Jay, Travis Collier, Chris Martindale, and I headed down to L.A. to check out the Nike Lightning Bolts art show, hang out with Gary Young, and do some riding. The trip was awesome and It's always rad to chill with our friends in California. The trip started with Jay and I driving down to Seattle to meet up with Chris Martindale, we got a cheep flight out of Seattle, so Travis met up with us later in the night after taking the train down...
The first day in LA was the Nike Lightning Bolts show and we had a blast. The show was rad and Travis and I had plates in it. The next day, we rode some street and had a night session at the Santa Monica park. On Friday, we headed down to San Diego to ride with Gary. It took us a bit to get down, but we had a lot of fun with Gary. Saturday, we were back in LA, where I hosted an art class with Nike, then we hit a birthday party for Jim Bauer and Mike Ardeleans friend. After an hour and a half sleep, we were up and on a plane back to Seattle.
Check out all our photos from the trip after the jump!
Driving down to Seattle.
Seattle.
Jay and I drove down from Vancouver to Seattle and we met Travis at the train station later that night.
Getting some food at the airport in Seattle.
Travis getting his yo-yo on.
Airport.
Chris trying to yo-yo.
Me, trying to stick my finger though the yo-yo string.
Virgin America is the way to fly.
Seat to seat chatting...
First thing we did when we landed was hit up some good old Super Mex.
Can't go wrong with a fat burrito.
Travis having some bad yo-yo luck.
Building bikes.
Travis, getting his pre-party drink on.
It's about 7:30pm and Chris is already wasted... Having a liquor store next to our hotel didn't help.
Travis Collier AKA T. Boon Pickens.
Kosman and Jay.
Kevin McAvoy.
The Montalban Theater.
Everyone watching the Nike video.
Jim Bauer and Tommy.
Some of the number plates... Mine is the 195...
Travis and Chris.
Taj and Ardelean.
Nike/Animal pedals and Pivotal seat.
Travis Collier's plate.
Me and Sierra from Nike.
Travis and Gary.
Jimmy Levan and Travis at the afterparty at the Standard Hotel.
Chris, Travis, Sierra, and me.
Chris looking good in my glasses.
Getting rowdy in the MacNeil Helicopter (or i guess it's just a mini van).
Nice letterspacing.
Some photos from Redondo Beach.
After buying a bunch of vollyball elbow pads we were lucky enough to pay a bunch of money to ride the Santa Monica park... The most expensive session we've ever had!
Travis and Mike at the park.
A Taco Truck session with Ardelean after we rode the Santa Monica park.
Taco Truck!
Grabbing some drinks with Ardelean in Venice.
Carnage on our way down to ride with Gary in San Diego.
Gary and his wife Sarah.
Gary's collection of frames. He's tried to keep every frame hes ridden since before he was on MacNeil. He's missing a few, but it's an impressive collection. I think he needs more tan frames. What do you think??
Justin Kosman lives a few houses up from Gary, so we picked him up and went to ride a ditch.
Wine, cereal, and a red Holga.
Travis trespassing.
True story. Gary and Justin found out about this ditch from a car salesman.
A little sand won't stop us.
This is one of the only things skateboards are good for.
Time to ride.
Chris boosting the good hip.
Travis and Chris watching Gary.
This is Gary, doing a massive wallride... I didn't really know how it would all work, but Gary pulled it soooo smoth first go. I was filming, so big thanks to Kosman for snapping the pic! Click to see it big and I'll post the video clip soon.
Reviewing the clip.
Late night loading dock session... Chris with a footjam whip.
We rode this spot for so long and had a blast!
Chris on his front tire again.
This was so funny... Gary doing the moonwalk... You have to see this in real life, but his bike is going forward, he's just holding him self up with his seat and bars and dragging his feet on the ground... So funny!
Grabbing some burgers in SD.
Gas.
Back up to LA on Saturday. I hosted this class with Nike for kids in LA... It was really dope. There should be a few videos from it online soon... I'll do a post when they are up... I taught them how to make stencils.
After the class, I got to I.D. a pair of shoes!
Later that night, we met up with Ardelan and Bauer at their friend Lauren's birthday party. It's funy because we were in town the same weekend last year and went to Lauren's party at the same house...
Jim Bauer and Sharon made these rad snow men... Travis and Chris killed the snow men.
Chris having fun.
Jim and Sharon just got engaged... Congratulations!!
Travis, Jay, Jimmy Levan and
Me and Chris.
Travis like to eat plastic.
Jim Bauer is a cake master. Last year he made an exploding volcano... This year it was a melted snowman.
After getting home from the party at like 2:30am, we had to wake up at 4am to catch a 7am flight and I don't know if I've ever felt shittier!! Luckily we all slept on the plane and were greeted in Seattle with some snow... It was sooo cold. I wish we were back in LA!
Chris Martindale was in town for the weekend with his friends Brian Chace and Shay. They were up here hanging out and gathering some clips for Brian Chace's new DVD Refresh. We rode some parks, the dirt jumps in Coquitlam and SFU. Check out a few photos after the jump.
Chris at SFU
Shay opposite railhop.
Shay killing the kinker second try.
Chris jumping through some stuff.
Chris with an ice to 180 at PoCo. 
A few weeks ago, Chris Martindale took a quick trip up to Alaska and sent over some photos. He's got a family full of "boat" people. His dad is part owner of a boat yard that does really nice yacht remodels (that's where Chris works) and his uncle owns fishing/research boats, that Chris has spend numerous summers on with his cousin Mike Leask when they were kids.
"I help my uncle and cousin drive there fishing boat from Seattle to Sitka. Its a 5 day trip, basically driving a thousand miles at parking lot speed. The trip was a lot of fun, but I dont understand why people would live up there this time of year. It snowed everyday on us. Here's some photos."
This is the store that Chris bought his very first BMX magazine and discovered what BMX was... Crazy!
So, we've been hooking up Chris Martindale for a while and we are not sure why it took so long, but you can check him out on our team page now! Chris just dropped a REALLY good web video and we are going to be doing a bunch of stuff with him on the site soon!
I was actually riding with Chris a few hours ago and snapped a few shots that we used on his team page. Chris is an amazing dude and we are psyched to have him on the team!
Check out Chris' page here.
And check some more photos from today after the jump -
Chris Martindale just sent over some photos of his tattoo. He got the shading done a week or so ago and is going in for another session real soon... I think Chris is completely nuts, but I'm sure a lot of people are stoked on it... I know Chris is! 
Our good friend Chris Martindale had his first session on his sleeve the other day. Prior to this, Chris didn't have any tattoos and definitely jumped in head first with his first one! There's still a lot more to go and I think he's getting it all done real soon, so we'll post some more photos when he gets the color going and stuff... I filmed with Chris a bunch recently and I'm just finishing up a webit for the MacNeil site right now, so keep your eyes posted for some shredding from Chris! Yeah, that's right, I said it... WEBIT! 
This is Gary, doing a massive wallride... I didn't really know how it would all work, but Gary pulled it soooo smoth first go. I was filming, so big thanks to Kosman for snapping the pic! Click to see it big and I'll post the video clip soon.
