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.

Back from SF. Went to San Diego as well to shoot some bits for an Archaeological society. An interesting place born out of the Curation Crisis. It was explained to me this way, some time ago San Diego passed a law that required anyone who was developing land to first pay for an archaeological dig on the site. This unearthed a ton of artifacts. Too many for existing museums to deal with. So concerned citizens started the San Diego Archaelogical center as a repository where artifacts cound be properly cataloged and made available for study. A bunch of very cool folks over there. Glad I could be a small part of what they are doing. Like a knuckle head, I really didnt' take any good fotos at the center, so you can enjoy these two fotos from the drive home.

Spent some time at current tv yesterday. They are doing a pod about we jam econo, Clementine is going to cut the piece so I spent some time yesterday giving her a few loose ideas. I'm very interested to see what they come up with. Many thanks Clementine and Erik.

Go Skateboarding day

I wasn't at home to have the old man ramp jam on Go Skateboarding Day, but I did manage to roll up and down the embarcadero some. Happy June 21st everyone.

Spent last night with Adam in the basement of his video store going through about 7 hours of old video footage that was shot on jawbreaker tours from 95 and 96. Lots of good stuff in there, Adam was surprised by several songs that he said they rarely played live. So we were stoked on what we were able to log into FCP. We logged all 6 tapes, at good Indian food and enjoyed the company of Lost Weekend Video Employees. It was a great night. Huge thanks Adam.

THE TREE OF UTAH

Always wanted to skate this thing. I remember seein a photo about 10-15 yrs ago in one of the mags of someone doin a blunt on it. I thought today would be the day, but the two skateable bits were filled with water. While the kids were playin and I was takin photos, two dudes rolled up one with a skateboard in hand, when I told him they were filled with water he said, "oh I don't really skate, I just wanted to get a picture to make my skater roommate jealous."

RIP '82 BRAT

Just got the call from the mechanic. What was my reliable standby has given up the ghost. It gave me 6 years of great service. Many trips to California and back. Just me the Brat and the open road. Today I'm headed to SF for a week for family vacation. I'll sneak in a little work on the Jawbreaker doc as well. When I get back the search for the Brat II will begin.

Another year of the lake Powell trip is over. It was a ton of fun and we got some great footage.

Headed to St. George today to hook up with justin to shoot at lake powell for a week. The Brat (my truck) has been acting up lately and I had a feeling i shouldn't try to drive it down, but i did it. The result, a blown upper radiator hose. My lovely spouse sacrificed her afternoon to go get a replacement and drive it 100 miles to me. Replaced the hose, and managed to make it to Justins place. Lookin forward to the week on the lake. HUGE THANKS to my lady, she saved the day

Sorry for the lack of updates, and this lame excuse for an update. I'm headed to Lake Powell to shoot for a week with Justin, No cel phone reception and no internet at lake powell. Steve is on an extended family vacation, not sure if we'll see any updates from him. I'll post a bunch when I get back from powell. Thanks for the interest.

ti

We have been filming more of Fuzzy’s Firsthand for Fuel TV. Had a great session with Rooftop, Fuzzy and Jamie Bestwick at Matt Berringer’s backyard trails.

Another shot of Jeff Chase at the ramp in Torrey, Utah. We shot a Fuel TV commercial on this ramp.

We got a couple of wide angle adapters for the HVX. posted some test footage here
Used it for the first time for real on the torry ramp shoot. Will post some footage of that soon.

Last year I did some editing for a film by Chris Cutri. It was about the over-commercialization of surf culture. It's a tricky topic to be sure. You can substitute the surf culture with skate culture, punk rock, or any subculture, with time and market forces at work, there's no stopping the co-opting of these things. I tend to take the perspective of Mike watt when he said, "people are always asking me 'What do you think of this new pop punk?' ...I don't hold it against people, everyone can't be born at the same time...The real question is what is to be done where your at, and how are you gonna do it?" The DVD is now available at the website. There's a trailer on Youtube.

Skier J painting the other side of the ramp for the Fuel TV spot.

Jeff Chase.
The ramp in Torrey, Utah.

skating good
filming good
more photos later

Torrey, Utah
After Lunch Sunday
Skier J painting

Skier J starts painting in the morning. Here are his rough sketches of what he is going to paint.

on thursday it looked like this.


today it looked like this.


Jeff on the extension


Skier J, Foot jam


Steveo, moment of glory.
tomorrow Skier J paints, we skate. Monday is the epic mini ramp session.

Noon Saturday
Torrey, Utah
The ramp for the Fuel TV spot.
It will be done in a few hours.

Torrey, Utah end of day Friday.
Decks framed in.
Plywood down.
Coping half on.
Tommow ramp will be done.
Jay starts painting too.
Monday the big session.
It's all good.

Mid-day Friday, Torrey, Utah.
The ramp for the Fuel TV spot.
We have had rain, wind and snow.
Jeff, Tim, Bob and Doug are making it happen.
Thanks