Season 1 Recap

My beginning in blogging was a product of a warm and sunny summer morning. I sat down on the balcony and just wrote for some hours and in the end I got the ten first posts finished. But of course there were some tweaks because of the order and stuff. After that headstart there where several evenings I spent on the balcony bringing up concepts for series and the blog itself. My girlfriend got annoyed when I asked her over and over again if this or that would work out but she got her payback.

I tried to get three post a week done but it only worked out for two weeks or so until I set back to two posts and that still works out perfectly. Also I tried to fit the series in the schedule without missing all the latest news I wanted to cover and now ended up with actually two monthly series and a lot of more or less instant content.

It was great to get out once a week, shooting pictures for the Board and Bike Spots. In general I fell in love with photography and even bought my first own camera. And Hamburg is a great city to get started with photography: modern and classic, urban and landscape.

That is my recap of my first six months of blogging with now finally many more to come.


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Board Vibes - Season 2

It's been a long time, eh?

But today I'm back with new motivation, topics and a huge load of news. Of course there were other reasons besides procrastination  for me to stop writing. But those deserve an extra post. Also, there are two more winter themed posts in queue and then, finally, I am personally done with this season.

Following up on Saturday, there will be a roundup of "Season 1" of Board Vibes. I'll just briefly go over the highlights and developments made in those six months. Also there are two spots - one for the board, one for bike - that I had planned since early fall last year that might finally get live.

That's all updated so far, so see you on Saturday.


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Blogs To Read - love from berlin

Today I want to introduce to you to Rae Tashman, a digital product designer and photographer, obviously located in Berlin. Also she runs her blog that is built with a big focus on visuals but the texts are at least as important. I'm going back to browsing through her archive now, see you wednesday.

http://raetashman.com/
http://www.lovefromberlin.net/


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Awesome Decks - UNIKORN Lorcan / Moostaste

I found the Moostaste in my Pinterest feed one day and was confused at first - many decks before tried to be arty as hell, but this one really got me. The UNIKORN Moostaste (on the right) is one of those boards that are supposed to hang on the wall and decorate your living room. It was actually released in 2012 already and now, it is not in production anymore.

So I headed to their website for a little research and found out that the artwork was designed by uberkraaft, a really awesome artist. Also I found the new board by UNIKORN - the Lorcan (which you see below).

The Lorcan is shorter and the kick makes it really useful for tricks and the griptape has a really performance oriented look. But UNIKORN from Montreal always works in cooperation with artists from all over the world so this has a artwork just as beautiful as the Moostaste. In this case it is the work of the Brazilian artist Victor Beuren. His thoughts on the deck:

“This deck is all about having fun, about the enjoyment you get from riding it. It’s about the wind on your face, the feeling that you are actually flying across town the kind of feeling that we all hold dear. The design brings toy planes, parachutes, wings and a pilot to help carry your imagination in flying with you.”

The Lorcan is available for $140 CAD deck only or a hundred dollars more for the complete board with Bennett Vector trucks and Seismic Rippler wheels

















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In Pictures - Longboarding Together

My fourth post ever was about why it is so great to get together with people when longboaring. This here is a little follow up of pictures I found on Pinterest that really express the message I had in that post.

Each of these pictures tells a story of friends getting out together and searching for the thrill and fun of longboarding. Of course they all need a long road ahead - feeling the freedom and stuff. So beside that cliche and the fact that none of them was a real situation, I really like how they look and have different styles. One is dark and full of tension, another one showing the party going on on the road and one spreading pure summer and very happy and adventurous vibes.

However, I just wanted to show you these few pictures to stay motivated for longboarding - summer isn't even that far away! I'm already planning for new adventures and I might also buy a new board. But I will surely update you about anything exciting as it happens. Protect your spots and keep exploring!


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Cold Days Longboarding Outfit

Of course there are many longboarders that only ride in the summer because of the trend and the style. But if you are like me and the longboard is your major way of transportation you might know the struggle of iced hands and cold air inside your jacket. I found myself some ways to fight the cold so that I can stay on the board not only on the glaciers.

Softshell jacket. One of the major problems is that the warmed up air inside your jacked gets pushed out by the cold air because of wind and your own movements. First step to counteract that is to buy a wind proof softshell jacket. You might want to find one with a little strip of fabric behind the zipper - I often felt the cold sneaking through that cracks.

Flexible gloves. When choosing your gloves you might want to go for the thinner ones. There is nothing worse for me than loosing the grip on my fingers, so I always use my winter biking-gloves for longboarding as well. They have the right balance of keeping your fingers warm and usable. If you have a bad day and it's too cold for your fingers, just get the blood into your hands by closing and opening your fists repeatedly.

