Back on the "b[e(a)st]" coast; back with a vengeance.

I have likely violated / ignored / invented a few grammar rules while writing the above title. I'm not a writer, nor do I claim to be. However, I do enjoy doing these little write-ups to accompany my dumping of photographs into the rivers of the internet, much akin to the dumping of photographic chemicals into the river of my toilet. Don't worry... a little developer in the water ain't neva hurt nobody. That said, I have a feeling that in the coming months I will be shooting skateboarding more and more digitally as my volume of work has been increasing at a suspiciously proportional rate to the decrease of funds dedicated to film and developing. I will continue to shoot personal work exclusively on film though. After all, I do intend to one day be an old man who gives slideshows that nobody cares about. Longingly though I look into the future for that moment to come, for now I shall settle for another Chemical Kiln post in an effort to bring the blog back from the brink of becoming a digital wasteland.

Almost a month ago now, I set out on a trip across the country from Los Angeles to Boston. So, where did I go first? An hour in the complete opposite direction of course. I drove to Oxnard, CA to stay, shoot and skate with Moose and Auby Taylor for a couple days. Both have uncanny abilities on a skateboard, and unlike certain other skaters, aren't complete plunks off them. A big thank you goes out to Moose for letting Auby and myself both stay at his house.

I shot 5 rolls of 35mm slides on the trip across country, and will be posting a few photos from each leg of the trip in the next several posts, and this edition kicks off with a session from a Bones weekend filming trip around LA. These will likely be the only skate-related photos in this little series of mine.

Trevor McClung Tre Flips while Conhuir Lynn looks on

Auby Taylor with an fs tailslide (trick out, shh) in the background of this one

2/3 The McClungs, Moose, and Seu Trinh watching the session

There is reason behind the awkward punctuation of the title. Since I have been back east, Matt Lane, Kevin Leslie, and Jason Ross have all been in beastmode as far as getting clips. It is hard to beat the west coast as far as skateboarding goes, but Boston will always be my favorite at heart. This realization hit hard on a recent skate around the city with Jason and the SBS guys. The combination of no cameras, no cars, and no worries made for an amazing skate session in the city. We all know that this combination is a rarity these days.  

The following are a few shots from the past days in and around Boston

Matt Lane FS Blunt Boston 

Matt Lane BS Tailslide

Jason Ross Switch varial heel, Dave Profirio filming a line for Cheap Thrills

Jason Ross Switch polejam 180

K-Man getting down on a Backside flip in Providence, RI

Despite the fact that Fred Hein is once again back, the man now handboards more than he footboards, and insists on posing unrealistic crooked grinds. All joking aside, Fred kills it on a regular basis. He's got a sequence in Focus' Sequence Saturdays.

This man in the Navy Yard proved to be a fine specimen of the type of human who sits down directly where other humans are trying to ride skateboards for no reason other than to prove a point that it "Isn't allowed". We conversed for a few minutes after which he decided that we were actually a group of fine young lads and that despite the fact that a (misspelled, yes) sign stated that there would be "No Skatboarding" on the premises, he would turn a blind eye to our trickery and mischief.  

I have never given it much thought before, but skateboarders tend to have very erratic musical preferences. To whom else would it make perfect sense to list Andre Nickatina, GG Allin, The Smiths, and Electric Wizard in the same sentence? I think this this diversity is part of the reason we all tend to get along so well. There is something inherent to skateboarding that lets two people who have never met before get along incredibly effortlessly, and in a way that would not be quite so certain for many others. There are exceptions of course, but this does tend to be the case. 

In other news, I have set a new personal record for earliest swim in the summer season. 

Time to go outside; goodbye internet.