Perry Farrell wrote a song about Bali and the chorus repeats ” I’ve got Bali in my eyes…” I’m pretty positive he’s talking about running around the island on wild mushrooms. Nevertheless, I had that song stuck in my head the entire time I was there. Here are some film images that were taken with my Holga and Nikon FM while getting lost in such a beautifully strange place…

I travel a lot. I’m 200 miles away from Delta Diamond. That’s 124,800 miles this year of floating somewhere in between here and there. I carry my camera, so therefore I take pictures of this process. Airports are such a strange place. They are like subculture holding tanks from the real world. You can say your in Hong Kong, but are you really?

These shots were taken in transit to Bali. Most all of them are from the Hong Kong Airport and a few just after take off. We flew Cathay Pacific and were booked in business class. That was nice. But when we boarded the plane for Bali, we were escorted to the First Class cabin. Evidently, there’s a difference. It was empty, so they said it was all ours for the next 5 hours. Whoaaa…

My boy Max is a really cool kid. In fact, I consider him one of my best friends. At the end of this past summer, I had to head out to the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach to shoot some NIke athletes that were going to be there. I had come off of a busy summer and was getting pretty burnt from traveling so much and being away from the family. So, the trip came up and the day before I left, Max told me he wanted to come along. We made it happen.

He was my shadow for the 3 days we were there. It was a hectic place with close to ! million spectators. My goal was to immerse him in the experience and not lose him. He had a good time to say the least. We were busy, but managed to make every moment fun.

Random fun things:

upgraded to first class, there and back
hot tub at the hotel
room service
hours of play time on the Art Director’s Ipad
private acoustic set by Thrice at Nike No Tell Motel
Lance Mountain sighting
Free Weezer concert on the beach

And on the last night there, we were set up at the Nike dinner to get portraits of all the athletes. I thought it would be cool get a shot of Max with each one. So, at the end of each session, Max would jump in for his cameo. It took him awhile to warm up, but he was throwing shaka’s by the end.

it will be a privilege to share this with him as he gets older. These guys and girls are an inspiration to the young up and comers. It was a honor for all of us, especially my boy. Thank you..