Oversize and layers. I generally like to wear larger cloths when I'm on the board - in the summer they provide good air circulation but when it's cold they have another effect. Your shirts make your jacket tighter around the waist because of the excess cloth. Also you get the possibility of working out warm wind proof joints at your hands and feet. Layering up shirts and jackets also helps with that.

Beanie and scarf. There is one thing I love about the cold season: Hiding my face behind a fluffy and warm scarf. I pull it up tightly over my nose so that the warm air I'm breathing out flow all around my cheeks and over my eyes - all the condensing water gets caught in your eyelashes but that's totally worth it. Even better is to have a beanie on your head as well so there is nothing more than your eyes exposed to the cold and your ears are protected by two layers of fabric.

So do you have your own ways to tackle the cold or do you prefer public transport as soon as it gets colder?


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Awesome Decks - Landyachtz Chinook

For today, I found a really nice downhill and freeride board: The Chinook. This is one of the examples that show how Landyachtz does not only guarantee great artworks but also awesome shapes.

With its 9-ply Canadian maple it has basically no flex unless you really try to bend it. In the overall length of 40" there are two wheelbase options: 31.25" and 32.25". The W-bowl concave locks your feet in at the right spot and makes it hard to slip off. The drop gives you the possibility to get your foot close to the wheels to gain some extra control over the +/-10° wedged trucks. Although this might seem a little drastic when you look at it, the Chinook is meant to be a less aggressive version of the Evo - still a monster - to match the more modern trucks.

I just love everything about the artwork: How the lion's head is symmetrical, how all of it consists of these striped triangles and this awesome glow of the eyes. Well, not everything - I would love to have another option to the main colors. Maybe a red or a darker blue would work out really well. But I guess there won't be any other color setting as the deck isn't in production anymore. If you love it for the shape and don't really care about the artwork, you can still buy the Landyachtz Evo for $140 deck only or $240 to get it equipped with Bear Grizzly 840 181mm trucks, Hawgs KM FSU 70mm 80A wheels and System ABEC 5 bearings.

Giving In To Blogging Stereotypes

I never liked these cliche bloggers that post nothing else than top lists, awards and link ups. But actually - now that I blog myself - I understand how good it feels to have a scheme to work by and build your content around. Also readers as well as authors have a benefit from them:

Top lists: As a reader it is super comfortable to go through a list of eight or ten facts or tips and just leave out the ones that don't catch your interest within the first  two or three words. At the same time you can write it in a very easy way as you can split your research and writing into little texts. Perfect to take one item at a time whenever you find five or ten minutes to write on it.

Awards: If you want to find new blogs to read, just search through your favorite blog and see if he or she ever did one of the blogging awards. Usually there are ten bloggers nominated and also you can go by the blog that nominated the one that you are reading. Obviously, as a blogger you get some extra visitors from your nomination and also you have a guide to write your post by.

Link ups: Another community based kind of post that lives from and for creating a community and getting support from other people. When writing link ups you pretty much just have to build a platform for you readers -  maybe a topic to discuss about or one theme everybody can share their ideas about.

What are your favorite kinds of posts to write and read?

One Day In Hamburg - Essentials

Water, the most important thing to humans. With six times as many bridges as in Venice or double the bridges of Amsterdam water is also a pretty big thing to Hamburg. These are some shots of the Alster and the Elbe, the biggest and most important water surfaces in Hamburg.

Awesome Decks - Bustin Sportster Pro

Today I want to show you one of the awesome longboard decks I found on Pinterest. When choosing a deck for your new board you can't focus only on the stats,  because no matter how good the board is - it still has to look nice.

So, this here is a nice 37,5" deck by Bustin: The Sportster Pro. With it's typical drop-through / wheel cutout design it is pretty much an all rounder for freeride, cruising and downhill. With the Thermo Carbon and maple hybrid Bustin tried to reach the right stiffness and elasticity balance that they all want. Every brand does it pretty much the same way - but they call it different every time.


But take a look at this gorgeous texture in grey - it still sounds awful. I can't decide whether it looks more like really luxury wood or like brushed metal. However, I love this shade. You shouldn't look too close at the lion though - to me the face looks a little too abstract. All the fur looks fine, especially the "majestic" chin, I think. But there is one thing that really annoys me: Why did they try to give the drawing a graffiti look at the bottom? The rest of the deck is all clean and noble except those eight stripes dripping down there. Still, there are other graphics available at the Bustin store for $179, if you like the shape.


