events: place to stay

Traveling is hectic, lets be honest, but all the hecticness is for the hope that once you get where you’re going everything will be nice and relaxing, Well thats not skateboarding. Being a traveling athlete in a lets say not too appreciated sport, my sleeping options are as follows…  1. A couch (if you’re lucky) 2. a floor  3. a hammock (if there’s any trees) or your car. That being said a lot of times you’re with your homies, in a beautiful place in the world, about to go skateboard… so that kinds makes up for it.

Ryan Bishop scopes the view from our room

Catalina was my most recent excursion, and this time it was a little different, our generous sponsor Long Island Longboards covered our part of the room. With the knowledge that I had a hotel room for the first time, I packed light, no sleeping bag, no pad, but a small blanket from my car, just in case. Like I said, my sponsor paid for part of our room, we had four people already so i was a little surprised  to hear that we had five other people staying in our room.

a few of the boys in our little two bed place

For the reasoning of showing up late, and being a grom, I slept on the floor. Whenever I stay in a house or room while traveling, I hope for rug in case my sleeping pad pops so I have a little comfort left. This time though it was a little different, I had no sleeping bag or pad, and I was sleeping on hardwood. This didn’t bum me out though, because I was on an island with friends, so waking up a little stiff was not much of a concern. Looking back on all of my trips, where i slept was never a worry, traveling alone or with friends, I always had an up for anything attitude, in some of the most beautiful places I’ve experienced.

This is from one of my most memorable nights, traveling up to santa cruz I saw the sign for highway 1 at lompoc, without even thinking I turned off and trecked up along the coast. I ended up sleeping in my hammock in a random part of big sur. I was surrounded by redwoods without a person around. I woke up early to the sound of sheets of rain pummeling the tarp above my hammock, so I got up and trecked up the coast,Being easily one of my most memorable nights.

santa cruising ep. 2 : getting there

Over the weekend I drove up to santa cruz to take photos and videos for my sponsors advertising. Since santa cruz is a fairly long drive and needed at least two full days up their, I drove up thursday after school and had till monday evening to get home. Driving up thursday I packed some camping gear and decided to take highway one up and spend the night in Big Sur for some sights and long overdue camp vibes.

hammock vibes

Since I left after school and had few hours till dark, most of the scenic drive was spent in pitch black, and on a narrow cliffside road with minivans was not fun. After talking my way out of a speeding ticket and dealing with construction and slow tourists, I made it to my camp sight at Big Sur around 9.

I continued to make my food and set up camp, hoping to get a good sleep before I finished my drive in the morning. I was surrounded my ginormous redwoods so finding some trees to rig my hammock wasn’t hard.

floating tents

after squaring away my sleeping situation and putting my cooking supplies in my car I turned in. I woke up to dumping rain which made it impossible to take photos or even spend more than a minute un sheltered. I scrambled to take down my camp and get in the car. I was extremely disappointed that i couldn’t enjoy Big sur’s scenery and take some photos on my lag up the coast. I drove off early and drove for another two hours in the most terrifying road conditions i’ve seen. The roads were drenched, the fog was thick and the sharp corners and historically good driving road became a slow terror. Once the hwy 1 turned into a highway I was able to open up the throttle while still being blinded by other drivers spray and a torrential downpour. Despite all odds I arrived in santa cruz unscathed and my car unscratched ready for a miserable weekend of getting drenched in the rain and avoiding death for a few photos.