Merry Christmas

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry X-mass

Rolling with Blades

Have been shooting quite a bit of rolling the last few weeks & had some friends from PTA come down for the Son Skate Nationals that was in our lil park, so street sessions were on the menu for us. A few days before they came down Gregg & I had a lil shoot on the rail in the park to get some sequences coz I was amped to make some gif's & was a pretty chilled, but fun shoot.

Fish

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for the kind 3 gif

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for the backslide gif

We went to session the N1 kink a few days before the comp & Chris dominated the rather rushed session with a switch true porn. I'm always amazed at how he chooses a trick before he gets to a spot & keeps going till he gets it... which he just about always does, he takes a few knocks in the process, but never gives up & his skating shows it. Hugo was not quite so lucky & tore a ligament in his shoulder on a top soul attempt, tried again, but wisely chose to take it easy.

Sweatstance

Top Soul

Switch True Porn

The Nationals was pretty chilled, but fun & will probably do a separate post on that sometime. Niel fractured his ankle during the best trick, so he was out for the rest of their stay. After a visit to the hospital Hugo was feeling ok to roll a bit again, but nothing too hectic. With the 2 PTA rollers pretty much out I was still keen to go roll & shoot & was keen to get some shots at my old high school PRG. There is a nice small double set in front of the "new" hall & Chretien was through from CT, so him, Hugo, Gregg & I went to session the gap. Was just Chretien & I sessioning with Hugo filming & Gregg behind my cam. It's quite tricky to be a director & skate at the same time, but Gregg did a good job with a few instructions of course. We were lucky with some fires out Gordons Bay side it gave us a blood red sunset which made a nice colourful BG. As it got darker we tried some sequences & was keen for a fakie 7 & realised how tricky it is spinning in the dark with 2 flashes at 5 shots a second going off, but eventually managed & were on our way.

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for the Abstract 5 gif

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for the Parallel 5 gif

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for the fakie 7 gif

Had a lil session at UCT with Hugo & Chretien & was pretty busy with all the graduation, but the security wasn't too bothered with us on upper campus. Had a fun, but lazy session on the green rails (just rollin, no pics) & moved down to a new rail, but the security headquarters is pretty close & we managed to sneak in a few goes. Didn't set up the flashes, just got a few quick shots & moved on to the Newlands shuffle pad. I love that spot, just the run up is rough as hell, but is always a lot of fun. Just started to shoot when an old woman came past & started shouting at us for landing on some plants when we went right over the ledge & threatened to call the police. All she did was make a noise & call an elderly male friend who was a bit more diplomatic in his approach, which was nice, but the woman was getting quite worked up & pretty pissed off. We decided not to push our luck any more & called that the session for the day.

front farf

Yesterday being a public holiday town was dead, so Chris & I were keen for an evening shoot, but the question is always........."what do we hit?" We went to check a rounded curb, but was really rough & with no wax it was not really an option. Chris decided to 180 a lil gap over a wall & stream & we got quite a bit of attention from the bergies & car guards & a few others. Was a quick 2 shots & we were faced with the same question again... luckily Chris remembered an old small rail Gregg & I used to hit at an electricity ATM type thing. The run up is REALLY short, don't think it's even 2m. Didn't seem to bother Chris too much. We still didn't have any wax, so Chris went o go ask at a nearby restaurant & the waitress brought the candle quite sneakily like it was some dodgy deal going on & we had a good laugh about it, but thanks to her we had a good lil shoot there too. Royals & Farfs were on it quick & he even managed to true top soul it with a crowd of lil bergie kids that hardly gave me enough space to get my angle & weren't too keen to move either.

Safety 180

Front Farf

Soul 5

Back Roy

True Top Soul

Well that's it for now & hopefully I'll be shooting a bit more rolling this holiday, so stay tuned.

Princes of Bel Air

Spoke to Damion after the X-Jam & he was pretty keen to get some shots for his sponsor Flow Bikes over in UK & as usual I was super keen to get some more dirt jumping shots.

He came through to Bel Air in Somerset West with Jason & some other buddies on Saturday afternoon & I quickly missioned through after the skateboarding comp that was part of the Son Skate Nationals at the Stell park.

Started off just warming up & searching for the best angles & surprisingly enough I didn't just cling to my fisheye like I normally do & got a few longer shots & think that's def the way to go for this spot... well, the trick jump at least.

My D70 was giving some issues & corrupted quite a few of my pics & obviously my favorite ones & most of Damion's flip shots... was not amped when saw they wouldn't open in Photoshop. Have since done some tests with it & seems to be sorted out... just keeping my fingers crossed! Can see what it was doing to the shots on the one of Jason doing a NFCC. Had to process the RAW in Photomatix & was the only corrupted image that wasn't completely messed up, but still has some interesting colours at the bottom.

X-Jam

Markus from OSP organised a sick lil BMX comp & demo at the V&A Waterfront in CT on the 22nd of November. He asked me to come through & shoot a bit & was pretty keen anyway. I got there relatively early & was drizzling a bit & wasn't looking too promising. Wet wooden ramps & bike tires don't go too well together, but we stayed positive & luckily the sun made an appearance & it turned out into a sick day. Wayne, Malcolm & Buddy were there, so we were guaranteed some crazy action on the launch box & Ian was getting pretty technical with foot jam combos & Brendon had a sick line on the box that got him best trick. Was pretty amped coz I only took 1 sequence the whole day & after he had been trying his line quite a few times, the one I decided to shoot was the one he got. James the rider formerly known as West Coast BMX was on the mic letting the crowd know what was going on & keeping them amped on the riding. Ryan, Justin & Damion pitched up with their MTB's & showed the tricks are not limited to the lil bikes & Damion was getting some serious air & kept the crowd juiced. Monster Energy drinks & Energade were flowing in full force keeping everyone strong in what became quite a scorcher of a day. A few pics from the day

Ian - Turndown

Malcolm - 360 Whip (& bail above)

Wayne - Back Flip
Buddy - Turndown
Damion - No Hander
Damion - Huge Boost
Brendon - Table
Malcolm - 360 Turndown
Ian - 180 Foot Jam
Malcolm - Superman Seat Grab
Damion - Huge Boost
Damion - Tuck No Hander
Jason - Whip
Brendon - 360
Brendon - 180 Bar Spin to Half Cab Whip
(click here to view animated gif)

Macro Workshop

From the 7th to the 9th my mom & I presented a macro workshop & is probably my favorite workshop we give locally. On the list of venues to shoot we have the garden of 33 Stellenbosch (our head quarters for the weekend), Eagle Encounter, Butterfly World & were lucky enough to get to shoot in one of the gardens at Rustenberg.

I was especially keen for the birds & butterflies, but also glad to try some flower macro at Rustenberg because I have steered clear of flowers for a while as insects always catch my attention, but this time I managed to stick to the flowers for most of the time.

All in all the workshop was great fun & although we had everyone busy 24/7 they seemed to have enjoyed it quite seriously & some of the results from "so-called" amateurs were amazing.

& as usual here are a few of my pics from the weekend