I'm in Toronto for the next few days shooting at wakestock for oakley guys and gals. Toronto is in the exact opposite (12 hrs diff) time zone from Bali. Russ the oakley photog was with me in Bali and is sharing in my lack of body/time relationship.

Bali Bike #2

black and yellow bug on my black and yellow shoe

Bali Bike #1

This is Sebastian. Crazy 19 year old surf kid. "Sea Bass" would catch at least 7 times the amount of waves as most of the other guys out. Didn't matter to him if it was small and crappy. When I asked him about that in an interview he just said, "when i'm out there, I really just want to be standing up." I fell in love with that answer. Sea Bass has a crazy story too that i'm not sure if I have all the details straight but... He was born at home without the hospital, and never got a birth certificate, for a few years his ma was trying to get one so he could get a passport to start travelling with his sponsors. A few years ago they were getting close and then their house burned down with what little records they had. Finally about 6-8 months ago his ma was able to round up a social security card for him and he got his passport. He is super stoked on travelling.
There's 2 more things you should know about sea bass, his family is gonna be on the reality show "wife swap" and he has three thumbs. Very cool kid. Many thanks sea bass for the good times and inspiration in Bali.

Skibby, Denmark
We are here for 3 weeks.
We are staying on this farm.
The farm is on a lake.
The lake is a bird refuge.
The lake is next to the fjord.
It is amazing, quiet, super fun.
(this photo: lake left, the farm center, fjord right)
August back to filmaking.

European Vacation
I have basically walked away from everything including the computer for a 2 month holiday in Europe with my wife Noelle and our 4 kids. We did 3 weeks in Italy, then buzzed around in France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and The Netherlands. We are now staying on a farm in Denmark for three weeks. Back to film-making in August, but for now the only camera I am packing is a digital point and shoot. It has been super fun and an epic adventure for the kids.
We:
swam in caves in the Mediterranean Sea
got stuck in a tide pool in the Mediterranean Sea (I have scars to prove it)
explored cool churches, castles and museums---lots of these.
rode a million trains buses and subways
got robbed
saw two stages of the Tour de France
watched a World Cup mountain bike race in Austria
had lots of laughs with my kids
read a bunch of books with the kids
played with our Danish friends
saw Anne Frank’s house in Amsterdam
I hope it is a trip that the kids will never forget, showing them that it is a big beautiful world.
It looks like August it full of film projects, more on that later.
Peace,
Steve
(this photo: Noelle and the kids, midnight, Paris subway station)

Suuuuuuuuuper slow internet here in bali. so this is the first attempt at posting. This is a shot of legendary photographer Steve Sherman. He apprenticed under Grant Brittain a legendary skate photographer. "Sherm" was also a slalom skater for G+S back in the day and worked at powell peralta after Stacy left. It's been a pleasure to work with him here in Bali. This is a shot of him shooting out the window, moto riders are Rico Jimenez and Roxy Louw. Lots of other cool folks to work with here too. posts on them soon

I'm on my way to Bali to do some shooting for the Oakley Surf Team. 15 hour flight from LAX to Hong Kong was pretty epic. Managed to get a window seat, about 3 hours in, I wake up to the guy in the middle seat trying frantically to explain something to the stewardess. He kept breathing funny and making a motion like he needed an aspirator for asthma or something, This went on for about 15 minutes, at this point I was pretty worried for the guy, near as I could tell he had left his aspirator in his checked luggage. After a bit he calmed down, and then it became apparent that the real issue was that he was completely drunk. At which point he would shift his focus from me to the guy in the aisle, back to me saying things like " I know your awake in there, HAHAHAHAHA" eventually the stewardesses got him up to stop him from causing a scene, But as they were walking him up the aisle, he fell down and I'm not sure what happened at that point, He might have hit his head, or just passed out, but it was a little scary for a while, they were actually anouncing over the intercom that if anyone on the plane had medical training to identify themselves. After about an hour it seemed they had things under control and the flight went smooth after that.
In about an hour I get on the flight to denpasar, BALI. Not sure about the internet situaish where we are staying so this may be it for a couple weeks.

Disclaimer: This is a long and possibly boring post that, although it was an adventure, has nothing to do with our films.

I took a chance. Took a risk. Call it what you want. I was looking at 2 different brats to replace my trusty but now dead one. I made a decision on thursday to fly to burbank on Friday to buy this one, thinking i'd drive it home and be able to sleep in my own bed that night. Well, I should have remembered what happened last time I tried to drive LA to Utah on a Friday. It seems like every living thing that drives in LA heads to Vegas on Fridays. So it took me about 1.5 hrs to get about 15 miles on the 210. So I got a hotel for the night.
Next morning I head out, This "new" Brat has no AC. The whole drive I'm thinkin "I can't wait to hit the virgin river gorge so I can have a swim, cool down, give the car a break." I got to the Virgin River about 2:00, Blazing hot, and.... Virgin river is Dry as a bone. Ugh. I push to St. George and decide to catch a movie while I wait for the Heat to die down some. Movie ends about 7:00, still hotter than blazes out, but I figure the sun will go down soon, so I split.

At Mile marker 33, BLAM, Blow out, drivers rear tire. Closer inspection reveals rot in the tire, that mixed with the heat, muy mal. Luckily I have a full sized spare, and a jack, and a.... Wait, no Tire Iron??? Ugh. Spent the next 20 minutes trying to flag someone down, only one guy stops, he's in a rental and has a spare, a jack, and no tire iron. I call AAA, an hour and half later I'm on the road, I get home a bit before 2am.

On the long drive I had quite a bit of time to reflect on my decision. A good way to learn something about yourself is to spend some serious time pondering decisions you make. After passing through many different feelings, I got to a place where I am now. I think it was the wrong decision, but I'm at peace with the decision I made. I think it's gonna take more work than the other one would have, perhaps I'll appreciate it that much more. Pictures will follow in a few days.