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FGFS LA 2019 – FIRST SESSION IN TOWN

First off I’ll start by saying how good it feels being back in California. A place where the sun and weather are on your side. The Mexican food tastes fucking awesome and you can step outside in a t-shirt. All things I took for granted. Until now that is. I’ve been loading up on burritos and soaking up the sunshine now that both those things are readily available.

Last weekend I drove down to Norwalk to meet up w/ the boys. JBALL and Deacon Wong managed to get me in a car to actually drive to a spot. 9 Freeways later and there I was. Standing in a parking lot with Deacon waiting 2 hour for JBALL to arrive. Haha. Somebody get this mans a watch. It’s a good thing Deacon brought with him every toy imaginable: scooter, mini fixie, skateboard, etc. Actually that’s not that much, but in my mind he might as well have brought a pogo stick. All that being said, I’m glad he did because it really helped pass the time.

After sessioning some school for what felt like forever, we rode out in search of spots in neighborhood. First up was this rail that JBALL hopped with ease. (see photo for details) Then we went to this out ledge that was pretty rounded and made it difficult to grind. Stay on your grind. A young @CHASEFGFS came out and showed us what he’s made of. I snapped this sequence of him and wish I shot more because the kid is amazing. Once everyone had their fill, we made our way to the top of this parking garage where we ended the day. (Or at least I did, I think they went and rode a skatepark afterwards) On the drive home Slam Dunk Ernie talked about how much fun we had and some of the aireal clips we shot of Marco Marquez. We’ll have to do it again soon. Until next time fam.

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FGFS PDX – TADASHI NAKAMURA PHOTOS

We had a lot of fun shooting “Complete the Circle” when Tadashi Nakamura was in Portland. He’s become a really close friend over the years and this is now the second time he’s traveled from Japan to ride bikes with us in the States. Those of you who have ridden FGFS already know how difficult it can be and Tadashi has clearly been doing this for a while. He had an easy time hopping on every handrail we came across. Portland has some great alleyways and often times we’ll take the road less traveled just to mix things up a bit. Check out more photos below and watch the “Tadashi VIDEO” if you haven’t already. Until next time.

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CRANKSGIVING 2018

The yearly Turkey Trot. Every year Bryan Dempler, Tobi Whaley and I go on our Thanksgiving day ride before we sit down and feast for the evening. We’ve hit the same route for the last 3 years running, and I don’t think we should ever change it. It’s starting to feel like a tradition at this point. There’s strength in repetition, and it’s a fun challenge to try and shoot it differently every time.

With rains the days before and morning leading up to our launch, things were still pretty wet. Especially once we hit the not so dusty trail on our decent back into town. Every couple of feet we had to push out tacky clay that had begun to accumulate in our wheels and tight clearance points. We were all getting tired of having to find a new stick strong enough for the job, but after hopping a couple fences, dodging a few cows and b-lining across some fields, we finally made it back to the main road. Check out photos from other years HERE and we’ll see you next time.

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WHEEL TALK ROAD – HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TOBI WHALEY

Today is Tobi Whaley’s (@wheeltalkroad) birthday, so we pulled up some photos from when he came and visited us here in Portland last March. We road around downtown then made our way through Forest Park along the Leif Erickson Trail, and across the St. Johns Bridge. Tobi and I have had a lot of good times over the years, and both got into riding bikes at the same time. A decision that changed both of our lives and became a part of our lifestyle really quickly after. We have some big things planned and are excited to share them with everyone when the time comes. Until then enjoy these photos and “Happy Birthday Tobi”.

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JAOA DANAIKRIT & DEVON LAWSON IN SAN FRANCISCO

In light of the recent release “Bring Something Back”, we figured we’d make a post of some of the photos from that day. It’s not often that Devon, Jaoa and I are all together these days, so we thought we’d make the most of it while the planets were aligned. We met up in the Pan Handle and made our way through downtown and into Hunter’s Point. It’s always fun seeing what areas you can get into without causing anybody any grief. The City is growing pretty rapidly and a lot of those places are disappearing, but luckily for us there’s still plenty of places left to explore.

