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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After I got home, I flipped through the camera and thought to myself… I should have taken way more photos. JBALL, Deacon, Tadashi, Nico & I met up in Santa Monica to ride a couple schools that MTS put us in touch with. I need to start making a map of spots out here because things aren’t as close as we’re used to. LA is a big place and it doesn’t really seem to have an edge until you hit the ocean. It just sprawls out infinitely. It seems like most spots are only accessible via automobile. That’s somewhat of an exaggeration, but you’re definitely going to have to drive to meet up with your friends. That’s what these dudes did. Thanks again for coming over to our neck of the woods to ride before Tadashi flew back home. We’ll have to make it a slumber party next time.
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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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We had a lot of fun shooting “Complete the Circle” when Tadashi Nakamura was in Portland. He’s become a really close friend over the years and this is now the second time he’s traveled from Japan to ride bikes with us in the States. Those of you who have ridden FGFS already know how difficult it can be and Tadashi has clearly been doing this for a while. He had an easy time hopping on every handrail we came across. Portland has some great alleyways and often times we’ll take the road less traveled just to mix things up a bit. Check out more photos below and watch the “Tadashi VIDEO” if you haven’t already. Until next time.
“Uhhm, okay.” – Tadashi Nakamura said those words a lot during his time with us. Mostly after we just finished coaxing him into going for a clip, but sometimes after we asked a complicated question. We have a lotta love for Tadashi. He stayed with us back when we used to live in the Tenderloin in SF. Check out that video HERE. That was a crazy house.
Anyways… Let’s get back to our time in Portland. After Jaoa left, Tadashi took over his room and rotated in giving us a chance to shoot this quick video before he flew back to Japan. Which I’m really glad we did and don’t know why we didn’t think to film more sooner. It’s amazing what we can do with only a handful of film days. Until next time my dude. ✌
We all woke up feeling crispy the day after Jaoa Danaikrit’s Birthday. That being said we decided to keep it mellow and spend the day at the arcade. Ground Kontrol is one of our local watering holes and is an endless source of entertainment. Afterwards we decided to take the long way home and go for a quick jaunt through “Forest Park” to show Devon and Anthony some of the other things the great state of Oregon has to offer. I think we bit off more than we could chew when both Jaoa and I started to bonk halfway along the trail. Never the less, we all made it home in one piece. Just in time to BBQ before the sun went down. It was really amazing to have all the homies in town at the same time, and I already miss having Jaoa around the house. We’ll have to get the band back together more often. Until next time.