepark

I am really getting sick of skating the park. I always wanna go street skating, but the kids always prefer to go to the park.  can understand because all the spots in Niagara Falls suck, and any spots that are decent are filled with tourists at this time, so they are unskatable. The park is a good refuge for times where you can't think of any spots to skate. The thing is, this is why they created bondo, bolt cutters, and sawz-alls. TO FIX SPOTS that aren't skatable. This was the last photo I took at the skatepark. Hopefully it will stay that way for the rest of the summer.

enough....

This was after 3 hours of skating in super insanely, freakish, humid heat. Steve was doing the bs flip over the gold bar at the park. His last attempt was right before this pic was taken. Sunburns, and slamming on your back when it's dirty is not fun

slow down

sorry, I have been insanely busy the past 2 weeks. First the Austin, Texas trip, and then the second i get in the door, I wash my clothes that I wore in Texas, put them back into the duffle bag, and I went up north for a few days with the guys. We call it a "fishing trip" but it is more of a drink, and get stoned trip...considering I am the only one who goes fishing, with the occasional time my brother will go out. So anyways, just to ensure I haven't fallen off the face of the planet, I felt it would be good if I alerted the media on my where-abouts.

Here's a shot of Lorne doing a kickflip on this bank that is kinda fun to skate. He has done fakie FS flips on it, as well as tre flips, but the wind this day was intense...it ended up knocking one of my flashes over (no harm done).

First photo

Finally got my new camera in, and was able to go skating with it for the first time. Matt Mongeri did this front board to pop my camera's cherry (his profession is cherry popping)

Day 5 & 6 in Texas

Same things happened, woke up, had an awesome breakfast, went to Apple for a few hours where we did nothing, ate lunch, went back upstairs, said our goodbyes to Tier 2, and then left the building.

We did a little bit of shopping afterwards (sorry Zach, I couldn't find any spurs all week) and then went to the hotel. I wanted to film a spot, but kept getting kicked out. I went back a bit later, and there was an SUV in the way, and so, I went around just getting lost, and ended up running into Lucas at a Radio Shack. We later went to the grocery store, and bought 2 pounds of Filet Mignons, and some potatoes with a ton of spices, and seasonings for cooking. I did the fillets and potatoes on the BBQ next to the pool, and it was a damn good meal. After the meal, I went upstairs, got my gear together, and went to the spot...the SUV finally moved, and I was able to start filming. It took me a few tries, and luckily I didn't get kicked out, and I finally rode away 2 times (one was sketchy) so I was hyped. Grabbed my gear and went back to the hotel, and got drunk.

The next morning, we all slept in, except for me, I am always an early bloomer. Got the free breakfast, and after breakfast, decided to take a final skate around the city. Skated in different directions, getting lost, then finding my way back to the hotel. This went on for about 2 hours. Went back tot he hotel, got my shower, and packed up. We met up downstairs at anout 10:30, and went to the airport for 11. We got everything together, and decided to get something to eat. I had a burger from this place that had a super high pitch noise coming from the speakers, which people under 30 can only hear. I had the worst headache from it, and it sucked. After eating, it was a 15 minute wait until boarding started. We got on our plane, and it sucked because where Robyne and I were sitting, there was a foreign family that STANK so badly, and their kid would not shut up! Luckily that flight was only 3 and a half hours from Texas to New York.

The next flight was from New York to Buffalo, and it was a short flight, but luckily, we were no where near this foreign family, so no annoying child, or horrible smell. After landing, our limo driver was waiting for us inside, and he had the sign, kind of like how celebrities are, or you see it in movies. It felt pretty sweet!

After getting our luggage and going tot he limo, we went to the duty free, and picked up some booze, and I picked up some cigarellos. I am now addicted. 

Made it home, to find a lovely package waiting for me. My camera came in! A great ending to the Austin, Texas trip provided by Minacs. I hope to win it again!

Day 4 in Texas

Again, I didn't shoot any pics today...Just chilled through out the day at work...didn't do too much. After work, I went out skating, and came back about an hour later completely drenched in sweat...it was gross.

Anyways...it was a simple day, ended it off by meeting some cool people from around America who were staying in the same hotel, and had somewhat the same job...but only they worked for "yellowbook" which is the same thing basically as the Yellow Pages. 

I got drank a bunch of Coronas and got drunk with some good people. I can't go into the pool due to my new tattoo...but that's ok, it is well worth it.

Tomorrow is our flight back :( I love it here, and I really want to stay. Hopefully one day I can return back here, and see if I can move to Austin. It is beautiful.

In other stories...I found a somewhat large drop by our hotel at some grocery store. I plan on hitting it a bit later tonight when it isn't too busy at the grocery store, because you get booted super quick down here.

