I'm useless

Since I'm pretty horrible with updating this blog, you should follow Eloise instead.

She makes the effort to post VERY regular updates, and makes for an interesting read.

I have been updating the Not That Mobile on the regular, so maybe check that out also.

And finally, for my last piece of information. Here is a photo of Shanrah dressed as an elf for an ElfQuest movie she is a part of. Here ears have grown quite a bit since I last saw her over 666mas.

Not even a real update.

I wanted a place to put all my Blackberry photos so I setup this. It will replace the mobile uploads folder on facebook. Updates will still be made to this blog once in a while.

I have also setup a Twitter account, which basically means I read Chris Rock talking about how many babes 50Cent has following him. Its not as bad as it sounds.

PS. If you click on the individual post titles, you can then 'like' the post of facebook, I'm that technical.

Workers and Supervisors

A school in the mountains somewhere.

Manual.

featuring myself at Trafalgar while on a Scum Valley sleepover.

Photo taken by my baby cousin.

Sam Illman

with a barspin not worthy of filming, featuring Cooper Brownlee.

Interpol

At the Palace, 7th January.

They seemed more happy as a band than when I saw them play 5 years ago.

Nothing beats Turn On The Bright Lights, even though Interpol is growing on me.

Losers

blowing it 24/7.

Moc Loc Tour

Since I've been in Scum Valley looking after Dad and visiting people, Luke, Rob and Nick came and visited and to shred some local parks.

Rob had a new board. It should be noted he was the only one not riding a creature board and wearing vans and dickies.

As well as coming to a few skateparks, I gave them a tour of the local sights. This is luke finding out where electricity comes from.

The local culinary delights did not go unnoticed as Nick quite enjoyed his George's hamburger.

I don't really mess around on a skateboard too much anymore, but it should be known that despite the rust, I've still got some tricks in the bag.

Working in his new indys. NIck was hyped on the grind mark progress.

Glare at the camera with a cigarette in his mouth, TAF!!!! (tough as fuck)

Moments before death.

Lurkers at Neerim South

The old dudes on Charlie Dont Skate only wish they looked this tough in the bowl.

I'm pretty sure this photo and the next were straight after each other, after Nick had got speed in the bowl.

But the change in cars in the back ground and Luke and Rob standing in different positions make me question it.

We finished up at La Porchetta where Rob smashed down his pizza and there was only one person in the place who knew how to use the cash register.

See you never.

Merry 666mas

(I'm back, Lauren bought me a new camera for XXXmas)

So my Dad crashed his motorcycle 3 days before Xmas. For someone that came off at a shade below 100km an hour, he is doing pretty well. This was taken on Xmas eve, and that is his efforts at a smile. A few broken bones, lots of bruising and some other issues though nothing life threatening or permanent.

After leaving Dad in hospital, I spent Xmas eve at the Wakefield's house, which they have now sold. This is Steph with her horse and Shan's friend from the US who is here doing some conservation type stuff.

Its crazy the stuff people post on the internet, and if you're from the area and have done something dodgy on the internet, chances are we looked at it. A bit cruel, but hilarious either way.

After opening a few presents, we went visiting for breakfast. The scrambled eggs were nice.

We had a quick lunch at Nanna and Grandpas before heading back to the city to get Dad as he had talked the doctors into letting him out for a bit before we take him back on Thursday for some tests and an operation or two. This is my cousin Shaun, with Grandpa hiding under his arm.

New York

New York is the best. I don't even need to explain why.

Las Vegas

Las Vegas is a genuine shithole, but we'll get to that.

I got up early to get the car from the rental place around the corner from Shan's. I love it when people do the upsell, so we ended up with a bigger 4wd than what was booked, which fit into the LA stereotype quite well. I went back to the house to get Lauren and say out goodbyes to Shan, before picking up Lyss and Christina from their hostel.

The drive to Las Vegas from LA is very straight forward and on the biggest highway I have ever seen. Its pretty desolate out there, but the mountains and scenery are pretty impressive. Much more impressive than you would expect from a desert.

Along the way are two towns that exist purely to sell you discounted whatever. Its like a massive DFO in the desert that sells EVERYTHING, but all of it is garbage so I only bought a pair of vans I would have bought elsewhere anyway. I asked one of the girls at the second one that we went to, where everyone lives that works at these places and she said they either live at the casino next door(which has a rollercoaster!) or they drive up from Las Vegas. Living in the casino and working at these malls would make any sane person go crazy, which is probably why this girl at the store was having trouble filling the retail position she had advertised in the window.

