Fitz Photos

RIP

2011-01-02T20:03:00.000-08:00

After months of neglecting this blog I decided to start a fresh new one.

Check it out.

Catching Up

2010-05-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

I've been getting pretty behind on my photos, so this post is just me tossing up a bunch of backlogged stuff I haven't posted yet.

Had a fun session at this Rosemead homemade spot again. I've been hearing the spot was destroyed recently. Such a bummer. I really hope there was a decent reason for destroying it. Ray Maldonado having fun on the long parking block ledge.

Ray was doing these every try.

Gotta love Guffey's commentary. Thats Alec Beck doing the mean grinder.

Ray steps it up and kickflips into the back lip.

Tyler Kindred working on his pop overs.

Alec Beck using all four elements of the spot in Blog Footy #12.

Alec going back the other direction for Blog Footy #13.

Ray crushing it in Blog Footy #14.

Guffey killing it first try for Blog Footy #15.

This probably should of been part of the Hollenbeck post, but oh well. Alec shutting the spot down.

Tyler Kindred warming up on this rail at SAMO with a front board.

Before Tyler could get his trick this cop with sweet hair came and gave us the boot. Not sure why the SAMO employee called the cops without even asking us to leave first.

I was feeling really sick one day but was convinced to get out of bed for a sec when I heard that everyone was skating this gnarly hydrant gap really near where I live. The photos are pretty weak because my head hurt too much trying to think of a good way to shoot this. Austin Squire was handling though, floating a proper switch ollie.

Then he ripped a kickflip.

Josh Campos smoking a frontside flip.

This parking lot hill is right next to my work. It's pretty damn fun to bomb. Campos did a nice tre flip into it.

Went to this really gnarly street gap in Chinatown. I love how casual Tislam Smith looks floating this warm up ollie.

We were only at this spot for a second, but Alec Beck managed to fit in a quick back smith.

Hit up this crazy white thing again and Alec was having fun.

Alec pumping to fakie.

Another angle showing the other side.

Then he pulled of a pretty sick frontside side rock.

I see this handicap ramp all the time and never expected anyone to ollie it. Tislam Smith didn't hesitate at all though.

Hollenbeck Skate Plaza

2010-04-28T12:15:00.000-07:00

Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights has a new skate plaza that we've been hitting up lately. I wonder what John Edward Hollenbeck would of thought of the psuedo urban obstacles placed on top of his hill. Ledges, rails and stairs built so that young people rolling on pieces of wood can huck their corpses around.

Just a quick history lesson taken from here: http://www.urbanedpartnership.org/access/change/histbh/index.html
"John E. Hollenbeck was a very wealthy man who had lived in Nicaragua. One day while Mr. Hollenbeck was visiting Los Angeles, he too got enchanted by all the beautiful land that the area east of the Los Angeles River had to offer. So he decided to permanently move here to Boyle Heights by buying land from his old friend, William H. Workman. Mr. and Mrs. Hollenbeck built their home on what today is near the intersection of Boyle and Fourth. As a matter of fact, this structure still stands today but it is now called the Hollenbeck Home for the Aged. The Hollenbeck mansion is now directly

John E. Hollenbeck’s house

across from Hollenbeck Park. The park was built by Mayor Workman sometime after Hollenbeck’s death. In honor of his beloved friend, Mayor Workman named the park and a street after John E. Hollenbeck. In those days, Hollenbeck Park was twice the size that it is today; the park was cut in half when the Santa Monica Freeway was built."

This postcard was mailed in 1911. Check out this page for a whole bunch of old postcards of Hollenbeck Park. Pretty trippy.

Alright, on to the skating.

Whitey's kickflips have been looking super proper lately. He did this a few times, and I'm sure I could of captured a better catch if I had bothered to keep shooting.

Pretty sure I've seen some edit where Ellington nollie flips this thing and they play it over and over again. Don't worry, I only got one photo of Josh Campos doing it. I don't think he's capable of bailing a nollie flip.

Tyler Kindred was only at the session for a short while before he had to go to class, but he definitely made the most of it by seriously throwing down on the rail. Switch Blunt.

A horizontal version.

Tyler only gave this nollie heel noseslide a couple tries before heading out. He almost had it though, and took a pretty good slam. Watch for that in the video below.

Justin Cefai having fun grinding the short, high rail.

The session moved over to the three block, and everyone started throwing down. Alec Beck floating a frontside half cab.

Colin Cook catching a proper kickflip.

Graham Harrington cruising a nollie front shuv.

Graham switching up with a switch front shuv.

Campos did a proper nollie frontside flip.

You'll see it in the video below.

Check out this edit of the session from the one and only Jesus Grajeda.

Another day at Hollenbeck. Josh warming up with a front board.

Campos switch flipping the set in a line.

Josh did this fakie flip way too easily.

Another little edit from Grajeda Films. Good times.

Typical

2010-04-20T14:01:00.000-07:00

The usual stuff.

Skated this awesome homemade spot in Rosemead. This the only photo I shot, but look for some Blog Footy's from this session in the future. Justin Cefai back noseblunting the middle.

After Rosemead we hit up this park in Glendale again. Alec Beck warms up with a half cab.

Tyler Kindred warming up, front boarding the sort of gap to rail.

Jesus missing out on Tyler's nollie boardslide haha.

Believe it or not this was a warm up too. Michael Guffey back lipping with ease.

Josh Campos getting in on the action. Warm up switch ollie over the rail.

Alec got a super nice tre down the set.

Back with some more reflection shots at this spot haha. Jesus touching down into manny.

Cefai flipping into a switch flip nose manny.

Jesus, kickflip manny.

Campos, frontside flip switch manny.

Cefai, nollie heel nose manny.

Campos, switch heel manny.

Back at this spot again. This time the light was totally different. Justin floating out of a back nosegrind.

More traditional timing on this back nosegrind.

And another front nosegrind. I wish I could nosegrind every try like Cefai, looks like so much fun.

Not sure what this guys name is, but he was doing some steezy back lips. Hey Tislam, this guy said he knows you. Whats his name?

Later that night we hit up this gap in UCLA. We messed around with my flashes while waiting to skate it. Don't take these portraits seriously.

Hahaha, the under lighting makes Justin look super Straahnge.

Footy!

2010-04-18T21:46:00.000-07:00

I still have a ton of little video bits that getting kinda old now. This is an attempt to reduce the back log.

