I met up with Johnathan Ball in downtown Los Angeles and filmed this with him in a couple hours. JBALL has been riding fixed gear for forever and all those year’s of riding FGFS makes it really fun to watch him wield a track bike. Just look at those bar spin combos and fish n chip rotations. We’ll have to get together and film with JBALL more often.
Shout out to the lvl. 9 homie JEF for making the soundtrack.
First off I’ll start by saying how good it feels being back in California. A place where the sun and weather are on your side. The Mexican food tastes fucking awesome and you can step outside in a t-shirt. All things I took for granted. Until now that is. I’ve been loading up on burritos and soaking up the sunshine now that both those things are readily available.
Last weekend I drove down to Norwalk to meet up w/ the boys. JBALL and Deacon Wong managed to get me in a car to actually drive to a spot. 9 Freeways later and there I was. Standing in a parking lot with Deacon waiting 2 hour for JBALL to arrive. Haha. Somebody get this mans a watch. It’s a good thing Deacon brought with him every toy imaginable: scooter, mini fixie, skateboard, etc. Actually that’s not that much, but in my mind he might as well have brought a pogo stick. All that being said, I’m glad he did because it really helped pass the time.
After sessioning some school for what felt like forever, we rode out in search of spots in neighborhood. First up was this rail that JBALL hopped with ease. (see photo for details) Then we went to this out ledge that was pretty rounded and made it difficult to grind. Stay on your grind. A young @CHASEFGFS came out and showed us what he’s made of. I snapped this sequence of him and wish I shot more because the kid is amazing. Once everyone had their fill, we made our way to the top of this parking garage where we ended the day. (Or at least I did, I think they went and rode a skatepark afterwards) On the drive home Slam Dunk Ernie talked about how much fun we had and some of the aireal clips we shot of Marco Marquez. We’ll have to do it again soon. Until next time fam.
With everyone in town for Mission Crit and it being the day after 420, we decided to get the gang together and have a chill session in The Sunset. We warmed up at the skatepark on 42nd Ave (Watch that video HERE) then packed up the van and headed to SF State for the rest of the afternoon. Jimmy ripped his shirt off his body, Deacon live streamed everything on snapchat and we hung out with a scooter kid for once. This plus much more in this one day video, stop reading and just hit play.
Chrome Industries just dropped this video I shot of Johnathan Ball when we were in LA recently. What was only supposed to be a photoshoot turned into JBall & I stacking clips on the side for fun. We then later took that footage and turned it into this promo video for the newly designed Dima 2.0. It’s tight that these shoes are made with the rider in mind and have a built in Propulsion Shank (Learn More) to better distribute the impact from landing and keep your foot from painfully flexing over the pedal. I used to wear Chrome shoes religiously solely because of this feature. Check out more of their bike shoes HERE.
Can it be Summer again already. We’re barely even into winter and I’m already missing the warm weather in Portland. It was so nice while it lasted. Ramon Antonio invited a bunch of the homies from California to come ride with us up here. This is day 3 of their trip. By this point I had shifted my focus from photo to shooting video and capturing long lens second angles. That being said, I did shoot a bunch of stills of everyone jumping this parking lot bank.
I’m not sure what Miguel Zendejas is eating for breakfast, but it’s working. He has tailwhips unlike anybody else in fixed gear right now. Must have signed his name in blood on some ancient scroll to achieve such talent and skill on two wheels. Johnathan Ball is another one of those dudes who always surprises you with how deep is bag of tricks can be. He’s like felix the cat the way he pulls things out of thin air. I’ll shut up now, photos > words.
Click “MORE” to see other photos from this day.
Blow the whistle. After taking a short mid-day break, we loaded up the van and headed back to down town to see what else we could stack before the sun set.
I didn’t shoot as many photos as the day before but was able to get a handful of shots of Miguel Zendejas’ neon yellow Master Bike Co Prototype. I’m not sure when these frames will be available to the public, but I’ve heard whispers of them rolling out sometime in the few couple months. What I can tell you is that these frames are incredibly compact, have steep head tube angles and offer up one of the most progressive geometries FGFS has ever seen.
If you’ve ever ridden with us, than I’m sure you already know, but I’m always the idiot running around trying to round up the crew for a family photo. It’s become somewhat of a tradition at this point, and is always worth the effort. This one in particular was potentially the most challenging one we’ve taken yet. We used the typical 10 second timer, but added in a 2 second exposure as a curve ball. Shout out to these dudes for remaining completely still during that time and to anyone else who has ever put up with my consistent craziness. One day I’ll publish a book of all these group shot. You’ll see.
That just about covers it. Again, keep em peeled for photos from Day 3 of our time together in Portland. Click “MORE” to check out other photos from day 2.
Day one and done. It didn’t take much to roast us to the bone. After the first full day of riding in Portland with the boys we were already salty, sore, and thirsty for more. With legs like noodles and arms like peanut brittle we pushed ourselves and each other to keep the stoke alive.
Setting the stage. Ramon Antonio flew Johnathan Ball, Miguel Zendejas & Josh Silva to PDX to film for a video project he’s been wanting to shoot. Although we don’t have a name for it yet, filming is well underway and is already shaping up to be the hot ticket video of the Summer.
Click “More” to check out other photos from day 1
Life is better with grain. Film photos always have such stronger feels and carry such a greater reward for capturing the moment with a single click. It’s been minute since the homies from down south were in town. Still having a hard time calling Portland a city. Feels more like a suburb with a skyline. More trees than buildings over 2 stories tall.
I tried shooting an old roll of color Kodachrome while they were here. Lets just say it didn’t work out as planned. Haha. It basically came out as a bunch of gray images. That roll aside, here are some photos that did turn out. Until next time my dudes. (Riders: Miguel Zendejas, Johnathan Ball, Josh Silva, Ramon Antonio III, Sam Allgood)
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