Chumpchange

2012-01-15T00:56:00.001-08:00

i quit

Christmas Hike

2011-12-31T00:54:00.000-08:00

This year was my first time in my entire life not being at home in Illinois for Christmas. I wasn't sad because I got to go home for a few days before the actual Christmas day, but I was worried about what I'd do all day since most of my friends would be doing family stuff and every business would be closed. I know I could have skated, but I would have been skating alone and I can and do skate almost every other day so I decided to do something I've been curious about, which is to go on a solo hike. Me and some friends sorta got into hiking a little over a year ago but I'd yet to go on one alone. So I tried it out... and alone I was not. There were more people hiking Camelback mountain that day than I'd ever seen any other time we'd done it. I'll have to remember that for next year. Anyway, here's some pictures of my first ever Christmas that didn't involve a single family member or a winter coat!!!!

Sent to me By: The rebirth

2011-12-19T02:18:00.000-08:00

So my excuse for not blogging anything for a while is and has been that I have no camera, and the camera on my phone is useless. Now I've got a new phone and no excuses! I thought I'd start I'd rebirth my blogging with a good ol' fashion Sent To Me By article:

Illinois Winters sending the homies indoors from Steve D

blevins dancing possibly... moving quickly anyways

Snow.. I'll see you this stuff very soon. from Hide

Steve D sent by Hide.

My old friend Jessica spends more time than anyone just looking upwards

Steve Biggs and Ben Smith. New(ish) friend and Old(ish) friend. sent by skip feathers
zoe and tony sent by Zoe, it's crazy how long I've known these two.

That's it for now... I expect a lot less eyeballs will see this than in my hayday. Oh well though, my fault for not getting a better camera phone earlier. Send me pictures to my phone

Skateboard donations

2011-12-13T01:50:00.001-08:00

Taking donations of old/used skate stuff to give to local youth programs. If you've got stuff and you read this, hit me up

Devil boy

2011-12-09T23:54:00.001-08:00

I wish I could go back in time and hang out with a three year old me. I hope that in heaven you just get to hang out with yourself at every age.

First from new phone

2011-12-05T02:52:00.001-08:00

Lee Bender

2011-11-20T17:15:00.000-08:00

If it weren't for this dude, I might have moved to Mesa

lee bender from andrew hutchison on Vimeo.

insta

2011-11-16T04:35:00.000-08:00

Instagramed by Zoe

Original Origins

2011-11-12T00:56:00.001-08:00

I know that everyone loves Chumpy, but let's take a little time to get to know where he came from.

Good Times

2011-11-07T04:21:00.000-08:00

Is it a re-blog if I take it from facebook and use it on my blog?? either way. This is a photo shot by one of my favorite people(Michael Tubbs) of two of my other favorite people(Lee Bender and Jamie Larson) getting tubed together while I was on one of my favorite trips (to Portland) that I've ever been on. You can see me in the background filming it with a cell phone. Taking video of two such epic people with a cell phone seems pretty trite right now.....

I'm back?

2011-11-05T03:12:00.000-07:00

Ed Templeton

2011-10-21T05:07:00.000-07:00

I got pretty sad today. I watched this part and realized that it's probably the last one of these we'll ever get. Thanks for being the best.

Welcoming to the world....

2011-09-19T14:51:00.000-07:00

Julian Marksteiner! One of my favorite people, made another people! Congratulations Bobby and Maura.

Randy Blogged Me

2011-09-13T02:33:00.000-07:00

Since I have no camera and my phone pics are tiny and useless. I'll take pictures of myself from other people's blogs.
This is me at Venezia's. My home away from home.

Perspective.........

2011-09-07T02:19:00.001-07:00

Since my old camera got stolen.... and the camera that a fellow/rival blogger sent me has a battery that won't last more than a few seconds (thanks for nothing biggs)...... I'm having to resort to using old pictures for my bloggery. This is me working in my Napa Auto parts truck. That truck of mine had a cool hat on top of it. Embarrassing. Either way, this picture is important to me because it reminds me of having a super shitty full time job working 40 hours a week and still being super broke. Getting fired from this job was awesome because it honestly led to the last 4 or 5 years straight of having awesome jobs working with kids and skateboarding. It pains me to think of the possibility that if I hadn't been fired from this job, I may still be working there!!!

shit fuck piss shit

2011-09-05T14:15:00.001-07:00

From the desk of a hypocrite: at first I was just jotting shit down to get the ideas out and then I was going to go back later and edit it and change it up and make it sound better. But I just now decided not to.... so.......