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FIXED GEAR PORTLAND – JAOA’S BIRTHDAY AFTERMATH

We all woke up feeling crispy the day after Jaoa Danaikrit’s Birthday. That being said we decided to keep it mellow and spend the day at the arcade. Ground Kontrol is one of our local watering holes and is an endless source of entertainment. Afterwards we decided to take the long way home and go for a quick jaunt through “Forest Park” to show Devon and Anthony some of the other things the great state of Oregon has to offer. I think we bit off more than we could chew when both Jaoa and I started to bonk halfway along the trail. Never the less, we all made it home in one piece. Just in time to BBQ before the sun went down. It was really amazing to have all the homies in town at the same time, and I already miss having Jaoa around the house. We’ll have to get the band back together more often. Until next time.

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FIXED GEAR PORTLAND – FIRST DAY OF SUMMER

Starting things off with a bang. It’s finally feeling like Summer here in the Pacific North West and people in Portland are beginning to come out of hibernation. I met up with a bunch of the dudes at the Chrome Industries PDX HUB and went for a chill ride on the East side of town. After riding to Sellwood and back we came across and spent some time riding this fun little kicker. Dig through the post and check out photos of everyone catching some righteous hangtime.

Fast Forward to later that night. I’m riding home, throw a skid, and tabletop it straight to my left side. I bounced back up, hopped on my bike and immediately knew something was wrong. I made it the rest of the way home, went to the doctor the next day and discovered I broke my clavicle. After a week and a half of doing nothing I made my way to the operating table where they set me up with a sweet new metal plate with a few screws (see photo at the bottom of this post). It’s been almost two weeks since surgery and nearly a month since the initial accident, but things are finally starting to look up. I hope to be back on my bike in the next couple weeks and look forward to rolling with the pack again. Until then enjoy these and many posts to come while I get back up to speed.

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FGFS PORTLAND – DAY 3

Can it be Summer again already. We’re barely even into winter and I’m already missing the warm weather in Portland. It was so nice while it lasted. Ramon Antonio invited a bunch of the homies from California to come ride with us up here. This is day 3 of their trip. By this point I had shifted my focus from photo to shooting video and capturing long lens second angles. That being said, I did shoot a bunch of stills of everyone jumping this parking lot bank.

I’m not sure what Miguel Zendejas is eating for breakfast, but it’s working. He has tailwhips unlike anybody else in fixed gear right now. Must have signed his name in blood on some ancient scroll to achieve such talent and skill on two wheels. Johnathan Ball is another one of those dudes who always surprises you with how deep is bag of tricks can be. He’s like felix the cat the way he pulls things out of thin air. I’ll shut up now, photos > words.

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FIXED GEAR PORTLAND – RAMON ANTONIO’S LEADER 721

It’s the final countdown. With only hours left until we rang in the new year, Ramon Antonio III and I grabbed our track bikes and went for a cold jaunt around the neighborhood. After a while of roaming around, we stumbled across this open junk yard stacked full of pallets. We hung out and spent probably 20 minutes there shooting Ramon’s bike. There’s nothing better than exploring new places and riding without a destination.

It’s been awhile since Ramon had a fully functioning track build. We’ve been riding FGFS for so long we almost forgot how easy it is to pedal something with 28c tires and full leg extension. His Leader 721-TR looks hard with the flat black everything. Ninja mode at night. Check out more photos below. (more…)

SLAM DUNK ERNIE & THE CHROME INDUSTRIES WARSAW II

First things first, everyone follow @SLAMDUNKERNIE. Glad we got that outta the way. There’s a couple things that I never leave the house without, and this bag is one of them. Not only does it fit my entire life, it holds one of the most important pieces of it. Ernie. The Warsaw 2.0 from Chrome Industries has more pockets than you’d ever know what to do with, as well as a couple hidden stash pockets. Very important. It’s my go to travel bag, and fits overhead as a carry on. Even more important. Whether it’s 3 months, or 3 hours this bag is there through it all.

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