Marco Marquez has been flying under the radar for far too long. It wasn’t until I moved to Los Angeles that I really had a chance to ride with the man and let me tell you. He has one of the most explosive riding styles out of anybody I’ve ever seen ride FGFS. I’m talking double bar spins, 540s, wheelie 3’s. Tricks that are unreasonably difficult to do.
A couple days ago we linked up and rode a couple spots on the outskirts of Culver City. For those who don’t know where that is, it’s basically an imaginary city in the center of Los Angeles where a bunch of Movie studios are located. I think it’s a tax thing. Idk, who can tell. If you know more than me, please reach out and fill me in, I’d love to know more. Anyways. Marco is rad and we’ve been stacking a ton of clips in the last week, so keep your eyes peeled for a video of him tearing up LA. (Culver City to be exact) Haha.
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Filmed on location here in Los Angeles, I took Tadashi Nakamura on a 3 day tour of the town. During which we filmed this Fixed Gear Freestyle jammer for Chari & Co. who continue to bless us with the fresh gear and positive vibes. Tadashi Came all the way from Japan to ride bikes and have fun. Here’s a look at his last few days in LA before flying back home. Until next time Tadashi. MUSIC: JEF – Float Tank
Tadashi Nakamura & I linked up with Marco Marquez and some of the other homies in Culver City and rode around for a bit. I’m always caught off guard by how explosive Marco’s riding style is. It’s unbelievably snappy and every trick is as textbook & tucked as it can possibly be. He took a little bit of a tumble hucking 180s over this blue brick barrier. Landed it clean the first few times for video, but slammed once we tried to take photos of it. It’s funny how that works.
Anyways, shout out to CHARI & CO for keeping our dude Tadashi freshly clothed so we had a reason to film for something while he was here. Keep your eyes peeled for that coming at ya real, real soon. More photos below.
Tadashi Nakamura recently came to LA and spent a few days at our house in Venice. We went down to the boardwalk / Santa Monica Pier to play some arcade games. I bought Tadashi a ticket to ride the bumper cars and got a kick out of a bunch of 9 year olds smashing into him. Got it all on video. We kept it pretty mellow this day and stacked a handful of beach clips for the video we were working on. I’m really happy with how it turned out and cant wait to share it with all of you. Until then, here’s some stills.
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Tadashi Nakamura has traveled from Japan to the States to stay with us on 3 separate occasions now. Each time we lived in a different city. First San Francisco, then Portland, and now Los Angeles. He’s been up and down the West Coast and we’ve filmed a video together in each one of those cities.
I’m really excited to release the video we shot for Chari & Co here in LA. We accidentally broke my fisheye on our first day of filming so we had to shoot things a little differently this time around. It was kind of a blessing in disguise really. It forced me to shoot differently and re-imagine how we come to the table. It’s important to mix things up every once in a while. Don’t want to get stuck doing the same thing over and over.
Shout out to Chari & Co for lacing us up and keeping us stoked on bikes. I’m pretty sure Tadashi stained every white t he owned by the end of this trip. What started out white would quickly turn grey by the end of the day. We had a lot of fun exploring alleys, getting sweaty and occasionally rolling around on the concrete. Keep your eyes peeled for the video piece as well as more photos coming out in the next couple weeks.
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Mike Schmitt has been in and around Chari & Co for years. I found out about them by watching all the old Grime Bikes videos back in the day. It seemed like they were always hanging out at Chari in NYC, and for good reasons. The more I got to know the people over at Chari & Co, the more I began to see what all the hype was about. Not only do they make some of the raddest street wear but they’re also very kind and generous people. It’s easy to want to support the cause when they’re such solid human beings.
I highly recommend you check out their webstore and or scope them out online. Mike recently did a series of graphics for them which can be seen HERE. I’m always inspired by the way they shoot their flat lays and the bike friends they bring into the mix for their lifestyle photography. Worth a follow for sure. Check out the video Mike & I filmed entitled “Strangers”. Shot during the same day these photos were taken. That’s enough for now, talk to you soon.
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We are strangers to ourselves. Sometimes when I look back at the videos we’ve made there’s a weird disconnect. Even though we were there every step of the way while making it, it’s still a strange out of body experience to watch yourself. Mike Schmitt really did a number on cutting this one together. After picking up an old JVC VHS camera, Mike transcoded the footage we shot onto a S-VHS tape, then recaptured it and edited this video. It really brings together all the clips considering they came from 3 different cameras.
Here’s a photo collage Mike put together using some of the photos I shot. I really like the process photos on the top right and the integration of video clips into the slides. (Click here to see the post in motion) Shout out to Chari & Co. for lacing it up with the sweet gear (Some of which Mike did the graphics for) and giving us a reason to get out and make something.
Filmed by: Mike Schmitt and Matt Reyes.
Edited by: Mike Schmitt.
Bikes by: Mash Transit.
A Turf X Wheel Talk production.
Bikes are fun. This is not an advertisement.