The other day I read an article about how out here in the Phoenix area, there is a need for more foster homes. There are more kids in need of foster home placement than there are spots for them. So kids are getting turned away from foster homes and sent to shelters and group homes, but since the shelters and group homes are full, they're being sent away from them as well. At the same time that this is happening, funding for foster kids is being cut by the state to save money. So now there are kids ending up on the streets because would be foster homes are closing or not opening because people can't afford to do it anymore. On top of that, Child Protective Services is getting a lot of shit from people for not 'doing their job' and placing these kids, yet the current state of things makes it impossible for them to place ever child somewhere.

Now this is just another 'problem' that we hear about and just gloss over and say 'oh that's terrible' and go about our day. And I'm realizing more and more all the time that that mentality is exactly what is wrong with the world, on a big scale and a small scale. We're selfish. Everything we do is for and about ourselves. We know it's not good to be selfish but that's all we know. What we think is important isn't important. We're brought up knowing that the most important thing in this world is to fall in love. Every day it's crammed down our throats that we must find a mate and marry that person. Despite the fact that we know half of marriages don't work. And how much time and effort and energy do we spend attempting to find, attract, maintain a relationship, marry, care for etc that ONE person. Who does that help....? ONE person. What if our priorities are all wrong, what if we spent that much time, energy, and effort on more than one person. What if we did as much to help children find homes as we did to help ourselves make sure we have a husband or wife? Imagine how our culture could be different if we stopped focusing on loving one person and focused on helping every person. Imagine if there were movies that came out every weekend about amazing people who adopted kids or helped them fill out job applications!

Another thing is money. Government doesn't pump money into these things because they don't pump money right back out. So programs, like the ones I read about that try to help 17 year olds in foster care who are about to 'age out' and go into the world, get their funding cut and that increases the chances of those kids ending up on the streets or in jail. Don't they see that this is an investment though. There is no reason that a kid who grew up in foster care couldn't have the same chances once they turn 18 and go to college. I mean, no one even pays attention in school until college anyway. Imagine if you could make $100k a year helping 18 year olds who've 'aged out' of foster care learn to fill out job applications, or rent apartments. It would be a competitive job that people wanted to have. The way it is right now, they have volunteer programs that allow you to do that. But because we're selfish, who's got the time? Same with teachers, imagine if you being a teacher meant you made $80 grand to start with. Teachers would be highly paid and highly qualified to teach, they'd have to be or someone else who's more qualified would take their spot. I know that there are flaws to this way of thinking. Some would say they wouldn't want people just doing these jobs for the money. And I agree that people shouldn't just want to do them for money, but the way it is now isn't working because kids are being turned away from homeless shelters!

Help good people do good things.

2011-09-05T01:23:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, my friend Buzzy and I got to work with a great organization called The A.skate Foundation. These people set up clinics around the country to allow kids with autism the chance to experience a fun day of skateboarding. Anyway, they're up for the chance to possibly win a $50,000 grant from Pepsi if enough people vote for them. So if you give a flyin' shit about anything, go vote for them here.

selfy

2011-09-03T15:09:00.000-07:00

Last summer I filmed a bunch of stuff for my retirement part.

This summer I accidentally filmed a few more things. I'm still retired, but I skate from time to time. So do Buzzy and Roger

This is two days of skating after camp ended. Dylan came up for the day from SD and we got all plaza'd out.

click here and here to see the rest of Kryger's summer works.

I feel naked

2011-09-02T14:37:00.000-07:00

I do this about once a year.

Yesterday when I was driving to work, I felt like I looked like a mad scientist and decided that I needed to cut my hair off immediately. I don't know why my friends don't step in and say something when it's looking as ridiculous as it did!

Let's just hope that the hot moms from my work like it. Sin.

Ipath @ woodward

2011-09-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

Vote for the homies...

Burners for Jesus

2011-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

At some point in my life I took a picture of this tag. Fool gets burners up all over town.

