Insert witty title here.

Shot some portraits of Pat for a Japanese magazine.

Traveled to lovely Upland, CA for the launch of Dennis Busenitz's new shoe at Utility.

Gary Headlock.

Fucking impostor Deli Zone in Upland. They were closed like most everything else on a Sunday.
The best observation came from Amy when she asked why the same lifted truck was cruising the street. Then she realized that everyone has almost identical lifted trucks. We still wondered what they were all doing cruising the streets.

Art show in Portland.

House warming party for Steve and Cynthia. Careful what you eat.

Party Lovejoy was there. Quote of the night - "How did you guys meet? Adult friend finder?"

Summer evening at the bluffs.

What could we do with a discarded piano?

Skate it!

Same-day blogging. Fuck yeah internet!

The Big Crapple

I made the trek to NYC for Back to the Banks and Manny Mania. It amazes me how late everyone in New York stays out. I would be a complete pile of shit if the bars stayed open until 4 or later. It's not often that I hear last call these days but it's always a reminder that I should get home and go to bed. When that happens a couple hours later, that's ridiculous. My camera didn't make it out of my pocket as much as it should have. One of the major undocumented occurrences was seeing my old friend Tom Gilmour. Further weekend plans to meet up with Tom were spoiled by trying to pack too much into a short stay. Next time Tom! In summary, I saw a lot of skating, I pushed around the city a lot, drank some expensive cheap beers, stole Pat's bed, saw old friends, and went to a nice part of New Jersey (which I didn't know existed).

Pat's self inflicted mullet.

Fucking Yuji was there! That was a nice surprise upon arrival. The fact that he and 3 other Japanese dudes were staying at Pat's was not a nice surprise.

Just play where's Waldo with Yuji's hand. Nice work!

So many kids at Back to the Banks.

Benny signing autographs.

My new best friend.

Me and a bridge curtesy of Pat Smith.

This is a miss of a rad trick that Yuji was trying. I got the real deal on film.

Statue of Liberty = Freedom.

We came across these bagpipers while skating by Wall St. I was wondering what the fuck it was all about. It was a wedding procession! Damn.

Zach Lyons.

Zach and his homie Bobby.

Manny Mania!

Tim with awesome grip art.

Guest shots by Pat of our friends eating ice cream. First up, Mark Weeks.

Jerry Mraz.

Doug Shoemaker.

Game of skate with the weirdest tricks by the Japanese crew.

Out into the cuts of New Jersey with the O'Connor family.

Stefan likes No Comment.

No Comment and Diesel.

Time for a swim.

Tim has pirate ship with a mock crucifixition on it.

Japanese crew's last night to party.

Bonus shot - the one photo I took during my 24 hours in LA for the Transworld awards.

Since you've been home.

Back to summertime weather in Portland. This is what makes those grey, rainy, winter days worth it.

BB gun target.

Fill them up with water and shoot til it's all gone.

I wish I had a witty Toledo reference for this photo.

More bad tattoo ideas.

One-man assault vehicle Silas put on a demonstration of how to properly destroy the ramp. Back tail.

Vegetation in your trucks? Keep skating.

Benihana? He's got that.

Europe part 3

And finally to Berlin. I haven't been able to pinpoint what it was that I liked so much about Berlin. The city has a great feel to it, the locals are friendly, I could get by with my almost non-existent grasp of German, and there are skate spots all over. Maybe that sums it up right there. Those in our crew familiar with the city said it's one of the cheapest places to live in Europe but very difficult to find a job. We all stayed in one apartment building with a cafe out front and a communal courtyard through a hallway from the street. Mornings were spent getting coffee at the cafe and rallying the crew.
Another thing that I like is the vast amount of history and what the city has been through. It's interesting to contrast the remnants of the old East Berlin with the new, modern Berlin. And as a North American whose country has seen very little war on its soil, walking through a park that has a huge, old bomb crater in the center is mind bottling.
I know that I'll be visiting Berlin again. And hopefully I can do some tourist stuff and not have to drive the whole time so I can take in more of the sights.

Playing soccer in the courtyard.

Silas and Rune.

This is one of the main skate spots in Berlin. Apparently they don't mind skaters as long as it's past 6pm and they are closed. This spot has pretty much everything. Although on the night we were there they were setting up for movie so we couldn't skate all there was and eventually they kicked us out before the movie was set to start.

But now worries because around the corner is this awesome spot also with no hassles.

