The weather in California has been very wet. The weather forecasters are calling it an "El Nino Year", which means we'll be seeing an abnormally abundant amount of rain this year. The wet/muddy dirt is slowing down the riding a bit for some visitors, but overall the riding is still going down! With 20 guys that know how to dig, any set of jumps can get fixed up really quick from a gnarly storm! The first two weeks of January the riders re-built the post office jumps and were riding them. Below are a few shots I got of the sessions from early January!
 |
| Kyle J, R-Dog, Semenuk, Sorge, Cob, Jack chilling at the post office in the middle of runs. |
 |
| Brandon with an amazing tuck no hander! |
 |
| R-Dog going nuts with this superseater indian air! |
 |
| Brandon cranking a "correct" invert! |
 |
| Graham stomping a nasty table on the hip! |
Scouting, Building and Shooting! Then the second half of the month it was storming. Riders Jack Fogelquist and Jacob "Cob" Hyde and I went to a nice scenic spot to find something big and cool to shoot. We came up with a big hip step down. Friends/riders joined us two days after the build to hit it up for a photo shoot! Turned out good!
 |
| The gap after we built it the first day |
 |
| Cob hitting the 35 footer hip step down |
 |
| Jack hitting the gap for the second time! |
 |
| Jack tabling off into the clouds |
More People in town from around the globe! Yesterday, the shovels came out in the morning at the post office! The riders got the place ready to ride! The transitions needed to be dug out of all the mud and replaced with dryer dirt. A lot of the lips and landings got a new layer of dirt, basically the park went from a mud pit to rideable in matter of a few hours.
 |
| Ryan Howard. The King of Aptos, hahahah, it's true! The kid digs the hardest and rides the most! |
 |
| Kyle J. Since Kyle J has moved into town he has joined R-dog as one of the main contributing builders. |
 |
| Cob takes a nice fat chug of a tasty beverage after digging a bunch! |
 |
| Andreu digs a little, then rides! |
The work ethic around the dirt jumping scene in Aptos is great. Basically if you have a bike you'd better own a shovel as well. If you're stuck without a shovel you will be told to go buy one! I have seen it a ton, no matter who the rider, don't dig and you will not be liked, dig for awhile and then you are very excepted! Well after a bunch of digging the guys finally got to ride the place! Here are some pics I nailed, expect a lot more coming in the next few weeks! Enjoy!
 |
| Riders including Semenuk, Andreu, Watts, Amir, Pilgram, Cob, Fogelquist, all taking turns! |
 |
| Brandon busting out a sweet corkflip |
 |
| R-Dog with one crazy flatspin |
 |
| R-dog.....ummmm yeah! |
 |
| Sam Pilgram doing a nice one foot table. I expect to see more from him in the coming days! |
 |
| Amir Kabanni doing a sweet truckdriver! |
 |
| Semenuk with an inward table on the hip! |
 |
| Brandon with a fat superseater! |
 |
| Semenuk riding into the night! |
--
Justin Brantley 
not Pilgram 