Co-workers

2011-08-31T03:05:00.000-07:00

These are my co-workers. All of the directors from Woodward West. This is our 2011 Week 11 post meeting photo.

Here's our 2010 week 11 post meeting photo.

I wonder if they'll notice that I purposely did the exact same pose for the new one.

Larry Bao

2011-08-28T15:09:00.001-07:00

Name: Larry Bao

Top 3 favorite cities: nyc, tempe in the winter, indianapolis or where ever the friends are

Top 3 skateboarders: romero, kirchart, hsu

Top 3 skateboarders that you know personally: pat binkley, michael shafer, brad westcott

When was your prime? 2 years ago

5 good bands: jesus and mary chain, the exploding hearts, the strokes, rosie and the originals, htrk

5 good songs: the parasails- magic carpet, tiny yong- le sauvage, jesus and mary chain- kill surf city, francoise hardy- comment te dire adieu, the chromatics- mask

5 tricks that you can’t do: any flip trick that has a flip in it

Spirit animal: red panda

5 good books: women by bukowski, cats cradle; breakfast of champions; slaughterhouse five by vonnegut, the fall by camus

What’s the worst? irritation

What’s the best? the night time

3 good non skateboarders: bukowski, mamet, vonnegut

What do you like to do outside of skateboarding? watch good movies and take pictures

What is your prized possession? computer

What will end the world? when every dies

B Log

2011-08-25T14:04:00.000-07:00

Summer camp is over....

I'm going to start blogging again.......

I don't know what to blog about......................

Any suggestions.....................

It's official....

2011-07-25T22:47:00.001-07:00

I'm the fattest skateboarder.

2011-07-23T12:32:00.000-07:00

I want to die after hearing what happened at that camp in Norway. 85 people. Nothing that I've read has mentioned the word 'kids' yet, but I'm assuming most of them are children. I don't want to live in a place where one person can legally own 3 guns and use them to kill 85 kids in 90 minutes.

Andrew Cannon

2011-07-20T00:25:00.000-07:00

Cannonball has an amazing new part out there in the World (get it) and it's amazing. Me and this guy moved to Arizona close to the same time and I have to say that my life is better because of him!

Andrew Cannon -"It's Your World" from World Industries on Vimeo.

2011-07-08T15:19:00.001-07:00

2011-06-09T23:21:00.000-07:00

Musics

prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr..........

2011-06-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

Hopefully some girls will see this post.

Cell phone pictures

2011-06-02T21:08:00.000-07:00

Here's my last few weeks in cell phone pictures, since no one likes to read words on blogs....

stoooooooops....

2011-05-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

I don't get why anyone would go out and spend a bunch of money on some flashy(pun)expensive camera.....

when you can take perfectly good photos with your cell phone!

final blog post?

2011-05-28T12:28:00.000-07:00

My two and half week trip to my homeland of Geneva, Illinois is drawing to a close. Due to lack of motivation to contribute to the intense oversaturation of the blog world, I have not been taking many pictures from my trip. Blogs are the new facebooks, and I'm over em all. Lucky for me, my St. Louis friends aren't yet tired of updating their blog so my trip down to their hood was well documented on the Pretty Skateboards blog. I really like the scene down there in St. Louis I'm psyched on all the dudes I met and skated with while I was there. Sorry to anyone who cares about my blog (bobby and worful), maybe I'll get psyched again.

Where Eagles Dare

2011-05-27T09:24:00.000-07:00

We walk the streets at night.
We go where Eagles dare.

Who wore it best?

2011-05-15T00:24:00.000-07:00

Tim? or.......... Tim?

We did it.

2011-05-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

May 7th, 2011

2011-05-08T03:52:00.000-07:00

Just a regular day with some Indiana boys.

Brett Reed front boards

Brad Westcott rolls in

Care Partnership

2011-05-07T02:16:00.000-07:00

I went to the Care Partnership today to say goodbye to the kids for a few months and get a few pictures. I'm psyched at how this whole thing worked out. The kids use the skateboards every day and they're learning quick. I hope to do it again next year somewhere else.

Vegas Vacation

2011-05-02T21:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a little video that Kryger made of our trip. trip out.

turn the page........

