I used to not check any of the “major” snowboard sites. Frankly I didn’t care or even want to know what they posted. For me, the only thing that mattered is that I was happy with what I was posting on YoBeat. But once I started selling ads, it became pretty apparent, those other sites were competition, and I’d better know what they were doing if I was going to convince people to give us money rather than them. So I set up a Google reader and started paying attention. More often than not, the other feeds looked similar to, if not exactly the same as, each other (of course this method of tracking is faulty because it doesn’t differentiate between site sections, and half the time is hours behind). Not to say I was never guilty– I’d often post some of the same stuff, mostly press releases and teasers. (This is also a necessary evil if you want to keep advertisers happy.) I should have known it was a slippery slope.

It’s hard to keep a website going and updated every day. As a lone person, or even with a few people, coming up with brilliant, original content on a regular basis can only last so long. And the web makes it really easy to get lazy, especially with the sheer amount of videos and brand-created content, uploaded every day, just there for the embedding. Why spend money and time creating new content, when you can just take what’s already there?

So here’s what happens. Eventually it stops being about having “good” content and just about keeping the site updated. Content=traffic, right? I’d find myself posting things (such as the infinite number of teasers,) without even watching them. And this morning (an especially teaser-heavy one) I realized my site looked just like all the others. Same embedded video. Same copy and paste description. Why bother?

I ended up breaking my own rule and took down a couple of those posts. I replaced them with this. It’s still the same teasers, but what’s this? It has an angle. It’s a little different. It’s a reason for someone to come to YoBeat instead of the others. And it makes me feel better, at least.

In writing this I realized I don’t know what I am trying to say. I’m definitely not trying to give anyone advice on how to make a good website! In fact, the more time I spend updating the Internet, the less I feel like I know whats good, bad or even interesting. I think mostly I just need to put this out there for myself as a reminder: if you’re not gonna try, you might as well not bother.

June 19, 2010. Portland, Ore. A fairly typical Saturday night. Temperatures were hovering in the low 60s and the moon was peaking through the clouds. Perfect weather for an estimated 10,000 people (or more) to strip off their clothes and ride bikes in a giant pack through the city. It was my first naked bike ride (and if you know me you know I’m not big on bikes) so I took pictures.

The onslaught of the Burnside Bridge.

The intersection of 2nd and Burnside, and a bunch of naked people.

What, you don’t want to get naked and ride your tall bike through the city sometimes?

Another night on the job for PDX police.

Many participants yelled for spectators to get naked. Eventually, these guys did.

Pretty sure these spots were all natural.

See ya next year…

I’ve been threatening to reedit this video for awhile, and now that I have things to procrastinate, it seemed like a good time. So here is our attempting at cutting down a tree, in under 40 seconds.

Believe it or not, I didn’t just travel down to Texas to check out my first flash flood. I was actually already there and the flood just happened! Why, you might ask, would anyone be in Texas already? On this occasion it was in fact a cable wakeboarding contest that Alliance was sponsoring. I took pictures, got a sunburn, and generally killed it, as usual. Here are a few pictures that were taken during my moments of artiness, and not really appropriate for the wakeboard website. If you want to see all the hot action shots, check out the posts here and here.

Rupert!

It seems every time I go to Texas I manage to bring some sort of weather-related disaster. On my last trip to Dallas, the Cowboys practice stadium collapsed a mile away from me, and this time, it was a flood. The rain had kept me up all night, pounding so hard on the roof along with frequent thunder and lighting. I went back to sleep in the morning after it somewhat subsided, only to be woken up by a wailing siren. I immediately thought tornado, but this time the siren meant they were opening the flood gates, literally. Once the first siren sounds, you have about ten minutes before hell breaks loose. Better get the boat out, brace what you can and hope for the best.

The water rose probably 20 feet within a matter of hours. First I watched the water creep up over the island protecting the canal I was staying on. Then it climbed and climbed, until the normally steep yard was one big rushing river. I headed over to another house, right on the river, where they were having a “flood party.” They’d gotten the boat out in the time, but needed to stand by and knock debris away from the dock. Most people sat on the porch and watched boats, jetskis, gas tanks, and everything else float by. Then, a few hours after it started, the waters started to subside. Who knows where all the debris ended up, but I sure am glad I don’t have to clean it up!

Gabe Lucas standing on the upper deck of his dock. Normally this is 12 feet off the surface of the lake, and there is a boat underneath it. And yeah, that’s a boat bobbing by in the background.

The dam is open.

A constant stream of debris

50 grand, floating down stream, headed for the next dam.

This pontoon boat was in that boat house for awhile, until it finally found it’s own way out.

Nothing to do but watch.

Another boat floating in the stew.

Bye Bye boat!

Surveying the damage. Looks like a free bench washed up!

The celebration of survival!