This is my first or second feature. I put up some pics from Red Bull but it wasnt that in depth.
Im sitting here on the couch. Its a rainy, windy, somewhat ugly day outside. Ive been procrastinating on doing this because I thought taking the photos off my cell phone from NZ (new international phone lol-thanks Sky @2 degrees!) was going to be a pain. It was actually easy. Havent been drinking much coffee and it sounds nice to post up on the couch with some french press and make it happen. In NZ (N Zed) they call french press “plunger coffee” I like that more. Sounds more rude and dirty like coffee should be haha.
Warning. This is not a photography site. I take photos with my cell phone. They suck. Its a lifestyle/drifting website. If I was busy holding and learning how to use a camera there is a large change I would not be busy living and having fun and the point would be lost.
Warning. My literary style I would describe as surreal. Not in the sense that like omg its so beautiful its surreal! In the philosophic/stream of consciousness sense of the word. I have written many essays in school, I was a philosophy/lit major/grad student and Im tired of formulating the most proper essays with exact paragraph structures, thesis formulation, conclusions, it just comes out of my brain in a certain way and thats the most real way. Ill try to use period and capitals to at least denote different sentences from each other but to be honest grammar cant keep up with reality. Thats deep huh.
Im soooo over the traditional driver blogs. www.overit.com. Insert same generic nice comment about so and so driver here, plug this person there, recap the whole thing in the same generic manner. Its like everyone says the same things, everyone asks the same questions, and expects the same answers. Stop forcing it. Coverage for coverage or obligations sake sucks. I dont know how many times Ive been asked about “the fans in Atlanta”. Atlanta is sweet, the girls wear daisy dukes. Season is still early and energy is high. But how many times do you want to hear about coolers and pop up tents? We all get it. Lets do something different.
These features will likely end up sucking. I dont care, here is Hugo’s feature.
Hugo Maclean is a rad dude. I have known who he is for a while. Well, known about him, not really known who he-is. He was a dude from New Zealand who had a rad street looking 86 with an f20 or an f22. I dont really know which one it was. It doesnt really matter either to be honest. He later turbo charged it and applied some graphics to the car. It lost the full on “street” look, but people, its a race car. Its main purpose is to look sick while drifting. Cars that are 100% solid color dont look as exciting. Its about blowing minds, being flashy, daring, not being the ultimate street master. I think Hugo’s car still has a real clean street vibe to it despite the flashy graphics and I really like it. I like how his hood graphics are, and the solid brown base color. The wheels of course are sick and iconic old school wheels. To be honest, and corolla and an fc are probably my favorite drift cars. So 80s and sick.
Hugo has been rising the ranks in New Zealand. I cant really tell you his stats because I dont know them and dont care to look them up. Again its not really what its about. More about showing random cool photos-the content of the photos not the form that is- and showing a cool person/car/kiwi/sheeplover. He is not rated in the top 9 NZ drivers at the moment points wise but was still granted an invite to the Red Bull Drift Shifters event because Mad Mike (Event brainstormer/founder/guy along with Brendan from Red Bull NZ) felt he brought something to the table. He does, his car is super rad little flashy turd nugget with a three rotor in it. It sounds so sick and looks kinda hard to drive around a small technical course like the drift shifters one. He wants to switch the car to LHD so he can move the engine farther back as the exhaust manifold/steering column currently limit each other. He also wants to add some sort of aftermarket transmission, probably HKS like Mad Mike. He doesnt have a tire sponsor so he runs kinda wack tires which sucks but his car is super light so its still fast. He is sponsored by Grab-A-Tool which is an upcoming NZ company that is sorta like ebay but for tools specifically. He is also sponsored by Custom Ride Bodyworks Hoonigan Part Shop Max and Lucas Oil. Lindsay from Hoonigan/Pink Godzira who frequents New Zealand helped him out with the livery. Hugo loves hooning and the burn out. The garage burnout pic below was my first instagram photo to break 1k likes. I have also seen videos of him doing burn outs on the street, on trailers, more from garages, etc. He loves it. They are fun though I must admit. I really just learned how to do a solid brake stand in 2012. Its hard lol.
When I got the invite to NZ I wanted to stay down there for a while. Ive heard lots of awesome things about it and also hadnt really gone on any rad trips in 2012. I went to mexico twice for a couple days to see my mom and once for a day trip, couple domestic trips, but nothing like 2011. Needed to get out and do it. So I started reaching out to drifters I knew from the area and Hugo was super down to host me and show me around a bit. I was psyched but didnt really know what to expect. He didnt surf and Mad Mike and Toni (Mikes super hot/cool/smart wife-to-be) said he was down for off-roading and shit. I was like ok lets do it.