2011-05-01T17:48:00.000-07:00

.... my little love nest is gone. I was kinda sad packing it up. I really liked this place.

oh well. Here's where I think I might live next time around.

2011-04-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

Kryger's first time in Vegas

2011-04-23T01:55:00.000-07:00

Kryger came up!

and then got down!

The booze and the money were both gone within minutes!

Brad Rogers 30th from the cell phone

2011-04-21T00:10:00.000-07:00

dudes

dude

crazy dude

Brad Rogers 30th

2011-04-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

Brad Rogers is 30! Crazy that I met this dude when he was 16 and I've known him for this long.

How else do you celebrate your 30th.... drinking a beer on the slip and slide duh

Chris Fetter, another dude who's about to be in his 30s isn't too old for a little slipping and sliding

Chris is well traveled, you can tell that in the way he slip and slides

Kryger got slippy slidy too

with a personal filmer to capture the moves

cute pic

little breather!

Chris tried talking Bart into slippin, Bart wasn't feeling it!

Then he felt it!

My personal favorite from the day... "REVERSE!"

"Safety First"

"Built to Shred"

Bart got some more ideas

not everyone made it out alive... Peter Baker's slip and slide carnage!

Technifesto

2011-04-14T01:56:00.000-07:00

Drew is on to something here..............

Risky

2011-04-13T01:34:00.000-07:00

My blog might lose Ipath as a sponsor over this, but I've been sitting on these pictures of Ipath riders Jaws and Ryan Lay for months now. I decided that tonight was the night for them to leak!

Jaws front board

Ryan Lay 5-0

Ryan Lay krook

Venezia's

2011-04-11T00:36:00.000-07:00

Lee Bender came to town. We celebrated the only way we know how.

Manatee Promo

2011-04-09T02:53:00.001-07:00

Here's a promo for a video me and my friends never made!

Some random and recent pictures

2011-04-08T01:48:00.000-07:00

some from a cell phone, some from a real camera.

new hobbies... ping pong with Brad, Dylan, and Brett

RyRey check out.... he name dropped me

Phoenix am best trick

Some schoolwork from my buddy Alejandro. He wrote about how I taught him how to skate.

RyRey mid miller flip

This dude faked us all out with his "Moska" board. We all thought he had a brand new unscratched Muska board.... what a let down.

Ended up driving right alongside Brad and Ari

Ari and Vlad

Bart

Hole in the Rock

2011-04-06T20:42:00.000-07:00

I rode my bike to Hole in the Rock

beards happen

some mars rocks on the way

made it

the hole

natural skylight

natural skylight light

inside the hole in the rock

the view

It's crazy that people leave diapers around, I feel like I see this often

Sk8 pics!

2011-04-05T23:25:00.000-07:00

all out of order...............

Ramil slashing

ari front board

ari backsmithing

sean back tailing

vlad flatgrounding

ari front boarding again

ari switch krooking

sean and ari skating

kevin willrick wallriding

ari front boarding again

Dimon

2011-04-04T23:14:00.000-07:00

Saw something wild shit. Dimon wrecked on his bike in front of our eyes. It was scary.

Paramedics looking like angels or super heroes in this picture

The bike got fucked

the wall got fucked

the nation is fuct

chris' eye, wrist, and finger got fucked

This was some pretty scary shit to see and be around. I'm glad Chris was relatively okay, but it could have been way worse. I hope this is the last motorcycle accident that a homie gets into.

Andrew Jackson Jihad

2011-04-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Andrew Jackson Jihad played at the Trunkspace on April 2nd. Meaningful music.

Lindsey was there. She wasn't drunk, she was just weird. (she was drunk)

all girl mosh pit

Happy Birthday my name is Bart

2011-04-01T01:45:00.000-07:00

"his name is bart the fart"

Found an old gem

2011-03-31T01:08:00.001-07:00

I can't even explain how hyped this used to get me......

still does.

I've been all up in the blog scene lately

2011-03-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

Here's me:

catching some shade on Cody's blog!

getting action over at melody's blog

gettin fed on giselle's blog

getting amused on giselle's blog

getting photoshopped at catface

and deep thinking over at SuchLuck.

