With the advent of the Weston D facebook page, my website has taken a bit of a hit.  To remedy some of that we will play catch up.

Here is a fun little video from some biking.  Biking hurts especially when you run into trees and fall on your face.

This is the trailer for the upcoming movie, Loyalty. Be sure to check it out at a town near you here!

Some big changes are in the mix and itll all be explained here in the next couple of weeks!

It’s been a while in the making, but the super group has been formed. In an effort to vertically integrate, cut costs, increase productivity, and raise overall stoke myself and four other skiers have signed on with Telemark Skier Magazine (TSM).

For the full article and a quick explanation of what it all means check out Telemark Skier Magazine’s press release found here.

Super stoked on the opportunity and looking forward to writing about the behind, way behind, scenes material here.

Also be sure to go to my newly created athlete page on Facebook

Nelson’s first day skiing…..ever. He jumped right in and shredded! One of the funnest days of the year for me!

While in Dylan’s famous song he never would talk about it all that much, I am not the Hurricane, so I am going to talk about my job.

For the past few month’s I have been back home in NY working at my old job, tree work.  Tree work is extremely dangerous, difficult, and fun.  It’s usually hard to describe to people what I do, and generally people just nod it off thinking that I am a lumberjack.  Lumberjack’s stay on the ground, cut enormous trees down and are in it to sell as timber for profit.

What I do is entirely different, I climb up the tree, within 10ft or under of the top and systematically take the tree down.  Sometimes the tree’s lean over houses, sometimes they are over power lines and sometimes both.  It is a very simple concept that can become complex depending on the variables.

Today I got a few pictures taken of me while doing a tree.  It was a large Oak tree in a residential area with walkways, a house and a shed all in close proximity.  We also try and do little to no damage to the surrounding trees below or to the side of the tree we are taking down.

Where the picture show’s I am at, I have already climbed to the top, come down the the lowest branch (the ones that were over the house) and worked my way back to the top of the tree.  Most of the “technical” work is done at this point, we use ropes to lower down the branches that would other wise hit and damage the property.  I still have a bit of rope work to do before I can drop the wood.

Almost back to the top

Here is a zoomed in picture of me at the top, notice the blue line for lowering, white climbing line and my climbing saw (a smaller, more balanced power saw for climbing with).

nearly at the top

Once I have nothing but the pole left, I start to block down the wood.  I am now entirely off my belt (no safety, no  backup, and 2 in of leather is all that is keeping me off the ground) and begin to take it down piece by piece.  Here one of the blocks is just getting pushed off.

Blocking it down with the climbing saw

As I make my way down the tree and the wood gets thicker and thicker I need to send down my climbing saw and bring up a bigger saw.  With the bigger saw I can cut faster and thicker wood, however as the pieces get heavier I have to cut them smaller because I need to slid them off.

Big wood, big saw

That tree took me around 3hrs, I couldn’t have been happier to hit the deck!

So there you have it, a brief description of my day!  And yes it is every bit as dangerous and hard as it looks.

I embarked on a little adventure this past Thursday afternoon.  After reading the swell reports, listening to the hype and generally trying to get out of dodge I decided to try my luck and go surfing up in NH and possibly Maine.  I packed up the car with a board, sleeping pad, blankets, wetsuit and boardies not knowing what kind of weather or water I was in for.

The thought crossed my mind to just head down to Long Island (2 hours away), but I wanted to try something new and see new scenery.  After a relatively painless drive I arrived at Hampton, NH around 5pm.  Hampton beach is part of only 13 miles of coast that actually belongs to NH, and is more reminiscent to the Jersey shore than what I thought it would be.  Boardwalks, development and because it wasn’t summer, vacancy.

To my utter disbelief and disappointment it was 100% flat.  5hrs in the car for nothing.  Great.  I poked around a bit, got some food and peeked into the local surf shop.  The local told me that my best bet was to go down to Rhode Island and to hope for the best.  Awesome, I just drove North and now im gonna turn around and go South? Yep.

Arched building/resturaunt

Heading South I made a pit stop and stopped in Boston (Cambridge) to see my buddy Zeph.  After a few beers I decided it was best to wake up early in the AM and be to RI by sunrise.  At 4:30am I woke up and started driving.  I made it to RI a bit before sunrise.  While there were waves, by no means were they big or good.  Non the less I ended up surfing for the better part of 6 hours that day.  My shoulders and triceps totally shot I was ready for food and bed.

Narragnsett, RI

While being disappointed at the waves it dawned on me that maybe I should just suck it up, drive to Long Island and catch the best part of the swell.  After looking at the swell reports it looked like the best and biggest option.  Another 3hr drive?   Sure what the hell!

I arrived at Atlantic beach on Long Beach island right around 7pm.  What greeted me made the entire trip worth it.  3-4ft waves, barreling, peeling, glassy and an amazing sunset.  I sprinted back to the car put on my soaking gear and ran back out there.  I only got in a half hour before the sun set entirely, but oh was it good.

A beautiful sight

After parking on a totally random side street and falling asleep at 9pm I was up at 6 and scoping the waves.  It wasn’t a good sight.  Even though it was early, the wind was affecting the waves and causing them to close out.  The swell also grew overnight and many of the breaks could not handle the size.  Still, surfed until I couldn’t raise my arms, ate some pizza and then repeated.

Ended up staying at my buddies house in Queens, sleeping on a bed was a nice change from the car and finally was able to wash all the salt off me.  Went back on Sunday for what was supposed to be the biggest day, 6-8 ft and 2 ft overhead.  It was all that and more but it was so inconsistent and messy that I surfed for an hour and a half and was over it and the crazy currents.

Lido Beach

All in all I saw some new sights, caught a couple great waves and caught up with friends.  The trip was a success but I could have done it all with a bit less driving, oh well such is an adventure.

Backcountry Magazine

Extremely excited to get my first two page spread in Backcountry Magazine. Big thanks to Steve Lloyd for the shot and the hard work!

I have jokingly called the last few months my quarter life crisis…of sorts.  Living in Hawaii was a bit of a blessing and a curse.  A job I hated with every fiber of my being, yet I was living in paradise.  Although paradise was filled with crime, crack heads, and exorbitant living costs it really wasn’t so bad.

When I was little and I would ask my parents about a decision I had to make and it was generally right or wrong, black or white.  Was it the wrong thing to blow all my money on some trivial, whimsical purchase?  Yes.  Was it the right thing to do to write a gift card for that Christmas present?  Yes.

But the older I get the more the lines get blurred.  Could I have stuck it out in Hawaii?  Absolutely, but I would have been scraping by and be poor (as usual).  Did I want to leave paradise to go home and work the most physically demanding job I know?  Not particularly, but it would be the responsible decision.  With the lines blurry there is no perfect decision, just the one you pick.  I thought long and hard and pondered what my goals are and the things that truly make me happy.

I picked to give up island life, move back to NY and be “responsible”.   Having been home for a little under a week I can say I absolutely made the best decision for me.  Being home, seeing friends and family is something I always cherish and has been great. It also helps to balance and help re-solidify my goals.

Now, a bit more centered, I will be putting my head down and working HARD for the next few months.  After nearly three years away from tree work I am going back, I’m looking forwards to working out doors and NOT having to put up with whiny, bitchy customers in a restaurant.

So from the golden beaches of Maui to the not so golden beaches of NY, I will leave you with a picture of the latter.

Sunset Bay