Seal has been broken.

This was the first BMX shot I took with the D7000. I was watching Jon ride the bowl and saw him boost a few that looked pretty good. I grabbed my camera and literally ran over to that side of the bowl to see if I could get one.

"Man, this better end up on DixieBMX or your instagram or something."

OH, IT WILL, JON. IT WILL.


Then there is this. This is one of the first BMX shots, period, taken with the D7000. Snapped by Mica, it is me doing one of the only tricks I felt comfortable doing on the mini at Sixth Ave. Who knew that waxing masonite was a thing? Anyways, I have this issue with disasters wherein I air as high as I can and then land in the disaster position because years ago I just assumed that is how Taj would do it. I never changed that line of thinking.

GET WELL SOON, GATOR.

Not the murderous skater. I am talking about Burt Reynolds. I read this morning that he had been admitted to an ICU, and Mica went on to insist that he was going to die.

Me: Burt Reynolds is in the hospital!
Her: He's gonna die.
Me: He is suffering from severe dehydration.
Her: Oh, he OD'd on drugs. He's gonna die.
Me: It seems that he has been suffering from a harsh strain of the flu that has been going around.
Her: Oh, he's totally going to die.
Me: He is expected to make a full recovery.
Her: Oh. Did you just make that last part up?

Burt Reynolds was the first regular dude that I wanted to be like. Han Solo is not a regular dude. He is a space pirate. Burt Reynolds planted the idea in my head that I could bootleg shitty beer with friends while driving a Pontiac made muscle car for a living. A LIVING! Damn, being a boy is awesome.

With that in mind, I have some photos from Burt's state. More Banned action!

Hoang Tran. I think I heard someone say, "Damn, that Asian girl shreds!" DON'T SHOOT THE MESSENGER!


Daddy in waiting Colt Fake. I think I gave good advice during the "what is having a kid like?" talk. IT IS LIKE HAVING A DOG. Until they start talking. Then it all shits the bed.


Brien Kielb doing an opposite table. Just kidding. This is a regular table. It's a good one, he's just gonna give me shit for posting another picture of him doing a table. I think I have 8 more of these.


Ryan Hoey swinging the leg on the big set of jumps. It would be an honor to get full body cavity searched by this member of NYC's finest.

Tired of sitting.

This one has been in the chute for a while now. I actually used it in my showing last year at Old City Java, and it currently hangs on my wall. I was proud of it...while Joe Simon raced around to get the lights set up for the Empire "Smoke the Bowl" edit, I snapped a shot of a warming up Matt Roe. I knew it when I hit the shutter release...it felt good.


This is a little more recent. Trey Jones alley-oop 270 over the hip at Banned In The Backyard.


Cool story.

More Banned.

I had been sitting on these in case they got used for a write up, but the article is going in a different direction, so...I'll throw them up here. When I was a younger man, I used to do zines and shot almost everything on a Kodak 110. That thing produced some nice images for me right up until it met its end when I tried to drop in on a legit vert ramp for the first time at the tender age of 13. My camera rested in my trusty plaid G&S hip pack, and when I did the drop and went straight to the flat bottom, I landed on the camera. Smashed to pieces. I was fairly gutted, because I figured my mom was going to flay my skin off with hot brands of iron for breaking the camera. As it turned out, she had bought me a Pentax K1000 for Christmas that year, so things shook out okay. "Don't fall on this one." Good advice.

Anyways, the pictures. Yes, so this pretty much summed up the entire weekend. This is BMX. This is what it is about, what we do, and why we do it.


Another "summation of the weekend" sort of shot. Davis James of Finnfotography.com tables against the stars and bars.


Eric Hennessey rode so rad the whole day. This was my first time getting to see him ride in person and it was, as they say, a treat. Dude is so fast and so in control.


I am running out of Da Boza photos. This saddens me.


Banned in the Backyard jam. In Florida. Fire, beer, hallucinogens, bbq, loose women AND DREW BEZANSON BACKFLIPPING A FUCKING MONSTER TRUCK.

Kentucky keeps us apart.

Ohio and Tennessee are separated by the absolute hell hole known as the Commonwealth of Kentucky. I am not 100% sure what it means to be a commonwealth state, but I am sure it is something stupid, because Kentucky sucks. I could look it up, but I am gonna just talk about these guys from Ohio for a moment. They came down to scoop me up for a trip to Florida, but before they did, they rode the local Knoxville skatepark. I have nothing bad to say about any of these men, except for Kyle. That long legged dick crushed me in the back seat on the way down.

Tyler Pollari, tire slide in the pool where bikes are not allowed. Interestingly, that was not a rule made by the city, it was made by the local gnargoyles. Almost no one rides it anymore. The paint-stenciled sign prohibiting bikes has almost totally faded.

Kyle and his long-ass legs in the same bowl. I hear that they call him "One-hitter Kyle" because he was such a prolific pitcher in his high school days.

Johnny Del Balso lives that Dew Tour life. He's about it. Don't let him fool you. I watched him in an edit recently and he did a flair. Only Dew Tour bros do flairs. 

I got a new camera (D7000) so maybe I will give video a try. As soon as winter stops being a bipolar weirdo, we'll holler.