Blog Footy #5. Dan the Man recently moved back to Michigan, so I was stoked to get this clip of him having fun at the beach a couple weeks before he left.

I really like how instead of installing your typical skate stopping device, this building put up a cute little fence around this manny pad. It's as if there is a precious little garden to protect, but instead there is just a slab of cement. The fence obviously didn't stop Josh, but the guy yelling "hello" from a window above was more sucessful. I guess his baby was trying to sleep. Pretty sure his yelling had a better chance of waking his baby up than our skating.

Blog Footy #6 with buttery filmer Jesus Grajeda. Getting all Jason Dill on the beach.

Blog Footy #7. Josh Campos shredding some of that local homemade. Big shout out to the Old Star guys for building this.

Blog Footy #8. I guess Justin Cefai is too cool to say it.

Blog Footy #9. Back at the Old Star spot again. Josh killing it again.

Blog Footy #10. More Campos from that day. I dunno how he was doing those flatground tricks, that ground is a lot more rough than it looks.

Suraj and Josh smoking this pole together.

A few posts back I posted a photo of Campos front crooking a curb. Here's the footage to back it up haha.

This up ledge is decently steep. Josh and Justin double up on it with tailslides.

Justin Cefai coming through right as two security guards come and kick us out of an abandoned alley on the side of a parking lot. We were disturbing lots of people.

Ray Maldonado going down hard.

Ray has a pretty buttery front blunt.

Josh Campos is always rocking a hat.

Ray having fun at a park in Pasadena.

Cefai spinning a proper one.

Thats all the footage I've got for now. Check back real soon for a post filled with photos.

The Usual

2010-04-07T12:05:00.000-07:00

The usual stuff from me. Random skate photos from random sessions.

Jesus was looking real good in these sweet roll up shades we found in Justin's car.

Graham Harrington warming up, launching a wallie.

Graham and Justin skating back to the car.

Found myself out in Pasadena another day, Justin Cefai was starting off some flowing lines with this front boardslide on a rubber bench.

Ray warming up, skidding a front tail over this famous ledge over gap.

Josh Campos working his switch back tail.

Josh came close, but couldn't get the trick he wanted.

Then we hit up this park in Glendale with this famous set. Campos warmed up by snapping over the rail.

Ray was feeling it, and got a trick I can't show you.

Josh looks like he's struggin' here, but he got his trick as well.

Ray messing around after getting his trick. He threw out a few tres, but didn't feel like sticking it.

Another day and we started it off by spending a few minutes skating this random white wall transition. It's definitely sketchier to skate than it looks. The surface crumples a bit and is far from smooth. Josh pumping the tranny backside.

Another backside kickturn.

Campos getting his ollie to fakie on.

Josh frontside ollieing.

This frontside ollie just went up on Tagsters Mag as the new cover.

After that we hit up this kinda short run up 10. Graham Harrington's got a really steezy snap. Warming up before getting a banger.

Suraj handled at the spot too, snapping over this unsuspecting fire hydrant.

Ended up back at this spot again. Only got to skate it for a few minutes before the boot came. Josh warming up with a front tail.

Crooked grind.

Stopped by the famous gap to ledge before heading out. Josh hucking his corpse.

A lot of backlogged video stuff coming soon.

Three Stair Ledge

2010-03-29T22:00:00.000-07:00

Been to this sort of downhill three stair ledge in Silverlake three times recently. I already posted the photos I shot of Justin doing noseblunts from my first time there, here's what I got the other two days.

Josh Campos getting started with a back lip.

More backside skidding from Campos.

Then Josh stepped up to a back noseblunt.

I got a lot of shots of this trick.

Even more angles of this trick on my flickr.

Justin Cefai was there again, working on a steezy switch back lip.

I love the font of the GIANT SAVINGS.

Some of the Sugar/Goldstar guys randomly showed up. Billy Roper was doing some steezy blunts to fakie.

More blunt fakie.

Popping out out to fakie. There is another angle on flickr.

Matty Lemond was doing some proper back lips.

Another angle on flickr.

Boss man, Marko Jazbinzek working on his noseblunts. Another one on flickr.

Suraj and Josh perched as the session winds down.

"Un-American Scum"

A few other random Suraj and Josh shots on flickr.

Hit up the same spot again a couple days later and Ray Maldonado was also sliding some back noseblunts.

And thats it. I still have a lot of photos to post, so check back soon.

Spots, spots, spots.

2010-03-22T22:21:00.000-07:00

Graham showed us this stair ledge spot in the Silverlake area that's pretty awesome. Justin Cefai was shredding it, filming a line with Jesus.

Another angle of Cefai's noseblunt.

And another.

Catching one last noseblunt on the way back to the car. Believe it or not I have even more noseblunt angles over on my flickr.

After the stair ledge we went to a gnarly spot where Graham got a banger for the ZJ video. It doesn't seem like it, but this was taken just a few moments after he stuck it.

Reviewing the footy.

Messing around on some nice flat afterwards.

Josh and Clover Park go way back. All the nostalgia in the air got us thinking about curb skating and how much easier it was to skate them back in the day. Josh can handle front crooks on ledges every try, but this front crook on a wee red curb was a battle. Look out for a fitz clip of it in a future post.

Suraj is from Switzerland.

His up this sketchy ledge quarter pipe another day, and Justin had some fun pivoting. Look out for a couple tricks on this thing in the ZJ video.

Got to skate this awesome ledge for all of 30 seconds before getting the boot. Justin cruising a warm up nosegrind first try.

Moved on to an up ledge across the street. Josh sliding a front tail. Tilt?

Cefai crooksing.

Cefai's got a steezy back tail.

More back tail.

Alright, that's enough for one post. I've got a lot more stuff. So look for another post in the next couple days.

Tagsters Magazine!

2010-03-13T22:10:00.000-08:00

Tagsters Magazine out of Holland just featured a gallery of my photos! Check that out here. They also used my photo of a proper Josh Campos nollie flip as their mag "cover." Check that here. You should probably bookmark their site and add them as friends on facebook. Look forward to more stuff from me on Tagsters in the future.

Keeping It Local

2010-03-13T21:17:00.000-08:00

No real cohesion to the mix mash of photos and videos in this post, except that they all come from spots fairly close to home.

I think we can all agree that this is the funnest manny pad in the world. No being able to skate it with my friends because of my shoulder was super frustrating, so I had to mess around with the camera to keep myself occupied. Jesus doing a trippy manual.