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Structure in Your Work

Whether you're in school, at university or in your job - no success without structure in your work. Managing your schedule and your documents is essential for keeping up with everything. These are my top tips for when your system is at its limits.

Change your system. I tend to create rather complicated and strict schemes for my work. But they aren't perfect, never. So whenever I get tired of one scheme I rip it into peaces and build a new one from scratch. This is a great motivation to keep everything organized.

Clean up. This seems to be a bit odd but it helps. You wouldn't believe how much junk you collect over the time - unnecessary stuff in your flat and loads of paper you don't even need anymore. As soon as you get rid of all the old documents you have to focus on less and you don't get distracted from the things that are currently important.

Get digital. Over the last two years of school I got together with some of the geeks and built a group on Google Drive so that we could use more than our own thoughts. Also your mobile is much easier to carry around than hundreds of documents and easier to organize. Worksheets and forms can be scanned and added to your library and also you don't have to share everything if you don't want to.


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Visual Vibes - He Nailed It

Do you remember Ben Brown from three months ago? Not that it was the only time I mentioned him, but it was the last time that he released one of his Visual Vibes videos. So guess what happened this week: Buffer Festival in Toronto, Canada. A festival bringing content creators from YouTube to theaters all over Toronto. Many more or less famous YouTubers showed their latest creations and milestones and gave a little background information to each of the videos. Also pretty much everyone had a meetup after the screening where as many of the fans as possible got the opportunity to take pictures and get their questions answered.



So, this is Ben's latest masterpiece: The Canada Visual Vibes. Shot on his sponsored trip through Canada two months ago he captured the amazing wildlife and breathtaking views of mountains and ice-cold blue-water lakes that are spread all over the country. The editing took it's time (also because of the Seven Swims where he produced seven awesome videos for Lewis Pugh) but it turned out wonderful. I don't know what it is like if you don't know about the adventures he had in Canada, because for me it is also a awesome recap of all the things he did with Steve Booker and all the other people on the trip.

So whether you want to see what Canada might be holding for you or just like awesome film making you should definitely take a look at this video and subscribe to Ben for daily vlogs and travelling Visual Vibes.


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Now On Pinterest

Great news! Board Vibes is now on Pinterest, a awesome way to collect all kinds of awesome ideas, inspiration and products you love on a several virtual pin boards. For the beginning I created three collections for you:

 -- Board Ideas.  A collection of  mostly DIY ideas all about your longboard. Wall mounts, cookies, shelves. But this is still the smallest pin board.

-- Awesome Decks. While going through all kinds of longboards, I found some really awesome decks I want to show you. Mostly these are Landyachtz and Arbor boards with some pretty awesome photo paints.

-- Board Vibes. Well, that's what it's all about, right? Although this is partly a collection of hot girls on boards - or girls that are hot because they're on boards - I tried to capture this thing I just call Board Vibes as good as possible. But it is a fact that on something like Pinterest girls are more popular than cool guys, isn't it?

Visit Board Vibes's profile on Pinterest.

I added the "Pin It" button to the blog so you can pin the Board Vibes posts and pictures to your profile. Just hover your mouse over the picture you want to pin and the button will appear in the top left corner.

Just come back there every now and then to see what's new out there. You can also leave your ideas, pins and discoveries for me and maybe I'll add them to the boards.


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Alien Post - Snapseed

If you are on Instagram you know how hard it is to get a badly shot picture right so you won't embarrass yourself in front of you followers. The Android and iOS app Snapseed is a super easy and free way to edit your shots for Instagram or any other pictures taken with your DSLR and in-phone camera. You have more possibilities than with the in-app Instagram editor and also the modifiers are better, both usability and performance wise.



You can decide how far you want to go: from basics like brightness and saturation or getting the framing right to rather arty features like center focus and HDR scape. However, it is super intuitive and every time you try out a new modifier you get an overlay with all important information for controlling it.

You don't always have to bring big changes to the colors, sometimes you might want to make it look like it wasn't even edited at all. But some pictures just scream for a make over.

Or maybe the are some spots in the pic that are too dark. Just use the selective adjust to boost these spots and dark alleys become fun and colorful.

So if you want to edit your shots on the go or just don't want to spend money on Photoshop or an professional app, this is perfect for you. Sometimes I even sit there for one hour or more to get the picture to where I think it's finished. You don't even have to know what you want, just tweak it 'till you like it and spread it out to the internet.


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Getting Inspired By Strangers

People are inspirational. How they dress, how they talk and what they do might give you a hint at an awesome idea at any time. So what is the perfect plan if you want to create new content and get work done? Getting out of your flat.