The next day it rained so everyone caught up on sleep, work, or drinking (or some combination of that). But later in the day we were able to talk the guys at Skatehalle into a private session. The park is really fun if you ever get a chance to skate there.

Back by the apartments Torsten was getting artsy in the streets.

Interesting neighborhood graffiti.

More awesome German beer. I had this at the great spätzel place.

Weird dog costumes in this German tabloid.

The same magazine also had this article about Obama products in Germany including fried chicken and this golden dildo.

Rune was pretty much the trip mascot.

Maxim showed us around one day. Thanks dude!

This spot was really fun and had a little skatepark just around the corner where I put in some time.

More German beer!

We went to skate this spot but discovered that the school had recently added those crappy grey cobble stones over there on the left ruining the landing for the ledges.

Contest day at Skatehalle.

Silas had a nice trick for this spot but the construction on the street kept more action from happening.

Another fun ledge spot. That is our guide for the day Yannick about to do something rad out of a tailslide.

Off to this interesting spot.

Someone said that Neil's sock/shoe combo looked like Christmas.

Those squares on the left are trampolines. I had the most fun on those.

Jody and Mick.

Premiere 3 at the Skatehalle. Nestor joined in after a trip through Eastern Europe.

Late night session at the €2 photobooth.

The Berlin TV tower. It seems like every city in Germany has one of these.

Petr liked this spot.

Just in case you need something that is really big.

Last spot of the trip. Everyone had something good for this.

Leaving Berlin.

This is the old Communist main street. It looked amazing from the street level but I was too busy driving to snap a picture.

The mountains of Greenland.

Almost home.

End.

Europe part 2

Next stop, Barcelona. A land of cafés con leche, bocadillos, a very relaxed sense of time, siestas, and amazing skate spots. This is also where Pete, Silas, Tim, and Dave joined our crew.

Waiting for the train from the airport, Lem keeps watch on the bags.

Long hallway connecting various trains.

The second premiere of Diagonal was setup by Barcelona local Marcos Gomez. Between the train stop and the theater we encountered this famous skate spot.

Dave breaks down the workings of Silas's new camera.

Tim and Silas enjoy some complimentary Estrella Damms.

Pete holed up.

After the premiere, Chewy took us on a crazy route to this bar.

They were playing a skate video so we were all captivated.

Our hotel was right up the street from Sants so every day started with a meet up and warm up here.

Dennis had no problem laying this down to start the day.

Tim has these on lock.

We took the train out to a new spot lead by Raul. Matt found a very scenic place to piss.

There was a trike rally going on. They had a couple of kegs and invited us to join in the party.

Lem posed a benihana for the cameras.

Dave and Torsten getting the sick angles.

And the crowd loved it.

These guys chilled.

While these guys played skate.

Back in the city we spent some time at this spot.

You may remember this spot from Diego's ollie or Jeremy Wray's backside 180.

This is how far Lem ollied to see if he could make the real gap.

Tim warming up at this ledge.

Photo angles while these guys sat in the hot sun.

Steep banks at the HO.

Double set ollie by Silas to warm up.

Tim and Dennis take in the action.

What's he going to do?

Raul keeping up on the futbol skills.

Lem landed one and went back for another but his board wasn't up to it.

Dave had some pent up energy after shooting photos all day and let it out with some Tennis.

The crew off to a pizza party. Although Jody will claim that it wasn't "real" pizza.

Rune likes the new shoes.

Lem.

Silas about to throw down while Dave and Torsten get the angles.

Chilling at the Parallel.

Interesting signage.

Rune thinking his stroller is a backpack.

Early morning train ride to the airport.

Silas came to Barcelona straight from a China trip so he needed to catch some Zs.

See you in Berlin.

Europe Part 1

The airline miles can now start to rack up. A work trip to Europe for the premiere of the European team video Diagonal with the added bonus of bringing most of our pro team, shooting a TWS article, and having the guys skate in the adidas Clash in Berlin. With stops in Stuttgart, Germany; Barcelona, Spain; and Berlin, Germany; it's needless to say we had a blast. I'll let you all know right now that Berlin was my favorite stop on the trip. There's just something about that city.
In an effort to break up all the pictures I'll do this in 3 parts. The first is the trip there and Stuttgart.

North Portland skyline.

Flight path.

Early morning glaciers of Greenland.

Arriving in Germany I did my best to adjust to local time by staying awake as long as possible and being completely out of it while having Jascha show me around. First stop, the skate museum. Finally got my copy of Made for Skate.

The town centerpiece of Stuttgart.

The German trains are very efficient.

