Breck.
It's not bad waking to this:
Monday, March 7, 2011
Snowboard Seasons
93 and 94 I spent several months of both winter seasons staying in Breckenridge. It's a great mountain and great town. In 95 after saving all summer I bought a Vail/Beaver Creek season pass, which was $1000 back then. I took the spring school semester off and moved to Vail for about four months. The back bowls and treelines are EPIC on a powder day.
Metal Shop
In 1992 I was shop foreman of a metal fabrication shop. The owner Jesse and his business partner Dave were both interesting characters. They saw some of my skateboard ramps I built and offered me my first real job after high school (while I was attending a few classes at community college). They apprenticed me for one year then handed the reigns of the shop over to me as we went on to grow from 7 to 45 people at the company in less than 4 years. They easily talked me out of my morning college classes to work there full time, average 60 hours a week. I'd still often go to my shop on the weekends (even if we weren't working OT) and I'd work on my own projects, usually on one or both of my two Toyota trucks. I'd also do vehicle mods and side jobs for friends. Having a shop to work in and fabricate in is a very good thing for me. This was a great job and a great 4 years of learning tons and making good money.
In the Beginning
Very Old Art (Late 80's - early 90's).
I think it's good to always remember where you started. Since my 1st blog post was old drawings I found from when I was 13, I decided to keep it going from there and work up to my recent works. It's fun to look back at times and recollect, and laugh or smile at your old work. Putting them on this blog is also a way to back up these minimal bits of old school work, just in case I ever want to look at them again, lol. Most of my many other early art and design works are gone or buried in my parents stuff.
I took a computer programming class in 8th grade and didn't like it. I had zero interest in it, even though at the time I really liked playing my Atari. Once I actually got into computers in the early to mid 90's it was because I was drawn to programs like Lightwave3D and what you could create with them. Working at CMS I was sent to NewTek in Boulder for a week of Lightwave training in order to earn our authorized reseller license (and a copy of Lightwave3d)! During this week I learned the basics of box-modeling among many other things. My first ever box model was this fish. I was stoked and pretty much hooked on box-modeling from here on. It was much better to me than the more rigid autocad style modeling. Lightwave became my favorite modeling program.
My second Lightwave box model was this hand. It was my first ever attempt at modeling a human part.
Once I got comfortable with Lightwave I quickly tried a vehicle. This truck is my first. I was stoked when I found a way to use a piece of crumpled tin foil as a reflection map. Hahah.
In high school my favorite mediums were pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor (and making artworks from wood such as skate ramps). I mainly liked drawing cartoons and painting landscapes but I tried anything. Here are the few remaining pieces I found in my box of old photos.
I think it's good to always remember where you started. Since my 1st blog post was old drawings I found from when I was 13, I decided to keep it going from there and work up to my recent works. It's fun to look back at times and recollect, and laugh or smile at your old work. Putting them on this blog is also a way to back up these minimal bits of old school work, just in case I ever want to look at them again, lol. Most of my many other early art and design works are gone or buried in my parents stuff.
I took a computer programming class in 8th grade and didn't like it. I had zero interest in it, even though at the time I really liked playing my Atari. Once I actually got into computers in the early to mid 90's it was because I was drawn to programs like Lightwave3D and what you could create with them. Working at CMS I was sent to NewTek in Boulder for a week of Lightwave training in order to earn our authorized reseller license (and a copy of Lightwave3d)! During this week I learned the basics of box-modeling among many other things. My first ever box model was this fish. I was stoked and pretty much hooked on box-modeling from here on. It was much better to me than the more rigid autocad style modeling. Lightwave became my favorite modeling program.
Once I got comfortable with Lightwave I quickly tried a vehicle. This truck is my first. I was stoked when I found a way to use a piece of crumpled tin foil as a reflection map. Hahah.
In high school my favorite mediums were pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor (and making artworks from wood such as skate ramps). I mainly liked drawing cartoons and painting landscapes but I tried anything. Here are the few remaining pieces I found in my box of old photos.
My Half-Pipes
1984-1988 Before I graduated high school I had designed and build a dozen or more half pipes. In 8th grade I changed schools which didn't have as good an Art program as my previous school so I took Drafting and Design classes instead. I'm sure I designed well over a hundred different half-pipes and drafted out every detail. I could show and tell you exactly how many nails were needed to perfectly build each ramp. I wish I had photographs of every one but I only have a few random images of a couple of them.
I built my first smooth curved quarter pipe in 7th grade. I took a 4x8 sheet of plywood leaned it against a tree, watered it, staked the base, walked up it and bent it into a curve. I proped a couple 2x4's against each edge, tacked a couple nails into the tree and started riding my bike on it. Later I turned it into a half pipe by adding a sheet of plywood on the ground for flat bottom and made a new 8' wide quarter-pipe for the other side. Seen below is that first quarter pipe after being widened and re-built to free stand. I just stood up a plywood sheet along the ramp surface and traced the curve, cut two support transitions, put 2x4's in between them and extended the ramp to 8' wide just in time for skateboarding...
Woods Ramp 2: I got bored with Woods Ramp 1, other ramps were starting to be built with that same transition, height and width and it just felt too "standard" but it was a very fun ramp, we just needed a new layer of ply and more options. I wanted to add a new channel and spine section and the bigger the ramp the more it took so I went smaller and more unique with a complete mini ramp rebuild on the second design for woods 2. I had to rotate it 180 degrees to allow for the spine addition. I eyed it and hand drew the transitions, added a roll in channel and a spine for more options. Also we put a tarp over it cause it rained so much and going a day without skating was torture.
TBC...
I built my first smooth curved quarter pipe in 7th grade. I took a 4x8 sheet of plywood leaned it against a tree, watered it, staked the base, walked up it and bent it into a curve. I proped a couple 2x4's against each edge, tacked a couple nails into the tree and started riding my bike on it. Later I turned it into a half pipe by adding a sheet of plywood on the ground for flat bottom and made a new 8' wide quarter-pipe for the other side. Seen below is that first quarter pipe after being widened and re-built to free stand. I just stood up a plywood sheet along the ramp surface and traced the curve, cut two support transitions, put 2x4's in between them and extended the ramp to 8' wide just in time for skateboarding...
The image below is the opposite side of my first true skatable half pipe that touched vert. The power company had just placed a new yellow plastic tube on the support wire of the pole on the edge of our property so I took it off and tried to make a coping edge with it, as you can see below it didn't work too well first try because it went behind the plywood. That's ok, we couldn't grind yet anyway and on the next several ramps I built I mastered coping placement.
After a couple more mini ramp design/builds in my yard, I had to move elsewhere. My dad didn't allow any more builds in the yard - "too noisy and too many kids...". Next ramp was Foster's. We got enough wood and his parent's let us build one in his side yard, they had plenty of nice property. I took a look at what we had and started going for a 12' wide x 9' high ramp but realized we didn't have enough wood so I had to settle for 8' wide. I went with 8.5' transitions and 6" of vert for 9' high overall. This is one of the best images I have of Fosters, it was fun and I learned a lot of tricks on it, backside, mute and Indy airs, 50/50's, handplants, bs boneless, lien to tails, etc. We finished the ramp in the summer and every day after 9th grade I'd throw my skateboard on the handlebars of my GT and ride 4 miles to Fosters house and skate till dark. Good times.
There were many many other ramps after or around the same time as Fosters: Carrolton X2 or 3, Chicks, Smith's yard, SL, The field, CRIT - abondoned store, Dean's, etc. - ones I designed and built for friends, ones that parents hired me to build for their kids and just constantly building ramps anywhere and everywhere I could. It was always the most fun deciding on the curve or shape of the transition, as that helps to characterize the individual ramp. Sometimes I used string compass for specific radius and other times I would just freehand the curve to make it more unique. Hopefully I can dig up pics of all these ramps from peeps on facebook or something....! TBC
The Woods Ramp 1: We couldn't build in my yard anymore so I had to find more options because I wanted to build bigger and wider. I scoped out a nice clearing in the woods, it was close to my house and a 7-11. This was a perfect spot and ended up being the perfect 8 foot tranny/6 foot tall/16 foot wide with extension ramp.
Woods Ramp 2: I got bored with Woods Ramp 1, other ramps were starting to be built with that same transition, height and width and it just felt too "standard" but it was a very fun ramp, we just needed a new layer of ply and more options. I wanted to add a new channel and spine section and the bigger the ramp the more it took so I went smaller and more unique with a complete mini ramp rebuild on the second design for woods 2. I had to rotate it 180 degrees to allow for the spine addition. I eyed it and hand drew the transitions, added a roll in channel and a spine for more options. Also we put a tarp over it cause it rained so much and going a day without skating was torture.
TBC...
BMX Freestylin'
In 1983, I got 3rd place overall for the year in my class for the BMX racing season. It was my last full year racing BMX. I had been getting more interested in just jumping and having fun doing tricks on my Mongoose.
At a youth camp talent show one year me and my cousin Stephen along with our announcer Mike, put on a Freestyle BMX show on Mike's PK Ripper.
In '84 I traded in my awesome Mongoose Supergoose at Conte's for a brand new GT Pro Performer. Of course I always kept my bikes in my room. I'm not sure why I'm making the face, I guess that was all part of hamming it up for the camera. Ahh it looks pretty stupid but whatever. lol.
Racing BMX
One of my favorite things to do as a kid was ride my bike. I'd ride as often as I could. I started racing BMX around 11 or 12. I found some rare photos from these days, it's fun thinking back to 'em. I've always been happiest when riding bikes, they offer such freedom. Here I'm getting the Holeshot at Churchland BMX park in 1982.
83 Toyota's
In 8th to 11th grade I got really into designing and building scale model kits, mainly kit bashing cars, trucks and military vehicles: tanks, boats and airplanes. I was also heavily into building and racing Tamiya RC cars. Once I hit driving age I really liked 1979-1983 model Toyota pick-up trucks. I thought alot about big modified Toyota's and how I wanted to build one to be able to go off-roading in the sand dunes and mountains. I think I drew this '83 Toy in 11th or 12th grade art class and colored it years later on an early pc paint program. This was pretty much my dream ride back then - a big toy that I could go anywhere with.
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