Category Archives: XVanThis 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  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: 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. Finally living in a van down by the river.Prior to my excursion to western North Carolina, I had lived near a van down by the ocean, and even a couple times in a van in my friends’ driveways (once in suburbia, once on top of a mountain). Now I am finally living in a van down by the river. This is my third night in the cackalacks and my second river. Technically it’s a stream I hear tonight, as I am parked just off the side of the road at a trailhead to the Pulliam Creek Trail that will lead me down to the Green River Narrows early tomorrow AM. Tomorrow night then will take me to a third river, the Nolichucky, in eastern Tennessee. It’s whirlwind tour of the Great Smokey Mountains, with many more stops to come, and many more adventures to film.  Catching up a bit – I have come up to this area to grab some footage of some serious kayakers, pointed out to me by good friend Alex Tate, and then hopefully some serious mountain bikers, whom I will have to find on my own. The NOC has become and will most likely remain my home base for this region, as that their facilities are awesome, people are great and they unknowingly and graciously let me freeload in their parking lots. The first day there we were able to run the Nantahala on some single duckies, with a little 2-man and 3-man surfing in a single duckie mid way through. After that we rode the Flint Trail up above the NOC, which it turns out starts out with a brutal 32,000 mile climb followed by some seriously worth it downhills. My location tonight (as of the time I’m writing this, not posting it) is just south of Asheville in Hendersonville just off the side of Big Hungry Rd. I’ll get up at dawn and hike down to a section of the Green River called the Narrows – a world renowned extreme whitewater spot. I’ll be filming at rapids with names like Go Left or Die and the Gorilla, and my ultimate goal is to catch the guys I know coming down sometime between 7:00 am and 12:00 pm – the times that the river is turned on. If I miss them somehow, there are surely to be other kayakers to capture. Also, if this post never sees the light of day, its either because of a fail on the treacherous hike in, I fell in the river, or bears, of course. During my time here I’ve already received a rapid education on river kayaking, much like my rapid education on surfing down in Florida. The similarities between the cultures have continually caught my attention. While each have their own lingo, they both exist with the same types of cliques, the same types of attitudes, the same types of characters, and really just a very similar day-to-day. They both also provide a great damn time, which makes sense when you hang out with folks who are doing what they love all day, every day. As for filming, I’m stockpiling footage in droves, but have had little time to watch, let alone, edit any of the footage or images yet. As soon I great a break from having a blast, I’ll find somewhere to hunker down for a while and work through this backlog of film, so keep them eyes peeled. Update: Since writing the above portion of this post, I have hiked in/out of the Green River, and caught plenty of sick footage of some kayaking there. The hike wasn’t as treacherous as I had read – a fall here would not remove you from the this earth, but would remove some skin from your appendages. After the Green, I hung out at Team Scumbag’s shop for a bit then made my way up to the Nolichucky and did an afternoon rafting trip with some friends. A nice river with a good outfitter, USA Raft, who were also courteous enough to let me spend a couple nights in their parking lot. Last night ended with a special treat, my special friend Marcus and I commandeered an inflatable queen bed and floated it down the Nolichucky around 2:00 AM. A solid adventure and a spectacular way to view the stars. Deciding to run back barefoot, was probably not the best idea, however. The queen is now mine and I hope to run it down the Nantahala later this week. At this current moment I’m sitting in a McDonald’s enjoying their AC and typing this to you. Now all I need to do is figure out where I am going tonight. I have also added three new galleries to the portfolio from these three rivers, check ‘em out:
Company Update: A slightly new direction and non-cudos to Apple and YelpAfter some extensive research, both online and in person (with potential users of our services), it has been decided to refocus the direction of the XPerspective brand/site and, in turn, focus on the site itself, putting the rental program on hold. While there is a clear interest in the rental concept from businesses and individuals, the initial investments in both time and monies (mostly time) are prohibitive to the full-on mobile assault of nation in it’s entirety made possible by the XVan. We may return to the rental idea when the time is right. There are some great benefits to this evolution of the XPerspective business model. Having the capability to solely focus on the site itself will give us an opportunity to make sure we are building the right thing, and for the right people. There are some great ideas being flushed out right now to accomplish just this. We be innovatin’. A second, and very exciting, benefit is that the time freed up from no longer having to manage and push rentals on the road means I can put on my filmer/producer hat and crank out some rad m’f'n videos from some of the gnarliest actioneers I can find – so keep them eyes peeled. I’ve already added some more equipment to my arsenal and have some ideas for some custom made pieces to help me capture some unique surf shots while still down here on the coast. Apple and YelpNow, onto a slightly different topic. The two companies above, who I am a fervent supporter and user of, have gone a little too far. When Apple announced its new line of iPhones for mosquitos at this years CES, it received very little attention, except maybe from a few sharp investors who saw the potential opening up a market to 3500 new species containing billions of possible new customers. A shrewd move indeed now that Apple has an average of 2.3 devices in the hand of every human on the planet.* Now you may be thinking, “ok, Apple is pretty damn smart, what’s the problem?” Well, I felt the same way until our old friend Yelp released an updated version of their app for the new mosquitiPhone. For those of you who aren’t aware, I am currently residing in Florida, and Florida is known for two thing and two things only – old people, and mosquitos. Well, as with the old people down here, the mosquitos have a lot of disposable income and have flocked to the mosquitiPhone like, well, mosquitos flocking to anything with a heartbeat. And now it seems that one of these little buggers, no pun intended, has put a review of my delicious blood up on mosquitiYelp. Apparently I have a very distinct and exceptional flavor, a now every mosquito from Macon to Timbuktu knows. Long story short, I have decided to cancel the Everglades as my starting point for the Third Circle/XPerspective/XVan world tour. Thanks Apple and Yelp, ya jerks. *unconfirmed XVan hits the beach, gets some sun, scares some people.Look at ‘im, playin’ in the sand.
XVan nears completion, oil prices plummet.Is the headline I wish I could use – at least it’s half right. The beastly ol’ XVan is just about complete. It has a new roof rack, the Yakima MegaWarrior w/Extension. Parts of the rack came from craigslist.com, ebay.com and REI. Not only does it provide me ample external storage space, it also improves gas mileage by 34%. On, the inside there are now a plethora of storage options for all my material needs, carpeting for my podiatric needs, plumbing for the sink, installed camp stove and microwave for the belly and a battery bank and inverter/charger (2 Trojan T-105s and a Tripp Lite APS750 – yet to be wired-up) for everything else. Now all I have to do is run it by the shop for a quick test’n'tune to find out whether it will be blowing up on my anytime soon. If you think I should have done that first, then … I don’t care, I do what I want! XVan Update – New shoes, kitchen and workstationTime to play a little catchup on the XVan’s buildout progress. Since the last update, the XVan has been given a new pair of shoes - KUMHO ROAD VENTURE MTLT235/85R16 VENT M/T KL71 10 BW120Q to be exact. I picked these up at Kauffman Tires. These knobby bastards are fairly quite – not sure about the lifetime of them, but they sure look mean.
Other progress includes a Murphy bed and counter/cabinet system that will function as the kitchen, bathroom (non-toilet based functions) and computer workstation. The Murphy bed design gives me room to carry large objects still if need be. The cabinet/counter system was hand-built to fit flush in the east wing of this mobile behemoth. It includes a small sink and 4 sliding doors to access the ample space within.
There was one lengthy repair that had to be undertaken a couple weeks ago. Upon trying to crank the van, I broke what is called a shift lock actuator, which is buried deep within the steering column and prevents one from shifting gears without the key in the ON position. Howard and I spent about 20 hours and 60 tools to get that sucker out and replaced.
Here are a couple more shots of the work in progress – and Alex, my assistant.
Freedom in the land of the free.Today marks the beginning of a new chapter for Third Circle LLC – and for me. Having resigned from my position at a software company here in Atlanta – a position I held for 6 years – I now have the ultimate freedom. 24 hours a day to do whatever I need to do, go wherever I want to go, and build whatever needs building. This means more aggressive development on the XVan followed by aggressive development of the XPerspective web portal and rental system. With this new freedom, I should be ready to hit the road by May 1, and, of course, enjoy every bit of the day, every day. Stay tuned. |
| Get Some More |
