Back in October after I photographed my friend Morgan’s wedding in Stanford, CA, I took an Acroyoga Immersion in Oakland. It was an intense week of inversions, Thai massage, basing and flying that took my yoga practice to the next level.

Aaron Lind doing a scorpion handstand

My friend Aaron Lind came from New Orleans to take the immersion also. Aaron is a yoga teacher at Swan River Yoga which is where I practice Jivamukti and Anusara yoga while I am in the Big Easy, as well as the Swan River style. Aaron was the one who first introduced me to AcroYoga through a class he teaches called Symbiotic Yoga. It was fitting that I got to practice with him at the immersion. I also secured a place for him to stay while he was there, at my friend Brian’s apartment.

On friday night after the immersion was over we found ourselves up on the roof of Brian’s building. As was our usual routine by this point, we started practicing asana. I realized it was a great photo op and got my camera and started photographing Aaron. After a while we switched roles and he got some nice photos of me. The glowing light balls in the photos are my LED glow poi, which make for nice portable lighting…

If you would like to see photos of the AcroYoga immersion check out my flickr photo set. I am about to begin a yoga photo project here in New Orleans that I will reveal details about soon, so stay tuned!

Close-up of Monica’s skate and her evil ass…

I’m in New Orleans this week visiting my partner Monica who is a star player for the Big Easy RollerGirls (BERG). For anyone unfamiliar with roller derby, it is quite a rough sport and all of the players have satirical names that suggest violence or sexual promiscuity. Monica’s derby name is “Ibeatya Amber”, after a Louisiana-brewed beer called Abita Amber. Her teammates gave me a “derby boyfriend” name, “Ibeathim”.

We took a road trip down to Tallahassee, Florida for their match with Capital Punishment. Unfortunately BERG got their butts kicked, but they did it with style. There matches are always followed by an after-party, in this case at some kind of clam shack. The girls all got liquored up and performed some outstanding karaoke. There was also a leg wrestling match, in which the participants lay on their backs with heads next to the other ones feet, and interlock their adjacent legs. The object is to flip the other person. Monica was really great at this, only one woman could beat her, and she was about twice Monica’s size.

The next day we drove back, with a stop in Ft Walton to go swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. All in all it was quite a thrilling experience from start to finish. Ibeatya… my vegan derby dream girl!

Capital Punishment’s “La Voodoo” about to fall on BERG’s Deb-U-Taunt

Buck Wild giving the elbow

Monica and I at a Starbucks in Ft. Walton on the way home

Here is a slide show with all the photos…