3 Weeks in the West
I spent most of May on a three part trip. I flew into LA and immediately secured the rental in which I drove up to Ventura to link at Aaron’s for another Limosine premier. The rest of the week we would get up early and spend the first part of the day boxing up orders until it was time to go skate, or get some lunch beers at Sama. Diego was going hard everyday with some sick freak energy that I’ve only seen a few people posses. We went up to SB for a day to see Justin and Blix’s band play outside at UCSB.. which is a crazy area because as soon as you enter it looks like you’re in some iconic California movie scene. I think 90% of the town is blonde girls wearing bikini tops and short jean shorts. Needless to say we did not blend in.
On another day we went out to scenic hill bomb where you walk up this pretty chill hill and at the top you have time to skate flat before you really start to go down. It reminded us of Secret Flat back home but this one is definitely Scenic Flat. Great ground for tres actually. On a previous day we were skating the classic Ventura barrier spot and got to drinking beers as the sun went down. Diego introduced us to a new game where basically the objective is to step stomp a can with your eyes closed after taking some steps back and spinning around. This evolved into a new version where you do that on your board but then try to ollie it all with your eyes closed. I forgot about this until I saw the photos
On the last day, Aaron brought us all on a trip to Santa Rosa island, which unknowingly was the first National Park I would be visiting on this trip. We had to link early at the harbor and Diego was fresh off another long night. He tried to buy beers at the store on the way over but they said it was too early so he ended up with a Monster instead. On the boat while some of the crew battled sea sickness, Diego and I got some food of which the options were a microwavable McRib or Sausage egg and cheese. We saw a shark attack and also the biggest pod of dolphins swimming along side of us that I’ve ever seen. The island was like another planet covered in hills of golden grasses. We ate shrooms and hiked across to hang out on the beach and explore for the day.
While we were basking in this bliss, a boat that was fishing off the shore ended up getting accidentally beached. Next thing I know we are all pants-less and thigh deep trying to push this hunk back out to the ocean. It was an actual motley crew made up of Son seeming.in his mid 20s, a moms who was upset with her son who was the one that got them beached, and what appeared to be the moms boyfriend, he was actually mad chill. The son was tryna play it off like it was all gene and didn’t even accept our help at first. It wasn’t until he saw a park ranger coming towards us that he decided h needed us. The shrooms were really hitting in these moments, the ranger was a small nice guy. He did seem nervous and he had a gun strapped to his belt which made me nervous. Guns are made to kill things, and thats super un-chill. I think ultimately he was bummed that we were helping these dudes push their boat out, because he was worried one of us was gonna get hurt and then he would be the one with the situation on his hands.
This shit was actually just fully stuck in the sand and it didn’t seem like it was getting unstuck. Max asked the ranger if it was possible to push it out and the dude paused for a moment before saying… “ it is possible”. The ranger was standing there watching us as we waited for swells to come so we could push the boat a few feet each time until it finally came loose. After all the action calmed down, the ranger got his vehicle stuck on a hill right next to where we were chilling. At this point we were soaring on the shrooms and this guy bein around with his gun and shit was making me feel weird, so i knew everyone else must be feeling the same. We needed some activity to bring us back on the same page together. That activity arrived in the form of a rock game. One person throws a rock and everyone else tries to hit it with their own rock while it’s in the air. That shit was fun. We hiked back across the island to catch the ferry back to the harbor and the island mission was an epic success. Diego even got his Junior Ranger badge. Anyway, the Ventura section of the trip came to a close with many memories in the bank. Max and I headed back down to LA in the rental and picked up Saki from the airport.
Ill break the photos up into sections so it makes more sense, so here is the section of Ventura and Channel Islands adventure.
The next couple days I did tattoos at St. Marks tattoo. I used to guest a few times a year before covid but this was my first time since 2019. It felt really good to be back and the two days flew by trying to squeeze in tats all day. I got to see a bunch of return homies and meet new homies too. Everyone was fun to talk to and tattoo. I can’t believe it sometimes, actually, how cool my clients all end up being. I will definitely be back again tattooing this summer… maybe hitting SD, SB, and the bay if all goes to plan.