First Post with my new cammy

2011-03-29T12:18:00.000-07:00

An angel sent me a new camera!

and to celebrate Me, Scott, and Ari met up with Ted and mashed around for the night.

pregame

getting pumped

and we're off

we found Ted

scott was spot searching

chit chat

we all got tricks

male bonding

this post wouldn't be possible if it weren't for angels!

Such Luck in Arizona

2011-03-28T22:27:00.000-07:00

Such Luck Tim made an awesome post from his time in Arizona.

Dude Life Tour?

2011-03-28T12:40:00.000-07:00

Some dudes from not Arizona, in Arizona.

Capital ISM

2011-03-27T02:45:00.000-07:00

at it's best!

Steve Bigelow's blogelow

2011-03-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

found this today on my friend Steve Bigelow's blog! You sir are a mouthful.

metaphor for life?

blogga from another brotha

2011-03-25T02:44:00.000-07:00

I just read this on my brother's blog, and it got me psyched:

On Being Glass Half Empty…

For some reason I’ve always been an early riser, ever since I was a kid. I’ve never been that kid that needs to sleep a lot but I’ve also never been that guy that pulls all-nighers studying for a test in school. I always struck a very pleasant balance in my approach to getting rest, but I also know now that my brain was telling me to wake up early to get started on the day. Looking back, I think that it started to get a bit out of balance right around the time that I started looking for more distractions in my life to deal with the stress I was going through with my family. It’s a long story and one that I’m not sure I want to go into on this blog out of respect for the others that lived through it more closely, but let’s just say that it’s not often you deal with a homicide within your own family.

This was right when I had just quit my full time job to try working on my own music blog, full-time for a few months “until I figure something else out” was the plan. And I started not sleeping as well. I would wake up at 6am on the dot every single day, regardless of when I’d actually go to sleep. I’d immediately make myself coffee and go work on my music blog, writing posts for the day or brainstorming on what big undertaking I would attempt for the site next. My ambition started to become palpable in the bags under my eyes, but I eventually started to crumble under the pressure of it all. I didn’t feel any cover from the onslaught of stress that I had signed up for and it affected me in a way that caused me to continue to focus on what I was not doing on the site, or what I had not finished yet, or what I had not thought of yet that someone else did…I could not see the bright side to this amazing choice I had made faced with such a fortunate combination of circumstances.

If there is one statement that could sum up how I’ve lived my life up until now, it was that last sentence. And I’m not super happy about that overall, because the paragraph above only explains about a three-month period in early 2006. But looking back, things continued to get progressively better for me in my career and the plan I had set out for my life. Everything just kept coming up roses for me. But that fact that I couldn’t approach my career and the problems I faced in that progressively better career path in a glass half-full sorta mentality is exactly why I got a huge kick in the ass over the past two years of my life. As you approach a certain age, and other people around you start to approach a certain age, people are allowed to make choices about who they want to associate themselves with. You have to decide who you want to create dreams with. You have to surround yourself that people that will motivate you and not stifle every idea you have with everything that’s wrong about it.

I guess I learned this the hard way when I lost my job and realized I had no great, true and close friends that I felt would understand this. Even in the suffering I caused for myself, I couldn’t see that it could be a lot worse. I truly let it get the best of me.

But that’s not the point of this post at all. I’m only writing some of this to just get it down on paper finally and be okay with admitting where I may have gone wrong from time to time. That’s okay. I’m totally human. Humans are stupid sometimes. Let’s move on…

The point is, something has changed for me in a big way. Over the past few months I’ve never felt so close to understanding the benefit of keeping a positive outlook on things and how people perceive “that guy” that just can’t shut the fuck up every once in a while. I’ve learned that it’s okay to not have an opinion on something. I’ve learned that it’s okay to stop analyzing stuff looking for the answers all the time, because there are some times you go down rabbit holes that lead to areas you don’t necessarily need to discover. I’ve learned that it’s okay to be ambitious and idealistic, but that it shouldn’t drive your view point of other people that think in a more concrete sense. I guess I felt the need to defend myself before and to project an sense of confidence through intelligence and severe judgments. And humor, too…kinda the way John Stewart has to perform on The Daily Show, not that we’d even rank in the lists for talented human beings. So that’s how I got away with it, and I let the best of my ambitious truly get the best of me until I went crazy out here in San Francisco and felt the need to make it known on my Twitter account.

