Trubaca

S.K.A.T.E. Lag and Spice 1

Baca — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 20:03:22 +0000

So I’ve been lagging on getting this all up. It’s been busy, but fun type busy. The 4th was on point as fuck: B-Ball, bikes, BBQ, beach, babes, bros, etc… all in lovely Santa Barbara. Mister Mike Santarossa got married on Saturday to his sweet lady Jen, I don’t know them all that well but they’re bad to the bone. So here’s the next piece in our S.K.A.T.E. game: fakie flip. Yeah the tricks are easy but they’ll get harder plus this is nice motivation for me to get on the stick even if I’m tired or worn out. There will probably be another lag as Mike is honeymooning and we can’t disturb that yadda? Maybe I’ll try to get some random footage out here on the fly. Maybe I’ll even make myself do something?

Oh, and Spice 1 came into the coffee shop. If you don’t know who Spice 1 is well…shit. O.G. East Bay status. If you like Too $hort, RBL Posse, Andre Nickatina, and that kind of stuff you’ll be down. I used to bump this cats stuff in the mid 90′s like a mofo. One of our customers did sound for him at the Blue the night before and brought him in. So naturally I had to dork out and get a picture since he’s on living legend status. I felt (and looked) like a mega nerd but hey, sometimes you just gotta party.

Schneidy at the Courts

Baca — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 04:37:14 +0000

Went to Oakland to visit the Schneiders and we hopped over the bridge to get a lil’ skate in at the courts near Bernal Heights. When you’re old it’s super tight cause it only takes you like three years to warm up and if you slam once it’s basically over. It’s a super chill spot and the day was perfect so we just had at it. All in all I probably landed like two tricks but caught Adam with the GoPro on this line. Enjoy.

Gentlemen’s Kickflip S.K.A.T.E.

Baca — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 04:38:53 +0000

Installment two in our S.K.A.T.E. game. We’re gonna rotate picking the trick in this order: Me, Teezy, Mike, then Adam. So this is Teezys pick. Apparently he asked Mike what he should get it going with and Mike replied something to the effect of “You always start with a gentlemen’s kickflip.”

I think he’s right, you can’t go wrong. Let everyone get warmed up, save the hot shit for later, and keep the game going. So here you have it: the gentlemen’s kickflip. It was a good excuse for me to take the GoPro out out on a lil work break and play at the park for a bit.

S.K.A.T.E.

Baca — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 05:23:05 +0000

Since the long blog hiatus has been in effect I’m coming back with something new. Game of S.K.A.T.E.
For those who don’t know S.K.A.T.E. is like H.O.R.S.E. in basketball…you make a shot, I have to make the same one or I get a letter. Since we’re talking skateboarding it’s gonna be you do a trick, I do the same one or I get a letter. If you get S.K.A.T.E. you’re out. Simple. We had to bend some rules since we’re doing this over the interweb. Since we can’t verify that anyone’s doing this stuff first try there’s a time limit on returning the tricks. Once a trick is submitted you’ve got 48hrs to reply (it’s a long time but hey, we all have day jobs). Other than that the rules will be basically the Berrics rules. Flatground only, no feet on the ground no no complys, etc…

So here we have the contestants: myself, Todd from le French Press, Mike Santarossa from the S.B., and Adam Schneider of Oakland. Maybe after we get the hang of it we’ll have some other peeps “buy in” but for now it’s just the four of us. First trick is in. Nollie Fliz. Have fun and we’ll see you again in 48hrs.

Bachelor party

truby — Tue, 17 May 2011 17:18:53 +0000

just throwing this out there, but I am pretty sure I am not into top to bottom brewers. We have been using wood-neck brewers all week and have been getting great results. I have noticed myself using the Kone more at home too. This is a personal opinion, but I am much more confident in the consistency of my coffee through these brewers than any other pour over. Sooo…long story short. Get a wood-neck or a Kone. Also, more photos and what not from my bachelor trip. Oh, and I can’t wait to marry the love of my life. Good talk.

