Well it has been almost 2 months to the day since I last posted something. Following are a few photos of the Full Moon from April 29. I have a bunch of other miscellaneous images that I will be posting soon, hopefully it wont take me another 2 months.
Last week we took off from our winter residence on the North Shore of Oahu and spent a few days on Maui. While it is great to be out of the "Blizzard Belt" for the winter, we really needed to get away from our secondary residence and get back to some of the things that we originally fell in love with on our first trip to the Hawaiian islands back in 2001.
We had a relatively short time on Maui so we were basically looking to get our rental car and head south to Hana, a very quiet town on the end of the island. Hana is super remote with one General Store, one Grocery Store, one Gas Station, two Hotels and a couple of roadside eateries. Most people drive to Hana (about 3 hours from the airport), see some stuff (just a fraction of it) and head back to their resort hotel. Not the Schmidts, it is our destination....
Now that I am working on a blog post, I wish that I had focused more on the things that should be mentioned about the town, but I blew it....So you will just have to get there for yourself if you really want the true experience.
The "Road to Hana" has some ridiculous number of curves and single lane bridges that will make your passengers car sick for sure. If you bring the book "Maui Revealed" with you, you will have all of the specifics outlined for you. However, we forgot our copy, so you will need to plan your own trip...
Our first stop was some random waterfall that Larry and Patrick wanted to jump off of...so I checked the obstacles below and they jumped....then I followed.
Once in Hana we headed over to Venus Pool and did lots of jumping. This is really our favorite spot, although I know there must be other places on that coast that are just as cool. Our other go to spot, 7 Sacred Pools (Oheo Gulch) was completely dry, so we passed on that one, and headed back to Venus Pool, via a little drive to the South and back again.
The other place we always visit is Wainapanapa State Park, The Black Sand Beach. However, on this trip we found a little fresh water cave that was always right under our noses, but just beyond our exploratory circle. We usually took the path to the South and the cave was on the path to the North. This cave contained some of the clearest water I have ever seen anywhere in my life.
I am told that too much text makes for a boring blog, so I am going to cut it off here and just give a bit of an explanation for each photo. Sorry if I was too wordy, but if you would rather I have more text let me know.....Comments are always welcome, and greatly appreciated.
Aloha,
Meatface
The "Red Sled"!!! Patrick was so pissed about this rental car, but it is hard to tell from this photo...
Skateparks right on the beach..What More could you ask for?
Fun with shades...
Patrick went first at the first falls, then Larry, and after much hesitation I hucked myself off of the top rock.
One of the amazing things that goes on in Hawaii is the Japanese folk taking photos of the most random things. This couple had Larry capture them above the Black Sand Beach sans the typical Aroha peace sign. I hope to include some "Aroha" photos on my next post...
Patrick working hard to peel a coconut...
The fruit of his labor...
Larry hard at work....
The sign above the entrance to the fresh water cave at Wainapanapa State Park.
Patrick in the cave with a little flash illumination.
Taco getting ready to jump in the cave pond.
Patrick with all natural light in the cave....
Brotherly love in a little chilly water in the cave..
The traditional Black Sand Beach rock face photos...
The boys at Venus Pool...
Larry off the highest cliff at Venus Pool with Patrick's approval..
Side by side..
One from just below the waterline looking up at the jump spots, Patti is barely visible center frame in the white T-Shirt. Someday I will get her to agree to be published in a photo on my blog, but for now she is for my eyes only.....except for a little cameo.
Larry's back flip.
Taco jumping mid height...
Larry off the top rock.
A quick stop on the way back to the airport...
Lagging, lagging lagging.......That is my status. I have been trying get this together for quite some time, but it has been pretty difficult. So.....Pardon my appearance...Just a couple to keep this thing alive till I have some time to get it on for real....
Shark's Cove natural frame.
One of the many North Shore sunsets....
Yet another...
What the fish see!
Patrick at Pipeline on a rather small day.
Larry on a rare day away from the concrete wave...
The boys chilling on the rocks at Shark's Cove.
4958 miles to blizzard country.
The kid in the cast......
Patrick Again.
Finally, I have posted something new. I have lots of ideas, so stay tuned for some new stuff soon.
Meatface
On Friday nights one of the local guys brings out a generator and a bunch of spot lights and illuminates the skate park so all the kids can shred after the sun goes down. I seized the opportunity and had a little fun with some long exposures and a pop of flash here and there to capture the following images. Toward the end of the session Patrick ate shit and broke his arm, BUMMER.
Taco the skate rat chilling.
Lucas with his light saber!!!
Patrick the ghost!
Taco Ollie!!!
Lucas air grab!
Clive the Mini Mini Grom!!!
More Hawaii stuff to come.
Enjoy.
Meatface
Well I have really blown it as far as keeping the blog fresh, but I am going to hopefully get the creative juices flowing again. We had a lot on our plate getting ready to head out to Hawaii for a couple of months so this whole thing just got away from me.
I promise things will get better. Hope the new year is treating you all well.
One last romp with the Woodster before heading out of town. The boys are really missing this fuzzy guy.
Patrick was pretty happy with his Hawaii quiver, now I just need to get him into some good surf so I can shoot some photos. I have other photos of the quiver that are much clearer, I just figured I would throw in an artsy fartsy one to mix things up.
We walked right into a solid swell, but we really didn't have the equipment, or the balls to paddle out into this one.
Just a week ago the ground here in NJ was covered by almost 2 feet of snow with drifts that were well over 3 feet deep. The storm that dumped all of that pre-Christmas whiteness also delivered a great day of surf for those who were willing (and able) to get out and charge it. Following are some of the images I was able to capture over the course of 24 hours during and after the snowfall.
The Meatface residence during and after. I had shoveled the sidewalk three times during the storm, so it was quick work to get to the street in the morning. I hitched a ride to the beach and shot photos for 2 hours before worrying about clearing the driveway, which took several hours.
This photo was taken about 10 hours into the storm and about 8 hours before the snow ended.
Making your way to the beach in the morning was no easy task.
T-Bag scrambling through the drifts to get in the water. Would you do it for that wave?
One of the early ones that went unridden.
T-Bag enjoying the fruits of his labor.
Snow diver.
Pooper Pat tearing the top off of a chilly one.
Stevie H wondering how he might avoid the inevitable ice cream headache.
Winter comes to Manasquan Inlet.
The cold walk back to the car after a long day of super fun surf.
In addition to these photos, I was fortunate enough to get a couple published on Eastern Surf Magazine's and Surfline's coverage of this swell. Take a minute and check em out.
Now that the year is winding down, I want to take a minute and thank all of my followers. I love hearing that people are liking the blog and the photos that I post. The Best Camera post actually convinced some people to take action. I know of at least one person that is going to purchase an iPhone as a result, and a couple iPhone owners that have purchased The Best Camera app for their iPhone. Trust me you will have fun.
With that said, I also want to encourage all of you to leave your comments on this site. I really enjoy all of your feedback, it keeps me motivated.
Meatface
Back in August I finally ditched the old Morotola Razr and purchased an iPhone 3Gs. While I was interested in the functionality of the phone and the plethora of applications (apps) available, I was also keen to make use of the camera that I had heard so much about.
A while back I stumbled upon the blog for an amazing photographer named Chase Jarvis, and was incredibly inspired by the iPhone images he was capturing. The best part about all of the iPhone stuff he was posting was that it was all straight out of the phone utilizing only the native apps available to do the final edits.
Much to my surprise, shortly after purchasing my iPhone, Chase came out with his own app (The Best Camera), along with a book of his iPhone images (The Best Camera is the One That's with You) and an accompanying web site The Best Camera.
