Sco Surfing

Allen to Grapevine Part Two

Thu, 10 May 2012 00:34:00 -0400

So I met up with Allison, Amanda, Nicole and Dorian in the lobby along with another driver who’s also the first aid guy for the crew. His name is Jesse.

We got to the Nike Store, which was already filled with loads of other NSA’s, along with a bunch of breakfast food, which all looked pretty nasty to me. I started coughing. I cough when I’m super nervous. It’s more of a gag cough. Maybe it’s a panic attack but I’ve never put a label on it. The entire store was going to run to a 1.825 mile mark and back. The NSA’s and I were going to just do the 1.825 and then get in a car and watch as Jason did the first few miles by himself.

Why 1.825? Because the rest of the store is going to that mark and back which totals to 3.65 which represents 365 days a year of a better world. I still don’t really get it since you should be trying for a better world forever.

Anyways, Allison and I stood behind where everybody was sitting. She’s from California and she does ballet. She has no formal training in running just like me. We were the outcasts in our running group since Amanda, Nicole and Dorian all come from a Nike store in Vegas. So Allison and I quickly bonded and then Jason Lester walked into the building. What a legend.

He did a quick Q & A which was super amazing. It’s amazing since he’s a legend. I can’t say that enough. He just knows how to inspire. It’s insane since I was so nervous, and after he spoke, I actually wanted to run the full 30 miles that he was going to run.

After his Q & A he signed some autographs. While that was happening, we were stretching. I didn’t really know how to stretch without sitting on the ground because that’s how we stretched in wrestling. So I didn’t really stretch.

We walked out the store to see Jason’s Nike Better World sprinter van. It was fully decked out on the outside and inside. A few people walked inside the have a look around while everybody else was getting ready for the 1.825 mile run.

Allison and I were chatting about something that has to do with life plans. I said that you have a whole life time to do it and she said, “No, just do it now!” That attitude got me really stoked.

There wasn’t really a clear start, at least to me but everybody started running.

To be continued…

Allen to Grapevine

Tue, 08 May 2012 23:55:00 -0400

For a split second a few days ago, I was more stoked than I already was because I thought I ran from Arlen Texas to Grapevine Texas. I thought it was so sick that my starting point was the hometown of Hank Hill.

Anyways, I landed at Dallas Fort Worth Airport. The air inside the airport was stuffy and somewhat smelly but not necessarily in a bad way. I was stoked.

As I walked down the airport, I kept walking past different restaurants starting with Poppa. Not sure what poppa means but I could have sworn there were at least three completely different chains starting with poppa.

I found a plug in a wall near a bench so I charged up my iPhone while I waited for my driver to pick me up. It was hot. I’m sure in the airport alone was about 80 with the humidity. I had my Portland clothes on and since I knew I was going to run in this heat, I decided to keep on my hoodie and my jacket, fully zipped up. After a while, it wasn’t so hot any more.

I went outside the airport and there was another blast of hotness. The hoodie and jacket stayed on, fully zipped. A silver mini van with the words Nike Better World on the side of it came and picked me up. Sarah greeted me, and we were on our way to pick up the 4 NSA’s. NSA either stands for Nike Store Athletes, Nike Store Associates, or maybe something else.

Allison, Amanda, Nicole and Dorian were all decked out in their Nike gear, obviously.

It took about 45 minutes to get to the hotel from the massive airport. On the way there, we talked about what we were about to do the next day, and what the journey for Jason Lester was like so far. We were all a bit nervous in terms of the heat, and if we could actually keep up with Mr. Lester.

The hotel was close to a few shopping centers. Sarah told us about a Cajun place behind the hotel so I had my mind set on that. I’ve been getting really into southern food the past few weeks. I got into my hotel room, set my stuff out and opened the curtains. I saw an In-N-Out. Cajun food went out of my mind and I rushed downstairs and asked the concierge how to get to In-N-Out. One 3x3, two fries and one Neapolitan Shake. I watched some Family Guy while eating and tried to go to sleep. I think I only got about 4 hours.

