I’m a bit slow in posting this one… just pretend I had to get the film processed. Anyway, about a week ago, right before driving to California, I shot a Red Bull skate contest at Marginal Way skatepark in Seattle. It was an elimination, jam format contest, where teams from different Washington area codes competed against each other. At the end the winners got some cash, as well as a donation in their names to the skatepark. The final round was amazing. All three of the guys on the team had some insane lines through the park. Check out a few more after the jump. You can blow them up by clicking.

Last week I drove from Portland back down to Woodward West in Stallion Springs, CA (outside of Bakersfield) to shoot some photos for their catalog, web, ads, etc. I shot a little of everything… BMX, Skate, MTB, and even some cheerleading. Woodward West is roughly a fifteen hour drive from Portland, but it goes by fast as you cruise through Mt. Shasta and California’s desert. Driving also allows me to bring all the photo gear I like, as well as my bike without having to pay astronomical baggage fees. That, and you don’t want to be in Stallion Springs without a car. This post includes some outtakes from the trip, and features Codie Larsen, Josh Clemens, Mike Saavedra, and a ridiculously large ollie from Jaws. Keep your eyes peeled for next years Woodward West catalog, to see some of this stuff and more bangers.

One thing I noticed on this trip, is that every kid at Woodward who approached me while I was taking pictures asked “what site are these going to be on.” Years back the kids would ask “are these going to be in a magazine.”

The annual Pipe to Pipe went down today up at Mt. Hood. There’s a snowboard portion at Timberline, followed by a skateboard contest at Windells Camp. I hit up the skate portion this evening, and shot a few photos, some of which should be in the Yobeat gallery tomorrow. I’ll ad that link when it’s up. Until then You can check out the story and full gallery here on Yobeat. There are two photos above: Rion Linderman, who unfortunately left his front teeth on the concrete in qualifiers (but won best trick for the day with a huge McTwist on the quarter) and Omar Hassan, who recently relocated from SoCal to Portland. Omar is boardsliding from the wedge in the background, around the bowl corner, to revert out. Smooth as glass.

The sun is back in Portland, hopefully for a while now. I cut out of the office early, admittedly for the second day in a row, to go ride bikes. I met up with Roman Tencza, Mark Rainha, and a few others at the Tigard Skatepark, and fired off a few photos of Roman and some local skate rippers. You can view them bigger after the jump.

I’ve been doing design work for Woodward Camp since 2006-ish. I do the catalogs every year, as well as a lot of the advertising, collateral, shirts, etc. They’re growing constantly, even expanding internationally, and there’s always something new going on, so it’s fun stuff. We work with a number of different brands in our office, both big and small, but Woodward is one of the most consistent. This year’s print and web look started with a sheet of steel in my garage, a few stencils, and some muriatic acid. The resulting rusty steel textures got used as subtle elements in the catalogs this year, but they take on more of a roll in the ads. Essentially, I quick-rusted the area around the stencil with the acid and water, then shot photos of the result to use in the designs. The textures got worked in with some provided action photography (I shot the BMX ad of Morgan Wade) and we were off and running. We also worked QR codes into the print campaign this year, to direct readers to the various Woodward web portals by simply scanning them with their smart phone. See the ads after the jump.

Woodward did a larger online marketing push this year than in previous years. We used the tagline “Come Ride With Us” and “Come Skate With Us” throughout the online campaign. Here’s a small sampling of those ads, which are currently running in a number of sizes and iterations.

Our friends over at Woodward Camp just launched a new educational program — a boarding school of sorts — combining BMX, Skateboarding, Snowboarding, Music, and various art programs with traditional college-prep education. Above is the mark we designed for program a couple months back. A W/U combination with an ever so subtle nod to a spine ramp. You can read more about the program here.

Back in the spring, I needed some filming rigs for my DSLR cameras to use while shooting video. If you’ve used DSLR’s for video, you know stability is a bitch, and the options out there are outrageously expensive. Price aside, I couldn’t even find exactly what I needed. Fortunately, I’ve got a shop in the garage, so I whipped up my own rigs out of steel. I’m no master welder, but I made it work. After I figured out what I wanted out of them, they were relatively easy to make, so I put them up for sale in the store on the snowboard site, YoBeat. The people who need them are finding them, which is nice.  We’ve not marketed them as stabilizers, but sold them as Back Scratchers and Coat Racks that happen to work as camera stabilizers, in order to avoid any sort of patent related drama with manufacturers of the really expensive shit. “Hey, I don’t know. It’s a damn coat rack, but it holds my camera just fine.” They’re easy to make and we can sell them to the skate/snow/BMX market cheap ($30 vs. hundreds of dollars) to those who need something affordable, and not lose money on our end. While they’re not as flexible as some of the really expensive systems, I made what I needed for my work, and made them available. Unfortunately, selling them means somebody has to make them, and I’ve been super busy, so I haven’t really pushed them, posted about them, or advertised them. But some filmers have caught onto them anyway.  People keep asking me about them, so here they are. You can see how I use them, with cameras mounted after the jump. I’ve added simple bicycle grips to mine, which is easy and cheap should you choose to do the same. If you want to buy a coat rack (works for normal up to the eye shooting) or a back scratcher (works for low angle, fisheye follow-filming), head over to the YoBeat store. Both are steel construction.

Back Scratcher shown mounted to a camera, with bicycle grip added.

Coat Rack shown mounted on camera, with bicycle grips added.

After the jump you’ll find a few more shots from my trip to Woodward West last week. Above is Australian Andy Buckworth, putting the take off for the camper’s long jump competition to other use. It’s the opposite of the Mega Ramp. The Minor Ramp if you will. But either way, if you notice the height in relation to the curb, that’s a front flip off a 10-inch wedge. Grass or no grass, I’m not trying that.

Skyler, one-footed invert

Morgan Wade, lookback.

Anthony Napolitan, one-hander one-footer.

Skyler, vert wall invert.

I’m down at Woodward West this week, checking out the new MegaRamp and shooting some photos. Above is Anthony Napolitan who was in town the first couple days of my trip. Check out some more shots after the jump.

Morgan Wade, Superman Whip.

10 year-old Tom Schaar. That ramp is over 13 feet tall. Watch out Shaun White, he does 720s.

Jeremy McNamara, Front Crail on an oververt pocket.

Patrick, No-hander.

Evan Abernathy, Barspin off the Pole.

Jeremy McNamara, Pivot to fakie.

I’m down at Woodward West for the week shooting photos. Yesterday was the Media Day / Opening of the new Mega Ramp down here, and as expected it’s, well, mega. A bunch of mega-shredders came into town for the day to ride it, and while all survived the day, Elliot Sloan and Marcello Bastos went down really, really hard on the quarter. Hopefully they’re beginning the healing process as we speak. There are a few more photos after the jump, including some skate shots of Bob Burnquist and Jake Brown. Also, check out ESPN BMX from a massive tailwhip shot of Morgan Wade (pictured above).

Bob Burnquist, Japan 540.

Andy Buckworth, flair.

Morgan Wade, no-hander.

Jake Brown.

Bob Burnquist.