Mold and Jeeps?

It seems every day in Hawaii I am reminded that I live on a tropical island in the middle of the pacific. Living in Hawaii I pretty much only wear flip flops (or sneakers when I work out). I went to pack my sweaters and my boots getting ready for my trip to the main land and found my shoes and sweaters covered in mold. It appears that my unworn clothes and shoes became covered in mold since I haven't worn them. One of the many interesting encounters I have had living in Hawaii.

Another interesting encounter this week was seeing the post man. Because the roads are so third world here the post man has to drive a Jeep. I took a picture because I couldn't believe it.
(Top Picture: Once boot clean and one boot covered in Mold from my closet, Bottom Picture: Our Post Man's Jeep)

My Car Hit

Could you tell where I was in the show last night? I was Kate's stunt double when her and the marshall where in the car and they swerved to miss the horse and ran into the telephone pole. I then kicked the marshall (Mike Trisler was his stunt double) out of the car and drove away. It was a little scary and exciting sitting in a car knowing we were going to crash into a telephone pole on purpose.

Trisler was driving when we hit the pole and I had to push the button to make the air bags go off. There was no movie magic we really hit the pole and actually almost knocked it over.

I had my teddy bear in the car with me. Here is a picture of me with Snuggles. I have started a tradition, he will always be in the car with me when I do car stunts. I have had Snuggles since I was about 2.

Jon was shooting for the extended DVD that night (you can see the camera in his hands in the picture). The guy who usually does it was out of town so they asked Jon to shoot that night. He did a great job.
(Pictures from top to bottom: Me in wardrobe outside the honey wagons; Jon, Mike Trisler (the marshall's stunt double), Me, Ashley (Trisler's 8 month pregnant wife), my Dad; Me with Snuggles)

Can you ever be board in Hawaii?

Every morning this week I woke up and said "What should we do today". If you enjoy being outside there is so much to do in Hawaii that you could never be board. Today we went snorkeling at Two Step. This is a great place to snorkel because of the lava formations. The highlight of the day was swimming with the wise owl of the ocean, a large sea turtle. When I was swimming with him it felt so majestic. The only thing missing was Enya playing in the back ground. It was like a scene right out of the movies.

I have had fun this week in Kona. We have stayed busy enjoying all Hawaii has to offer.

Boogie Boarding and Body Surfing

I am enjoying some free time this week. We have spent the last three days at the beach playing in the crystal clear water. It is so much fun but exhausting after a while. I got a bit sun burned even with sun screen on. We bought some boogie boards and are having a ball with them (the locals call it a body board). My brown hair is starting to fade out to a redish color from being in the sun and I just hate it. I guess there is not much to do now. I will dye it brown again once I am ready to leave Hawaii for the holidays.

I was in the store today and they were playing Christmas music as I was shopping for tank tops and bathing suits. It just felt super weird to have Christmas music on when it is 80 degrees out side. I love Christmas so much but it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it is hot outside and my legs hurt from my sun burn.

FYI I am not in this weeks LOST but I am in next weeks, so stay tuned. Cheers!

Did you see me?

I was in the show in last night, could you tell when it was me? I was in 5 difference scenes: in the opening water scene I was in the water swimming to shore, when the Others took the kids and Ana Lucia chased to get the kids, I was the one who fought with the other (I got closed lined then we fought on the ground), I kicked Nathan in the face, I fought with Goodwin then fell down the hill, and last but not least my now famous fall in the tiger pit that was also seen in episode 3.

The hardest scene for me to shoot for this episode was the fall down the hill. I stood at the top of the hill and stared down at the torn bushes and realized I don't have sleeves on my wardrobe, I realized how steep the hill looked from the top and Iknew that I was born to do stunts. I couldn't wait for the chance to prove myself. They said action and I voluntarily threw myself down the hill. It was the best feeling when I hit the bottom and I know Tris (the other stunt guy) and I nailed it. Then I hear those all to famous words: "Great job, lets do it again." I think that was the hardest part. Having to do it again knowing what I was in for. I was picking thorns out of my arms for days and I still have a small scare on my arm from the fall. All the while I was so happy to have thorns in my arms and bruises on my body because I get to play for a living. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love my job. (By the way, they used the first take in the show tonight. That's show biz!)

Jon was also in the first scene of the show and had a great close up in the opening scene and he was in the scene when they were chasing the chicken (if he ever posted to his blog I am sure he would tell you all about how it).

I got a few emails from people who noticed me on some of the shots. Nice work. Here are some pictures of Jon and I doing the stunts from the show.

My Dressing Room

Stunt people get their own dressing rooms like actors. Here is my dressing room when I was doubling Kate. I am having such a fun time doing stunts. It kinda sucks because I can't talk about what we are working on, but trust me it is good stuff. I can say that this week's episode will have me in 4 scenes, so you better all watch. I will post pictures on Thursday from the episode.

I don't work for a few weeks. It is hard because I work a few days on one episode then don't work for a while. The stunt business is great but unpredictable. We are planning a trip out to LA to network and to work on our stunt skills like working on air rams. It should be fun. I will let you know when exactly we are flying out to LA. It looks like it will be the first part of December. Stay tuned to find out...

Pictures

It is always interesting to work on a scene and then see how they edit the scene together. In case you didn't see me on the show I was on the side of the mountain when they were passing Sawyer in the stretcher. It was a fun scene to work on that took two days of work, one day of rehearsal and one day of filming which turned out to be about 10 seconds on show.

Jon and our friend Mike Trisler were the riggers for the shot, meaning they put us all in harnesses and tied us up safely to the trees incase we fell. They did a great job. Here are a few pictures from the two days of work. (Top Picture: Me in custom working on the shot, Middle Picture: Me and Mike Trisler testing the length of my rope, Next Picture: Jon, Mike Trisler and Rand working on the rigging day, Bottom Picture: Jon and Mike Rigging)

New LOST Tonight

I know you have all been anxiously awaiting the new episode of LOST tonight (it has been reruns the last two weeks). It is going to be a good one. I am in tonight's episode doubling Ana Lucia. If you don't see me in the show tonight I will let you know tomorrow what I was doing and post some pictures from the stunt.

I work again on Thursday but then could be off until after Thanksgiving. It is weird to only work a few days a month, however, it seems like I am working a lot more than that learning, learning, learning. Weather it be training and learning how to do new skills or hanging out on set watching how they do everything. I stay busy, but thankfully not as busy as when I worked in corporate America.

My Head Shots

Here are a few of the best head shoots. I like the one where I am wearing red the best.

Pictures!

Here are some pictures taken in the past few weeks. If you click on the picture you can see the image larger. (Upper Left: Jon going through make up, Middle Left: Me, Jon, Eve, and Andrea, Bottom Left: Jon and Georgia the dog on Halloween, Upper Right: Me at Laniki Beach, Middle Right: Me, Arron and Kelley riding dirt bikes, Bottom Right: Jon riding a dirt bike)

Head Shots and work

The guy who is hired by ABC to take the promotional pictures for Lost took my head shoots this morning...for free. Isn't God great! He used it as a training session for a friends son. We saw a few of the shots on his digital camera and they looked great. I will get the pictures on Thursday and I will post a few of my favorites.

I work on Thursday for Eve (Kate). I am never quite sure what I can say and what I can't say about what I am doing for stunts. I think I will hold off talking about this stunt because a closed mouth holds no foot, meaning I don't want to say something I shouldn't and lose my job.

This picture was taken on Saturday. We spent all day riding dirt bikes right on the beach. It was just beautiful. This was taken at the end of the day so we look a little tired.

Pumpkin Lattes

Sometimes living in Hawaii I feel like I am living in another country. When I flew into Hololulu for work this week, I passed a Starbucks at the air port that was advertising pumpkin lattes. Let me tell you how much I LOVE pumpkin lattes. We didn't have time to stop so I figured I would just stop by one of the many stores in the city.

The first store we went to didn't have pumpkin lattes, neither did the third, forth or fifth store. I was noticing a patter so I asked the fifth store about it. Come to find out all the Starbucks here are franchise stores, except the stores in the air ports and at Barnes and Nobel.

My next mission was to find a Barnes and Nobel. At this point it was do or die. We were on a mission to find the drink. I began calling around to find the nearest B and N to see if they indeed had the pumpkin lattes. After many calls I finally found one store that had my pumpkin late, so we jumped in the car to get our lattes.

This makes me scared. Will Starbucks here have the ginger bread lattes for the winter time or will it be another hunt to get my favorite seasonal drink? I bring this up because these little things make me remember that I am not on the main land any more, but then I step outside in the 80 degree weather and say I can sacrifice my pumpkin lattes for the palm trees, at least for now.

Staying Busy

Even though I have not been "working" this week I have been staying busy riding motorcycles and doing car stuff, getting ready for upcoming stunts. I just love my job.

