Been shooting a few things with Ben Hucke for a magazine interview. Sitting on a lot of good stuff right now waiting for that to materialize. Not posting some of the bangers we’ve got is no easy task. But in the meantime, here’s a portrait outtake from the studio yesterday. You can also download a desktop for your computer of Ben here, as if we’re in 2004 all over again! Keep your eyes peeled at Dig BMX mag soon for some of the stuff we’ve been shooting. They have an iPhone app.

Hit up Burnside Skatepark this morning to shoot some photos of Ben Hucke for a magazine interview. Snotty rolled up after a bit (pictured above with a no-hander over the hip) and did every line in the place. Shortly thereafter Shawn McIntosh came out and toothpicked a moss covered vert wall that’s still in construction outside of the park. Not a bad spot to have a few blocks from the office. A little coffee and BMX photography to start the day. Our favorite shot I’m holding onto for the time being, but here are a few treats after the jump.

Shawn McIntosh, toothpick.

Snotty, wallride out of a kinked-ass quarter

Snotty, moto-whip over the hip.

Snotty, tireslide.

This shot of Josh Stricker is from the filming of the Etnies BMX video “Forward,” which was released in 2002. Dave Parrick, the director of “Forward” can be seen getting the shot in the background. Stricker’s launching off that picnic table in the background. I think this shot might have been either an ad for Primo, or a catalog photo for Primo.

A few weeks back we were driving up to Mt. Baker for the Legendary Banked Slalom and managed a double blow-out in Brooke’s car. Not one, but two flat tires at the same time. At that point, the spare is out of the question, because, well, who carries two of those? Fortunately, with two smart phones in the car, we’d located a tow truck within minutes. We got towed to a Sears about 10 miles back in the direction we’d come from, and I’d say we were back on the road within an hour and a half. Much less of a problem than it could have been. If you find yourself with two flats on the side of the road outside Kelso, Washington, give Bean’s a call. They’ll get you towed in no time. A few more shots after the jump.

We went up to Summit this weekend to film the 7th Annual Holy Oly Revival, a snowboard contest celebrating Olympia Beer, for YoBeat. Awesome contest, and a laid back atmosphere. The Northwest snowboarders know how to make shit fun. The winner of the Holy Oly, in this case Austin Hironaka, wins a pallet of 30-something cases of Olympia Beer. No money, just beer. Check out the video, then go look at a story and photo gallery (not by me) here. Sunday we filmed a fun little project with snowboard legend Peter Line which should be up on YoBeat in a week or so. In the meantime you can check out an iPhone photo of Peter and his dog Parnell, as well as a shot from the balcony of his Seattle Penthouse after the jump.

I made my first trip to the Legendary Mt. Baker Banked Slalom (the 25th year) this past weekend to film this video for YoBeat. The event is amazing. It’s just how events like this should be: fun. Nothing more, nothing less. There’s no prize purse, yet the best snowboarders in the world (including some Olympians who still couldn’t resist despite the Games being just days away) make the trek to Baker to ride year after year. Some legends, like this year’s winner Temple Cummins, only surface for the Banked Slalom each year. As Mt. Baker manager Gwyn Howat put it, how many events do you know of that 10-year-olds, 60-year-olds, and Olympians compete on the same course on the same weekend? Not many, if there are any others out there.

I went out to NYC a few weeks back to meet with Brian Tunney and the rest of the ESPN Action Sports staff about doing some BMX content for them. I’ve been notoriously critical of television produced BMX/Skate events like X Games, but I think from a online content perspective ESPN have done a great job putting together original content, and hiring the right people to do it. The first feature I did was an extended version of an earlier post I did on here about the legendary Boston BMX and Skate spot known as Turtles. When I originally wrote the post on here I hadn’t found my old photos from the final session, the day before they bulldozed the place. After digging through some filing cabinets I found a folder of old New England stuff, and there it all was. So check out ESPN for that.

I also have a photo of the day on the Freestyle Motocross blog over there on ESPN.

Ruben Castillo is a BMX Legend. In the late 80s and early 90s he rode for Dyno Bikes and later started the legendary Homeless Bikes along with James Shepard. Ruben’s frame was fittingly called the Soul Bro. This images is from a BBQ at the Terrible One ramp in Austin, TX in 2002. And about the suit… I really have no idea. With Ruben you just go with it.

Back in 1999 I took a trip down to New Jersey to ride and shoot some photos at the skatepark in Tom’s River. I think I’d driven down to Brian Tunney’s house for a couple days or something. I feel old for not being able to remember the details. But I did come across these photos I completely forgot even existed.

These days Van Homan is known more for what he did on the streets, but in those days he was sponsored by Schwinn, mostly for his dirt jumping skills. Here’s Van Homan on the box jump at Tom’s River. You can see them larger, along with another photo and a bonus shot of Pat Juliff, who was also part of the Schwinn team at the time.