I’m so happy I’m done with that. It feels good to stop focusing on what you’re doing wrong and focus on what you’re doing right. Self-improvement comes naturally by letting the best of you shine forward and drive the ship, not by focusing and nit-picking on everything that’s wrong about what you’re doing. The real problem is, if you have that mindset yourself, all you do is project it onto other people. And holy shit…let me just make this clear…nobody likes a Debbie Downer. I know I knew that for a time, but I just couldn’t seem to be in the state of mind that allowed me to rise above it. And man, I just wish I could go back and apologize to all the people I did this to relentlessly over the past couple years. I hope that I can find a way to repay those good people that let me get away with it for as long as I did. My goal is to just roll with the new attitude and hope that it rubs off on people going forward…

And I’m pretty happy about that…

My camera may have been stolen,

2011-03-23T02:14:00.000-07:00

but POB's wasn't. Now the world knows all my ping pong secrets!

Not taking advantage...........

2011-03-22T03:15:00.000-07:00

we don't skate here as much as we should.

My house guests of the week...

2011-03-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

are back at their homes!

Fetter, thanks for stopping by.....

and POB, thanks for coming out and hangin... this week was fun(despite getting robbed)

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

2011-03-20T01:30:00.000-07:00

So...... today while we were out skating at a popular downtown phoenix spot, my camera and cell phone were stolen! No this is not a joke, even though I made this post recently and I don't expect anyone to believe me, but it really is true. Some asshole stole my camera practically right in front of me. So now I really can't make anymore videos.

I went a pretty long time without ever getting anything stolen from me, but 2011 is my year to get robbed. First I get my car broken into and my board stolen, and now this.

So since I, like everyone else, am completely and utterly dependent on my cell phone, one of the first things I did was go to the cell phone store to get my old phone reactivated. The funny thing was that on my way home from the skate spot, I 'checked' my phone numerous times. Out of habit, I glanced at the spot in my car that my phone normally is. That little car ride made me realize how silly this cell phone thing is and has gotten. The comment was made today 'Think about like 15 years ago, No one had cell phones.'

So my blog is going to suck again. Here's a list of things that were going to be on the blog in the next few weeks, but now they won't be. Unless of course the guy who stole my camera decides to edit the footage and post the videos online. I was working on: an Ari Shiffrin video, a Brad Westcott video part, a Ryan Reyes video part, a Dylan Messer video part, and a mega video collage a bunch of other footage that I had filmed. But now, since the world is fucked and people are horrible, you won't get to see any of that stuff. Instead what I have is a bunch of old cell phone pictures from my newly activated phone that I used to use a few years ago.

The first of which is a nice old picture of my current house guest, Pat O Brian. I was also working on a really good video of his trip to Arizona, but that's for the thief's eyes only now. So instead you get a cell phone pic of him frontside nosesliding a big hubba in Indiana. I think Greg Piloto sent me this picture originally. Thanks Greg and thanks you piece of shit who stole my stuff. I hope you and the guy who stole my skateboard die in the same horrible methlab explosion!

ReyRy and Me sharing a fiji

2011-03-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

one of these was full of beer.... can you guess which one?

quick visitor

2011-03-17T01:14:00.000-07:00

My uncle Skip just dropped by for literally 20 minutes on his way from California to Texas!

Ryan Reyes

2011-03-16T11:13:00.001-07:00

One Year with No Soda and Relapse

2011-03-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

So I completed my year of drinking absolutely NO soda as of yesterday. I went 365 days without drinking a silly sugary substance that I thought for some silly reason I couldn't live without. I'm pretty proud of myself I guess. I mean it's all pretty goofy to feel dependent on a liquid that isn't water, but so many of us are 'addicted' to coffee, alcohol, caffeine, etc. I don't have much to say about the quitting soda experience other than it was silly for me to ever think that I couldn't quit anything.

All that being said, I have to explain my current soda status. Ari, who made the bet with me in the first place, came to my apartment today and told me he had a proposition for me. I was a little nervous that he was going to try to tell me about some scheme to double my soda money or something like that... what his proposition was is that for an extra $50 dollars to be added to the soda winnings, I'd have to read a book on nutrition that he recently read and also he wanted me to drink a soda with Ari today and then not drink soda again for another month! His thinking was that I would drink some soda today and then go straight back to quitting to show myself that I really really don't need it. I was already pretty sure that I was not going to start up drinking soda again anyway so why not take him up on his offer. On top of that, Peter Vlad offered to keep the bet alive another year and pay me the same amount as Ari to continue to not drink soda for another year!