A photo of the manny.

Same idea different trick. Graham nollie nose manny.

Graham touching down from a nollie into nose manny.

Got my fitz clip on. Graham nollie nose manny shuv.

Nollie nose manny 180.

Another fitz clip angle. Jesus getting a manny front shuv out.

Jesus coming through with a flip out.

Another day we hit up this pretty high and sketchy flatbar near my residence. Justin Cefai crooked grinding the sidewalk side of it.

My photos don't really do the spot justice for how hard it is to skate. Alec Beck cruising a 50-50.

This dude biked by with a parrot on his back. I'm not sure if anyone besides me noticed.

Alec Beck again grinding a smith.

Another smith grind. I like the car and the guy watching in this one.

Justin Cefai doing a feeble pop over. I got a ton of shots of this trick, but I'm not gonna post them all. Check my flickr if you wanna see them for some reason.

I was sitting in a tree.

Graham watching the action.

Cefai got a line.

Hit up the awesome homemade Old Star spot again with Josh and Justin. Here Cefai gets steezy with a front rock.

This was hard to shoot without setting up flashes. Campos doing a blunt fakie on the rugged homemade tranny. Look out for some new blog footy coming from this spot soon.

Justin has a beautiful shin.

Ended a day at the beach and shot some random photos of Jesus doing kickflips on flat.

Look at that steeeeze!

Get hyped for the ZJ video! I just heard the deadline for filming is April 1st. I've been stacking up a ton of photos that I can't show you until after the video premieres.

Edit: Forgot to add Blog Footy #4

While lurking around at the beach the other day I got Alec Beck to do a blog footy.

Shooting a Ton

2010-03-07T22:31:00.000-08:00

I've been out shooting photos almost everyday lately, but unfortunately I can't post the good stuff I've been getting. Here is the stuff I can post.

Went out to the Santa Clarita/Valencia area with Justin, Graham, and Jesus. Definitely a productive day. We started off at this school with all sorts of stuff to skate. Grajeda was hyped on this mini grass gap, so I shot a photo of him snapping over it. Next time front shuv is going down!

Also at the school is this crispy flatbar. Justin Cefai worked on his feeble pop outs for a little bit.

There are always amazing spots in suburbia.

Cefai putting the feeble into a little line.

Had a big photo shoot at this homemade tranny spot the other day, but I have to hold on to everything except these two photos of Alec Beck riding a whole lotta bumpy vertical wall.

Alec destroys this spot. Look out for some much heavier tricks from him.

Graham Harrington got a solid one the other day. Carving back for some more.

Quickly stopped by this wallride spot that's behind a supermarket. Justin Cefai was cruising backsiders for fun.

A little looser and a little blacker and whiter.

A mess up frame that I ended up sorta liking when reviewing the shots.

Mall Security giving Tyler Kindred the boot. TK decided to keep going for his rail banger right after Security drove off. After 20 more minutes of hucking his corpse onto one of the steepest handrails I've ever seen, he got one. Too bad I can't post the actual photo.

Later as the sun was going down we hit up this famous valley ledge. Graham cruising a nollie nosegrind.

We only got to skate here for a few minutes before a security guard came out acting all aggressive and authoritarian. But as soon as his apparent boss went inside his tone turned friendly and he told us to come back after seven when the boss is gone. Unfortunately we didn't have any lights, so Cefai couldn't land any tricks out of relaxed smith grind like this.

I'm pretty hyped on this shot. Justin smith grinding as Tyler lurks while being stoked on his earlier rail banger.

Lurking around the beach as usual I saw Cefai front nose the top of the trashcan. Naturally, I had to get a photo.

Is it distasteful to mock a post-injury Cardiel ad? Probably, but no disrespect intended. I love Cardiel as much as anyone. Mike Limb doesn't really skate anymore (and unlike John, he has no good excuse), but he showed up to the beach the other day and I wanted to get a photo to commemorate it.

Footy

2010-03-04T21:21:00.001-08:00

I haven't been posting any videos lately because I was waiting for a chance to take them to casa de Grajeda so that I could post them for you all in the best quality possible. Finally took care of that yesterday, so here is a post full of videos.

Was skating the Lafayette Park skate plaza a while back and wasn't really planning on shooting anything, but I had to run back to my car and bust out the camera after seeing Guffey throw down a tre flip noseslide all nonchalantly. Youtube version.

Tyler Kindred has been crushing rails lately and has been taking full advantage of the recently deknobbed Beverly Hills High rail. Flashes would of messed with Tyler's eyes in the super low light, so I just lurked and shot low quality video. Heelflip boardslide. Youtube version.

Injured shoulder, so I had nothing better to do than walk around on a roof that felt like it was gonna cave in and get random videos from this trippy angle. Jesus wheelies his was across the frame. Youtube version.

Justin Cefai was working on another trick, but he helped me out with a first try kickflip nose wheelie. Youtube version.

While lurking at the beach the other day I convinced Ray Maldonado to film blog footy #3. He did this not so easy line way too easily.

More Lurking

2010-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Lurked at the beach with Riley a few days back and Joey B convinced him to film an epic nollie back heel off the beach ledge haha.

The best thing about this photo is this is the one he landed. Soo buttery.

Found myself lurking at the beach again a couple days later. Justin Cefai was pulling this awesome front 180 fakie grind reverter.

Another angle.

Ray Maldonado showed up and was doing front blunts pop out to fakie no problem.

More Ray front bluntage.

Whitey got a new haircut. Looking all suave.

Mr. Riley Oneill.

Ray was checking out Whitey, tough.

Then we decided to have an epic photo shoot of tricks off the beach ledge. Riley, the boss, Oneill came through with a kickflip.

Whitey doing his own kickflip. Whose is better?

Jesus throws down a proper front shuv. I would put up this heelflip varial but that fool didn't even come close to sticking it.

Ray was a dick and shut down the session with a perfect switch tre.

Sorry, he's taken ladies.

Grajeda Films himself.

Riley and his dreamy blue eyes.

Beaks!

This definitely should of been the portrait for Ray's recruit on the berrics.

After getting some food we hit up this ledge as the sun went down. Ray was cruising some perfect back smiths while cars were stuck in Lincoln Boulevard rush hour traffic.

