Out of Focus – Kuala Lumpur

Aaron Nardi is one of those guys in BMX that is lucky enough to travel all over the world filming and taking photos for different projects. During a lot of those trips, there ends up being a lot of extra footage and photos that go unseen! Instead of letting it all go to waste, we figured it would be rad to drop those extras online for you guys to check out! For the first round of Out of Focus, Aaron had a TON of photos leftover from the trip to Kuala Lumpur that he took with Todd Lyons for a video for ESPN BMX that you can check out after the jump! After you watch the video, check out a few select photos along with the stories that go with them below, then check out a FULL PHOTOGALLERY filled with even more photos!

All words, photos and video by Aaron Nardi

Todd Lyons and I were working in China and knowing we had a few days off we wanted to take a small trip. My only requirements were that I wanted to wear shorts and tanks and be able to ride my bike (my foot wasn’t busted at the time). And since Todd just wanted to go somewhere neither of us had ever been Kuala Lumpur worked perfect.

When we showed up to the Shah Alam Extreme Park, the only people there were 2 girls skating. Even though it was super hot and humid it was cool to see them with their own style of a modern Muslim outfit, basically just long sleeves and pants along with an open face headdress.

Even though there really isn’t one really good quarter, box jump, or ledge, the Shah Alam Extreme Park is still probably one of my favorite parks I’ve been to. The whole park basically consists of fun interesting lines and there are actually a few spots you can go fast. Just make sure you go early because by mid day in KL you don’t want to be outside.

Pretty sure this is the first time I’ve seen monkeys in the wild and I just couldn’t stop taking photos of them. It was pretty rad seeing them all with different personalities interacting with each other and humans.

While most 5 star hotels are more accustomed to travelers rocking Rolexes instead of bikes, the Shangri-La didn’t seem to mind our early morning antics.

Saiful Ariff was our host, tour guide, driver, translator, and friend. We honestly couldn’t thank him enough for all the help and even when he took it so damn hard he was still in high spirits. This is the Mont Kiara Skatepark “indoor park” but really it’s just covered by a huge stadium style tent. While the tent doesn’t block all the rain it really does keep the sun at bay.

Todd watched as I took it a few times on this bowl transfer before he decided to give it a go. It was probably a good decision because he ened up doing it 10 times better than me.

Nothing beats a fresh coconut. Julan Alor Street is known for the street food. During the day it’s not that crowded and you are eating next to the street. But at night the street lights up and there are usually too many people eating and walking for cars to even pass. The other good part is that it’s located right next to the bar.

Being Halloween I knew TL would be packing a few costumes. While the locals know about Halloween it’s not really a big deal so seeing Muscle Suited Wildman in all his glory was pretty exciting for a lot of them. Lines can get blurry late into the KL nights.

Follow Aaron on Instagram — @AaronNardi