the Whale, the Squirrel and the FIsh

I was travelling with the feverish surf addicts , Richard Kenvin, John  “Squirrel” Bowling and   pro snowboarder , DCP  , deep into the heart of Baja , California   while chasing an epic southern hemisphere generated swell.  We had been driving for 8 hours this day and most of it had been on the inland route, hot and dusty.   Salvation was ours as we finally met the cool air of the Pacific once again.  Our first sighting was a 15 foot wave closing out the bay we were approaching the next was this skeleton of a whale like ship that had seen some more buoyant days in its history.  Its was all but abandoned on this strip of central baja coastline.  So, Squirrel took out his new board that was shaped right before this trip by Rich Pavel.  The board was a classic 5’6  twin keeled Fish with an amazing resin color job.  The end result of this occasion was that it was most like the first time ever that a Whale and Squirrel and a Fish were seen together this far deep into baja……

Nicolas Müller, King of Popcorn

I Shot this photo of champion snowboarder Nicolas Muller just after he won an incredible  3 day contest  in Saas Fee , Switzerland  put on by the Popcorn hotel and bar and hosted at 11,000 feet amongst the icy glaciers of the Popcorn Plaza.    The contest took place at the end of the season and it was based upon slopestyle tricks off of park style jumps on the first day and then a 5 meter high wall ride on the 2^nd day.  While most of the riders were doing there best to show off their tricks that they had been perfecting on similar park style jumps with groomed landings , Nicolas was off in Alaska perfecting all of his tricks off of natural terrain features like cornices and cliffs.  The natural terrain presents its own set of challenges with bumpy landings and uncertain obstacles under the snow.  Nicolas is the best at what he does though and when he is on his game  and it would be hard to find anyone that knows anything about snowboarding that will disagree with that statement.    So ,needless to say  when Nicolas arrived in Saas Fee fresh from the AK  backcountry  it was almost an effortless performance as he systematically completed lines of tricks on the groomed slopes that  excelled in both technical difficulty and style.   It was truly a pleasure to witness.  So on the final  awards day came  none were all that surprised when Nicolas was crowned the King of  Popcorn and handed his magical staff, his crown , and his Bloomingdales sized bag of popcorn.  Not to mention the 2500 dollars of credit in the bar which he diligently shared among his subjects.  

Drag Rat

While  I was living in Encinitas California  I came across this car, a 1961 ford falcon, it was a dream car more or less. I always had an appreciation for those older fords from the early 60’s.  The round curves and the simplistic design . I could look under the hood and actually understand what I was looking at when I saw the engine. It didn’t have the clutter and chaos that later cars were inherently  shrouded in .
 My wife and I had an anniversary coming up and she too shared the appreciation so we decided that  we should by the Falcon for each other for our anniversary.   It wasn’t expensive, and actually I thought it was a steal at the 1200 dollar price tag.  The body was in great shape with no rust, the tags were current and it had a great painting on the hood in the style of  Rat Fink.  And aptly so the car itself had been christened with the name “Drag Rat.”  So we dropped in and began the joy of cruising the beach town with the windows down  and arms out the window.  Only one hand on the wheel of course.   It felt like we were doing something just by going out and driving it.  In this shot our longtime friends Cassie Dunaway and film maker , Justin Hostynek , was visiting and we took them on a drive down the PCH right  by the surf spot , Swamis.  Our other long time canine friend, Waxer is chilling obliviously in the back.  Our newborn girl , Flora is also obliviously sitting backwards in the middle like all babies do.  After taking this shot , Justin liked it so much that he used it as part of the box layout  for his following film, More.  

Recording studio for the GM

May 2005,   during the recording of my 2^nd album the Great Manifestiny.  I was joined by Sean Donnell, Pete and Matt Remine for 5 days in the Pacific Northwest   where we set about the task of recording the 12 plus tracks for the album.   Sean and Pete had diligently been rehearsing the demo tracks that Matt and I had sent to them a few months earlier and now we were in the midst of recording boot camp. We would spend 12 hours  or more a day playing, listening , playing some more and then finally laying it all down to tape.  We used 8 track tape to build the foundation tracks  and then  overdubbed in digital.  The energy was incredible and everyone brought something beautiful to the project.  I shot this photo at 2 am  after the 3^rd day of recording.   All of the equipment was still set up so we could continue in the morning and everyone was asleep  except for myself.  I was too charged up with excitement  now that we were finally recording these songs I had been working on for  years.  The light was actually a lot dimmer than what appears in the photo.  I shot a 30 second exposure on a tripod which allowed for a greater depth of field resulting in amazing detail all the way back to the corners.  I think a lot of the creative energy that had been released that day is somehow captured as it is still resonating in the room. 

Tristan Picot

This photo was taken  on a trip to Hemsedal Norway  to shoot with Absinthe Films , while the snowboard  film” Vivid” was being made.  While we were there the film director, Justin Hostynek , met the uncle of one of the riders there for the shoot, Mads Jonsson.  Turns out  Mads uncle was  a heli pilot,  with his own heli  and he offered  to let Justin , dangle from under the heli while filming the riders as they flew off the huge jump. The shot that Justin got with this up and coming  rider, Tristan Picot , turned out to be one of   his great shots in his decade plus career  of making films.   Tragically , young  Tristan was killed in an avalanche   early in the beginning of the next season .  This photo captures Tristan at the pinnacle of his riding ambitions.   You can see the shots in Vivid via the Absinthe Films website  at absinthe-films.com.