Thunderhill Raceway is 7 miles west of the little town of Willows, CA. Ever since I’ve run drift events Willows local, Bubba, has ridden his BMX bike all the way out there to watch. For a long time now I’ve been meaning to check him out at the skate park, but never had a chance until now.
Today he gave me the green light so I cruised out to Willows for a shoot. He didn’t tell me until well into the session that his hand was still healing from being broken! It’s not blatantly obvious in this picture, but it’s swollen up pretty good.
His older brother Steven rides too. Pretty cool that they ride together all the time, I’ll bet my little brother wishes I rode! haha!
He was pulling crazy spins all day, actually attempting a 720 at one point. Unfortunately though, stills just didn’t do them justice. When he was rotated 180 degrees, it just looked like he was going the other way. Point is, he’s actually backwards right here, just pulling his hand off for a big 1-hander. Trust me, it was badass.
A bunch of kids were hanging around and saw me give Bubba and Steven LifeBlasters stickers, so of course they wanted some. I told them I had one left and made them rochambeau for it. The kid on the right kept waiting and then throwing down, so we had to nullify several rounds due to cheating.
After that, I convinced them it’d be a good idea to let Bubba jump them. It’s not quite as cool as the picture of Tailyr Monette getting jumped, but we didn’t have any MotorMavenettes handy so we worked with what we had.
Then another kid wanted to get jumped, so Bubba obliged, and I made her hold the KDF skateboard.
Steven and Bubba decided it would look really cool on camera if they came off the jump at each other in a synchronized fashion. I knew it there was a possibility it could end very badly, but like a true cameraman I chose not to interfere with destiny, but merely attempt to capture it with my snapper. Here’s a close one (above)
Panning is very difficult with bikes. I tried my best, and I could only get down to 1/60 with my 50mm.
Here’s a cool story, bro. This guy is actually an infamous character in the nearby college town of Chico. Apparently, one night he ran into a liquor store completely naked with a towel on his head, grabbed a bunch of jerky, and cut. He is known by the Chico newspapers as “the naked jerky bandit”. LOLS.
Cheers!
-Geoff
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