So tonight after Tempe park Ari, Scott, Vlad, Pat O Brian and I went to Arby's for me to have one night of debauchery before going back to my soda-less life.

I drank a full cup of Mountain Dew

I wasn't happy about it or proud of myself

Ari made me do it....

I should let you know: the mountain dew tasted horrible but the shitty Arby's food tasted like gold.

It's true

2011-03-14T00:31:00.000-07:00

John Cardiel got to meet me!

America's Most Blunted

2011-03-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

Had a little skate date today with Yeah boardshop riders and frequent blunters Eric Thomas and Ari Shiffrin.

Some skate shots I captured on my telephone recently

2011-03-10T01:38:00.000-08:00

Timothy Larsen (I think he goes by that now) backsmith

Scott Gall frontside wallride at a previously unskated Arizona spot

The ever elusive Andrew McCarthy front krook over krook

I borrowed droido's lens for these shots of Ari frontside bluntsliding his first hubba

this one reminds me of some early 90's photos

I need to get one of those lenses

sent to me by Steve Davenport

2011-03-07T12:14:00.000-08:00

I get a lot of pictures from Steve D. Here's a couple of weeks/months worth.

Bad News

2011-03-06T00:25:00.000-08:00

All this competition for videos and blog content is getting out of hand. Earlier today, while one of Arizona's favorite sons was filming for an upcoming Chumpchange exclusive video, a rival blogger put me out of commission for good. Peter Vlad was upset that his roommate and possible boyfriend, Ari, has been filming for a video to accompany his upcoming interview on this here blog, so he took it from me and smashed it to pieces. Luckily, I was able to salvage the final moments of tape to show you guys all what an asshole blogger Vlad is. If you see him, boo him. No more Vlad chants. And yes, I'm still doing the interviews. But it looks like videos are going to be a thing of chumpchange's past. At least until I can save up enough for another super HD camera.

it's in the works

2011-03-04T11:13:00.000-08:00

untitled arizona vacation video trailer from matt blevins on Vimeo.

Something's cooking

2011-03-02T22:42:00.000-08:00

Blevins is working on something.... something big!

Ari Shiffrin: Not to be hated on.

2011-03-01T20:55:00.000-08:00

There's been a lot of talk from people claiming that the photo in my last post of Ari nosesliding into a bank was a bail shot. So to prove to the haters that Ari's not a faker, him and I went back today to get the sequence!

Blevins is gone........

2011-02-28T22:43:00.000-08:00

but before he left Ari had to get one more hammer for Greetings 2.

Waiting for Superman

2011-02-28T00:47:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching a documentary called Waiting for Superman. The movie is about the schools in America. It's sad at some parts, and sorta hopeful at others. Teachers are some of the most important people that we ever come across in our lives, and all of us who grew up with the ability to go to school are lucky. Unfortunately, not all schools and teachers are good at what they're hired to do. I'd like to think that if being a teacher was a high paying job that more people would want to become teachers and then there would be more competition and higher standards for what teachers are responsible for doing. Making teachers more accountable for earning their high salaries would improve the quality of the education that kids receive. I don't know enough about the situation to back up what I'm saying, but it's just a thought.

What do you teacher types think? (charlie, jamie, etc............)

The Downtown Struts

2011-02-27T19:28:00.000-08:00

Listen.

Who wore it best?

2011-02-26T21:20:00.000-08:00

Boards for CARE Partnership

2011-02-25T12:29:00.000-08:00

Pretty stoked! I got some boards together for the kids at the CARE Partnership in Mesa. I hope they're psyched. Hopefully soon I'll have some pictures of the kids goofing off with the skateboards, or maybe they'll just stare at me blankly, either way, I'm psyched. Thanks to all the parents and kids at my work who donated their old parts.

I didn't choose Venezia's

2011-02-22T23:24:00.000-08:00

Venezia's chose me!