Did you know you can now download Lost episodes on to your IPOD? It is true. For $2 you can purchase season two episodes and download the episode on to your IPOD and take it with you. The picture quality is just awesome. Technology is amazing. (You can also do this for Desperate Housewives!)

Hawaiian Culture

Yesterday I got my Hawaiian driver's licenses. I was so nervous because I had to take the written test again and it had been a while since I had to take the written test. I think the hardest part was filling out the information for my license. For the first time I had say "brunette" not "blonde" on my description. It was very sad. I still miss my blonde hair :(

Today I went to a traditional Hawaiian funeral. I really felt like I was in another country. No one wore black, everyone wore aloha shirts (brightly colored flowered shirts) and it was outside under a tent. I didn't eat before I went because I know how much the Hawaiian's like their food. We sat next to the food so the whole time I was smelling the food just starving. I couldn't wait until we could eat. Once it was time to eat and they unveiled the food I thought I was going to cry. I didn't recognize any of it except the white rice. There was some purple stuff that looked like purple slime, trite stew (for those of you like me who don't know what trite is, it is intestines, ummm... intestine stew), poke (marinated raw fish), sushi (more raw fish), whole deep fried fish, whole fried tiny crabs that looked like fried spiders and on and on. Seriously, I was so hungry but yet I couldn't bring my self to eat it. So what did I do, I piged out on the desserts, all of which I recognized.

After I made my self sick on sugar, I sat and listened to luau style music. It was great. I kept thinking, tourists would pay big bucks to experience this real Hawaiian culture. The people were great and immediately made you feel like family. It was great fun but I now know that I should eat before I go to another traditional Hawaiian event.

R & R

We flew back to Kona (the big island) last night because we don't work for the rest of the week. We are home for a much needed rest. My joints are hurting a little and my scraps and bruises need to heal.

Today we spent most of the day doing paper work that we have been neglecting for the past month. It is nice to have a few days off so we can catch up. It is much more fun doing stunts but I guess we need to do the other boring stuff too.

I am in the next episode of Lost but it doesn't look like they are going to air that next week because they are showing reruns of the first couple of shows. I think the new one, episode 6, will be on in 3 weeks. This is good for us that they are re-running some of the shows because that means we get paid again 100% when they re-run the show that we are in with in a year. Yeah! So you will have to wait to see the new episodes but they are worth waiting for.

Answered Prayers

As I mentioned, I went surfing for my first time on Friday. It was great fun. I didn’t fall once. At the end of the wave I would just sit down on the board and paddle back out. I tell you what, I have a lot more respect for surfers now. My arms were so tired.

I was sitting on the porch this morning looking at Sunset beach, just thinking how blessed I am to be living in Hawaii working on a great show, doing stunts for the two leading ladies. Here is a picture of a rainbow I saw while on set. It is just beautiful. Everyday I thank God for answering my prayers. I had a simple prayer a year ago, I don’t care where I moved to I just wanted palm trees. He defiantly answered my prayer.

All Bloodied up

We have had such a busy week. It has been hard to find time to post to my blog. I am headed to work for some night shoots. Here are two pictures of Jon and I after we went through make up. It was fun to be all bloody.

Tomorrow Jon and I are not working and a stunt guy from California who was working on the show this week is going to teach me how to surf and help Jon become a better surfer. He has taught many celebrities how to surf (like Brittany Spears) so he knows his stuff. I will write more when I have some time. Until then, Cheers!

Beat Up

I had a long day of doing stunts, ie getting beat up, flung around, dirty, scrapped up and loving every minute of it. I had a bit of a scare today when I was doing a stunt and another guy rolled over my knee, praise God I am flexible other wise I would be hurt.

I work again tomorrow, Friday and next Monday. I am busy this episode. Doing stunts is fun but as I was being tossed around today I thought, "I wouldn't want to do this when I am 50" but for now, it rocks. I have some good pictures that I will post once this episode airs.

Lost last night

Sorry I didn't get a chance to write yesterday informing everyone that our first stunts aired last night on Lost. I don't think it looked as exciting on TV as they were in person but none the less it was fun to see ourselves falling through the air.

Jon was doubling Desmond when he tripped and fell down the hill when Jack was chasing him (at the very end of the show).And I was doubling Ana Lucia when she was thrown into the pit. We won't be on camera again until episode 6 (last night was episode 3). Thanks for those of you guys who watch the show. It is fun to have cheerleaders out there.

Jonny the surfer

I just couldn't resist putting up this picture. We were at Sunset beach watching the sunset and Jonny decided to "catch a few waves". Isn't he a cuttie!