December 2012
1 post
Hola Miami y gracias por la hospitalidad
“Hello Miami and thank you for the hospitality”. Brandon Knowles, Frank Branca and I descended upon Miami for a two day getaway from the tropical environments of Tampa and Orlando for the, well, tropical environment of Miami. It had been about 3 years since my last Miami adventure and I’d forgotten how much of a lush tropical paradise it is. It’s a major metropolitan city...
November 2012
6 posts
Skate Then Destoy.
We did some skating around Lakeland and discovered some garbage that we did some shredding on. One man’s treasure is another man’s trash.
Frank got his licks in on this abandoned TV.
Over and done with.
This thing didn’t stand a chance.
Donzo.
If I were still in photo school this would make an awesome artistic statement photo.
Into The Wild.
After a fun night in Orlando with our old friends and Girlfriends, where we ate, drank and were more merry than usual, Frank, Brandon and I kept heading east to visit my old friend Frosty. He’s no stranger to this blog, but he recently left his 10-year position at the Skatepark for a new opportunity in Daytona Beach; He’s now working in air conditioning. We were already in Orlando so...
Give Thanks Every Day.
You don’t need a reason to be thankful for everything you have but the Thanksgiving season definitely helps. Frank and Alyssa threw a Thanksgiving party for everyone to get together and be thankful at. You should give thanks and celebrate all you have all the time but, like I said, what better time than this time of year?
I’m thankful for my girlfriend always making me a plate...
Working Hard?
One really cool, rare thing about my job is that my supervisor is one of my best friends and the person I skate with the most. Another rare and cool thing is that we may be able to take a few hours to do some skating in the middle of a workday, like we did today. We had all our shit in order, all the money from our jobs in, and no new business to attend to, so why not go cruise around and snap...
Stepped out to The Bricks for the “SanctSHOEary Sneaker Soiree” thrown by the usual suspects at SPoT and The Bricks and hosted by premiere Tampa sneaker gambino Wit-E Beats. A shoe-focused party is a little out of the norm for me but it’s actually pretty similar to any get together for music, art or skating even (if not a little more sedentary).
Tons of limited and older Dunks...
Mellow Sunday.
Mellow Sunday session at Clements’ driveway skatepark on the river.
Clem started off the session with a hurricane rock.
Donahue ran off with my camera and shot this photo of Rob’s back disaster.
He’s figuring out how to skate tranny.
Rob pulled out this melon to fakie. Nice background props, Alex.
Later, Alex at his beloved pink ledges in Ybor.
This is as good...
October 2012
2 posts
Skated around Downtown Tampa with Tom McKessy breaking in a Canon 5D I just got.
Halfoween.
Pat Stiener and Alex Donahue recently moved in together in Lakeland, and had their first get-together for Halloween last weekend, the “half-assed Halloween party.”
Aaron Austin shot most of these photos as well as filmed some stuff on VHS.
August 2012
3 posts
Escaping.
Knowles and me have been working way too much lately so we decided to take a couple days and go down to the land of milk and honey, Sebring. It’s really relaxed and everyone is down to earth. It’s only an hour away, oh and my girlfriend lives down there too so that’s definitely an added bonus. We did some skating during the day and went out to my new favorite bar ever, The Wild...
Left Behind.
We went out to Lakeland to skate the Carpenter’s Home Church. The congregation moved locations so the old building’s been left behind (wakka wakka!) and we got to skate worry-free, even when a Sheriff pulled up. He just hung out for 5 minutes then left.
Brandon left this metal sheet at the spot a couple weeks ago so we set up a euro gap.
Brandon went first then Sam Bellepani came...
Construction Site.
Rolled around Downtown Tampa a couple nights ago with Brandon Knowles and Angel Carela and ended up building a little bank from parts of a construction site by the Tampa Theatre.
It took a little work to support it, and Angel got whitewashed by my flash.
Notice all those wheel marks. It took a little getting used to and adjusting before we could really skate it. Angel made a frontside ollie...
July 2012
4 posts
Why? Why Not?
Nothing like sporadically deciding to light the Bro Bowl up at 12AM to do some skating. Why not? Knowles had the idea and we cruised over there with Andre McKenzie, Brandon’s younger brother Billy and the rest of his crew.
Brandon Knowles, Tailslide.
A little flatground afterwards. Andre McKenzie, switch backside flip.
Bombed one of Tampa’s premiere parking garage later.
...
Keepin' It Movin'.
Celebrated a successful 2 years with The Bricks Squad. Good times and cograts to all my friends over at 7th Ave and 14th St.
I showed up with my camera around my torso and my board on my arm but the rain downpoured right when I got there. So lame. The new Goat Ramp Instaramp is looking awesome.
But thankfully I ran into DJ AlBow and Hi-Def Joe right after.
Batman and Robin, Charlie Brown...
Tourists.
Brandon, Sam Bellepani (who’s name is actually Uncle Sam, for real) drove out to Orlando to skate with our usual skate bro Frank Branca and caught up with old time Gator homie Sam Bianchini for a bit too. We always hit up Midtown for a bit and we took off to do some street skating after that.
Frank can always get up on some tranny.
Silent Frank speaks.
Get up on them walls.
...
May 2012
3 posts
Still Waters Run Deep.
I’ve been tight with everyone in the Gator crew since the first time I’ve met them, several years ago. Now that Brandon Knowles is my boss (we’re plumbers) and we have the same schedule we get to ride out to wherever the rest of the crew is at and do some skating. This time we drove out to Frank Branca’s newish residence in Orlando for some fun in the sun. Next week...
Standard Fare.
Not too much to say about these photos aside from my friend Matt and me went to Turtle Ditch in Channelside Tampa this morning and shot a couple photos.
Tune in.
Crooks.
Back tail.
Kickflip to fakie.
I saw the “93 till” tag and thought Rob Meronek was tagging the ditch. Then I saw the rest of the tag. Probably not Rob. Maybe though.
April 2012
3 posts
Uptown Top Franking.
Long overdue session with my buds from Gator Skateboarding. They held the heartland of Florida down for years in the Sebring area but most of the guys have since up and moved to Orlando to seize more opportunities and enjoy a more urban lifestyle. We met up out in Lakeland for a ditch session.
Sebring’s Saint to skateboarding, Frank Branca.
Frank had the idea to wallride the pipe.
...
Swell.
Some of my friends from North Central Florida came down to Tampa for the day to skate around and enjoy a change of scenery. We snapped some photos along the way and even though we didn’t accomplish much photo-wise we still accomplished a pretty good time. What more can you really want?
Stuart is visiting from Northern California but went to High School down here in Florida. He wanted to...
Mature Fun.
Went skating with these fellas the other day. Never a bad time.
March 2012
2 posts
Salt Air.
Took some of my homies from Atlanta to the beach while they were visiting Tampa for the contest. The only thing is, we went at 5AM. Sunrise was nice. I also threw in some of my lurk photos from the contest.
My homie Mark is holding it down in Atlanta now but grew up on the beach in Sarasota. He as hyped to be back.
This girl was a friend of a friend from ATL who was enjoying the water.
...
Selecta.
Spent an afternoon with my DJ homie Ashley Albritton the other day. He needed studio photos and was leaving to Miami in a few days, so we needed to get it done. Discussion topics ranged from physics to recreational substance use to what’s good for the government and society. Good times as always.
Ashley is a House DJ and is so involved in the medium I don’t think he even notices...
February 2012
1 post
Mixed Media.
A good ways (a couple years now I think!) back my main man Adam Burgess and I collaborated on this art project of some of my photos of our mutual friends and his awesome loose contour portraits of people. The idea was to have an art show with them but it never worked out. So now, without further ado, please enjoy!
Scotty Conley, 2009.
John Gow, 2007.
Kyle Stone, 2007.
January 2012
2 posts
Look Pretty In Your Ugly Sweater.
Pat and Taylor threw an ugly sweater party at the Stiener residence to celebrate the Holidays while everyone who’s made their exodus from the Lakeland area was home for Festivus. It was, as always, a good time with good people. Enjoy the photos.
It sucks I didn’t get a photo of Goodwine repping his Holiday sweater vest with no shirt underneath it. Player shit.
Josh felt right at...
December 2011
2 posts
November 2011
3 posts
Revisiting.
My friend Adam Burgess definitely isn’t afraid of change or progress. Years ago he left his home in Florida for a new experience, to spend a year and change in Japan teaching English and exploring Asia. He returned and promptly took up residence in San Francisco. A couple months ago he returned home to Tampa for a bit with his Mrs and despite some talk of staying somewhere in Tampa the...
Gator Done.
Frank Branca and the Gator Board Shop crew threw a big party for their 6 year anniversary and premiere of the latest video, Gator Done. A ton of the homies came out from all over Florida to enjoy Sebring for the weekend and check out Gator’s latest efforts.
I drove out to Sebring with my old friend Adam Washell and the first person we had the pleasure of running into was Tyler Ogborn,...
Grand Finale.
So Lakeland’s horribly fantastic Adair skatepark is being demolished by Lakeland Regional Medical Center for more… Parking, or something. I suppose saving lives is more important than skateboarding. Matt Dockery and a few other Lakeland locs set up some lights to get one last go around at a park we all learned a ton at. Tons of fond memories at that terrible little skatepark. All...
October 2011
5 posts
Leaving Your Comfort Zone.
I never got into BMX. I tried when I got a really legit GT bike for Christmas one year but it never clicked like skating. Anyway, I made a few BMX buddies in my time at the Park so I swung by for a bowl jam they threw last Friday.
It’s interesting how a lot of the same tricks apply to BMX. This is still a smith grind. It’s great that its still a good looking trick on a bike.
...
Effort>Outcome.
Skated around with Jereme Knibbs today.
I think Jereme thought I was being sarcastic when I said even though he didn’t get the trick his pop off the curb was legit.
Fuck all that noise about roads being for cars.
Trials and tribulations.
Guest appearance by Angel later in the day.
Dylan appearance, too.
Can I Talk My Shit Again?
Skateboarding is well and fun, but can we all agree we’re just having fun?
It’s not like we’re curing cancer over here.
Enjoy yourselves and let’s not take this so seriously.
New Friends.
Skated Orlando for a day with Brandon Knowles and Sam Bianchini and we made a new friend…
She used to skate “real damn good” but unfortunately can no longer do “none of them crazy-ass ollies”. We met this nice young woman when she and her girlfriend stopped their Geo to sell us a used board they’d found in their hotel room. We got that for the princely sum...
Thai.
I hit the Thai Temple in Tampa for a delicious and culturally enlightening brunch this morning. I ended up running into my old friend Adam Burgess who recently returned to the bay with his Mrs after a couple years in San Fran. What a nice morning.
Authentic Thai soup and salads. Fresh off the stove.
Proper Thai treats for enjoyment.
Welcome home, Adam!
It’s a proper temple....
September 2011
2 posts
Soft Wheels.
You have to pick your spots. There’s a time and a place for everything, and as me and the other skate dirtbags cruise into our mid twenties the time for more responsible adult behavior is a lot more prevalent than being able to be a grown up kid. I’m not complaining, all children must grow up. But sometimes it’s definitely needed and appropriate to behave like a total child. So I...
August 2011
1 post
Views.
Amazing views from my new place.
July 2011
4 posts
Crazy. Sam Smyth is RESN. Pretty funny. →
June 2011
4 posts
More Wedding Bells.
Wedding season has been busy. The latest newlyweds are Chris Green and his new bride Danielle.
For No Other Reason.
I’m a really, really big believer in the idea that you don’t have to have a reason to celebrate. Why does there need to be a wedding (preferred), birthday (preferred) or a funeral (non-preferred) to get all your friends together to catch up? Having good friends is reason enough to celebrate. So with that in mind I threw a BBQ at my place for no other reason than to just chill with some...
May 2011
8 posts
Happy Durkeday!
We all hopped on our bicycles to ride around the Ybor City and Seminole Heights area for the Birthday of one of our collectively favorite people, Durke Schmidt. Brian, Seamus, Andrea, Angel, Donahue and his buddy (sort of), Nicole and Maria (sort of, too) all rode from the Bricks to some great spots like Ella’s, The Refinery, and well, we had bigger plans but the nice atmosphere at The...
