two years later...

Well, it's been two years since I did the first video a day project. I decided to revive the project a while back. Ariel Hall is loaning me a digital camera for the week because the trusty old Canon that I initially used shitted out on me almost two years ago... Coincidence? Sam D joined in on the skating and filming duties. I'm rusty as hell with using the video editing software, feeling sick as hell, and without fail we woke up to rain on the first day of the series... Enjoy.

Music by: Wild Child

Out And About...

The first spot is literally right on the James River in Richmond, VA. Sketchy, I almost lost my board to the murky waters... Next up is the Twin Towers spot in Greenville, SC. It is a really fun skate spot built by the local skaters and it's right over from the tracks. Industrial waste and skateboarding go hand in hand... Then the Skatepark Of Greenville. Fun friday evening session during a downpour. The full pipe is in St. Augustine, FL. We pull up in the van after a 7 hour drive for the show and there is a pack of kids skating in the street... Not 15 minutes after getting into town we are at the full pipe and I am fully aware of why I leave home. That shit only happens somewhere else...

Two Photos. No video (yet)

I'm not at home right now. I tried to make a video at my buddy Ryan's house but his copy of movie maker was messing up. I'll try to make a video while I'm in Athens on the 4th... But for now, here are two photos...

The first is a photo by Grant Brittain. I first saw this photo in a magazine about 10 years ago. That was ten years after the photo was taken. Even though the photo is just of someone (Todd Swank) pushing down the sidewalk, it is more inspiring and captivating than almost any other skateboard photo I have seen since. This photo captures the raw essence of skateboarding in it's most pure and primitive state.




The second photo was taken the other Sunday morning. I woke up itching to skate. Downed some coffee and hit the streets. Melissa brought along her camera, and caught this shot at the Greenwood County Courthouse. I did some fancy editing on the computer to get the dramatic flare to it. The Courthouse ledge is bigger than you would think. It's one of those ollie up and over before dropping type deals, and it's deceptively large. The drop is almost as tall as I am, and the up and over part is about knee high and about three feet wide... Not too bad for being up and skating before noon.

Well, that is it for right now. The blog isn't dead. I'm definitely still out skating, sometimes filming, just not around a computer to piece the videos together on right now. See you in the streets.
-ken

Shred The Sabbath Redux

"It's a shame people have to deface public property..."
Sunday was windy and cold. Old ladies weren't stoked on skateboarding, but that's okay, I'm not really stoked on old ladies. Except for my Grandma, but she was totally down for skateboarding...
No injuries for Sunday, which was good. My board did receive a good crack in the middle kickflipping the post office stairs. I decided to head over to City Hall for the handrail before the board died completely. I really wanted to have one rail shot in all these videos. One shot, one kill. The board still in one piece I was able to bomb the hill going home. Whew... Here's the last video in this series. I hope folks have enjoyed them. It's been fucking awesome on my end. The blog will continue though. More videos will come. Shredding will never stop...

Breakfast Of Champions

Woke up Saturday morning to Glenn tapping on my door again. There was coffee already in the pot. I'd say that a cup of coffee and skateboarding is maybe the best way to start any day. I broke out the camera immediately and filmed some of Glenn skating while the coffee started to kick in. Practical applications to lessons learned.

I started working on 180 Nosegrinds after Glenn took off. They feel really good but are pretty sketchy for me... I pulled a few nice ones before ending the session and getting a good opener for the trailer.


Without further nonsense, here is Saturday's video...

Thursday's Video

Outside was dry, but it is getting cold again. So some indoor footage. I couldn't get amped during the day skating by myself. A few hours, another viewing of Welcome To Hell later and the session got kicked off. (Yes, that is maybe the only skate video we have. Yes, it is THAT good!) This was another 5am edit job.

Friday's session got shut down. Sleeping until 2pm makes me wacked out. The cold was rough. Traffic was rough. Cars parked in front of gaps and Church people not wanting us on their property. With work looming over my head, it just didn't happen. It's currently almost 3am and I'm just getting off of work. So we'll just have to see what Saturday's session looks like...

Weather Permitting...

So, I didn't get the quarter pipe inside in time. It was saturated with water and it never warmed up enough to dry it out. The coping was sticky and the ramp was slick. Skating was tricky to say the least. I'm opting for a mulligan for Wednesday. Sorry.

...Tuesday

Tuesday was fun. I don't normally skate the bank at the Hangar. Well, not as a bank really. Today was wet as hell, so there will be some indoor footage coming tomorrow. I'm really stoked that this has me skating so much everyday. Half way there.

Case of the Mondays...

Sunday night, after the New Foundation Spot session there was a kid named Glenn skating up at the Hangar. So, I had another session with him before heading into work. I edited the Shred The Sabbath video at about 5am that morning. Then I woke up to a tapping at my door. It was Glenn again, wanting to skate. I was stiff as hell, but there was one cup of coffee left in the pot, so the session was on. Of course I didn't pull out the camera until Glenn had to leave. I need to just film more, so that more folks are in this and I don't have to keep putting the camera on a tripod. Another lesson learned. Film before everyone either has to head out or gets broken off.

Video Days Two

So, the birthing of this trailer idea came from wanting to make a video on Sunday. I had plans in my head of taking to the streets of Athens and laying down some tricks. Well, of course plans got changed... I woke up Sunday morning, had breakfast and watched Welcome To Hell on the projector. After trying to get warmed up without any coffee in my system I wrecked the fuck out of my hand. We skated around the Hangar for a while still trying to get ourselves broken in before getting broken off. We (myself, Meghan, and Adam) eventually hopped into Adam's car to hit campus. Just at the top of the hill we saw some dudes who looked like they were getting ready to skate. F/S 180 the car in the Tienda parking lot. They were going to the "New Foundation Spot". Short set of directions later and we are en route. While warming up to the new spot Adam made a swollen mess outta his ankle. The other dudes were really good. I didn't get to know them very well, so I didn't film any of their tricks. Hopefully next time. Meghan makes an appearance in this video which is awesome, I'm bummed that Adam got wrecked before the camera made it's way out of the bag. Lesson learned. Once again the audio is pretty crucial to this one. Take care folks.

V-Day Massacre

Alright, so the plan for this week is to crank out a "trailer" a day. This is the Valentine Inaugural Premiere (VIP?). (Also the first post at all)
It's small, but that's good because it was shot on my Canon Powershot A550. Most of it was filmed with the self timer. The indoor scene was shot by Mike To Life. There are more to come, I even found a tripod for solo filming. Watch this clip with audio because that makes up 99% of the awesomeness. See you in the streets!