Lurking

2010-03-01T21:00:00.000-08:00

1. Acute to subacute Hill-Sachs deformity.
2. Tear anterior inferior labrum with an intact appearing periosteum. No assiocated bony lesion.
3. Small joint effusion.

According to the MRI, that's whats wrong with my shoulder. The doctor gave me the option to either go ahead and get surgery, or wait for a month and hope it shows signs of healing. Naturally, I chose to wait. Since I'm unable to skate I've been finding myself doing lots of lurking lately, busting out the camera even when nothing really is going down. You'll see what I mean towards the end of the post.

Broah called me the other day and asked if I wanted to get some flicks with Lil' Stewart Kirst who has apparently been hitting handrails lately. The next day we hit up this popular curved rail in the Marina and Stewie front boarded it no problem.

Wes was there too, and handled a proper crooked grind.

Apparently Wes has been battling for this crook for a while. It was rad to see how stoked he was when he rolled away.

The best part about the land was that right after touching down Wes shouted "WESTSIDE!" I'm still not sure why, but it was hilarious.

After the rail everyone ended up skating this bench on the side of a high security building. Not being able to shred, I entertained myself by shooting this photo. Broah - crooked grind.

On another day I cruised down PCH with Jesus and Justin to this abandoned gas station manny pad that you've probably seen before. Having nothing else to do, I walked up on top of this sketchy roof that felt like it was gonna cave in, layed down, and hung my camera over side to shoot this overhead angle of Jesus' casual manny.

I'm kinda stoked on this other shot of Jesus' manny. I definitely never would have shot it if it wasn't for my injury.

Haha yeah, I really didn't have anything else to do. More Jesus manualing.

Justin Cefai doing his thing, warming up before trying to film a line.

In the middle of filming a line. I love how Malibu looks like the South in the picture.

Many more lurker photos coming soon.

The Postables

2010-02-25T23:50:00.000-08:00

Lots of heavy tricks have been going down in the past few weeks, most of which is headed for the soon to be released ZJ Boarding House video. Point is, I'm sitting on quite a few photos until the video comes out. Here is some of the recent stuff I'm not sitting on.

Lafayette Plaza session. Sean McNulty killing it again. Cruising a front nose down the rail. The street version of this classic:
Okay...maybe not.

Tyler Kindred skidding a switch front blunt.

Tyler has been killing it lately. Expect a real solid part from him in the ZJ's video. Front board in the Wilshire Handrail District.

Austin Squire came up from SD for a couple days and handled, tough. Frontside axel stall on the fence.

Fisheye angle. Was pretty weird to shoot. This spot is right behind my favorite bar, The Daily Pint. (Their website isn't much to look at haha).

A Couple Hours in the Valley.

2010-02-20T17:43:00.000-08:00

Went out the valley to get some photos a while ago now. Here there are, finally blogged.

First stop was this famous out ledge at a park in Tarzana. Was kinda stoked when I saw this bail shot of Tyler.

Evan Edwards came through with a speedy crook. Broahtography has a proper sequence of this and some other tricks from the session.

Big kids. Where's this photo at Whitey?

The white man has been killing it on his blog, check his photos from the session.

Wes coming through with a front board past the ladies room.

This isn't the trick Justin Cefai wanted, but he still stuck a proper front nose to fakie. Once again, check broahtography for the sequence.

More front board.

More front nose.

Next we caravanned across the valley to a random school with this pretty perfect handrail. Evan Edwards front boarded

and front lipped it.

Tyler Kindred stuck this front feeble no problem.

Guffey had this front blunt, but it was just one of those days and he couldn't quite roll away from it. I couldn't resist posting the photos though, his blunts were looking too steezy.

'

The last photo of the day was also a no-lander. Wes crooked grinding.

Dislocated

2010-02-06T16:56:00.000-08:00

Not gonna be much text in this post as I recently dislocated my right shoulder, so I'm annoyingly typing with just my left hand.

I've walked, skated, biked, and driven past this cutty little ledge a ton of times and never noticed its potential. Campos put it to use with a back nosegrind.

Not gonna name the trick Justin Cefai is handling in this Altadena ditch. I've heard rumors of a ZJ video dropping soonish, and this creative trick should be in it.

Alright, I'm over this lefty stuff. Check back real soon for a bunch of photos from a productive day of skating in the valley.

Great Britian

2010-02-03T18:01:00.001-08:00

Went to the UK for two weeks on a family trip over Christmas and New Years. I wasn't very consistent with shooting photos, so most of what I shot came from a few short bursts. Here I'm posting my favorites from the trip without captions. The rest I'm posting on a special flickr page, mostly for my family to see, that I'll be captioning soon.

Next post (hopefully going up tomorrow) will be all skateboarding.

Mostly Parking Lots.

2010-02-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

Throughout December I found myself skating UCLA parking lots at night a lot.

On one particular wet evening I decided to bust out the camera. Justin Cefai, Josh Campos, and Alec Beck killed my flatbar.

Put together an all Alec Beck edit to show how fun it is watch him skate. 100% commitment on every trick.

Around the same time, but on another night I busted out the camera to shoot Justin snapping over this plastic barrier.

Another version. Can you believe the UCPD sometimes kicks us out and threatens us with tickets for skating in these completely desolate parking lots?

Met up with Tyler Kindred and Ian at this random fortress of a school in the heart of Beverly Hills. You feel like you're in a shopping mall or something when you skate this pseudo indoor four block. Tyler warmed up with a nollie back 180.

Tyler only got a few tries at this varial heel before a pretty nice guy reluctantly gave us the boot.

Lastly, here is another blog footy clip from Campos.

Check back real soon for another post.

I'm Back Hopefully.

2010-01-31T19:06:00.001-08:00

So I obviously haven't been posting on here in a while, and I'm not exactly sure why. I've back logged quite a bit of stuff, so I think I'm gonna post it all up slowly over the next few days.

This video has been up on my youtube account for a while now. Took the flatbar to a UCLA parking lot during the first rainy night of the season here in sunny LA. Skating from Joey Lee, Freddy Hernandez, Suraj Bharj, Marko Jazbinzek, and myself.

Another random little video from around the same time of mostly Josh Campos skating the Five Stair platform at Venice High. Also little appearances from Suraj, Fern Doggie, and myself.

Went out to the industrial area of Downtown LA a while back to shoot Campos trying something gnarly. He didn't get it, but I shot some random portraits in between tries.

Campos with that passion.

Tried to get Fern to look tough, didn't really work.