Drug Free Youth

2011-02-21T10:23:00.000-08:00

Who wore it best?

2011-02-16T22:16:00.000-08:00

Over and Out

2011-02-15T23:40:00.000-08:00

My good friend Brad has a new zine out called Over and Out. Skateboarding, photography, interviews with train hoppers and photograph mailers! buy it here

Greetings two

2011-02-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

Filming has begun for Greeting from Arizona 2!

Sleep

2011-02-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

I think it's interesting that no matter who we are, what we do, how much money we have, (or don't have), etc etc. We are slaves to nature. Everyone has to sleep.

Look who's in town!

2011-02-12T19:03:00.000-08:00

Captain Matt Blevins is on deck! Now who am I going to talk to online every night?

essential Venezia's session

Bobby Marksteiner falls for Arizona

2011-02-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

Bobby is the best. He skates harder than anyone despite the 70%-80% chance that he's going to eat shit. I applaud and commend him for his efforts with this new video from his visit to Arizona.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty good.

2011-02-09T10:48:00.000-08:00

My new best friend Michael Worful posted part one of his and Bobby's trip to Arizona this weekend. I can't express enough how much fun those two dudes are to hang out with. I hope that this was the first of many, many trips to AZ for those guys. See the rest of the photos here!

Music

2011-02-09T00:14:00.000-08:00

I've been posting up my favorite songs here for the past couple weeks.

Buzzy's been copying me here.

Are they or aren't they......?

2011-02-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Bye Bye Bobby and Worful. Thanks for the laughs.

Bobby Marksteiner

2011-02-06T23:55:00.000-08:00

Bobby Marksteiner is here from St. Louis. More to come from his weekend in the sun.

You and I will walk together again.

2011-02-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

Perfect day....

2011-02-01T22:31:00.000-08:00

to get my car broken into. I hope that whoever stole my skateboard lands primo on their spine!

To celebrate my first time ever having my car broken into and my first time ever having my board stolen, we hiked Camelback Mountain again.

While I was watching a police officer dust my car for prints, my Illinois friends and family were being covered by a record breaking snow storms.

Here's the view out of the window at Yeah from Steve

snow day

my sister sent me this picture of the view out of my old bedroom window

POB sent me this joint. Looks like fun.

Alex Cohen

2011-02-01T00:08:00.000-08:00

I don't specifically remember meeting Alex, but I recently got to spend some time hanging out with him and skating with him when he was visiting Arizona this past December. I sorta consider that to be when I met him because it was my first experience hanging out and having any real conversation with him. He is definitely an good person to be around. Seems to be pretty positive and happy most of the time. I was psyched on his wanting to be outside all day while he was here, taking advantage of our amazing weather and reminding me that I too should be outside enjoying the amazing climate that I live in an have already started to take for granted. As well as being a spreader of positivity, he's also makes cool arts. At any given night at Tempe park you might see one of his colorfully painted shirts warming the shoulders of one of his fans.

Name: Alex Cohen
Top 3 favorite cities: new york, san francisco, seattle, chicago
Top 3 skateboarders:david gravette, mark gonzales, grant taylor
Top 3 skateboarders that you know personally: scott gall, zandoydle roth, ryan lay, alot of that dry bones crap
When was your prime? right now shits blowing up
5 good bands: pablo picasso, basquiat, matisse cezanne daniel johnston
5 good songs: zandy be raw, jay z b kewl, lauryn hill got skillz, nas flowing
5 tricks that you can’t do: well 5 trix that i kan do are front disaster, front 5-0, front tail, kf, and wallride
Spirit animal: BUSTER BEAR
5 good books: shit i dont read but i really enjoy art books
What’s the worst? the worst is the winter
What’s the best? the best is the summer bike rides on the lake at nyte
3 good non skateboarders: mary jean alberto aguilar parents
What do you like to do outside of skateboarding? paint things make things bike rides
What is your prized possession? buster bear
What will end the world? dry bones nation

I got this picture of the painting he did in the bathroom of Yeah boardshop from his blog, 46290

Preston....

2011-01-30T01:42:00.000-08:00

Preston Harper comes out with more video parts than anyone... but this one I have a feeling he didn't even know he was filming for!

crazy eye dog

2011-01-29T21:29:00.000-08:00