-JT

Since The Fun Bus Left Without You

Baca — Tue, 03 May 2011 04:42:39 +0000

I posted a tweet regarding the USBC technical score sheet and some scoring I’ve been seeing this year In regards to acceptable waste when dosing/grinding. I kept seeing wording like >1/2g, with scores like 5, 5.5, etc… According to some head judges I’ve talked to they’re ruling anything less than 1 gram with a 6. Some judges are ruling anything that a scale will register under a 6. I just didn’t know where that rule came from so if someone could show me that’d be sweet. I’m willing to be wrong. I’ve just never seen any wording in the Rules and Regs about this. All I’ve found is “In order to earn maximum points the waste should not exceed 1 gram of unused coffee per beverage category.” That plus writing something like >1/2 is so ambiguous and useless as it could mean 1gram or it could mean 4grams. Anyway: I didn’t compete so no I’m not complaining about my score sheet, this is not in regards to Truby’s score sheet, one point on the tech sheet isn’t changing anything, and as far as I’m concerned you can throw the tech sheet out the window if you have good sensory judges as it doesn’t give you any real feedback. But my point was:

If judges can take the liberty to interpret the score sheet in ways that are not in explicitly stated in the rules and regs doesn’t this pull the wool over the competitors eyes and keep them in the dark about what they should be preparing for? I mean the tech sheet’s not a big deal but what interpretations are creeping onto the sensory score sheets? Maybe even the sensory multipliers. Anywhoo, my experience as a judge has been minimal but I have experienced different head judges having different interpretations on certain rules on both the sensory and technical score sheet. Shouldn’t everything just be on paper plain as day?

Apologies to anyone who thought it was Truby complaining about his score sheet. For the record he’s perfectly fine with his score sheet and would never complain about something like that. Shame on you guys, you should know by now he’s way to awesome to do anything like that.

Does this make sense? Maybe not. The last thing I wanted to do was write but you made me $__$

I’m gonna go hydrate and go to bed. Good seeing you all this weekend.

-Christopher George Baca-

Über Butter

Baca — Tue, 03 May 2011 02:29:11 +0000

We ran into this gem in Houston while waiting to see Fast Five. Kaminsky took one look at it and uttered “the Über Butter.” It seems as though some of our technology is creeping into theaters across the U.S. Although this thing seems to be better at buttering popcorn than the Über is at water delivery. That popcorn was mega tasty…it’s kinda hard to compare the two. Über Butter. For the ultimate moviegoing experience.

Mark Rozell

Baca — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:22:06 +0000

Mark’s a tight bro from way back when. He manages the Naked Lounge in Chico Ca, where JT, Sean, C Barr, and R.O.D used to slang hot bean. He’s a stand up guy and is married to a sweet babe. What else do you want? Oh yeah he makes macchiatos that look like this son!

SWRBC

Baca — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:35:48 +0000

So I’ll save you the agony of re-hashing what you already know about the SWRBC (points, winners, etc…) and I’ll just have to give you the run down of my favorites. I might post some other random thoughts in the near future but for now here go the favs. In case you missed anything you can still watch it all here: SWRBC Archives
Favorite Cup of Brewed Coffee: Charles Babinski, Friday, Eva Solo through a sock of the “mystery coffee” while dialing in for the first round of the Brewers Cup. Turns out it was Intelli’s Cruz del Sur fully flared I wanted to cry.
Favorite Espresso: this is a tough one and it may be a two way tie…Truby switched roast dates during finals practice with 5 minutes to spare and the first shot out the grinder with zero dial in at all was hot fire. All the flavor clarity was there off all his previous shots but somehow this one was twice as thick. Yikes. Tied with Paul Halvorsen’s post performance Hibernator face ripper…I’m not sure what he wanted but it was citrus + mulling spices + sex panther. Shit was haaaaaard.
Favorite Performance: Joel Rhine from le French Press. He literally described his espresso as three clicking noises with his mouth. His enthusiasm reminds me of why I fell in love with coffee. He’s one that’s not in the top six that you definitely need to watch. Watch his performance here: Joel RhineFavorite Nice Guys: Charles and Tyler both let me borrow woodneck socks for the brewers cup. These guys kick ass. Tyler went so far as to grab a new one for me when I dropped one into a dump bucket of swill when I was trying to rinse one out in my prep time. Favorite Shoes: Yup those would be mine. Sorry kids.
Favorite Post Up: Row. Are you kidding me? This is Awesome. Marlboro’s, shades, crisp watch, headphones, throwin’ out two, and a mega lean in the California sun.

Rico Lopez

Baca — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 18:17:04 +0000

is a Barista at Echo Coffee in AZ. If you try to leave his shop without paying for your coffee he’ll send his bogarts to hunt you down. He also lazers your face like this son!

For those of you who aren’t sure what a bogart is let Pinky explain it to ya: