While its perfectly normal to swim, ski, jog, play organized sports, and engage in virtually every athletic activity short of bouncing around on a pogo stick throughout your life, for some reason, at 21, I still feel this animosity whenever I tell someone I skateboard; As if its something I should've outgrown by now.
Maybe that's for the better though. It's that attitude that keeps skateboarding somewhat exclusive once you get older. It's not something you can just pick up and have a basic grasp of after a couple hours. Those of us who are still skating today have put in the time, effort, blood, and sweat. Skateboarding is ours.
Skateboarding is more than just riding a skateboard. There is a diverse subculture that comes along with choosing to be a skateboarder. My earliest artistic influences, particularly in regards to photography and music, came from what I saw and heard in skate magazines and videos. Naturally, when I started taking up photography, skateboarding was my first focus of interest.
Over the past several years, I have used my unique position as a member of the skateboarding community as an opportunity to practice and improve my technical and creative abilities. Below is a collection of assorted photographs of the skateboarders and friends that I have had the pleasure of shooting from 2007 until the present.
CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE
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| Peter ollies a tipped-over bench at the old warehouse in 2007. |
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| Chris noseslides the Manzanita rail on a cold, dark night. |
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| Chris and Sam smoking cigarettes on the Larkin ledge while Nollie waits eagerly in the background. |
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| Sam switch crooked grinds the Beethoven ledge in SF minutes before getting kicked out by park rangers. |
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| Chris nosegrinds the tall rail at Greenfield skatepark. |
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| Chris 50-50s the Manzanita bar on Go Skateboarding Day 2010. |
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| Little Sean pops a big backside ollie on the quarterpipe at the Marina skatepark. |
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| Perry plays guitar up on Chris' rooftop while we wait to go skate. |
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| Perry frontside boardslides the Seaside High rail as the sun sets. |
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| Semi-self-portrait (set up by me, taken by Chris) doing a backside flip on the Casa Verde bump. |
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| Tranny Sean floats an backside early grab from the vert wall to the small quarterpipe on our garage ramp. |