Stuttgart's new street-style park. It has a ripping bowl too.

Dennis and Rune.

The next day was supposed to be rainy so we took a trip to adidas world headquarters in Herzogenaurach and got the grand tour.

Taking advantage of the world class soccer pitch.

Dennis did a sliding/kicking move to score a goal and caught some metal in the ground that usually holds the goal post.

And he left a little chunk of his leg on the field.

Rune and Adi Dassler.

Lots of Unimogs!

I took this picture for Verg.

The next day was nice and we skated around Stuttgart. The guys call this park the Whore Skatepark because it's in the red light district.

Neil, JuJu, Seb, some locals, and Lem at the park.

Torsten disappeared only to show up multiple floors up in the parking garage for sick angles of the park.

Random German cowboy.

Julia in front of our hotel.

I tried to get shots of all the interesting German beers I drank.

Matt Irving and the best emailer in the world, Vivien Feil.

The crew prior to the premiere.

I saw this board and, wow.

Skate Museum preparty.

Torsten and Jascha about to give a speech about the video.

Packed house.

Lem is into handbags.

Matt and Neil.

I introduced Vivien to the concept of a wingman but being a skate event there were only about 5 girls in attendance. Vivien is now in America tasting the freedom.

Günes, Raul, JuJu, and Seb.

This early in the night turns into...

This later in the night.

Germans love meat.

This thing is right next a rad park.

Everyone sessioned the 3 up 3 down so long that it rained on the park before we could skate.

So off to the indoor park.

Dennis really tapping into his German heritage.

They match...

Croisant and Latte for Matt before heading off to Barcelona.

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Don't be mad that we're having more fun than you

A lot of fun has happened in the last few days. Maybe it was the warm weather foreshadowing what summer is soon to bring. Maybe it was having Pat visit with Maryland natives and Pitcrew reppers Mark and Cory. Whatever it was I'm not arguing with it because my stomach is hurting from laughing and my head is aching from a hangover. And if this is what the summer of 2009 holds then let's keep it going. There are enough bars in Portland that we can't get kicked out of all of them.

The Mean Jeans played on first Thursday.

We showed up with a crew and immediately got rowdy. There is a lot of awesome happening here. Just take it all in.

Friday evening BarnBQ. Good times having a ripping ramp session.

A montetarily inspired challenge presented itself. Some cash on the line to drink the water from the cigarette butt dish from the porch.

Looks like cancer in a glass.

Almost $100 was ponied up.

And Curtis took the whole thing down.

He tried to rid himself of the nastiness.

But this is all he got.

Saturday we got invited to Windell's to skate while our friend Jamie Weller poured a concrete bowl on the end of his excitebike track.
They have a foam pit! And Derek can do flips.

There are a couple outdoor bowls.

And some dirt jumps.

Check the footy of the bowl sesh below.

On the way home we stopped off to show Mark and Cory this amazing spot that is unskatable. Mark pissed on it.

Pat has been back in Brooklyn for too long.

I have a fun game to play with Mark. It's called hit the send button on his phone while he's in the middle of a text message.
This is moments after the bartender told Mark to get his act together.

Back to Chopsticks again. Guess what? They didn't like us, again.

The DJ told us to tone it down and act like civilized humans. All because we were dancing along to people's karaoke songs. This is the toned down, civilized dance. They were acting like it was the movie Footloose up in the bar.

That dance quickly progressed into the zombie dance. They really didn't like the zombie dance.

Just look how angry that dude on the right is. This is just before he physically pushed most of the crew out of the bar.

So let's take it up the street to Red Flag.
That bar needs to post some rules.
They don't like when you do this at that bar.

Don't play with their tiger cutout.

Don't play with balloons shaped like numbers.

Definitely don't wear a wolf mask you find on a table.

And they really hate when you wear a cat mask.
Any of combination of these will get you kicked out or physically thrown out by your shirt by the female bartender.

Let's try one more bar...
But first Pat will climb a tree.

At least the masks were smuggled out of Red Flag.

Pat really likes the local flora.

This may be funnier in a you-had-to-be-there-way. Pat couldn't find his hat after vacating the shrub. In the dark they couldn't find it but it's really clear in the photo where his hat is.

You really can pick your friend's nose.

Going to this bar was like the end of Footloose where they get to have the dance at the building that is just outside the city limits.

Tree number 2 for Pat.

This was the only thing at the last bar that bummed out the bartender. She came outside and in a really disappointed tone told us to get our friend out of the tree.

Now I'm off to Europe for this: