The Wind Is Off – The Grammys Are On
Feb 10 2011
Well, the wind is looking to be off shore until Monday (can’t fly), so we hit up the Birch Aquarium yesterday.
Today was an interesting day…. Spike suggested me to Arcade Fire to gather up a posse and ride around them as they play at the Grammys. It’s a weird life….
So, I called the Lord Voelker, Mike Escamilla aka Rooftop and Simon Tabron to provide some chaos with me. Today, we met the band and did a run through.
The first run through, I ghost rode my bike off-stage and it almost hit a camera guy and they freaked out. I don’t blame them. Sometimes when you do dumb things there’s no escaping the fact that it was dumb. I apologize for my dumb-atude. I almost got kicked out before we even figured out what we were going to do….
The Grammy peeps stopped hating on me and let me carry on. We went through the song 3 or 4 times and they rocked my lame ass! Dude, I wish I had a ramp to throw down on! They make some serious energy come out of their instruments.
The day went well. We ad-libbed and things came together nicely. I’m wearing the helmet cam. The band is real and cool – makes me want to run into something at high speed.
I’m going to auction the bikes we are riding at the Grammys for Mike Vincent! I’ll hit the band up to sign them, and we will tag them too, so if you want something rad and to give to the good look for it on eBay soon!
Gianna came with me and sat next to Ozzy! He wouldn’t stop staring at her! heh heh..
Tomorrow, I’m getting my family up at 5am to meet Rooftop at the Perris dropzone. We are going to take a hot air balloon up to around 8 thousand feet and Roof and I are gonna jump out of it!
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAaFEfufgsE&feature=player_embedded’]Wahooo!
Check back tomorrow and see you at the Grammys on Sunday!
By the way, it’s 73 degrees right now and -5 in Oklahoma! Sorry suckas!
-Mat
La Jolla Family Vacation, Feb. 9, 2011
Okay, it looks like I’m in real time cyber mode! Lets see if this works…
What’s happening right now is my family and I decided to cash in my airline miles and make a trip to La Jolla, CA, to escape the arctic blast back home. We arrived last night and just got photos of what the weather looks like back home… Whew, just in time.
This is my attraction to La Jolla: paragliding Torrey Pines Gliderport.
Here’s a pic of the last session I had flying here.
Right now, I’m staring at the cliff hoping the wind cooperates and I can fly some today. Gianna, Jet and Jaci are all down for a tandem ride, too. We already scoped the launch site out and there is hope for the wind to align this afternoon. Fingers crossed.
New Hoffman Action Figure & Bike
New action figure of Mat Hoffman.
An Aggro Circus Christmas, Huahine, Wayne Coyne’s birthday, etc.
For Christmas, I built in the Aggro Circus show with team at Universal Studios then broke out to Huahine in the French Polynesian Islands with my family.
Huahine was amazing! It was like living inside an aquarium!
I brought all my paragliding and skydive equipment with me, just in case. I couldn’t find anyone that would let me jump out of their plane, but I found a cliff and I hiked up it, through the tundra, and launched my paraglider and flew around.
The mountain made me earn the fun, but it was worth it. My first hike I didn’t know there was a trail, I was by myself and, at one point, I ran into a bunch of bees and they attacked me! As I was panicking, I rolled down the mountain with my gear, over their nest. I was getting stung like crazy. I couldn’t get away from them… then I thought of Dave England’s advice and stopped panicking and they stopped stinging me! hahaha. Jackass 3D came to be very educational for me! awesome… Thanks to my ridiculous friends!!
The local kids started hanging with me and would help me launch. They were all lil tropical gangsters! I made a bond with them by flying into their soccer field and landing. They were cool. Here’s another short flight. When I landed, all my lil friends come to greet me. They loved cheetos…
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj_W2d1658I’]
Here’s a flight I got about 8 or 9 min of soar time.
Here are some rad sights. These are dolphins teaching their baby to do tricks! Here are the sacred fresh water eels of Huahine. You can hangout and feed em.
On the trip, I read the Magnificent Failure. This book is about the life of Nick Piantanida. This dude is my hero! He’s the originator of the f’it flag! I love this guy…. He took a hot air balloon up to the stratosphere DIY in 1966!!! I dream to do this some day!! I got this book from Keith Treanor’s dad, Harry Loney. Thanks Harry.
When we got home, I was greeted by a present I’m in complete awe of. Ben Harper sent me one of his signature guitars with a message that made my life.
My birthday was January 9th and I chose to do nothing! Except I took a flight with my paramotor from my house over to my new house I’ve been renovation for the last year. This house project has completely consumed me, but it’s gonna be rad when we finish… I built a launching pad off the roof for my flying machines! A lot of new playgrounds are in construction mode!
On January 13th I went to see Hedwig and the Angry Inch. More here.
Then went to Wayne Coyne’s surprise birthday party.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9xHb3aIht0′]Now I’m at the Winter X Games typing away…
Well, that brings us up to now. I hope you enjoy the new site and I’ll keep it up to date with the happenings in my world.