Above: Sean Rudzinsky, Nac-nac.

ZT Maximus. It was dark. It was dirty. It was awesome. It was also the first place I ever had a gun pulled on me (outside: the park was next to a housing project).

In the mid-90s there were very few skateparks, especially in the Northeast. Ratz, an amazing skatepark in Maine, had closed down. Fred Smith’s Skate Hut in Providence, where Kevin Robinson honed his vert skills, had also closed. There was next to nothing left (aside from the small and distant CT Bike Exchange in Connecticut which might even still be there). There was no money in BMX or skateboarding — especially BMX. The Extreme Games had just gotten going, and professional riders were making a few hundred dollars a year. It was awesome.

ZT Maximus in Cambridge, MA was, for a period of several years, the only real indoor skate or BMX option for those of us in New England. While I was going to school in Boston it became a second home during the cold winter months. Don’t get me wrong, it was still cold inside. They barely had money to keep the lights on most of the time, but at least it was dry and free of road salt.

Maximus sat adjacent to a Cambridge housing projects in an old, dirty warehouse building. It was a gnarly neighborhood. That’s how skateparks were, and how they should be — dirty. The skateboarders who ran the place were nice enough to let bikes ride there, I think mostly because they could fill the place on bike nights and pay some of the bills. At some point it started to seem like they were actually cool with us, though. Some of us started riding their pretty regularly, beyond their scheduled “bike nights,” mixed in with the regular skate crew. As far as the local skaters, some big names came up through there like Charlie Wilkins, Robbie Gangemi, Jahmal Williams… even now-iconic street artist Shepard Fairey was a regular in Maximus. In fact, Maximus was one of the first places I saw the now-infamous Andre the Giant has a Posse artwork.

Keith McElhinney, rubbing shoulders with the rafters on the vert ramp..

The dynamic at Maximus was amazing. The owner was a tattoo artist. Tattoo shops were illegal at the time in Massachusetts, but there were often tattoos going down in the back room behind the shop. His dog had a tattoo and drank beer off the floor. When it was closing time they turned the lights off with no warning. Normally at a skatepark someone working will warn everyone, and clear the park of all people before shutting off the lights… Something about safety. At Maximus, when it was closing time, they flipped the lights off. Inevitably you’d hear “FUUUUUCCCKKK” as someone dropped out of the sky in complete darkness over on the vert ramp. I suspect if someone had died in the process they would have just tossed them out back and kept about their business. Again, the place was awesome.

Now about that there vert ramp at Maximus. They had one, sort of. It was a large halfpipe, and it was super fun, but it didn’t really go to vert. The ceiling rafters were about 6 feet above the deck. On a skateboard you were fine for lip tricks and relatively low airs, but on a bike, if you went more than a couple feet high you were slamming into the rafters. That was part of the charm at Maximus. Some things were sketchy, but it was an awesome kind of sketchy. It was also all we had.

Maximus is where I started to get more into photography, and specifically BMX Photography. I’d played with it over the years, but I got more into it during the time I rode Maximus regularly. Looking back, it was probably one of the best places to learn how to take pictures, because it was an absolute nightmare of a shooting situation. It was dark. Really dark. Shooting action is pretty tricky to begin with in mixed indoor lighting conditions, but trying to learn how to use flashes, with film, in that kind of horrible lighting was a bit of a clusterfuck. I had a lot of black frames on that old film. Underexposed, blown out… I did a lot of experimenting, though, and looking back, I actually really like the rawness of some of these photos. Harsh lighting, blur, dust, scratches. It’s a dirty skatepark, and I feel like crisp tack sharp photos wouldn’t necessarily do that period justice.

Jerry Bagley, turndown transfer.

We had a good crew of regulars in there: Sean Rudzinsky, Weasel, Burger, Jerry Bagley, Dave Muggleston, John Maul, Mark Rainha, Tony Long, Keith McElhinney, Mike Rotondo, Tom Masterson, Allan Farris, Kevin Robinson… some of those guys are still around the BMX world to this day. Some of them went on to pretty good “careers” as pro riders. We all have the guys from Maximus to thank for getting us through at least a few winters when we had no other place to ride.

These photos were shot roughly 1995-1996 with a Nikon 6006 and a Konica TC-X.

Sean Rudzinsky, transfer.

Jerry Bagley (left), Tom Masterson (right). Bagley had just gotten on Standard Bikes.

Kevin Robinson, vert ramp feeble grind.

Matt Branscombe, Burger, Jerry Bagley.

Mark Rainha.

Sean Rudzinsky.

Al Farris.

John Maul (left), rail ride. Tony Long (right), transfer.