Ranger Movie

Unlike my brother and myself who have had almost everything we have ever owned given to us, our old man didn't have much as a kid--if he wanted something he had to work for it. He's worked all kinds of crazy jobs in his life and has many stories about doing weird stuff like holding up targets in a shooting range, or working on farms chasing chickens, or laying bricks in Philly town. And so when it came time for my Dad to get his first ride, an old Austin Healy Roadster, he had to basically teach himself how to build the thing from scratch. Well he got that thing runnin and believe me he's got all kinds of stories about that car and how he used to jump the thing down hills, and race it all over town, and most importantly work on it. Well it didn't stop there.

Pretty much my whole life I've seen and helped my Dad work on all sorts of automobiles from old tear drop vans, to a nice Porsche 911, to countless Saab's, to all kinds of motorcycles, street and dirt bikes alike. Most of the time as we would work on these cars I would just hold the flashlight, or hand over a screwdriver, or wrench, or at times, a hammer, but eventually as I got older I learned how to do some of this stuff myself. I can remember the first job I actually helped on was when we replaced the clutch in our old red chevy blazer, how my Dad let me unbolt the thing and how when, covered in grease and cursing from under the jacked up truck because we couldn't figure out how to twist and turn the transmission the right way to get it out, my Dad actually asked me for my opinion and wether it helped or not, it was cool to bend my mind towards a puzzle he was working on. I really think these experiences have helped me a lot in life as I always feel like I can solve a problem, and if I can't I at least know how to string together a proper row of curse words!

Anyway I've seen my Dad do some crazy jobs on cars, from simple little oil changes, to full on engine replacements. I remember one time a piece of plastic from inside the engine of one of our little red saabs broke off and got lodged in a port that pumped oil through a very important section of the engine and the thing seized up on me on stone harbor boulevard--the front tires just stopped still at 55 mph and I screeched sideways across the road almost spinning out into the marsh. I remember we got the thing towed home and my dad pulled the engine apart, picked out all the tiny metal flakes and dust and sand blasted the thing, put some extra thick motor oil in and somehow got it running again. Another time I remember when my sister ran a car out of oil and when it seized he just straight dropped a new engine in the damn thing with a pulley system he rigged from a branch in an old oak tree in the yard.

Nowadays as Adam and I have gotten older, out of both respect and gratitude to our Father we try to do as much maintenance as we can on our vehicles and we're getting pretty good. Adam, I must admit is perhaps a bit better than I with a couple of alternator jobs, belt replacements, water pump replacements, and a radiator replacement just a few months ago on the truck we're sharing now out here in Hawaii, but I also always try to do what I can, changing oil when it needs be, changing batteries, brakes, exhaust systems, plugging tires, replacing belts, and just generally trouble shooting whatever comes my way. I've come to love this stuff, workin on a car, drinking some beer, and talking some shit with my brother or dad or whoever I can drag into the job.

So anyway, Adam and I have had to do quite a bit of work on our little Ford Ranger this winter and above is a little taste of how it usually goes down. Here's to the next job, and to our old man for teaching us how to enjoy working on cars wether we fix em or not.

In Sea TV !!!!

INSEA.tv

Shoots! Dakine new In-Sea.tv episode "Salt Free," is up, Check em by clicking the link above, or in the side bar to da right. Shoots!

I gotta say Ryan's a pretty funny guy, as you can see from the always hilarious out-takes at the end of each episode, but he's also a really good guy, really dedicated to his passion, which I can't really put my finger on because he's into so many different things, I guess you could say basically his passion is just simply, life in general. The guy loves life, which makes him an awesome person to be around, and always inspired by. Shoots.