Now that I have purchased the app, the book and logged severals hours on the web site, I think that I am ready to post some of my favorite images here. I am most certainly not going to give up my Canon gear for an iPhone, but it is truly amazing how much my perspective of photography has changed from my Best Camera experiences.
I should also mention that the two photos in the previous blog post were both taken with and edited on my iPhone using only The Best Camera app, and if you are interested here is my Best Camera collection.
Enjoy,
Meatface.....
ps: The only adjustments made to these images outside of the iPhone was the addition of my watermark, as I haven't figured out how to do that one on the phone yet.
Bicycle buried by hurricane winds in Sea Girt, NJ.
Sands from a Noreaster in Spring Lake, NJ.
Manasquan River Reservoir.
Central Park bathroom vent NYC.
Central Park bench NYC.
Midtown NYC skyline from Hoboken.
Spent umbrella on a NY sidewalk after a major windstorm. $3 will only get you so far......
Driving in the Holland Tunnel to NYC. (Disclaimer: this photo was taken by an experienced professional, please do not try this at home)
DC Metro station at Foggy Bottom.
Washington Monument.
As the day progresses.
Vertical blinds horizontally.
RIP John Lennon, 29 years later.
Just a couple of photos I took last month in NYC.
Recently Rob Machado was in Manasquan to promote his new movie The Drifter at The Algonquin Theater. This film, from all star surf video producer Taylor Steele, is not your typical surf flick. Backed by Rob's main sponsor, Hurley, and Warner Brothers, Taylor's film chronicles Rob's travels through Indonesia's outer islands without all of the luxuries that most surfers are accustomed to.
Since the showing for NYC was cancelled, and this was the only showing in the Northeast, the crowd was thick. While the doors were supposed to open at 7PM for an 8PM start, those in attendance stood around in the cold wind and rain for a couple of hours before the theater opened. When I arrived at 6:55 and saw how long the line was, I thought that we might not even get in to see the show, but as it turned out there was plenty of room for everyone.
The night included a musical set by Rob Machado and Jon Swift, followed by the movie in it's entirety. At the conclusion of the movie, Rob and Taylor did a very entertaining Q&A segment that lasted for almost 45 minutes. Finally, Rob and Jon grabbed their guitars again and played in front of the screen while the audience was entertained by 20 minutes of video out takes of Rob, Dane Reynolds, Kelly Slater and others surfing amazing waves.
In the end, I am pretty sure that everyone's expectations were met or exceeded.
The crowd "chilling" in the rain.
Rob and Jon kick off the show.
Rockin' Rob.
The Q&A.
Taylor picks the question.
Rob and Jon finish it off in front of the big screen.
The Drifter!!!!!!
Hope you enjoyed,
Meatface.
I know it has been way too long since my last post, and had I realized that people actually do like to follow this blog I would have made a better effort to get more posts up. It is not that I have had a lack of material to post, I just always find myself short on time when it comes to editing the photos and putting together the actual post. So here goes.
Last week it was back to California for the Volcom Damn Am in Costa Mesa with my oldest son Larry. This is the second year in a row we have made the journey to the Volcom warehouse for this event, which is always held at the end of October complete with a Halloween theme. The group from SPoTlight Productions, which also runs the Skate Park of Tampa, is one of the premiere producers of Amatuer Skateboarding events.
Whenever any of us travel to California it is pretty much a ritual that the first stop is In-N-Out for a couple of burgers. The order has become pretty standard, Double Double Animal Style (me), Double Single with grilled onions and ketchup only (Larry) some fries, a coke and an un-sweet iced tea. I am salivating just thinking about it, and given the upcoming travel schedule it looks like this trip will be the last time I get any until at least March.
After lunch we headed out to the local skatepark, conveniently located just a couple of miles from the lovely La Quinta Inn (purposely not hyperlinked), which would serve as our shelter for the duration of our stay in Northern Orange County. Larry is a big fan of this park, as he has a bunch of friends that live in the area so he can usually find someone to skate with. The La Quinta, on the other hand, not so much.
