TopGun

I've mentioned before that gnar takes many shapes and sizes.  This time it's the movie TopGun.  After an exhaustive conversion to IMAX 3D and a confusing marketing attempt, TopGun returned to theaters for a week long run prior to the release of the 3D BluRay.  Seriously, they spent millions remastering this piece of cinematic mastery only to market it on FaceBook.  Whatever, their loss.

After wrangling a few diehard friends together, i purchased tickets ahead of time.  Yes, i reserved seat F-14 for the movie.

 

It was hilarious to sit through a movie i've seen hundreds of times, and see where other people found humor in it.  Although, at theater screen size, you notice funny details about the movie that you otherwise never saw:  the wrong names on planes, the 'can't drive 55' sticker on the back of Maverick's motorcycle, the name of the skipper on the aircraft carrier, Tom Cruise's tooth in the middle of his face.

All in all, it was a good time for no other reason than TOP FRIGGIN GUN!!!

motoski

So while the shortest way between two points in California includes at a least a couple nice sweepers... the fastest way between any two points is on a motorcycle.  Lane sharing, to the uninitiated, is the ability to legally share a lane with other vehicles.  To the initiated, it's lane splitting, and it makes a daily commute lots of fun...

Enter: Berkeley Waterski Club.  Now that i finally had my own wheels out here it was time to find a place to satiate my waterski habit.  Leave it to a fellow waterski teammate to find a ski lake on Google Maps for me.  A couple emails later and i was reunited with yet another former teammate who had already found the club.  Of course getting would be half the fun... a quick trip across the Bay Bridge and i was in (salt)waterski heaven.  Anything to get wet, right?  Next problem: how to get my waterski there.

The solution came via my snowboard bag with a few modifications.  Of course, above 60mph a slalom ski becomes more like a jump ski and wants to fly.  But in 10mph bumper to bumper traffic it's just fine... especially when you're slicing your way through it...

slicing up the mountains

In California, mountains jut up from the waters of the Pacific and create two things: a pain the a$$ place to build and curvy roads wherever you look.  Head north and you're across the Golden Gate bridge and into mountainous Marin County.  Head south down the coast and it's more of the same.  Curvy roads along the coast.  Curvy roads up in the mountains.  One trip to Alice's and you're hooked.  It's like this state never learned that the shortest route between two points is a straight line.  Good for them.

the next step in GNAR

A couple months ago i finally found something that i had been searching for for a few years.  A new bike.  I always said i was over the days of crotch rockets and breakneck speeds, but i never got over the freedom and fresh air of riding a motorcycle.  Now with my new surroundings and perfect weather of northern California, the time had come to find a new ride.  After an exhaustive search, a couple close calls, and impromptu cross-country flight, i was the owner of a black 2006 Ducati Sport 1000. 

I came to learn about the Ducati SportClassic line a couple years ago while watching Tron.  Ever since i last sold my Honda CBR i knew i had wanted my next bike to be a naked v-twin, classic looking, but with modern technology and components.  As soon as i saw that opening scene in the new Tron movie, i knew that was the bike i wanted.  Unfortunately, so did every other person that saw the movie.  The irony of it all is that the same year the movie came out was the last year that Ducati made this bike.  Clearly they were ahead of their time.  But in economic terms, the supply of these bikes became very finite while the demand for them grew exponentially.  Bikes that dealer couldn't give away a year prior were now commanding prices thousands in excess of their blue book value.  This could get complicated.  And expensive.

Enter the Google Alert.  After setting up Google Alerts for just about every permutation of Ducati SportClassic i could think of, they began to ding my email on a daily basis.  Once while visiting my sister in Richmond, VA, i received an alert for a bike back in SF.  Seriously.  It was a mile from my place.  I, however, was a few thousand miles away from that.  A quick exchange of emails and i was 2nd in line for the bike.  But as i'd come to find out, 2nd in line for a SportClassic is the first one to lose out.  These bikes were selling in a matter of minutes, not days.

Then it happened.  One day while working from home, about to shut down shop for the day, a new alert came across.  More irony, the bike was back in VA and the owner was 'thinking' of selling.  A quick email followed by an anxious call and i had dibs on the bike.  I had replied within a half hour of him posting the listing, and only minutes after i replied so did others.  Finally i won the game.  A few calls with the bank, shipping companies, and my sister, and a few clicks of a mouse, and i was booked on a flight to Norfolk, VA.

It was an excruciating couple weeks of waiting while i waited for the day to come.  Although it went relatively quick as i wasn't flying until after my trip home for the 4th of July.  So the night finally came where i boarded a redeye flight to VA with only a backpack and my helmet.  I could hardly sleep.  A quick call to Ian, the seller, when i landed in Norfolk and he and i were headed to his place.  Ian was in the middle of a move to DC and i was 'helping' him by relieving him of one less bike to move.  Haha... sucker.  Maybe it's me, but motorcycles have a way of making complete strangers friends.  If i lived anywhere near DC i'm sure we could be riding buddies.  Now with the deal done and drizzling rain on the east coast, i began my trek back to the west coast.

A quick ride up to Richmond and the bike was packed away and ready to ship out.  A missed connection by the shipping company in Chicago and the bike finally arrived in the Bay Area 2 weeks later.  I finally had a motorcycle in California...

go west young man: part II

So it's been a year since i've written anything.  And quite the year it has been.  Our adventures in CO were, for lack of a better word, EPIC!!  In the couple months i was there, we had more snow than we knew what to do with.  More powder days than not.  But at the end of it i returned to the midwest for a few months until i could hatch my ulterior plan to move even further west... muahahahaha.

And so, i'm now in San Francisco, with an office view of the bay.  Not too shabby.  Beautiful weather most of the time, gnar when i want it, and adventures all the time.  I'm just settling in here, so more to come...

go west young man

And so it starts.  The long trek towards CO.  Of course it had to snow at the lake the night before i left.  No snow really until December.  And then it started.  The roads were snow packed.  And this song came on the radio as i pulled through Empire for the last time.

First stop was Chicago for a couple nights. And it snowed for the first time there too.  The snow is chasing us westward.  Tonite we're in Iowa City for a short stopover.  And on to Denver tomorrow.  Our season starts now.  Let the gnar fall...

30 for 30...

For a long time i was worries about turning the big 3-0.  Where did my 20s go?  It's been a fun 10 years... but i think that the next 10 will be even more fun.  Would i want to even be 20 again?  Not really... i'm over that.  It was fun.  It was crazy.  I'm ready for a little direction and stability.  Not saying my 30s won't be fun and crazy.  Just at a higher level of existence.  The adventures will get better.  The gnar will be taken to the gnarth power... gnar to the gnar. 

At dinner with my parents i was mistaken for someone in high school.  I'd say that's a pretty good start to being 30.  The baby face that plagued me in high school now is a good problem to have.  And as my uncle put it... any year you have a birthday is a good one.  And hope for another the next year.  And this coming from a guy in his late 60s going on his late 20s.  A kid at heart... and always has been.  An adult.  A goofball.  And totally awesome.  So now come my 30s... bring it!  GNAR!

Thanks to everyone that made the weekend amaizing! 

PS- rule 1: for every article of neon clothing you wear... subtract 1 year.  I think i'll be a teenager for quite some time...