Rainy days skateboarding

Not a very sunny day today, in fact it was pissing it down. However we still tried to have a skate and headed to a derelict building in town.

Century Xtreme and the "Winter Clearout" edit

Last week i was fortunate enough to buy the new Century Xtreme fisheye lens for my HMC151.

I have finally achieved the goal of completing a full HD filming set-up and have started to shot for a full-length  skateboarding film. Below is the first trailer for this film which consists of footage shot using my old fisheye lens. I will post a test of the Century up soon, it is absolutely stunning. Enjoy the first promo and feel free to comment on your thoughts!

Work or play?

This past week has been hectic as I have been doing the normal work at the butchers but also started to get stuck into some video productions work. On Wednesday I had the amazing opportunity to film and produce a promotional video for an argentine steak house in Fulham, London. It's great experience to gain the necessary skills to film at a more professional level and outside of my 'comfort zone'. The video is being edited as we speak so I will post those on here once they're completed.

On another matter I managed to climb an overhang route which I have been working on for several weeks now so I must admit I was feeling a bit smug after that!

I have started the basic planning of what will be an adventure to everest base camp next year so i am so excited about that as you can imagine! More details on that coming soon.

Thanks for reading!

M25 London bound.

Half marathon 2012

A veery long day at work today after yesterday's run; a thirteen point one mile run through the beautiful Kentish hills. The weather was once again spectacular and the atmosphere was just perfect. I wanted to beat last year's 1 hour 58 minutes, which going by my training runs it would be hard work, you could say I was under pressure with what seemed a hard to achieve goal. The gun went off at 10am and leaving the ones I knew behind I ran ahead and aimed to stay at around the 1:50 marker and seeing for how long I could keep this up. As it turned out I found it easy to get hyped and push myself to what I think was fairly close to my limit. I tried to keep at the back of my mind to constantly keep running at a pace slightly quicker than what I was used to. It was hard work and it took me further into my motivation and mental strength than anything ever before, and soon enough it was apparent that I had pushed myself more than last time, paranoid that I wasn't going to beat last year's time I actually crossed the line at 1 hour 47 minutes, which as you can imagine I was completely happy and over the moon about. It gave me hope that I can push myself to new physical limits and achieve really great things through determination and mental strength to keep going, for the first time I really found it possible to really push myself, and it felt good!

So that was my second half marathon and no doubt I will be doing it next year. I have an idea to keep up my running and therefore be at an even better standard of fitness for next time.

That's all for now. I am hopefully going to north Wales sometime soon, as soon as I get a little problem with my car fixed to be exact, so I'm really excited about that one!

Thanks for reading!!

Climbing

For the past month I've been going climbing again, and I have definitely noticed the strength and stamina building in just a few sessions. Today was one of those days and after work Big ash and I headed over to evolution and hit the wall for a couple of hours, they've made a really fun route on the overhang that has left us shattered! We shall be going back next Wednesday and hopefully see some improvement!

blogging once again!

I have been thinking about how much i loved blogging in the time that i spent travelling and even when i came back, just putting a few thoughts into words, and telling the world about new adventures or past experiences. Even if no one reads it at least it will stay on here and i can look back on my life and see how things used to be! I have been kindly given and Iphone as a 22nd birthday present by my beautiful girlfriend so updating the blog should in theory be a lot easier!

That's all for now, hope you all like the new look, since traviajero.com has been taken by someone else i have had to think of a different web address so hence the change there! but the blog is the same, trips, film, music, adventure, life!

Take it easy brothers and sisters, good night.

Santiago.

It's always a pain having to pack and organise everything for a trip without forgetting anything important, we left Tunbridge Wells just after our planned departure time and reached the eurotunnel in plenty of time. I must admit i had a bit of a shiver down my spine to the tought of being let loose in a strange land, driving on the other side of the road and not wanting to mess anything up. This feeling was soon eased down and i was able to relax.

The roads were beautiful; mostly empty, at times it felt like i was on my own private motorway heading East. Words can't describe the freedom of suddenly being on the same landmass as most of the world and knowing that borders were the only thing separating me from faraway destinations such as Siberia or China. The car drove like a champ and even though it's just a few bits of metal joined together i felt it come alive and enjoy the drive as much as i did. We drove on through the evening and night. Due to the higher speed limits of 130kmph or 80 mph i was able to open the throttle up just that little bit more than in the UK. It gave a further feeling of freedom and cruising at just under 3000 revolutions/minute the Fiesta took us ever Eastwards until morning. The sun rose just after 5am to what seemed like a very instant dawn and soon we were once again driving in the daylight. The scenery grew stronger and soon we were in the Swiss mountains. Plowing through the miles at now 75mph i was engulfed in the powerful and mystical views from the farway valleys; snowcapped mountains that were much higher and meaner than anything i had previously experienced before, it made me want to be up there on the solid rock attatched to the rope, living.

It has now passed a week and although we only went on one hike, i have been able to relax like never before, the sunshine has been amazing and we spent most days by the pool catching the rays, which for us "brits" is no a common experience. Tomorrow morning we will be setting off back home and aim to reach Calais' tunnel terminal in just over 10 hours. I am as always very excited about the long drive and can't wait to see the look on my friends' faces as we turn up to Karina's 21st birthday party. A spontaneous thought decided that instead of taking two days to drive back we will do it all tomorrow and therefore be able to attend their much antisipated gathering which we would otherwise miss.

That's all for now, cheeeerss!

Santiago.