Jake's been injured now for over a year, but he's still ripping it at life. Where those film shots at??

Started a new stupid little skate footage thing called blog footy (ironic since it took me 2 months to finally post it on my blog), and this is the first one. Josh mashing down this West LA alleyway.

Thats all for this post. Check back real soon for more.

Two Clips and Three Back Tail Flicks.

2009-10-13T15:10:00.000-07:00

Just some more recent stuff.

Did a quick morning session at Lafayette Park with Josh Campos and Suraj Bharj. Session was cut short due to foot pains.

Skated Paul Revere again the other day. No flatbar this time, but Alec Beck came through and was killing the banks.

LA was pretty wet yesterday, but this spot was just dry enough for Campos to get down on this sketchy gap to banked ledge. You might recognize the spot from this montage. Josh ups himself with a gap to back tail.

LA's been weirdly cold lately, summer is definitely over. Other shot of Josue's back tail minus Grajeda and plus my sweater.

It's pretty much impossible to show how hard this spot is to skate through a photo. There's a curb you have to pop up on the run up and then the ledge sits pretty far back from the edge of the sidewalk (not sure anyone can understand what I mean by that). Not to mention how rough and steep that bank is. But Campos handled it with steeze as you can see.

Getting Back On It.

2009-10-06T23:11:00.000-07:00

First skate post in a while, hopefully the next one will be sooner rather than later. Slowly starting to get back into the habit of actually pulling out my camera during the session.

Me and Suraj Bharj messing around filming lines on a flatbar that we hauled over to Paul Revere. Nothing special, but a fun session for sure. Although, Surakken's front board pop out is pretty epic.

Been skating the beach a lot. This particular day was strangely foggy and inspired me to actually bust out the camera. This is Tyler Kindred popping up into crooks from a half cab noseslide. Watch out for a line from him with this trick in it.

Suraj Bharj cruises a lipslide.

The sun finally came out and Surakken got his wax on.

The return of Fitz Clipz! Hit up this awesome built ledge with Suraj and Joey and we came through with some triples action.

Then we all tried to film some mess around lines.

Thats all I've got for now, but hopefully a better post will be coming soon. Make sure to check out the new montages put up by Mr. Grajeda: Here and here. You'll recognize the footage from a lot of photos I posted on here in the first one and you'll be treated to a banger of bangers from yours truly as the first trick in the second one.

Burning Man.

2009-10-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a bunch photos I shot during my 15 day trip to Black Rock City. Most of the photos were shot before or after the actual week long event because I was too busy having fun and experiencing the event to shoot photos. The photos I did shoot weren't meant to capture "Burning Man" the event or even document my experience, but instead were personal images shot for fun and memories. If you wanna see more photos of the actual event I highly recommend searching for some, there are a ton of amazing photographers shooting incredible images out there every year.

Little Randoms.

2009-07-24T17:17:00.000-07:00

Shot this photo of Josh Campos backside flipping over the hydrant back on Go Skateboarding Day (June 21st) and submitted it for Slap's GSD photo contest. My shot didn't win, but it was an honorable mention so it still got run in the article. Check that out here. Congrats to Luke Holdstock.

I ended up down in Lennox the other day at some crispy new school and this guy Sesai Parra came through with an epic wall plant down the ten stair.

Another angle. This guy is coming up. You should see him kill Hawthorne park.

Two doors.

The spot is right on the landing path of LAX.

I wanted to try out a fisheye angle but the sun was in the worst possible position.

Went to this spot near my house with Tyler Kindred. He only got to try this kickflip once before security came out. Fortunately he'd already stuck it and just wanted to get a quick photo.

Check back soon for a bunch of photos from a little weekend skate trip to Sacramento.

New Spots.

2009-07-12T23:31:00.000-07:00

Been skating and finding lots of new spots lately. Here are a bunch of the photos I've been shooting.

This spot is pretty epic. It's a ledge that apparently was built by Aaron Synder and sits on an abandoned bridge that goes over a river and under a freeway. Here Josh Campos is locked into a front blunt.

Another view of the spot as Josh Campos sets up to hit the ledge.

Austin Squire didn't land this ridiculous 50-50, but he totally could have. I'm calling you out Austin, go back and stick this shit!

Hit up this fire hydrant spot again and Ray Maldonado came through with a proper kickflip. Thats Grajeda Films lurking.

Another kickflip shot. In case you haven't noticed, Ray has been blowing up lately with a First Try Fridays and a Bangin' from the Berrics. Some kid even made a Skate 2 version of his Bangin'.

Alec Beck's ollie over this massive handicap ramp wall was really hard to shoot. So, sorry if you think my photo sucks.

This ledge is pretty sketchy, but Ray handled with a noseslide to a little 5-0 on the curb.

We went exploring for some cutty local spots and Austin Squire handled. Here he is back 180ing over a rail from one apartment complex to another.

Grajeda Films was on the scene, working the angles.

Colin was there looking all suave and shit, leaning against walls.

Grajeda, looking uncomfortable without a camera in his hand.

Austin, bringing that intensity.

Austin floating another back 180.

Unfortunately Austin snapped his board on that attempt.

Fortunately ZJ's was nearby, so Austin just went and set up a new board.

After that excursion we hit up this sketchy brick bank and Austin tail dropped into it no problem.

On another day we did some more local exploring and came across this spot in an alleyway. Josh Campos came through with this switch ollie in a line. He wanted another trick but we got kicked out.

After that we hit up this Venice Beach spot and Josh came through with a gap to noseslide.

Started dicking around with ridiculous head shots at the spot. Mr. Josue Campos.

No man is safe from Jesus' seductive glare.

The design on the side of this porta potty made me laugh. Are those suppose to be mountains, trees, and water?

We somehow ended up in Marina Del Rey skating a pretty pointless flat gap. Austin Squire gets up high on this snap.

Austin floating a first try 180.

Campos came through with a back 180.

Austin came through with the banger of the day, a cartwheel over the gap.

Finally we hit up this rail with limited run up and Austin got down with a quick front board.

Make sure to check out this blog post from Grajeda Films. It has a bunch of footage from some of the photos above.

Skateboarding Photographs.

2009-07-05T02:47:00.000-07:00

Here is a bunch of skate shots I've taken over the past couple weeks.

Austin Squire has still been on a tear, but he actually didn't land this gap to lip on a really rough ledge. He was over it after slamming really hard when throwing his board down going full speed on the run up ledge.