After both working those couple days, Saki and I finally left to road trip through Utah for the next week. We had no idea what we were about to get into at our coming destinations. Our first National park was the Valley of Fire state park, which was pretty cool but it was super hot and arguably just a snack version of the next places we were about to hike in. The next day we got into Zion National park where we posted for two days. We started early and hiked all day both days. The first day we ate steak after we finished and then drove up to this old town called Grafton where we were recommended to see the sunset. The views from up in that area were next level and it was a good getaway from the crowded Zion area. The next day we started early again and spent the day hiking the Narrows which is through the river in the bottom of the canyon. When you leave Zion going east you drive through Mt. Carmel highway which is another type of alien landscape that we had never seen before. We also drove this section at sunset time and it was straight up epic.
Our next stop was Bryce Canyon and damn, I had no idea there was anything that looked like this place! So basically we would spend a day at the park, then drive to the next hotel, sleep, wake up early and do it again. Even the drives were mind blowing the whole time. Photos cannot do anything we saw justice. Shit is just too big and when you are experiencing it, it’s just different. After Bryce we went to Moab where we hiked in Canyonlands National Park all day. ( insane) and then went into Arches for the sunset. And yo, damn! I will never forget driving into Arches at dusk and seeing the park open up into some straight alien landscape shit like you’ve never seen. I had been really wanting to check some stars because the parks in Utah are the darkest places in the country and it also happened to be a new moon during these days. We hung out in arches park and watched the sunset and the darkness slowly creep over us until all we could see was blackness and stars. We ended our trip driving to Denver the next day, and I was still not let down by the views driving across Colorado.
Being some of life’s greatest pleasures, coffee and food are always a concern while on the road in towns like these. Its hard to find a righteous bean anywhere let alone a decent one. I enjoy the adventure of shitty coffee on the road but it can get old. I always make whatever heinous bean the hotel room has to offer followed by whatever coffee is available in the lobby with the continental breakfast. We ate a lot of scrambled eggs and sausage links, I think pretty much everyday actually. The best eggs we had were at the Inca Inn in Moab.
I never realized how into hiking the national parks I would be. We didn’t have nearly enough time to explore everything we wanted. After this trip we realized that you need at least 2-3 days in each park. But Honestly I think 4-7 would be better. There is so much stuff to see out there, the earth is crazy! It feels peaceful when everyday the only thing on your mind is to walk and look at stuff and all you really need is for your legs to keep moving, some water, some snacks, and your bestfriend/partner doing it with you. By the end me and Saki were thinking, damn I kinda wish this was actually our life and we could just keep going. The quest continues
In the last 6 years that i’ve consistently shot photos on film I’ve experimented with a lot of different films and film speeds. Not knowing any better, I often used inappropriate film speeds for lighting situations I was in. I was able to learn slowly from the mistakes in the results and after years have come to an understanding of what films I like to use. Since I mostly am shooting stuff in motion in NYC I use a lot of slower films like 800 or 1600 to make up for the lack of natural light. I forget how different it is out west where most of the day you are in direct and full sunlight. I would have preferred to have some 100 or 200 speed film with me or even slide film, but I’ll know better for next time. Thats why the pictures are grainy and lots of full sun and harsh shadows. My favorite ones are ones taken closer to sunset.
Im also including a cellphone photo dump to be thorough.
I also had thoughts about the similarities NYC has to national parks. This massive larger than life landscape that has an endless amount of exploring to do. A landscape that constantly changes over time, crumbling and growing. When I saw people who lived in the national parks I always had some many questions about them and their lives. What are they doing here? I think the same thing goes for people in NYC too. As soon as we got off the plane we drove home watching a sunset from the bqe arguably more impressive than the ones we saw all week.