Ended up crashing with him after the event. He has one of those strong family bonds. He is only 20 (damn, Im old). Actually he just turned 21 like a week ago. But regardless, he is young and still lives at home. I dont really know how to phrase it, but when someone grows up in a good family that is relatively prosperous, probably spent good times with relatives, had a good crew growing up, you know, just a solid dude. I guess a lot of my friends that I grew up with are the same way and have the same moral vibe so I see that in him if that makes sense. Ill try to formulate this intuition into words later and edit this haha. Hugo works for his dad, Bret (I think?-either way, he was a rad dude, both of his parents are super rad and free spirits) who runs a container company Black and White. Hugo basically drives around, delivers, and picks up 20 foot shipping/storage containers. I HATE working with trailers. Ugh, it saps the energy out of me. He does it all day, kills it. He also has a cool and hot girlfriend Rachel who we hung out with a lot. She is slightly older than him, pimp! Funny story, she randomly started following me on instagram, and I didnt really know who she was. She posted a picture of herself one day in a bikini saying “bikini shopping,” she looked good, I commented “buy it.” I thought it was clever and flattering. Then Hugo shows up like easy mate thats my misses! haha. Anyways, we spent a lot of time together trying various mexican food of NZ, traveling the coast a bit, at the beach, off roading, at the farmers market (super rad), driving from point a to point b (everywhere is so far in NZ the roads are so convoluted and round-o-bout (they actually have a ton of actual round abouts in NZ, I love them-give way!) I feel due to the natural geography of lakes, bays, oceans, and very steep hills and often volcanoes). Yes, that was a parenthetical notation inside a parenthesis. Deal with it! They also have a dog named Vela-after Veladrome. Hugos family I found out is super into cycling. Hugo’s older sister once ripped a bicycle in half off the line lol, Hugo was a national stand out as well and his dad has finished in multiple Iron Man competitions. Thats 2.4 mile swim, 100something mile bike, then a fucking marathon. LOL. Hugos house is very rad architecturally as well. It is very modern looking with wood and concrete, very nice, with a large yard/earth space. He has sheep and some apple trees. It bums me out how long apples have usually been picked before you get to eat them. I wanted to literally bite into an apple while it was still connected to the tree! Sheep poop everywhere and get it stuck to their bottoms a lot. We chased them around in his vehicle. Its new, but designed to look like the older range rovers. Its pretty rad. I didnt know that and when we were off roading he was flooring it around and stuff and I was like man this 30 year old engine is gonna blow up dude easy.
Anyways I think that is all I have to say right now. Hopefully you all liked this insight into the exposition of my introduction to Hugo. Up on the list in the immediate future I have Joel/Adam from C’s garage, a little on the Whiddets (Mad Mike and Toni Cook), and would like to maybe do some SD dudes and some people from Australia when I head there. Here are some things to look at with sporadic captions that are relevant to this discourse.
I like how he did his hood wrap, his logo is cool with the rotary integrated into it too. NZ folk love the wankel
Clevedon farmers market. They got crepes. I made my own sandwhich from various vendors. felt good about it.
mexican cafe. i dont remember if we had an asian or hispanic waitress. i always got excited to have a hispanic waiter or waitress when we were down there because i felt like it was a hint of something more authentic. pretty diverse country but not a lot of hispanics. most of the ones I met were from south america. keep in mind san diego has rad mexican food and my mom lives in mexico and my first language was spanish so im spoiled.
dude what are you wearing!
sequence of random epicness
photo of hugo doing my laundry lol
dos amigos! sombreros were a sign of authenticity. but 20$ is expensive for a burrito. NZ is super expensive for food and gas stuff.
“the office/la officina”
some close up of the wrap detail
chasing some sheep in his truck haha
hugo also came down to meet us as Raglan. Probably New Zealands most iconic wave and one of the most famous left hand points in the world. It was real good. He thought he was going to go out but had never surfed before. Look at the rocks, walking out was a bitch. We ended up doing a mini surf lesson at Piha and he did really good. Excellent balance.
Dope truck. I also really like kiwis tattoo style. Its sorta Mauri/native but in a cool way. Maybe its because im not from there but i feel like its an artistic and authentic style. Non Bro.
Driving on the beach with the misses and hugo
very long story…. but if I had to say one thing, it would be a quote from Jrod, “why are there 13 of you with no shoes in a broken 3 seater?” It was the morning after one of those long nights, where you didnt quite sleep enough/at all… and your conscious filter is almost gone. Its a refreshing state to be in. Lots of humor.
rad kiwi sand dunes
i wont go too far into this story. it might get hugo busted by the misses! actually, both these dudes are named hugo, but you know which one im talking about haha. this site is not politically correct, so-hugo may or may not have found naked photos of this girl on her phone. two hugos, may or may not, you figure it out. we may or may not have told her about it at this moment, if it did happen at all.
keep drifting fu#%
make sure to follow hugo on facebook- http://www.facebook.com/HugoDrift
