Finally Home!

Thank God I'm finally home! Another Vegas trip for the books. This year pretty much wore me the f*ck out. Not being a big drinker, or a big gambler, there's not a whole lot there for me to do. Oh yeah, I should also mention that I had very little expendable cash for this trip as well.

Well, the show was a good time. Got to see all the new bright, shiny bike goodies for the upcoming season. Made some new friends, visited and caught up with some old ones as well. Things that really stoked me out? Working along with Rickshaw on an upcoming custom one-off bag, pretty much all of the new BMX stuff. Looks really, really great! Had a good time laughing at the Dean and Digger Show...pretty much the whole trip. Got to race my cross bike on Wednesday night under the lights of a giant soccer complex. Super fun! Well, minus the crash that knocked me out of the first place spot (which I should have taken due to the one lap rule that I didn't know about til the next day!....damn my honesty and niceness!) and left a decent patch of skin on the pavement at about 15mph! Ouch. Randomly ran into Stevil Kinevil and hooked him up with his shirt. Watched Lance get shelled (he crashed in the same place I did! Rad!). Went to some randomly weird bicycle/urban fashion show and made fun of everybody...we've got it on video. I'll post that up later.

Those are pretty much the highlights for me. I didn't drink nearly enough coffee...had my head in a serious fog for the better part of the trip. I did shoot some photos, though. Click the photo below to head to the slideshow....since it sucks to try and post everything here. While I had fun, I think that this is my last trip out to the desert. That city definitely wears thin with me. Now, STOKED for the cross season and getting my art on! Lots of shirt ideas, getting the press warmed back up!





-Best Dressed for sure! photo by Jason Patrician

Vegasvegasvegasvegasvegas.....

It's that time of year again. Our annual trip out to the desert. We're shipping out on Monday and will be back on Saturday evening. Tony and I are registered for the cross race on Wed night, there's a great movie premier lined up that night as well. Digger and Deanapar are pretty much in drunk mode already...we should have some great stories, photos and videos this year! Oh yeah, Jason P is meeting up with us on Tues or Wed. Going to try and take it easy for the first couple days so I can stay fresh for the race. I don't travel well. I'm hoping for some good sleep to get well rested. Have to try and acclimate to the dry air as well. Bringing a bottle cage and bottle for the race. I think it'll be so dry that I'm going to need to actually drink during this one. Wish me luck! We'll see you when we get back!

Catching Up To Do....

Well, I was planning on heading up to Boston to meet up with the rest of the crew, but after thinking long and hard, decided to stay put this weekend. There's sooooooo much I need to get done around here. And after I pay for 2 days worth of tattoo convention tix, gas and food $, that'll cover the cost of shipping Ms. Surly out to Los Vagrants (and then some!). I know I'm missing some great fun, but I'll have my week out in Vegas! So in the meantime, shirts are getting screened, friends are getting visits, and I had a little time to upload some photos from some recent adventures. Check out a few of my favorites:

First up, my Sister got married about a month ago...


-Chill'n w. Pops...probably one of the best self-portraits I've ever taken.


-Ma Dukes and myself.


-My Mom and my Niece.


-My Sister with her daughters.

Click here for a slideshow of the rest of the photos...

And Secondly: Trek flew a few of us from the shop out to their Trek World convention a few weeks ago. Fun times! Some more fun photos:


-The crew ready for an evening of beer, brats and skidding Limes...hahahhahah!


-Spence gett'n live....


-Don't let the cup fool you (he was refilling mine), he finished that himself....Digger on the loose....

Trying to remember what I had promised.......after swearing not to have a drop of beer until after XcrossX season...oops.








-what can I say?

See the rest of the set by clicking here. As always, good times! Should have some more rad photos and even some videos in a few weeks after Vegas. We're heading out from Monday to Saturday (ugh...gonna be total zombies by the time we return!), the longest stint we've done there so far. We're going to the big bicycle convention, Interbike. Tony Tyrant and I are registered to race in the Industry Cup cyclocross race, CrossVegas. We're renting ourselves a "molester" team van, and rocking out to brutal metal for the entire night...if we don't get arrested, we'll have some amazing stories!

Oh yeah!

Look over to your right...no, not that far. On the screen. See the little Followers widget? Get on that! I'd love to see who follows this! Thanks!

X Season...

...is here! Raced up in Springfield a few weeks ago....Not too shabby. It was the last race on the Hexed bike. No mechanical issues, chain stayed on. Nothing to make excuses for my lack of talent and lungs! Haha! Placed 16th out of about 33ish(?) with only one gear. Turns out I was the only guy there with just one. Highlight of the race was out-sprinting some guy on a custom Ti Serotta mountain bike for 16th place at the line. Tony's got some photos here. He's gett'n pretty good with that there soul-stealer.


-that's a thumbs down in case you couldn't tell!

Went and raced @ training race night @ Winding Trails in Farmington tonight. Couldn't get any gears on the bike today so I rocked the single speed again. Switched the rear cog from a 22t to a 20t. It was the right decision. But try telling that to me on a couple of the short, steep hills...after a few laps....legs burning and dead. Placed 15th out of about 30ish(?). Got beat on the flats again (spinning out) and made a few technical errors here and there (was fighting the course in a few spots instead of flowing with it) that pushed me back in the standings. I think gears will be an asset where I need them most (the flats for sure!). Talked with Tyrant a bit about CrossVegas. Still not sure whether I'm going to run gears or a single set-up. Gears will help, but singling that shit is just so punk rock! I'm not about the overall out there...I'm hoping to get some dollar primes and maybe a beer hand-up. As many $'s as I can stuff in my shorts is the name of the game....Still have to name the new bike....haven't thought of anything yet. Need to dismantle her and ship her to Los Vagrants on Monday. Without my cross rig for a week! Ugh...there are definitely worse things...

Burning some screens for new Ghostship stuff. A little slow going. Had a few technical issues to sort out. But I've learned more now! Pretty stoked. The whole silk-screening thing is one big learning process for me. I love it. I wish I had a larger space to work. Although that may get sorted out next week. We'll see how things work out. Work, ride, eat, make art...repeat seems to be the mantra of the past couple of weeks. Hope to keep it up!