Our view of the 405 from the front door of the La Quinta.
While the skatepark is supposed to be used only by those in full pads (helmet, elbow pads and knee pads), most of the kids skate without any of it. Usually a Costa Mesa officer of the law will roll through every now and again and the kids will scatter and wait for them to leave the scene. However, it seems that there is now a new sheriff in town, Officer Torres, who does not have much else to do other than hang out at the park and harass the kids (and adults).
On our second night in town, officer Torres rolled up and everyone ran, everyone except Fabio, a Newport transplant from Brazil. Fabio figured since he had a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads, that he was alright to skate. Officer Torres felt otherwise. Apparently the officer, fearing for Fabio's well being, decided that his elbow pads were not adequate and the best way to remedy the situation was to enter the park, confiscate his skateboard and issue a summons. That'll show em!
The next three days we spent at the Volcom warehouse for the Damn Am competition. Larry had lots of buddies there competing, so there were plenty of kids to skate with. Once the heats were posted, we learned that he would be competing on Saturday, the second day of competition, so we just hung out and watched the skating on the first day.
Larry's friend Spencer Lau from Florida.
Another Florida friend CJ Dixson.
Ray from Australia who spent a bunch of time skating with Larry in NYC for a couple of months before we went to the Damn Am.
Louie Lopez, the grom who was killing it all weekend and ended up finishing 4th.
Clint Walker from Oklahoma who finished 2nd, but won the best trick contest. This guy was fearless and apparently felt no pain.
Saturday came, and all was going well. Larry took a bunch of warm up runs and was nailing all of his tricks and skating smoothly. Just before the contest was set to start, he took another practice run, got hung up on a trick and fell and landed right on his left hand. I could tell right away, by the way he ran off the course, that he was in a great deal of pain. The EMT on site took a look at it and gave him an ice pack to try and stem the swelling. We wrapped the hand so he could skate his runs, but it was obvious that the hand was bothering him. As soon as he finished his second run we were off to the ER, where we found out that he had severely sprained his pointer, middle and ring fingers.
Larry in the midst of a "Proper" Smith Grind. (Note the wrapped left hand, prior to the ER).
While he didn't do too well at the contest, Larry got in a bunch of free skating while we were in California. He also go to swing by ...Lost, his main sponsor, to catch up with the team manager and load up on some of the latest fashion. After stopping by Lost we headed to the new skatepark in Venice Beach, then to the P-Rod Skate Plaza in the San Fernando Valley, and finally to the Santa Clarita public skatepark, which is one of the nicest I have ever seen.
Larry @ Venice.
Once our whirlwind day of skatepark exploration was complete, we stopped for a quick bite of mexican food (actually Americanized Mexican food) before we made a beeline for my friend Mike's house in Carlsbad. Actually, what started out as a beeline, turned serpentine when we were heading past LA. Larry decided he wanted to see what downtown LA was like, so we took a little detour and drove around downtown for a little bit, then it was back to the 5 southbound to Carlsbad.
We arrived at Mike and Sarah's around 10PM, chatted for a while and got wowed by iTV and all that goes along with it before we turned in for the night. In the morning Mike and I headed out to the Buccaneer Beach Club for a Bucc Muff (second only to a pork roll egg and cheese in the breakfast world) before it was time to say our goodbyes. Finally, I took Larry to a few more skate spots and one last In-N-Out burger before it was time to get on the red eye home.
That wraps up our California trip, and I know that I was a bit wordy, but please understand that I could have gone on for twice as long if I tried to include all of the happenings of the trip, such as:
- Mallet Finger which I am suffering from after taking matters into my own hands at the La Quinta.
- Our real Mexican food encounter at Las Brisas, Main Street, Santa Ana (Litte Mexico).
It took a little bit of coaxing and a couple of quarters, but the results are priceless.
- My afternoon visit to Chemistry Surfboards.
- Any other of the random events that I probably would have included if this was an actual Tome.
Enjoy,
Meatface!