Despite how much of a hell hole Vegas is, arriving was pretty impressive. Even though we had seen everything in movies and photos 1000 times before, its that much more exciting seeing it for yourself. We drove the strip and took a heap of photos before ending up at our hotel.

Gambling and drinking with the worst of American's doesn't interest me, so I was happy to be heading to Interbike for a day. Interbike was exactly as I expected. So many bikes and parts to look at, pros to fan out about and then the stories from those living the Vegas nightlife to entertain us all. The best booth was the Skavenger/Animal one with Mike Brennan working the floor and the best New York street dudes hanging out. They also had a ridiculous amount of stickers to put in your show bags, so I was set.

The photo above is me with Robbie Morales. I'd met him before previously at Flem Banks when he was here with Fit, but I have a lot of respect for the guy so got a photo with him to confirm it. And if anyone cares, my alliance is with Cult. Cult will be the biggest and best bmx company in two years time, they've got their products dialled, the best team in the business and enough hype to get it across the line.

At our hotel we had a rollercoaster on the roof, and after eating way too much italian we paid the $14US to ride it. I can't stand spinning rides, but rollercoasters are the best. This one had a loop and also a cork screw, so it was pretty exciting.

I also went to Nora cup where everyone got WILD!!! You'll see footage of it on the internet, the main thing you should take note of is Chris Doyle being carried to the stage for winning best dirt rider. Bmx parties always get loose in Australia, so it was good to see that the same thing happens in the US.

The one Vegas tourist thing I liked is the dancing fountains at some hotel which I can't remember the name of. Its on the left if you're walking up from New York, New York anyway. THAT WAS AWESOME!! It sounds lame, and even trying to explain it is just as bad, but water dancing to music is the best thing about Vegas.

We flew out to New York super early on a Friday after only 3 days in Vegas, which was probably almost too long to be there. Only go to Vegas if you want to spend the whole time drunk, or if your boss is paying for you to attend a trade show.

(I used pretty alot in the above, I'm aware of this)

COVER JUNKIE

COVERJUNKIE.COM has a HUGGGEEEE!! archive of magazine covers, mainly fashion related though I haven't been through too much of it to see what else hides in there.

Nike SB Janoski Mid

Due in 2011. FUCKING YES!!!!!!!!

Los Angeles

We started off our America trip in Los Angeles, staying at Shanrah's house in West Hollywood. For the first couple of days, Shan was off in Italy so we had full use of her bedroom and car to explore. Everyone hates on LA, but we both found it great, I think the fact that we had a car and had researched what we wanted to do made it alot better.

Fairfax is the street which has Supreme, HUF, Diamond, FLight Club and The Hundreds on it. There was a Diamond X Blvck Scale release on the day we were there so all the street wear dudes were dressed up in their best outfits. I was excited to visit the HUF store as for some reason I have a slight obsession with it, even though there is nothing that really makes it stand out from every other 'high end' street wear brands.

After going out to some club just off Hollywood Blvd the night before, Lauren and I went riding along Venice beach down past Santa Monica Pier. Its really foggy in LA in the morning and night so the views weren't perfect, but it was very relaxing and good to turn some pedals.

The photo above was taken just past Santa Monica Pier and is where Ruben did his wallride in the last Etnies video. Riding a bike along the beach seems boring as shit, though it was probably one of the better things we did while in LA.

Shan came back from Italy that night so I went to the airport and picked her up while Lauren and the girls went to an expensive restaurant where 'celebrities go'. Shan has been doing the LA thing for a little while so it was good to hang out with her in her now natural surroundings.

The following day was spent at Disneyland which is most definitely, 100 percent the happiest place on earth. I wasn't too excited for it, but Lauren and Shan got me hyped and we ran around the park all day like little kids. The lines weren't super long and we got to go on everything we wanted to without any major hassles. We finished off the day with GREAT mexican around the corner was Shan's, and then a visit into the Hollywood Hills to see a sketchy mansion type house where she used to live, which is owned by an ex NFL superstar.

Other highlights of LA include bumping into my friend Mae who I met through collecting sneakers years ago. The last I had spoken to her she had moved to New York to marry a dude who runs/owns Zoo York, but then we randomly saw her in a nurses outfit working at Agent Provocateur!

Los Angeles is much better than people give it credit for, just make sure you have a car, a gps and addresses of where you want to go. And go to Canters on Fairfax for dinner. DELICIOUS.

I went to America with Lauren.