Doesn't matter if you're just heading out into the nature or getting down at a awesome place with an awesome view and awesome vibes getting your head heated up by ideas en masse. Or check in to a cozy coffee shop, get yourself a nice drink of your choice and get out your MacBook - or any other device that you work on.

What I want to say is that you need to get comfortable in your temporary workplace to get creative. This in combination with some nice people to watch are a super boost to your workflow.


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Struggling with your motivation

Especially as the days grow shorter, you wake up in the dark and it's dark again as you come back home you might easily slip into a feeling that makes your work, life and all the things you like seem not to be worth the effort. My experience is that you will definitely loose at least one day in this hole until you can do anything against it. This one day you should just spend on Netflix or YouTube because that's the only stuff that you'll get done.

So the next day you should just start off with a good run and a nice glass of milk, smoothie or milk. If you get the morning right, everything that follows will stand in a better light. So things you could perfectly do are:

• Searching for new places to get your work and other tasks done
• Putting the structures of your workflow, online space and data management to a test
• Cleaning up your workplace, desktop and phone
• Searching for inspiration online and in real life

How do you tackle a lack of motivation?

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One Day in Hamburg - Where to go when you're around

Have you ever been to Hamburg? Well, there are places that are definitely worth a visit. So in this series - I will show you some places to stop by on your short trip or even when you're living here. These spots will be awesome places for photography, videography and spending quality time in the best ways possible. They will vary from urban over lifestyle to nature have everything you need for one day in Hamburg. Each post will be part of a day in Hamburg, concluding to the whole day in three or four posts.

So as any of the posts that introduce new stuff this is rather boring and short. But come back on Wednesday to read a bit more on the changes that come to the blog at this time of the year. Until then, repect your spots and keep exploring.

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Changes are chances

"Damn, you've changed" is mostly used in a accusing way. But why are so many people afraid of changes? A change is always a way to improve yourself, even if they might seem bad at first. You can still improve by dealing with it in a way that builds up on your general management skills and experience. So if you get yourself so far that you don't bother about a change that was bad at first, that's an improvement, isn't it?

So changes are chances to improve yourself. But what if it simply doesn't work out for you? Then maybe this change got you out of a hole in which you were stuck and that stopped you from deesperately improving the situation itself. So do you now have an idea of what would be perfect and even better than before? This is your chance improve the thing within the process of changing.

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Hamburg Longboard Spots - Hamburg HafenCity

So this week, I went for a tour through the youngest district of Hamburg: the HafenCity. So pretty much the HarbourCity, doesn't sound that nice, does it? While being the youngest district it is also the most discussed one. Billions of Euros wasted for building the Elbphilharmonie from 2007 probably until 2017. The controversy on the modern architecture destroying the flair of the district.

Within a hundred meters there is a change from the left picture - the old look of the district - to the right one with the new buildings. Each of the styles is beautiful in its own way but it wasn't the best idea to put them right besides each other.

                                                                         


The HafenCity is on the top list of Hamburg's most expensive districts. With a wide offer of high class shops and designer stores there come the matching apartments. For example the penthouse of the Marco Polo Tower - as seen on the picture below - right at the riverside with an awesome view over the whole harbor and the city. At least that's what I guess as I've never had the opportunity to get up there. Also it is located right next to the Unilever headquarters and the Cruise Center where many cruise ships start their journey.

Still I can't decide what I like better - old or new architecture. Let me know about your opinion on this controversy. And as always: Protect your spots and keep exploring.

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Blogs To Read - Jennypurr

© Jen Carrington

May I introduce: Jen Carrington. With her blog Jennypurr, that was founded in March 2013, she is currently reaching more than 10,000 readers every month. When she isn't working on her daily post for Jennypurr she has plenty of writing to do outside the blog as she works as a freelance writer and also as an editor for A Little Opulent, an online lifestyle magazine. After graduating from Lancaster University last summer she figured out that she would concentrate on online content 

creation.

She divides her posts into four categories: Life, blogging, freelancing and beauty. Sometimes these categories can't be kept apart - that's what happens when you write what you think and want to instead of sticking to the rules - but she doesn't struggle to keep the blog's structure upright.

Still, Jen does not work only with passion but also with professionalism. She actually keeps the business woman and the girl in her early twenties in perfect balance. On the one hand her posts are advice on everyday life but never without at least a chunk of help on workflow and evolving yourself and your writing.

Her most important message - in my words - is still: Don't do it the best way possible, do it your way. If you want to learn more about what she means by that, need advice on freelancing and blogging and still want to get updated on the best in beauty, just stop by at http://www.jennypurr.co.uk/ or visit her on Bloglovin.

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