I Wound up doing an unplanned shoot with Roman Tencza riding some dirt jumps today. Dean Dickinson was filming a project for ESPN and wanted to get some behind the scenes photoshoot footage. Roman and I had been talking about shooting some dirt at his friend’s private spot, so it was a good excuse to get out there… He killed the dirt much like he does the concrete. If you’re unfamiliar, check out my previous post. Or continue on after the jump and check out some dirt shred. Note: the horizontal shots are expandable.

The plan today was to hit up the Tigard skatepark with Verde Bikes rider and Colorado native Roman Tencza. He’s been hitting up Tigard for daily sessions and charging hard. A lot of the Northwest riders are trails or street riders, which I like, but I prefer shooting transition stuff if I had the choice. Roman kills the transitions.

Despite some nice weather up here in Portland lately, it’s still iffy until late June. So a day that started out sunny quickly saw ominous clouds rolling in. Looking North, we figured we could still see sun in the sky, and hoped to beat the rain over the bridge to the Vancouver, Washington skatepark; Just barely. As soon as I got there (Roman beat me by a few minutes so at least he had a chance to roll around) and I stepped out of the car we could feel it starting to rain. I pulled out one light as quick as I could, barely had time to focus, and it was coming down. Roman got two quick hits at this turndown transfer into the extension before it started dumping down. About three minutes at the skatepark and we headed to lunch. Somehow we still managed to squeak out a cool shot. Button pushed and straight to pack up the gear before it turned into camera bag soup. Tomorrow we’re hoping the weather holds and we can get some actual time in.

I like the single flash result here, as if you look closely the hubs are sharp and as it moves out the wheel you get some motion blur from the fast spinning wheels. Lends a bit of movement while still stopping the main action. For the tech geeks: There’s one Elinchrome Ranger RS AX pack/head on the right side across the bowl at full power. I started unpacking a second light, but it was about to dump so it sat unused.

If you’ve seen the movie Twilight (which seems to be gaining a cult following) you’ve seen Roman Tencza’s work. Roman moved up here from Denver and does a bit of acting/modeling, aside from being a really good bike rider. He did some body double work in Twilight recently, but even though he’s that bigtime I got him out to a backyard ramp I’ve been wanting to shoot on for a while here in Portland. Roman is also a recent addition to the Verde Bikes flow team. If you need a bike, I can vouch for the niceness of the Verde. I’m holding on to my favorite to shot at the moment to see if the mags want it, but since they all seem to be going under lately (or on their way) it will likely end up here soon, which is fine too.

This one is a fufanu on the pool coping extension. That transition is pretty tight, but it worked out. I love the look of the ghetto plywood on the transition. It’s fine for bikes, but I feel bad for the guys at the house who can’t skate that side of the ramp. Thanks Dude Barn dudes.