Jesus gave me the hero treatment.

Austin was headed to his high school graduation after the sesh, where he had to shake hands with his principal with this hand.

Go Skateboarding Day was pretty mellow. Instead of hitting up the stupid dwindle contest thingy at Venice Beach we just hit up some local street spots. This photo might look familiar. Josh Campos takes us back with a switch crooks.

A little more compact.

Then we hit up our local fire hydrant. Campos was floating over it.

Shot a slightly overhead angle as always. Josh backside flipped over this thing as well, but I'm not posting up the photo quite yet.

After the local spots I hit up ZJ's for their GSD bbq. Alec had been messing around with the idea of wallriding a bus, which inspired Justin Cefai to do this wallride nollie out like a true public enemy number one. This was really hard to shoot cause I had no idea where the bus was gonna be, so it's basically just point and shoot.

He did it again in front of the crowd gathered outside ZJ's. I tried incorporate them into the photo, but it really didn't work because of the shadow casted by the bus. Oh well.

Austin Squire took us all the way out to Malibu the other day, but really made it worth our while by throwing down trick after trick. Here he is throwing himself onto a fence. So sick.

I think all this coverage is starting to get to his head. Check the shades.

The point of the mission to the Bu' was to hit up this rail with a super high bust factor. Austin was only really planning on doing a front board first try then getting out of there.

He handled that no problem.

Austin's homie Jeremiah Bohnett was also there and handled this noseslide.

We got lucky and didn't get kicked out right away. Which gave Austin time to apparently crook his first handrail ever. Which is crazy cause he rolled away from it after only a couple tries. Here I caught him just before touch down.

Jeremiah wasn't done either and came through with a proper smith grind.

Here Austin handles some more with a back lip.

Another back lip. Check Jesus' blog for some footy.

After all that, with the sun disapeering, Austin wasn't done. Here he snaps over a pretty tall fire hydrant along PCH.

Another ollie, with some blur from a longish shutter.

He even managed to catch a kickflip over it. One of my flashes didn't fire on this one.

Jesus got in my way filming fish, so I moved to a more traditional angle.

Austin Killing It.

2009-06-18T03:19:00.000-07:00

I've skated with Austin Squire a couple times in the past few days and he's been killing it. He always seems to want to skate the most awesome cutty spots.

Austin picked me up in his sweet Volvo and took me to this spot on Stoner Ave. An older woman was trying to make us leave but she gave in when we convinced her that we would only be there for 15 minutes and we'd never come back again. About 10 minutes later Austin handled a line with this 180 over the rail and into the narrow sidewalk.

Go explore some apartment buildings for spots.

The footage looks really sick, the hill is actually pretty steep.

This picture kills me, Ben Duffy coming through with the sexy filmer steeze.

After hitting up that rail spot we headed down to Santa Monica to this hunk of cement on the side of the freeway. There was no wax on this thing when we got there, but that didn't stop Squire from jam grinding through the thing. With a little more wax I bet Austin could get something even better on it.

Right when he started skating this thing a cop drove by and yelled at us through his speaker to get off the freeway. He never turned around to come talk to us though, so we just kept at it.

The pigeon was stoked.

But not as stoked as this guy.

He was cheering Austin on.

I slipped into what I think was a homeless center of sorts and climbed up some stairs to get this angle.

Unfortunately I could only a get a couple shots before some guy kicked me out saying that I needed a permit.

Got a decent pushing photo.

I'm stoked that I managed to frame his head right on the pillar.

Cars, trucks, and buses were everywhere.

Got a sequence of it.

Then earlier today I met up with Austin for a sec. After the spot he came to skate got burned by a parked car he jumped on this instead. He stuck it second try and then did it like four more times.

Austin is on a tear. Look for more photos from him soon.

Randoms.

2009-06-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

Been super busy with school so I haven't been shooting much, or had any time to edit the few things I did shoot. Here are some of the few things I got.

We went to that epic pool up in the mountains of Malibu again. Somehow people ended up jumping off this random no push off slab. Huck Gibson easy handles a back 180.

As you already know, Josh Campos has a beastly frontside flip.

Alec Beck got his pop shuv on.

Skated UCLA as usual. Justin Cefai stepped up the gap to 3 bike racks. This photo is pretty whatever, but it's something to post.

More sweet Cefai backside flip action.

It's pretty much impossible to tell, but thats Justin catching a kickflip down the set.

More recently we spotted this tree while driving by and Alec got creative. He actually somehow managed to roll away more cleanly than this, but I didn't a sequence.

And here's the still shot. Pretty whatever. Sometimes I really miss the 1/500th+ flash sync of the D70.

Another UCLA Sesh.

2009-05-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

I'm still recovering from being sick, but I did get my ass out of the house for a bit to mess around at UCLA.

We found this couch posted on the side of building so we dragged it out on to the pathway. The thing was falling apart and needed boards to hold it up. Suraj came through with a super steezy frog leap.

Christian Schultz on the other hand actually popped over it on his skateboard while Suraj got contemplative.

Another Fitz Clip! Here is some video documentation of the epic Christian - Suraj duo. A match made in heaven.

I'll let this photo speak for itself.

We randomly ran into A.J. Burnett at this hot spot. He was coming through with back smiths on the beastly end of the ledge.

A.J. also came through with a back tail.

And then lastly, Suraj Bharj handled a front nose.

The Usual.

2009-05-09T16:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a another post with the usual mix of photos and videos.

This gap is gnarly. Josh Campos handles an ollie over the wall and down the drop.

This was my attempt to capture the trick in just one photo.

I thought this two stair over sidewalk gap was fucking huge, but Campos thought it was small. He wasn't even stoked on this kickflip.

Alec Beck didn't land this rock to fakie on a fence because it's fucking hard to do. Maybe someday he'll go back and make this photo legit.

As usual, I ended up shooting from above.

Alec was getting frustrated.

After all that we drove all the way up a mountain in Malibu to skate this epic pool. The deep end was completely filled with water, but that didn't stop Alec from skating it. Here he pumps around the water and then somehow manages to scrap a back tail for good measure.

It's hard to tell from the photo but it was eerily foggy. Thats why this photo looks so different from the other, I had to add a shit load of contrast because the fog made everything look hazy.

I scrapped my knuckles against a wall while doing a tailslide, so painful. Photo credit to Suraj.

