Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Since I talked to you last wednesday I have been on the road.

I was in LA for Levis for the 3^rd annual Powersliders competition. That’s right powersliders.  You’ve heard of it right? Probably not but you have done though in its beginner form. Sliding on your ass down railings is what you have done. Powersliding is what you have not done. Extreme ass sliding is what powersliding is. Levi’s built a massive powersliding terrain park at the Santa Monica pier in LA. They had a full on contest. The course was pretty gnarly. Huge and difficult with regards to sliding, plus there was a brisk wind. The powersliders went for it  and it was sick! Check it online. I was judging with Kendra from the “Girls Next door” and Wee Man who I am convinced is the same volume as Kendra’s boobs.  The band that played was this two man, actually one woman one man band called Matt and Kim. Matt plays keyboard and Kim plays drums and smiles a lot. I like them here they are on the Faction:

Matt and Kim 

She is a pretty and punky chick who is super fit and wails on a modified small drum kit . She sings at the top of her longs in sync with Matt but she does not use a mic. At one point she stood on her base drum singing and pumping up the crowd. I loved her. Matt is tall and skinny and leads the band with the singing from behind the keyboard. He keeps the crowd fired up with his music and his story telling. In this particular show he explained how he had just gotten scabies. Crude but it was entertaining especially because it embarrassed Kim. I guess they are a couple. Bottom line is I had never heard of them or seen them and I was impressed. Great live show. Here is another band along those lines, with a song you may have heard:

MGMT song called kids.

My whole trip was a celebrity fest. I hung with Wee man who I had never met and is cool as shit. In my hotel I got a picture with Rachel Hunter who I always liked as kid. She is older now but still way hot. She looked like she was just running some errands but when I got the picture with here you could tell why she is a super model. Her face pops on camera of course.  Later that day I was having lunch on the third st. promenade and I got a picture with Audrina from The Hills. She was cool, and looked the same as she did on TV. She was having  lunch next to us with her sister or something. Then of course I spent the rest of the day with Kendra from “The Girls Next  Door” where she played one of Hef’s girlfriends. I actually watched that show a bit  back in the day and I liked her the best  I guess because she was sporty. She is now engaged to a football player and has left the mansion . I asked her immediately if she banged Hef, but I never really got an answer. Wee Man was super cool and entertaining and the crowd loved him. He says he is rolling out some show right now but couldn’t tell what so stay  tuned I guess. And to top it off on way home to the hotel I look over and it was none other than Jason Ellis. Ellismate was having some family time at a Mexican joint on the promenade. I rushed over to get my picture. He said no at first but eventually I convinced him by telling him I had a show on Faction which he was surprised to hear.

Modest Mouse:

I did a bit of surfing in LA  which was nice, even though I was smoked after a half hour. My upper body is so out of shape,  and the period of waves was super tight in Venice beach but at least I got er done.  I was jonesing to play golf  after watching the masters last weekend.  Did you see that. poor guy  choke. Kenny Perry was winning that thing. But that is golf for you. It has to be one the hardest sports to compete in because as you start to get on top you want to overanalyze everything. Here is a small analogy. The other day I had a really early flight and I had to make it because had a paid gig on the other end. When I got home the night before I was going through my plan. Wake up call from the hotel at 4:20 am and the alarm on my phone. Of course I get my phone and set the alarm and double check  everything. Long story short I wake up and its light out and I know I am screwed. Miss my flight and everything. I did not get a wake up call which is lame but not my fault. But with regards to the alarm on the phone, I had reset the time an hour behind somehow. The clincher here is that I had been using that phone and the alarm everyday flawlessly until that point.

Or how about the two foot put in golf? Normally an easier shot but when the pressure is on you look at the put  twice as hard as normal and grip that putter and sometimes hose yourself. I think it is mainly because you want to be able to look back and say “I did everything I could”, but in the end that doesn’t really matter when you lose unless you count your mental sanity as important which you probably should.

Right, ok, here are

The strokes.

Ok, so the rest of my trip. I flew from LA to San Diego, which took twice as long as if I would have driven with all the transitions etc. I was in SD in order to host ALT games. Essentially it is the College Action Sports Championships. College kids competing in Wakeboarding, Snowboarding, Skiing, Beach Volleyball, Eating, and the signature sport Flowboarding. I have talked about Flowboarding before when I tried it back in the day and got my ass handed to me. Serious whiplash. I have never seen a sport that looks so easy that is so hard. Basically, it is a standing wave created by shooting water out of jets at a padded structure shaped like a wave.  It is called a “waveloch Flowbarrel” in case you want to look it up. It is located in San Diego at an outdoor bar on mission beach called the wavehouse. It is a great spot and it was packed all weekend. Spring break and the beach was just slammed. Shoulder to shoulder. Great people watching. Of course there were all the girls in bikinis, but my favorites were bodybuilders and their chicks. Bulging out everywhere  and the best part was they never sat down on the beach. I was hosting the show  doing a bunch of stand-ups with my co-host Adrianna costa, so we watched these weightlifters for awhile and they never sat down. In the evening, the flowboard finals were closed out with a  show by Rebelution, a reggaeish band that has a incredibly large draw. People were packed out onto the beach where they could barely see the band. The cops were freaking out about it all. San Diego is pretty rowdy. Here is that band Rebelution:

That  flight that I missed earlier was supposed to get me to Squaw for  a party for all the passholders. I made it somehow and it was a perfect day at the top of the mountain by the pool. Hot and sunny. At the end of the day I skied down and had some beers at the Chamois. Skiing is still great up there right now and San Diego is nice but it is hard to beat a nice warm day skiing followed by some beers. Although the other day I did have at day the beach in Bolinas, here  in Northern, and that was pretty sweet. 88 degrees, Not crowded, good little waves for long boarding, great scenery, crispy cold water and did not see any sharks.  I bought a beach tent like sun shade, that I highly recommend. Especially if you have a kid, its like having a cabana at the beach.

Later everyone, here is some Michael Franti: