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Alex and I made a video for Snowboard-Mag from the Backyard Bang event here in Denver. Its late, but check it out!

Right outside the Casita is Half Moon Bay, which is great for snorkeling. We spent an afternoon cruising around, chasing fish, finding turtles, diving down and coming up right under fat dudes wearing life jackets.

When my brother and I went to Akumal 12 years ago the first thing we did was jump in the water and swim out to snorkel. Right after the sand ends it turns to grass. We got a little scared and turned right around and went in. This time the grass didn’t stop us from exploring.

Right after taking this photo of Alex i swam back to the top and encountered the fat guy. He’s not in frame, he’s just off to the left. That was probably the scariest thing that happened out there.

Here’s our buddy the turtle. He wasnt too big, just a little guy. It was sweet to swim around with him and watch him chow down on some grass.

The brain coral formations underwater were amazing.  They were full or urchins and fish and I guess that there is an eel that lives somewhere around there. I’m glad we didn’t run into it. That might have been worse then the fat guy in the life jacket.

I now have a wooden computer with a dude holding a gun and nunchucks.

One of the days in Mexico we drove down south to the Sian Ka’an Reserve and took a ride up through the lagoons and rivers. We saw fish, crocodiles, birds, Maya ruins, sting rays, and tons of other stuff. It was about a 3 hour ride cruising up this river that seemed to be 6 inches deep the whole time. We only hit bottom a few times and our guide must have known the river pretty well because I saw a lot of rocks that would take out the motor.

This is what it looked like most of the time. Just wide enough for a boat and curvy the whole way. Alex, Gordy, and Caty had front row on the way out.

Of all the underwater shots this one is one of my favorite. The sun came out while a school offish swam by.

This shows how shallow the waster looked. Seems like its only inches deep, yet we flew through it no problem.

At the end of the little river, just before a big lagoon sits this old Maya temple. Nothing really around it, its just sitting by itself. This is also where you jump in the water and float about half a mile back to another dock.

Had to have a beer on the way back, it was geting close to noon.

Back at the dock they have a tower that is above the trees and you can see in all directions. Its a little sketchy going up but the view is worth it.

Just got back from a little trip down to Akumal Mexico. Its about 90 min south of Cancun right on the coast. We stayed in right off the beach in a casita. Lots of fun and lots of Sol.

These kayaks were available for anyone to use right outside the casita. We only used them as props in our photo and used fins and snorkels out in the water.

One day we hopped in a car and drove down the coast. Gordy was navigating with my dad sitting shotgun, Cathy and my Mom in the middle seat and Alex and I in the back. We found some deserted beaches in the Sian Ka’an Nature reserve that were amazing.

The beach at Boca Paila.

Mom and I at the beach in Boca Paila.

Found a whole bunch of fan coral and different sponges on the beach.

Alex gettin the shot.

We had an early flight out of Amsterdam back to the US so we decided to fly there from Helsinki the day before and spend the night so we wouldn’t be so rushed the next day and to check out the city. We tried checking into the hotel but got there a couple hours early and our room wasn’t ready. So we left most of our stuff with the front desk and went out to catch a free tour of the city. I’ve never taken a tour of a city, and well, never really been anywhere where I should have either. The tour turned out to be really good minus the fact that Jeff and I each had a 40+ Pound camera bag on for the 3 hour walk.

Amsterdam has lots and lots and lots of bikes, over 1 million they say. They also have canals and a lot of time bikes end up in canals. Our guide had a story about seeing someone throw a bike into the canal and afterwards realizing it was his own. They also have these public 4 sided urinals. Not something you see everyday…

The tour also took us by the house where Anne Frank and here family hid from the Nazis. There was a museum we were going to go to that took a tour through the home but the line was wrapped around the next block.

The streets are really busy, and there were a couple times we almost got ran over by a moped or a biker. Luckily it wasn’t a horse. There’s more! click the button below

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Helsinki has been awesome and its a shame to have to leave, but damn is it cold and I’m not going to miss that at all. The trip has been really successful and I think we’ve gotten a lot of good content for the show. Going back over the footage should be fun because we shot so much, I can’t remember it all.

The last rail we shot was right on a train track and there was this sign with a map of all the routes on it. Never did get to ride the train, but it seems like you can go pretty much anywhere on it.

We ended up using a banshee bungee for some stuff becuase a dropin just ant enough speed and the winch was too much to set up. Mike and Ahmet look like they might be working for the roadside construction crew but really they’re just pulling the bungee back.

Tom’s doing another interview while waiting for the crew to pull back the bungee. Behind him to the right is a skating rink that was being used as a parking lot for a local tv station crew who was doing something near where we were shooting. Tom had to stomp down the snowbank on the side to make an inrun to the feature.

Finnair has a nice setup going, a free meal on the plane, sodas, and tv screens. One thing they do that every airline should do is put a camera on the nose of the plane and have a live feed to the passengers during take-off. Pretty cool to get a view of the runway as it speeds by. As we took off it switched to a straight down view so we could see the landscape below.

Sure this may look like a regular sized soda but really its not. I think this was 6oz at the most. It looked like a Redbull can cut in half. The cup next to it was a bit bigger than a dixie cup. Not too bad though, nice to have some drinks with the meal. Next stop, Amsterdam.

Over here in Finland, there’s a fastfood place called Hesburger. It’s pretty much a McDonalds, with some different menu options like pasta and some pita stuff. I had a Kerrosateria, pretty much their big mac. It was pretty good, a little different, but all in all the same. Waking up today was not so fun, I think a combination of the Kerro and lack of water on my part made my insides mad. Got through the day, got some shots, and tomorrow should be good!

We made it to Finland. I’ve never crossed this many time zones for a trip. The most I’ve had to deal with before is 2 hours and thats just driving from Minnesota to Oregon. Finland is 8 hours ahead of Colorado time. Today was our first full day here and i think we’ve adjusted to the time difference pretty quickly. We spent today walking around Helsinki shooting some scenic stuff. Seems like they got a couple feet of snow recently, there are cars and bikes all over that are buried. Tomorrow we’re going to meet up with the crew! Here’s a few pictures from walking around today

There were some places where they had plowed out while bikes were still buried and you can see parts of twisted bikes sticking up through the snow! These seemed to be alright though…

A couple street views around Helsinki.

This was randomly on one building with another pair of heads to the right of these. I thought these had better exporessions though

Here we are sitting in Denver at the airport waiting to get on the plane. We couldn’t get the passports to scan so this lady came and to try and help Jeff and I get checked in. Didn’t work, and we had to talk to someone else. Had no problem getting the bags checked, everything was under 50lbs. I don’t know how, but my bag with boots, tripod, and 10 days of clothes made it. It weighed 50lbs exactly.