Author Archives: nickThis one’s for Yosep.I won’t comment on the lack of updates. Whoops. Anywho, yada, yada, yada, I’m in Michigan now – here are some photos from Detroit and the upper regions of the state. (Click to proceed to the galleries)  Abandoned Detroit  Upper Michigan  Kept for the iPhoneThird Circle is proud to announce the release of version 2.0 of Kept for the iPhone. With version 2.0, we are ready to release the game into the wild.  Kept takes mobile photo sharing and turns it into a game. The goals of the game are simple – players will want to both, take and collect, the most interesting photos possible. When submitting photos, players have the option of snapping new shots or pulling something from their photo library. After a photo is selected, they can either submit it as is, or use the powerful built-in filters and effects toolset provided by Aviary to snazz up the shot first. When in collecting mode, the players cycle through random photos, rating, and then deciding to keep or pass each one. Each player can collect up to 20 photos each, and will want to build up the best collection they can. The player’s score is based on the value of their shots taken and the value of the shots in their collection – the value of each photo is determined by the ratings it receives from other players. Kept is still in its infancy, and will surely evolve, much like Third Circle itself. So go out there and grab it, and get addicted. iTunes link – http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id461460369 Happy Kepting! Life on the road – ain’t so toughSo, as you know, I spent a good part of the summer bouncing around the Appalachians and the Eastern Seaboard in the ol’ XVan. From hanging out in the mountains near Bryson and Sylva in North carolina, to playing around on rivers like the Nantahala and Nolichucky, to biking at spots like Tsali and Snowshoe, to hauling a massive fake rock from New York to Atlanta, to hitting all the seaside towns from Maryland to North Carolina, sampling their beach bars all along the way, I covered over 7,000 miles in just a couple months. It was awesome, and it looked something like this: Yes, This is Florida – Surfing IreneLast Wednesday through Friday we travelled the coast of Florida hunting the best of the Hurricane Irene swell that came through. Here’s what that looked like. Florida Hurricane Irene Swell Surf ShotsThe title says it all, click through to see ‘em:  Hurricane Irene Caldera Jetty, Costa Rica Before we get onto the matter of the Hurricane, currently a few hundred miles off the coast of Florida, a quick update on the results of the Costa Rica trip. 12 hours before we actually left, all of managed to talk ourselves into going on a hunt for beautiful waves in a beautiful place. That night visions of epic swells and deep barrels danced in our heads – as that is what we expected to find in that little Latin American paradise. While are expectations were far from met, let alone, exceeded, we still did what we could to make the most of it. Me behind the camera, sweltering on the hot beaches, and the Matt Bender and Mike Cao out on their boards, we traveled up and down the coast, trying out different breaks here and there. I am currently working on a little segment called The Costa Rica Experiment with the footage we compiled on the trip. Hopefully later next week I will have that ready for you bored, yet anxious eyes. At the moment, I’m all packed up and ready to go on another hunt. This time much closer to home. As Irene makes here way up the eastern seaboard, so will will we. The first stop, Miami. Following in the wake of this Category 3 beast, or expectations are even higher than for Costa Rica – likely partially so in response to the results from Costa Rica itself. Possibly the best conditions on Florida’s Atlantic coast should provide us with some pretty beefy clips. Sta tuned. Team Scum Homegrown Video Contest EntryA friend of mine, Joe Barkley, has a friend that runs the shop known as Team Scum (seen at http://teamscum.com/). Team Scum puts on a video contest in the fall called Homegrown. I re-cut some of the footage of Joe and Tommy Yon at the NOC store wave on the Nantahala as an entry for the contest. Check it out below. Costa Rica, 12 hours from now2 hours ago I was thinking about going out for a quick drink. As fate would have it, I ran into Matt Bender at the surf shop, and now I will be in Costa Rica in 12 hours working my way to film these boys surf an epic swell coming in on the Pacific coast. There are many reasons I shouldn’t go right now, not excluding my bank accounts, the recent demise of the Subaru, other things to do, etc.. but I guess that’s what makes me different from you. Oh, and also, I just finished up a new photo sharing game for the iPhone called Kept – i guess it will be released when I get back. For absolutely vague info about it, see here. Much needed update and a new fancy pants gallery!Ok, so it’s been a while since I updated this thing here. I’m back down in Florida – resetting and looking for some ways to make some money. The first longterm run in the XVan is complete, and all-in-all, I would say it was a huge success. I met so many awesome people, and got to do so many awesome things. I cranked out several videos, pulled a 5000 lb, 32 foot trailer from upstate New York, and even got called the devil once (in a good way). The XVan held up to it all, and I grew very fond of living out of it and being in a new place virtually every night. A few stats about the first run:
I’m going to stick around Florida for a month or two, and then head out again. North and then west will be the directions taken on the next run, gradually working my way to Vail, Colorado, where I will winter. Yes, I will be wintering in Vail. I like saying that. In the meantime, please enjoy my new and improved fancy pants gallery, showing off my works:
Over the next few weeks I will also be producing a handfull of new videos, so keep them eyes peeled. They will include my own submission to the Octane Academy (to be hilarious, I’m sure), an entry for a kayak video contest and maybe even some soothing sunset shots backed by a little Enya. TTFN. 2700 Miles and an EpisodeA few days after the last update, I embarked on a little bit of a road trip – which, upon completion, landed me here in the nation’s capitol, Washington, D.C. A buddy of mine, Alex Tate, and a fellow live life by your own terms kind of guy, made the first serious step towards establishing a brand new rock climbing business with the purchase of a 28 foot mobile climbing wall. Alex, residing south of Atlanta, and myself, still in western North Carolina at the time, met up and made the hike up to upstate New York in the XVan. In a little town called Scotia, just above Schenectady, we took transfer of the wall and later that night began the 1100 mile journey back down to Atlanta. 4 days round trip at a cost of about 350 gallons of gas, if you were wondering. Muther trucker! – is my favorite way of summing up that experience.  Now, on to the big news! I am finally releasing my first episode-style, feature length (25 minutes) production. A little piece I like to call Tommy and Joe Try to Cross the River – Episode 2. This narrated video shows off the skills of two super talented white water kayakers, Joe Barkley and Tommy Yon, playing around in the Nantahala store wave at the NOC. I ended up deciding to host on youtube still, and thus had to split the fella into 2 parts, due to youtube’s 15 minute limit per video. The two parts are both embedded below, so find yourself a sufficient amount of time to truly enjoy these boys kicking some ass in this wave. |
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I know nothing else except that I just bought the plane tickets, the rest is a mystery. Be back Thursday… I think.