We did Any Block #4! This time we ended up at Venice and Greenfield, kinda near the 405. Skaters are Colin Cook, Max Schwartz, Suraj Bharj, Matt Hartzel, Alec (how many tre's can he do?) Beck, Dan Mancina, and Huck Gibson.

I hadn't shot any fitz clipz in a while, but when I saw Josh's front blunt pop out to fakie I realized I needed to get back on it.

Whitey coming through with a back smith.

Shout Outs.

2009-05-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

So the Volcom Skate Night Film Battles thing that I talked about is up. Go check that out here and make sure to vote for ZJ's!

Jim who runs the site shredtilyerdead.com has come through with a proper video and it's up on the site. Definitely go watch it.

April Randoms.

2009-04-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

So this is just a collection of random stuff I've made this month that I haven't got around to posting in a blog yet.

First of all I want to say thanks to Huck and his friends who run The Stache Life. Huck wrote up a ridiculously flattering little piece about me and posted it up along with some of my photos. You can check that out here. Thanks again Huck!

I made Any Block #2 a few weeks ago. It was a small crew of Suraj Bharj, Joey Lee, and myself. We ended up in this super wealthy residential area with seemingly nothing to skate but we made a good time out of it for sure.

Volcom invited ZJ's down to the OC to shred their private park and make a little monty of it. I guess it's part of some shop team competition to see who can make the best video. As you would expect the whole team killed it, but I wasn't really shooting any photos because I was having fun skating myself and I didn't feel like setting up flashes in people's way. Anyway, I did however set up and shoot this photo of Alec Beck's back crail slide on top of the super steep quarter. I really don't understand how he got enough speed to mash up that bank and then get up to the lip on that quarter. I got to see the monty at the shop the other day, but I haven't seen it online anywhere. Someone should let me know if they find it so I can link it up.

So we tried to do another Any Block, but despite picking a pretty good block we pretty much failed. We only really skated one little part of the block and people got over it pretty fast. So we packed up early and drove across town to this gnarly handicap ramp spot outside an asbestos contaminated abandoned building where Josh got a banger. The skaters in the video are Josh Campos, Jesus Grajeda, Suraj Bharj, Jake Eames (who can't really skate cause he's still injured) and myself. I definitely recommend double clicking on the video and watching it in high quality (HQ).

Went to this Venice Beach ledge spot the other day. Justin Cefai was coming through with some proper back tails. This thing is way harder to skate than it looks.

Another Cefai back tail.

Another angle kinda showing how you have to curve pretty harshly to hit the ledge.

Just posting this one so you can see Justin's epic ninja steeze.

Alright, last back tail photo, I swear.

When you are always climbing up on top of random shit to shoot skate photos sometimes you look around and see other things as well.

I might be hard to tell, but that Max Schwartz tweaking out a front 5-0 on the ledge back there.

Another 5-0 from Max.

Cefai coming through with a crook all the way through the top. This is kinda a rip off my own photo: Campos Crooks.

Shot this as a total joke, but how real does it look? I really doubt that anyone could back noseblunt this beast, but Max sure does make it look sexy.

Went on a photo mission with Alec Beck a few days ago and he came through with this awesome gap to crail grab tail tapper.

He also tossed a 180 melon first try.

A long lens view of the crail tapper.

One more crail tapper.

And last is Any Block #3, which we did this last Saturday. This time we ended up at Pico and Exposition, right where the Fantasy Island strip club is. Justin Cefai and Colin Cook racked up most of the footage, but Corpsey, Christian Schultz and myself make an appearance as well. The audio sounds horrible a lot of the time because it was really fucking windy.

EDIT: Shit, I almost forgot to link up Christian's blog: Nevermind. Check out the photos he shot during the Any Block #3 festivities. Get pumped for the next Any Block.

One Ditch, Any Block.

2009-04-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

So the other day we hit up this ditch spot. When first got there all that was skateable was the little hip thingy on the side, but thanks to Justin and Austin's brooms we swept the whole thing out and had a dandy time. Unfortunately a few days later Alec, Colin, Justin, and Austin all realized they got poison oaked from this spot. So be careful if you ever go there.

Justin Cefai and Austin Squire get their nollie on, back to back.

A still of Justin's nollie back heel. This bank is nothing like the one at your local skate park.

It's mind boggling trying to figure out how Alec Beck even got enough speed to get into this noseblunt, let alone hold it and pop back in with only a few inches of dirt to stall on.

At the end of the session Alec filmed this line with Ben Duffy, who was experimenting with a new butt-boarding filming technique haha. Alec actually stuck this line three times cause he didn't like his switch tre flip.

So I've started working on a fun little series of videos that I'm calling "Any Block." The idea is to randomly pick any block and then go skate there and try to film as much stuff as possible. I guess the purpose is to show that you can have fun skating anywhere and you don't really need perfect skate spots. This first one features Alec Beck, Suraj Bharj, and myself getting gnar gnar around Ocean Park and 14th in Santa Monica. Look out for Any Block #2 soon.

UCLA and VA.

2009-03-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

Went skating the other day and got some stuff. Here is that stuff.

Tyler Kindred boardslides in front of John Wooden's pyramid of success. We got kicked out of this spot right away, so Tyler only got to do a couple warm up boardslides.

Tyler and Colin spotted me lurking in the bushes.

So there is this really perfect hubba at UCLA, and Colin Cook front boarded it with ease.

So my camera isn't really fast enough (4.5 fps) to shoot legit sequences, but I tried anyway. Here Austin Squire throws down a full cab. He also stuck a perfect switch big spin, but I totally missed it.

Sean Bloom came through with a nice backside flip. Apparently that was the first time he had done one down anything. Hyped.

Tried to get all experimental with this sequence. Tyler had this nollie back heel and landed on it a bunch of times, but never did roll away.

Here are a couple stills of the nollie back heel.

Check the one foot catch steeze.

Earlier this day people found this really gnarly spot, so we went back there after UCLA and Austin handled it. Ollie from the top of the stairs into the bank.

Here and There.

2009-03-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

So in contrast with the last post, this one doesn't have any videos.

We went to this sketchy rail at Walgreen's again and Josh Campos was killing it. He got a lot further out on the rail with this crooks than anyone else I've seen. He also filmed somewhat of a banger on it that day, so look out for that in his next video part.

Me and Whitey were shutting down the spot with our back to back kickflips into the driveway. Here Whitey flicks a steezy one.

