As we gear up to release the video from the Wheel Talk trip to Japan last year, I dug up a bunch of photos that were never posted. Between Seitaro Iki and myself, we shot a ton of stills and even more video. Documenting everything from our daily expeditions around whatever town we were in that day, to our nightly pit stop at Yayoiken for dinner. Keep it posted for the video release, until then check out more photographs HERE. Photo Credit : Seitaro Iki & Matt Reyes
It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been a year since we stepped foot in Japan. After spending two weeks traveling around the Country, we had grown accustomed to drinking Hennessy with our native friends & sweating it out at the end of everyday in the unbelievably humid climate. If it wasn’t boiling hot outside, it was dumping buckets of rain. Never the less, we quickly overlooked the unfamiliar climate in awe of the unbelievable street spots Japan had to offer. The white shells on the top photo were probably my favorite slice of architecture we encountered. They’d never build something like that in California. They’re far too aware of the consequences to construct such a perfect potato chip. Big thanks to Seitaro Iki for shooting a ton of behind the scenes photos and YSO for making this all happen. Check out more photos from our 2013 trip to Japan HERE.
Yesterday Mike Schmitt & I hopped on the Bart and met up with Andy Sparks to ride some spots in the East Bay. We ventured out further than we usually would to shred some schools that a little bird told us about. As painfully difficult as it was to pedal out to them, it was completely worth it, stacking some solid clips to go home with. Here’s a shot of me throwing a 180 over this handrail towards the end of the day.
Photo Credit : Mike Schmitt
I recently met up with the homie Rudas Priest during lunch and set out on a mission to explore some of my favorite parts of the city. We followed the train tracks walking through fields of used syringes and crushed cans of paint until we came upon this oversized stair case leading nowhere. Rude Boy never leaves the house without his camera and is one of the few photographers I know who shoots strictly on film. It’s like he always says “film is forever”. Head over to his blog to check out more photos from that afternoon HERE. Photo Credit : Rude Boy
So much of the architecture in Japan was built without any thought of people one day riding it. We came across this pyramid that seemed almost too good to be true and ran the gamut on it until Devon Lawson & I both emptied out our entire bag of tricks. Seitaro Iki shot these photos of Devon throwing a barspin and looping around to knock out a couple more clips before security caught wind of what we were doing out front.
Photo Credit : Seitaro Iki
With more than 30 riders from all over the world competing in the freestyle event, things were bound to get wild as everybody geared up for the 2014 Red Bull Ride & Style. Each year they mix up the course and this year they really out did themselves creating one of the best flowing layouts to date. Everyone brought their A-game that day as they stepped up to the plate to empty out their bag of tricks. Elliott Milner brought was linking together lines on the park like he’s ridden it his whole life. Jakob Santos hucked something huge off just about every object there. Joe Mckeag showed everyone what it looks like to ride transition, and Johnathan Ball wasn’t letting anything go untouched. There’s too much that went down for me to even begin to discuss, so I’m just going to have to let the video speak for itself. Read more below to see the final results. Thanks to Dave Beard for shooting the photos for the thumbnail.
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Red Bull recently released a quick recap of the 2014 Ride & Style that went down last weekend in San Francisco. I rode in the race as well as the freestyle event again this year and somehow managed to find a spot on both podiums. Head over to their site and read up on it HERE, they did a far better job explaining it then I ever could. Aside from that it was an all out blast going up against Addison Zawada in an aspect of riding that I rarely ever indulge in. Photo Credit : Garth Milan
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Last Sunday Mike Schmitt & I cruised around our humble island abode here in Alameda and brought along with us the trusty 35mm Camera. We lurked around the abandoned military base & rode along the incredibly windy coastline in search of spots in less than likely locations. I came across an old truck bench that we pulled out of the trash and sessioned for a bit. After catching a couple quick photos we ventured into the tall grass along the coast and circled back into the old Naval Base where Mike rolled this barred fence that was propped up against another. I was the most stoked to find this teeter totter that we had previously thought was gone for good after its recent disappearance. Check out more photos below, and stay tuned for the next episode of TURF Sundaze. (more…)
Given the fact that we shoot most of our stills on 35mm film, the TURF Sundaze posts are always about a week behind. Last Sunday we roamed around Oakland with Egg The Dog, a regular addition to The Mob. He’s either strapped to Mike’s back or running along side us as we lurked from spot to spot. Check out more photos below. (more…)