The next morning I was tired from the lack of sleep, I took a shower, threw the fries I didn’t finish away, and walked out the door.

I went down the to lobby and met up with the other runners.

To be continued…

I grew some wings today.

Sat, 05 May 2012 00:04:22 -0400

I grew some wings today.

Texasbound.

Thu, 03 May 2012 14:49:35 -0400

Texasbound.

Enviromore

Tue, 01 May 2012 01:56:42 -0400

I’ve sped up his walking and added some scenery. Super super stoked!

Tip Toe Cycle

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 00:52:00 -0400

My first After Effects tip toe cycle:

The Stance

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 12:10:27 -0400

Jason Lester

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 01:49:00 -0400

The man about town, more like the man about Amurica, is Jason Lester. He was hit by a car at age 12. He broke 21 bones, his right arm was paralyzed and his dad died while Jason was in the hospital. Quite a lot to go through at such a young age but it didn’t stop him. Not at all. Quite the opposite happened. He was passionate about sports before the accident and he decided to keep pursuing it.

Jason is the first disabled athlete to compete in the Ultraman World Championships. He’s ran across the desert in Nevada to raise awareness and money to help the 1 out of 6 people that don’t have access to clean water. He’s also the 2009 ESPY award winner for best male athlete with a disability. To top off all that he’s accomplished, he’s also a great artist.

He’s currently running across America to inspire people to be more active. So far he’s ran and biked over 1600 miles. His goal is to run/bike 4800 miles across America through 16 states in 102 days like a boss.

I sent him a text after the 1000 mile mark to congratulate him. Next thing I know, he’s invited me to run with him. All I had to do was pick a city. To me, it was a choice between somewhere in the middle of America, and California. I wanted to go to the middle of America just because I haven’t been in a long time and I wanted to go to California so I could see my friends along the way. Texas was my answer. I was stoked to get funding for my flights and hotels.

On May 4th I will run beside Jason in Grapevine Texas with 4 other people from various Nike Stores. You can learn all about it on this uber cool website: www.nikebetterworld.com/journey

Here are the shoes I purchased today to complete my mission. We shall see if my mission changes…

Stoked/freaked out.

Gnar Broiled

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:31:00 -0400

The population of Portland, Beaverton and the surrounding area, maybe even the whole state, or maybe just the whole of the United States has been blessed with what most people call epic weather the past couple of days.

Personally, I love it, it’s nice to have sun, but I do prefer a breeze. Beggars can’t be choosers so this will have to do.

Stoked.

Here’s a few snaps from campus.

Also digging the forest smell here at campus.

P.S. Props to the twins for shaking the tree a bit at Uni. Nobody should get punished for expressing their opinion. Quit being so sensitive people…

Mark Parker

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 17:36:00 -0400

At Nike it’s all about storytelling and here’s mine:

When I was interning at the menswear department at Hurley, we found out that Mark Parker, the president and CEO of Nike was coming down to check us out. Chris Hurley, a designer on the menswear team was asked to get a Hurley button hand sewn onto a Hurley Phantom Shirt.

So the Hurley Phantom Shirt is probably the most expensive garment that Hurley sells outside of wetsuits. It’s made fully out of stretchy Phantom Fabric and a lot of it is bonded together. It’s seriously siiick.

The Hurley button isn’t just any button that has the words Hurley stamped onto it. It’s actually the Hurley color bar. The color bar is a combination of colors, laid out in a specific order, which Hurley uses as little pops of awesomeness throughout their product line.

Chris asked me if I could hand sew the button onto the shirt. First we had to know which way the color bar button was oriented, since we had no idea which way was up and which was down. We also had to figure out what size Mark Parker was.

Once we found out the size, I went to the Hurley employee store to get the shirt in Mark’s size. They didn’t have any in. So I had to get one transferred over from Salvation, a store that carries uber cooler Hurley, Nike and Converse stuff. The next day I found out that for some reason, the transfer never went through.

I drove down to the Irvine Spectrum to pick up the shirt myself and got back to campus. We figured out that the blue end of the color bar was the bottom since the color bar is supposed to mimic the horizon and blue equals ocean.

I got a hand sewing needle from the tech room, which is a place where they figure out the fitting of garments, and sewed on the bottom. After I finished sewing it, I realized that the way I sewed on the button differed from the way the other buttons on the shirt were sewn on. I unpicked the button and re did it.

Chris brought the shirt over to Ryan Hurley, the creative director and asked if the shirt was ready to be given to Mark Parker. Ryan said it depends, aka only if it’s done well. Ryan looked at it, was pleased and said yeah.

Later that day, Mark Parker, along with Roger Wyett, the president of the Nike affiliates, walked through the menswear area. They looked at the menswear wall of designs, talked to a few people and continued on with their tour. When they passed my desk, Roger stopped by my desk and had a look at this pocket I designed and made. He said it was cool. Mark of course stopped when Roger stopped. Mark introduced himself to me, I introduced myself to him and we shook hands.

This is not just me posting a video of Mark Parker explaining the new fly knit and me telling the story of how I met him. In the video, he’s actually wearing the Hurley Phantom Shirt, with the Hurley color bar button that was hand sewn onto it by me.

Stoked.

Pizza pan in the arsenal!

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:36:16 -0400

Pizza pan in the arsenal!

So Gnar

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 02:13:42 -0400

I drove past this house on the way to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum.

Got a chance to grab a picture of it on the way back, thanks to a red traffic light.

I think planes and other things shaped like whales and hulls are just pleasant.

My new favorite vehicle is the Sea Bee.

Still Obsessed

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 03:26:17 -0400

So I found out that Cole Haan came to town(campus) and strolled to their temporary boutique to see what the fuss is about. I’ve known about the Lunargrands for a while now and never really thought twice about them. I thought they would be selling clothes as well but nope, just shoes. Looked around at all the the shoes they had besides the lunars. There were a pair I really liked but it looked too “i’m retiring and moving to Florida” which I totally love, I just can’t pull off that look. Anyways, ended up taking a gander at the Lunargrands and thought they didn’t look too bad. Turns out I was looking at the girl’s Lunargrands, which explains why I thought they actually looked alright. The proportion on kid’s shoes and girl’s shoes always look better than guy’s shoes since it’s mostly miniaturized. For those of you who’ve been visiting this blog since back in the day, you know that I like mini skateboards, surfboards, etc.

After I found out that I was looking at the girl’s shoes, I went over check the men’s version out, didn’t like it as much, tried on a size 9.5(my normal Nike size) but they were way too big. They were out of 9’s so I was going to leave empty handed. By then, the shoes were already growing on me so in desperation, I tried on a pair of 8.5’s in a different colour. They fit. I asked the salesman if they had any 8.5’s in the Navy’s. They did.

Some Portland rain has engrained its mark into my new navy Lunargrands and I couldn’t be more stoked.

So once again, here are my epic new shoes, which are also my first personal purchase since starting my job at Nike.

Le Grands Boulevards

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:03:14 -0400

That’s how you do it son.

Her TED talk was a good enough commercial for me to buy her...

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 01:08:03 -0400

Her TED talk was a good enough commercial for me to buy her book.

Storms coming up!

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 00:25:35 -0400

Storms coming up!

Weapon of Choice

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 00:33:54 -0400

So I have all these tools and I go with my slick bandwagon call box to take my shots.

Combo Land

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:37:00 -0400

Real maple syrup is harsh.

My rad housing.

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 03:47:15 -0400

My rad housing.

My awesome bed.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:09:59 -0400

My awesome bed.