Balaram Stack’s New York moves really fast. I actually found myself in a full sprint at one point. The visit to the city was a string of finishing what’s in front of you to hurry along to the next place, where whatever is in front of you will be re-filled and your eyes will have a whole new scene to digest.
We came last minute, on the Red Eye and arrived with said eyes, rose red. Balaram woke a little hung and spent his first morning at a Turkish Bath, nursing his Friday night in a cold plunge. He’s only recently returned to the city where he now has an apartment in the Lower East Side. He’s been in Hawaii for months, packing in time at Pipe and making a healthy run at the Volcom Pipe Pro. He then came home and left and chased tubes in Puerto Rico, then went snowboarding with a swimsuit model in Aspen and then went to Houston to celebrate with that swimsuit model for her appearance in the world’s most famous swimsuit issue.
Now he’s here, with us, handing us Budweisers before taking us on an adventure for 36 hours that I’ll either never forget or never remember.
There was a hockey game at Madison Square Garden. Penn Station runs for the coast. Pizza with mushrooms. Bud Lights on the train. A Jesse Owens sprint to make a train. We ran the jewels at Run the Jewels, literally bringing Killer Mike Balaram’s signature Volcom x New Era NYC hat. There were Stellas. And too many Jameson’s. A club. A social club. No sleep and an attempt to surf. It was Balaram’s New York, a New York we never knew but will never forget. Stay tuned, all new “4 Cities” With Balaram is coming soon. Very soon. No time to waste.—Travis
Frame Grabs from an all-new “4 Cities” with Balaram Stack in New York City: