Daytona

Intro-set up:

   A few days after Christmas and just after Mike and I moved into our townhouse, I had to head out a couple of hours on the busy highway east to Daytona. It was a Tuesday afternoon. I was back on the job - shooting skate photos and this time it really was going to be real work. I was going to shoot for an ad for my friends and their skateboard company. I decided to once again take on this assignment just as Hunter would. It wasn't just going to be a photo deal, I was going to make it a story.

   I left my new townhouse around 1P.M. On the highway passing in and out of traffick, semi-trucks and holiday travelers. I made good time getting into Orlando, with an hour stop off to grab a meal at a vegan Japanese spot. Back on the interstate with forty-five minutes till I found myself in Daytona. Just after 5P.M. I pulled up in front of Will's house. I unloaded my camera gear, laptop bag, and backpack from the car, carried it into the mostly empty guest room at the front of the house and Will gave me the grand tour of the place. For the most part, the start of the evening wasn't really so eventful. We just lurked about the house. It was dark now. 

   We drove Will's big work van up to the skatepark so he could show me what I had to work with for shooting on Wednesday. We strolled about the park, then ended up at this small bar that was just a couple of blocks - skating distance - from the park. The place was called Walden's. It was an old gas station from the 1950's or 60's - converted into the bar. It really was one of those locals only type of places but Will and I held in there. Cash was jamming away on the jukebox and we ordered a couple pitchers of Amber Bock. We sat at the bar drinking our brews, and talked with the bartender Tammy, and an old local named Mike. He was an old school tattoo artist with a long full haggard gray beard, a pirate skull tat on the back of his right hand and on the back of his left hand was a portrait of Charles Manson - swastika and all. Behind the bar was an old black and white photo of the Ku Klux Klan. The bathrooms of course had the standard shitty scribbled graffiti all over the place, but I got hyped when I saw a piece that read - "Meigs County Bitches! (Ohio)." Hell yea, I thought to myself, Damn Matt would dig this little spot - maybe. Will and I wandered about the small bar and outside checking out all the random shitty scribblings and other odds and ends. There were old gas pumps from that era still outside and the old crosswalk sign was attached to the station above the pumps. There were two big old heavy wooden doors to go in and out of the bar - one in front and the other on the side. As the night went on, these two gorillas of men crashed loudly into the bar - one with a gnarled scraggly mullet and the other with a horrible mohawk/mullet. These two were loud mouthed and not to be reckoned with. Mr. Mullet-head tried to sell us weed - a joint for five bucks and on another trek to the bathroom - while I was pissing, the other dude with the mohawk came in and was crushing up pills to snort. Will and I got out of there shortly after. On the way back to the house we hit up a gas station for more beer. We stayed up till around 4A.M. drinking and talking.

   Wednesday morning sometime between 10 and 11A.M. Will's room mate Constance got us up with a breakfast of fresh juicy strawberries. In the afternoon Will and I went over to the new Daytona skatepark to handle our business of getting skate photos done for his magazine ad. We finished out the day's sunlight, saw an amazing sunset at a good cement skatepark by the water, and continued into that Wednesday night. I unfortunately had the problem of my flash batteries dying out on me and the lights at the skatepark just barely supplied enough light to get the photos done. Yet we did. At the end of the session I left with a couple hundred shots and Will left with a nice gashed, bloody ankle. We left the skatepark, got more beer and went back to the house. I set up my laptop in Will's room with the camera connected transferring the photos from one digital media to another. I sat in a chair and Will, Constance, and her boyfriend Tim sprawled across Will's bed. We talked, drank beer, and smoked a joint. We called it an earlier night that Wednesday. Just past 1A.M. we all went to bed. 

   We all slept in. Another late morning rising on Thursday - it was new year's eve day. We all had work to do. Will and I had our laptops set up on a desk in Constance's office and she took the other office on the other end of the room. I had photos to edit. We worked until mid afternoon then Will and I headed back out to take care of more photos. We went to the legendary Stone Edge skatepark. This is when I discovered an old friend of mine, Ricky Burns, is running the park. He was closing the park early to have a new year's eve sesh equipped with firing up the grill and drinking some brews. A few other old friends also from out of town showed up - John Paul and Ben from St.Pete, Mike Barnes and a few other Daytona locals were in attendance. The stereo blasted jams for the ripping in the wooden bowl, and another batch of sequences to edit. Back at Will's it was time to shower and clean up for a new year's eve night on the town. We ended up down at the main street block party. The street was blocked off from traffick, different stages with different bands were set up outside of bars in the parking lots and in the street. There were folks from all age ranges, tourists, bikers, etc. Outside of some over trendy tourist 1950's style diner and bar, Will and I sipped our brews, laughing and commenting on the crowd line dancing in the street to Soulja Boy. Our jeering of the crowd drew the attention of some bald biker dude, he came over to us telling us his wife was out there dancing. That made no difference to me and Will. He kept staring at us and circling like a shark plotting his attack. He walked back over to us, asking us why we weren't out there dancing, then he called us gay for not dancing with the crowd. Everytime Will and I would walk around and move, he would follow, staring at us, giving the evil eye. Finally his wife left the line dance to pull her husband away from us. By now it was after 1A.M. and the night's sky grew gray with clouds which opened up letting loose the pouring rain. We had to run in the new year cold night rain about a block or so back to this other bar, Froggy's. Soon after we were in Froggy's drying out and drinking, another fight broke out. We watched some biker looking guy get dragged out into the street and get bloodied up real good. The cops and security took chase. Games of billiards played on and I watched some blonde broad make out with four different dudes and one girl - all over the bar at random times as the night went on. A bit after 2A.M. Constance and Tim met us at Froggy's, we ordered a fresh round of brews, then Will got a text message from their room mate Country, a drunk driver had slammed into Will's big work van which was parked in front of the house. They hit the van so hard it got pushed into Country's Pathfinder - which ended up pushed into the driveway. Will's van and Country's Pathfinder made it through with only some damages and both were still driveable. The drunk driver's Mitsubishi however was totaled and he was hauled off in the back of a police car. At this point we all were glad the night was finally over. I looked at the clock on my cell phone, 5A.M. - I laid down and was out immediately. 

   I was the first one up on Friday - new year's day, another late morning rise - at least it was still before noon. It was cold, gray, and still pouring rain outside. Once again I set my gear up on the desk in Constance's office to transfer the new year's eve Stone Edge photos over to the laptop. By now Will and Constance were up. We sat around the living room talking, then I loaded up my gear into the car readying myself for the two and a half hour drive home to Tampa. I left Will's around 2P.M. and got back on that rain soaked interstate back west.