Got to hang out with the whole Ducati fam on Friday.
They were debuting a bike - the new 1199 Panigale - for the first time in North America so they threw a little party at Drai's at the W to help celebrate the occasion. We went out there along with The ID Agency to shoot some video of course.
Matt and I drove up to Hollywood through some killer traffic on Friday afternoon. Ryan is actually chilling in Belize right now on his honeymoon but my boy Petra was able to come out and shoot with us.
Right off the bat, in addition to Arrick and the whole Ducati North America crew that was there, John from ID was there shooting stills so that was cool.
Greg Tracy from Pikes Peak and our boy Carlin Dunne showed up. Mark Cernicky from Cycle World was actually there as well. Really good to see and catch up with everyone.
It's such a trip that we're even remotely connected to this motorcycle universe in the first place. Matt and I aren't really the most typical motorcycle type of guys, per se, but honestly all the riders and crews and Ducati team have been super chill to work and hang out with and really down to earth.
Our boy DJ Hapa was in the building, doing his thing. By the time I saw this guy it really started to feel like the whole crew was there. Anyway, Hapa killed it - he actually developed a specific sound and feel for his set inspired by the new bike.
In my next life I'm going to be a DJ. I'll tour around the world pretty much nonstop. I'll spin mostly hip hop but also throw in some Craig David and stuff like that for good measure. And a little dash of Deadmau5 type stuff - just to keep the crowd involved. It's going to be pretty epic, trust me. Anyway...
Ducati Fashion Show prior to the bike unveiling.
Even MotoGP rider Nicky Hayden, who we shot earlier this year up at Laguna Seca, was on hand. This guy's actually my favorite GP rider - he's from Kentucky and he reminds me of white Jason Williams from the NBA. Plus he threw our Laguna Seca pre-race vid on his Facebook page which helped it get like 30K views which was cool.
Anyway, as I'm sitting back here at home with a bunch of Ducati videos to edit and deadlines approaching, I'm really just grateful for the opportunities that Victor from ID Agency and Arrick from Ducati have extended to us. They've brought us in on some amazing projects all over the country, laced us with a ton of gear and really just treated our whole team like their own which has been incredible.
When I buy my first bike, it'll be a Ducati - no doubt. Although Matt doesn't seem to trust me on a motorcycle yet, so I'm going to just stick with the video and computer stuff for now. But who knows, Nicky may hit me up one day out of the blue and we'll start a Biker Gang together - you never really know.
Bam. The 1199 Panigale, seen for the first time in the states. Amazing bike. People at the event were going nuts over it. $23K just in case you were wondering.
Recap video of the event coming sooner than you think...
