New Mexico

Headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico for the weekend to skate ditches with the homies.

Harmony Korine and James Franco

Just released some footage from their new project "Rebel."

Easter at Reese's.

After being rained out of seemingly every spot in the tri-state area, Jap and I made the trip out to rural Indiana to skate Reese's perfect mini-ramp.

Our Host. FS Stalefish.

Jap. FS Melon.

Thanks to Reese for having us.

Jap

Shot this last night under the bridge. Late night ramp session. Click on the photo to enlarge.

FS Air

Preview

Just a screen shot of some footage I shot today.

Black Lips

Great show at the Southgate House.

Bad Photos, Good Session

Took these a couple weeks ago while skating Newport with Dave Coyne and Ali Calis. Please pardon my soccer mom night photography skills.

Dave Coyne

Ali Calis

Newport Photos

A few shots from yesterday under the bridge.

PRK

Justin

PRK

INF Media

Just came across these old renderings for our film project INF Media.

Watch this: Braydon Kavanagh

Came home tonight to find this link from Braydon on my screen. Damn.

A flash back.

I came across this entry from last year while oddly enough googling "china skateboarding." I feel even stronger now about the words I wrote then. I hope you enjoy.

About: Boards for China

I have always felt that Travel and Skateboarding are similar in that the best part of each are the people and places you experience along the way.

The idea of bringing boards to China first occurred to me while on my first trip to China in late 2009.

While walking with my dad through an outdoor shopping mall I heard the unmistakable sound of skateboard wheels rolling over smooth marble.

I had been in China for two weeks, skating solo the entire time, needless to say I was eager to track down the source of the commotion. I was expecting to find a group of teenage skaters just like you would find in any American town, but when I rounded the corner I was surprised to see a boy who could not have been older than 8, rolling back and forth. I would later find out, through an intrepeter, that the boy's parents worked at a shop in the mall and he would tag along, skating outside the shop all day while they worked. With neither my dad or I able to speak Mandarin and the boy and his family not able to speak English, a language barrier existed to say the least.

After a brief, awkward moment I breached the issue by kneeling down, holding my board up to his eye level, and then flicking the wheel to spin it. He waited until the wheel stopped spinning and then did the same to his board, laughter broke out from both families and almost instantly a game of follow-the-leader ensued.

In the 20 minutes we skated nothing much was said, smiles replaced words as the primary method of communication. Towards the end of our laps around the perfect marble plaza one of the kid's wheels suddenly locked up and predictably he slingshotted off his board and slammed onto the polished stone floor. No tears, just a look of "shit happens all the time" came across his face. I looked on the ground but there were no rocks to be found. As it turned out the problem was the shoddy bearings in his wheels would unpredictably seize causing him to slam over and over.

The bearings are a perfect example of how China cheaply replicates any and every consumer good known to man, especially western-man. But like all cheap pieces of shit, you get what you pay for and none of it lasts. What really sucks is that kids there don't even have access to real boards and accessories, they can't order online and the closest shop is in Hong Kong, which is technically another country.

At that moment the sheer irony hit me: a huge percentage of major American skateboard companies' decks are actually manufactured only hours away from where we were skating in China, but they are all shipped back to the U.S. and Europe to be sold, leaving only generic garbage, similar to what you would find in a walmart, in China for the kids to skate.

The mission was clear and simple: Get this kid a real board and his friends too.

"Boards for China" is all self filmed footage from the trip that I just returned from.

Click HERE to watch the first trailer.

Best wishes and safe travels,

Max

Best mag ever.

Fuck Metallica.

My Birthday Issue of Thrasher

I've been trying to find an actual copy of the November, 1982 Thrasher for a little while and I've only been able to come across digital versions. Still pretty rad.

Fuck ya Willis!

Kid kills it!

Drake Jones

One of my favorites.

Then.

Now.

Trucks

Each skater's trucks tell a story.

NOLA

Last few days in NOLA.

Week in NOLA

I've been down in New Orleans for a few days and haven't even attempted to log on to the internet until tonight. First thing I saw on facebook was this new Doug K. edit, so fucking sick! More updates to follow, planning on skating the NOLA area and maybe Baton Rouge the rest of the week.

Dream Apt.

Indianapolis Visitors

Last week Andrew Martin and Scott Licardi came over to skate Indy for an evening. Finally got to skate the spots I've been scoping out over the past 9 months.

Good friends, good spots, great session.

Perfect way to wrap up my time in Indy.

Watch this

Skateboarding is like the piano. It's not how well you play, but how you feel while you're playing that's important.