The blog days part II.
The first bike I built completely for someone else was for @scottpommier . Scott is one of the best Photographers in skateboarding, and now has gone on to bigger commercial shoots as well. Building a bike for a friend is hard. We bickered like school girls, I was often an asshole, and he chewed his hummus with his mouth open. I learned a lot from Scott, you have to be patient with your customer and they have to pay you the same respect. Sometimes if I wasn’t feeling particularly creative and Scott was down here we would go and shoot photos. He was always down for a mission. Happy to still call Scott a friend. Here are some images from those times and a few of his bike. #4qconditioning
At 26yrs old I lost two of my good friends. One to cancer and the other to a brain aneurysm. They both were a few years older, and I really looked up to them. It changed the way I thought about everything. You tell yourself that every day you must live it to the very fullest, that thought came easy, but to execute it was nearly impossible due to the responsibilities of life. 25 years later and I have trips like this that make me feel so alive, that seem like a complete blessing. Though I can never make any sense of the world, I always try to pull back on days like these and take a deep breath and enjoy living in the now.
I shot three rolls of film on my old Leica m2 and these are a few of my favorites. Thanks to @prideofgypsies for these opportunities to run with the throttle fully open. To me these experiences are what life is all about. XO MAX———-
#4qconditioning #leica
HWY trip film. All my life I’ve had high anxiety, for the first time in my life I went to a therapist just for myself, she said I’m a master of hiding it. I tend to pull away and just want to observe to make sense of things. Sometimes it makes me shut myself in the house, and other times it takes me out on the road to try to make sense of the gears spinning inside my head. Every sign leading up to this trip said -don’t go-…. So many odd, mechanical issues springing out on me every day.. the anxiety deepens in you and give yourself 1000 excuses of why you shouldn’t go. Well, I did go. I’m so glad that I did. This was a really beautiful trip. It was definitely taxing at times, right when I thought I had made it out of the mud and the trees of an old fire trail, I went sliding on my side next to my bald front tire, and I just had to smile. I spent my whole life learning from heavy slams, why should now be any different? I used to do it alone, mostly, I’m learning that it’s not so bad to have friends around to help pick you up from some of those slams and the low times. Thank you @hwy.inc Chase,Peter, and Dave, putting us all together. And thank you to everybody that was there, it really was a blast. Here’s just some of the photos I took on my favorite camera. Leica mp. Take a look. #4qconditioning
Here’s a little clip from our recent trip. Chase put on the 50 weight trip this year…. It was absolutely incredible. Here is just a sliver. Thanks to everyone that made it happen. #lostcoast #testosteron #shovelhead
Heading north always feels like a majority of the day is spent getting out of Los Angeles. Cracks in familiar roads dump you out into 400 miles of unmolested California backcountry where the sprawling green hills of Ventura county and open coastline north of Santa Barbara test the true value of your motor. At Glen Annie you can open up until the Pacific Ocean disappears and California swallows you whole.
The bright city lights hang in my mirrors like fireflies and the bay bridge spits me out into an old liquor store, now lined with molded tanks and a collection of built motors, mills and lathes.
In the 1960’s west Oakland was a cultural epicenter for blues and the black panther party. It was also home to some of the most notorious motorcycle clubs in the world- most notably the Hells Angels and the East Bay Dragons. These clubs were, and still are, the benchmark for all things motorcycle related- especially if you’re in the Bay Area. Max’s bikes are exactly that. A salute to 1960’s San Francisco. Endorsed and sent out into the world to turn heads in every corner of the globe.
Max exhibits collections throughout his home like a museum documenting a thousand past lives. Photos of old friends, priceless paintings and hand drawn signs, clocks, license plates, books, wheels, etc. No space left untouched. A true collector, builder and appreciator. A historian. Thank you Max @4q69
Garage Days. Supported by @805beer
1939 Harry David’s son kickstart after a brief nap. Will be bringing by @friscochoppers show after paying $8.50 to cross the bridge, but most likely covering my license plate with my foot or doo-rag. I never used the video function on this Leica Q3 I turned the shutter speed way down to make it moody for all my goth friends. Enjoy. #4qconditioning #leicaq3 #kickstart #harleyknucklehead am I supposed to hashtag more if I wanna go viral?
Recent shots of Rach @here.studio.california . I used the 1953 Iiif I’m borrowing from Jason. Aside from loading it, it is not the easiest camera in the world to use. The old cliché, it slows you down, it makes you take your time. We’ve had lots of rain in Northern California lately, but this was one of those days that we had a break and there was a cool cloud cover. I didn’t tweak these at all, this is how they came directly off the roll of film. #4qconditioning #leicaⅲf ##kodaktmax400 #leica
I could of done better this year. I’m going to do better this coming year. Shed that skin from year of the snake and jump on the coming years horse and move. Thanks to my lady for sticking it out with me. Thanks to my friends that were there for me along the way. Above are some photographs, I took this year, just some of the memories….. aside from the first photograph that Jon humphries took, and the surf photo Ken Nagahara took. Happy new year everybody. Let’s help hold each other up. #4qconditioning #leica
