Winter cramp

Winter camp is over. It happened so quick I didn't even know what had hit me. Here are some of the cooler campers from this week. Jordyn, Jimmy, and Sean.

Here's a short list.........

of my New Years resolutions:
stretch everyday
hike on wednesdays
write stuff down
keep the infections to a minimum
get health insurance(for infections)
spit soda in Ari's face on March 14th!
eat pizza everyday......................... still
ride bike more often
get a new bike and ride that one more than the one I have now
spend less time watching tv shows alone in my apartment
find a wife (or a potential ex-wife)
figure out what I'm going to do with my life and then start doing it
stay out of other people's business
no internet past 2am
have more exciting dreams
take longer showers
visit home
visit portland, san francisco, east coast, austin, and denver
Go to Seattle
go to concerts
learn one more song on the keyboard
learn a new juggling trick
buy juggling pins
skate more
make more skate videos
lose weight

lose my mind
listen to music more often

Fog

Winter Camp

I went from sitting alone in my apartment for four months to this:

The perfect gift!

A tiny toilet! It's what I've always wanted.

They're talking about me over at the Bellafonte!

the rumors aren't true!

Let's build a home

A few places that I love.

The house I grew up in

steve leading the youth
still got em

blevins can grind em

cj kelly and his family made a goth emo black christmas skateboarding tree
hello old friend
blevins is a cocky finger boarder
but he didn't know that before he got there, I had already back smithed the deep end

Flying home tomorrow. I can never sleep the night before a flight.

Extended SAG post!

Here's the video

SAG arrives!

Roger of the Month and our buddy from Illinois arrived today to spend his winter in the fun and sun. We're glad you're here Scott.

Buster Bear and Scott

Pure gore!

For Steve D

went to the doctor

Those quacks sliced me open.

It's getting worse....

I'm off to the hospital

Camel Hump

To celebrate both my 26th birthday, and the first day of my week off from the internet, some friends and I, Cameron and Ari, decided to hike up Camelback mountain. Not a big deal to most people, but for me it was hard as hell and it whooped me good. We did it again this week and it was much easier the second time. Pretty soon I'll be sprinting to the top. These are pictures from the first time.

upon the mountain

witnesses to my accomplishment

beards happen

cammy was all smiles at the top

ari was a bit more serious, but he smiled too

view from the top

I got up there too

squinty

Me at the very tippy top

This is the advanced route

Ari crept out to the edge. I got nervous.

I think....

.... I might be cookin' up another staph infection. This time on my leg.

Today I took a ..............

..........morning hike with Nick and Ari.

Pat Franklin

I met Pat Franklin a number of years ago at the Tempe park. He was one of many randoms who were coming out to Arizona from Illinois at the time and I didn't really know anything about him. A little while after that, he ended up living at my house and we became good friends. He moved into my house in the hottest part of the summer while my air conditioner was broken and he didn't want to seem whiny so he never called me to tell me about how hot it was... so he just sweated it out at my house alone while I was away at camp. Pat is a good skateboarder with an awesome style. He is really good at a lot of tricks that I like to see done well. I think I said something similar to that about Rick Eusey when his interview went up. Pat also gets a lot of credit in my eyes for actually making the video below for his Chumpchange interview. Pat backs Chumpchange, Chumpchange backs Pat.

p.s. for the record, Pat's halfcab feeble 180 on that angle iron ledge was the most overlooked trick in the Yeah promo.

Here's a photo of Pat from the The SkateboardMag site recently. photo by Tim Johnson

Pat Sleeping on the floor of my apartment shot by Phil Jackson. I've always liked this photo because it sums up my old apartment really well

Name:Patrick Michael Franklin

Top 3 favorite cities:

Chicago, Illinois

Prescott, Arizona

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Top 3 skateboarders:

Dan Drehobl

Ethan Fowler

Ed Templeton

Top 3 skateboarders that you know personally:

Matt King

Kevinly

Brandon Vance

When was your prime?

Before I started skateboarding, I was dominating the Little League scene in my area. And I really didn’t have to worry about working or being a grown up.

5 good bands:

Frank Zappa

Devo

Cat Stevens

Black Moth Super Rainbow

Jens Lekman

5 good songs:

Say It Ain’t So - Weezer

Tea For The Tillerman - Cat Stevens

Don’t Worry About The Government - The Talking Heads

Apostrophe - Frank Zappa

Rare As The Yet - Kid Congo And The Pink Monkey Birds

5 tricks you can't do:
backside heelflips
Frontside Flips

Backside Smith Grinds

Switch Backside Grinds

Switch Dropins

Spirit animal:

Bill Murray

5 good books:

Frank Zappa Autobiography

Einstein Biography

Animal Farm

Earth

Skateboarding For Dummies

What’s the worst?

Quitting Smoking

Hospital Bills

Contact Lenses

Buying Gasoline

Winter

What’s the best?

Diet Coke

Starbucks

Headwear

Not going to school

Nagasaki

3 good non skateboarders:

Eric Scholin

Sunny Wermager

Conan O’brien

What do you like to do outside of skateboarding?

Whatevz

What is your prized possession?

My boy Earl

What will end the world?

Aliens for sure

Pat's video is amazing

sent to me by: everyone else

Kryger all slazed up from Brad Rogers

skateboard art from Lindsey

Yeah Berrics ad from Lorena

Mountain Dew chapstick from Lorena. Ari, does this count as soda?

Halloween from Chris Poquette

Good crew from Chris Fetter

skateboard tourism from fetter

train stuff from fetter

the next few are from ari. Takis is some wierd snack that the kids that Ari and I tutored would talk about all day. I've never had them, I don't want to

some would say I'm an artist

xavi sent me this one, he made his krooked 3D glasses into yeah glasses