Good ol tripod will be filming it, and hopefully I will land it for some footy for the next video. See everyone either Saturday night, or on Sunday.

Day 3 in Texas

Well, today I didn't bring my camera around with me, only because I was, and am getting sick of carrying it around. I've basically already shot everything I could. So today I brought my video camera around for filming my skateboarding...a great man known as Billy T Tripod was filming my tricks. Anyway, the day started like any other. Woke up at 7:30, went to the breakfast buffet and got my usual pancakes, waffles, eggs, and of course, my 4 cups of coffee. After breakfast, I did some skating around the parking lot before "work" and within 5 minutes I was sweating beyond belief. Anyways, at work, we just did our usual thing where we wonder around, and watch the "Tier 2" agents do some work, and once they go on their breaks, we go to our computers and answer 1 or 2 emails, and then go get our lunch. Do that till 2, then go home, get everything we need from our rooms, and Don King (not the black guy with the crazy hair. The Apple Austin site manager) brought us to some crazy cave which had some very interesting caverns and little trails and stuff. To be honest, I really do wish I brought my camera and a tripod along with me, but I guess that's live and learn. Once the cave tours were done, we went to a crazy outlet mall that is just weird since there isn't a spot of dirt on the ground, infact, all of Austin is like that, it seems weird. Anyways, I am starting to get off topic. Okay, so while at this mall, I was looking for some sunglasses since I need a pair badly, but I dont want to spend more then $40, even $40 is absolutely insane to pay for sunglasses. Anyways, after searching around some stores, and Kiosks, the cheapest pair of sunglasses that appealed to me, were $110. FUCK THAT!!! haha. I will never pay that much for sunglasses. So after wondering around for a bit, I came across the Vans outlet store, where I was finally able to buy my Vans classic slip ones in black and white. They were $20 cheaper here then in Canada, so right away I picked them up. 

After the mall, we went back to our hotel room, and I decided not to go out this time, I went out skating around my hotel, and there are some really decent spots! Robyne and Lucas went out with some tier 2 agents, but I just wasn't feeling it since I can't drink in public in the states. I skated for a few hours, and my undershirt was 100% covered in sweat. I should have taken a picture of it to prove it was soaked.

Anyways, I had a quick shower then it was off to bed for Day 4 of our trip.

Day 2 in Texas - Part 4

We got our work stations set-up, but only had time to take some photos at them. Once we took some photos, we ended up "shadowing" the higher-ups, AKA Tier 2 (we go to them if we dont know the answer to an email)

Lucas at his work station

Jimmy at his work station...mine looked the same as his

Robyne at hers...

I bought this in the cafeteria...it was soaked in grease, but it was sooo friggen good

We ate it in the sun...it actually made the food hotter sine it was super warm that day

Continued in part 5

Day 2 in Texas - Part 3

They gave us a tour of the place, but as I said earlier, I'm not going to post too many photos from the tour since it's a privacy issue...but here are some cool things about working with Apple.

elevators at work...for only 2 floors....

sweet posters with dope photos on them all around the site. This one is actually one of my favourites

Here is Guy setting up my computer, and my account

Here is guy working...well, kind of working

They have a cafeteria there, with a ton of different food. It's super chill there.

Continued in part 4

Day 2 in Texas - Part 2

We showed up, and this is the Austin site. Its soo incredibly nice. I seriously want to move here, since Austin is so nice. Maybe in a few years...this way I'll be able to leave Niagara since Niagara sucks big time! I won't be posting many pics of inside the building due to privacy issues, but I will tell stories and whatnot.

Receptionist area

Yeah, they have a FULL gym in the building...This photo doesn't even show the full gym, no where near it.

Blood pressure machine...heck, you are bound to get at least 1 annoying customer that you want to kick in the nut sack

The break room...yeah, a sick pool table, pinball machine, and behind me were a bunch of vending machines

That neon light is basically from when Apple was first created...it's an antique, and it still works...if you are an Apple fan, you basically must be drooling over this pic

Continued in part 3

Day 2 in Texas - Part 1

Day 2 started out like any other day at a hotel before we went to the Austin site for Apple and whatnot. The site is about a 10 minute drive from our hotel, so we don't have to wake up too early. Plus Don King (site Manager) doesn't really mind what time we show up since he knows it's kind of a vacation, rather then a business trip.

Breakfast is free, but it's a good, hot breakfast. I had a waffle, eggs, pancakes, toast, and good ol coffee, which for some strange reason, tasted like Tim Horton's coffee.

Lucus was mowin so much food. Here he is enjoying chocolate milk, which I thought tasted horrible (and chocolate milk is my favourite drink)

Jimmy wasn't too sure on what was going on....

Robyne was in need of a smoke and ate her food fairly fast.

We arrived at our new work for the week

Continued in part 2..