Jesus lurking in the convex mirror. He's been putting more parts from Scummish Activity online lately. Be sure to check it out here: GrajedaFilms

After that session we hit up this double set at a church in Mar Vista. Campos stuck this switch frontside flip twice in like five tries or something.

Another day we stopped by the VA in West LA and Campos was feeling poor. Shoot this pretty soon after he ate shit warming up on the famous handrail.

After that Tyler Kindred starting throwing himself over this bump over flattop. It's really fucking hard to skate because you have to sprint across some grass then throw your board down to get enough speed.

After the ollie Tyler kickflipped the thing which is actually really gnarly considering the run up.

Another shot of the kickflip.

Just a few hours ago Austin took me to this sketchy downhill street gap he found in Venice. He was ollieing it no problem.

Check out how narrow the run up is with that pole in the way.

The landing is also pretty sketch with the wall on the left and the fact that it runs downhill and straight into Main Street.

Lotz of Fitz Clipz.

2009-03-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Haven't made a post in a while cause I've been so busy with classes, but I just finished finals, so hopefully I'll be back on it.

Josh Campos does his thing at Culver Park while I try to distract you by putting fences in the way. That's a switch flip nose manny if you can't tell.

We went to this pretty fun ledges behind an Albertson's in Calabasas. Josh was killing it as you can imagine. I told him to do a trick on each ledge and he came through with this first try.

Spying on Josh's tailslide from inside a bush.

Went to the beach. Alec and Josh having some fun.

Alec Beck is good, real good. Popping out of front blunts no problem and shit.

Went skating with the Campos brothers. This spot out in Rosemead is pretty worn down, but still fun.

Josh just cruising.

The Campos brothers killing it again, before I come through with a beautifully executed nollie back 5-0 through the whole damn ledge.

Josh shows you how to properly execute a nollie grind.

Later that day we hit up this abandoned gas station manny pad along PCH. Josh came through with this in just a couple tries.

This was fun. Epic doubles action, Josh and me.

Switch and regular.

And finally, I actually have a couple photos. As you know, Alec kills ramps, and this one at a church in Venice is no exception.

Check the tweak. He almost flew out of the frame on this one. Pretty epic.

Alternate Angles.

2009-02-22T20:02:00.000-08:00

These are all a bunch of skate photos from the last couple weekends. For whatever reason I kept being able to get a bunch of different shots of the same trick. Rather than choosing my favorites and cutting out the rest I decided to just post all the multiples.

I think Michigonians Jim and Duke left town already, but it was fun seshing with them while they were here. Here is Duke riding on a wall at UCLA.

Another angle showing Jim filming and Campos lurking. Check out Jim's site: Shred Til Yer Dead for some good stuff.

This rail is at a Walgreen's nearby my house, but I'd never noticed it before. It looks sick, but it's pretty hard to skate because of the cross bars on the inside. They didn't stop Alec Beck from coming through with a smith grind though, he just popped out before getting stuck.

Austin Squire was also there killing it with a back tail.

More Squire back tail. I can't decide if the pole is really annoying or kinda interesting.

Alec's smith grinds look good.

Fucking around with some overhead fish action haha.

From down under.

I've always been a fan of Austin's steeze.

Arrows.

I like Beck's shadow in this one.

Coming through with the steezy hand drag haha.

After hitting that Walgreen's rail we came across this parked truck with a flap at the back that would of been epic for a wallie. Unfortunately a cop drove by while people were standing on top of the truck with boards, he was sketched out and made us leave.

So instead of giving up on wallies we went to this nearby sketchy spot. Alec wallied off the fence to the sidewalk no problem.

He actually filmed another trick here that is better than just a wallie, but you'll have to wait until the footage comes out.

Natural light.

Yesterday I showed up at this spot in Santa Monica and Austin was already getting up on this ridiculous 50-50.

This is the same rail that Reynold's back fiftied a while back.

I was pretty bummed this Jag was in the way, so I tried incorporating it into my shot.

It didn't seem like Austin was gonna be able to pull it because he was getting so tired from putting all his effort into pushing to get enough speed. Thankfully Alec borrowed my car and towed Austin up to it.

This shot is of the make, and damn was it good. The footage looks amazing. Austin is coming up.

Today we skated Century City for a bit. We were only at this bank spot for a few minutes but that didn't stop Campos from getting a quick Fitz clips.

Little Men Getting Up.

2009-02-09T19:55:00.000-08:00

Some skate photos from the last couple sessions.

This just a snap shot I took from a session last, last weekend. It's coverted into b/w to pretend like its artsy. Anyway, eventhough its a shitty photo, look at Justin Cefai's epicly steezy back smith on the tall end of UCLA's public policy ledge.

This past weekend we ended up at UCLA again and people were skating the top of one of these tables in North Campus. Just like JC, Alec Beck was getting into some proper back smiths.

I don't really think of Alec as the type of skater with monster pop, but I should probably rethink that. I wish someone was there to film this.

This crook was no problem for Max Schwartz. He's practically kneeing himself in the face.

Another back smith from Beck.

Suraj Bharj, not discouraged by his short stature, got up with this front nose.

Ooo getting all experimental on you guys. Check Max claiming it in the background. Suraj - front nose.

Cefai is mean. Here he takes out Suraj with a steezed out and not at all posed 90s style front crook. He's even pointing at him with a face that says "You got nothing short man!"

Did I mention that Suraj is short?

The next day I got started super late (as usual) and ended up on 20th street in Santa Monica. Justin Cefai was quite the gentleman and popped over this fire hydrant per my request.

Another view.

There were some intense light beams boucing off the building across the street and landing on Colin.

Just down the street is this beastly ledge. Josh Campos is pretty short (although not as short as the Indian man obviously), but he had no problems with this huge front nose over the planter gap.

He stuck it a bunch of times. Campos kills.

PCH Overpass Spot.

2009-01-31T21:36:00.001-08:00

Another random clip from the sand gaps.

After skating the beach we did a little mission to this super steep and rough bank at the bottom of a curling bridge over PCH. Josh stuck a few proper blunt fakies.

Another blunt fakie from Campos.

Alec of course felt right at home on the sketchy thing and was killing it. Here he toe pokes on a steezy front rock.

Beck again handling a backside nosepick, no hands.

Eventually he decided to just wallie over the whole thing.

Then added a backside 180 to that.

Another angle of the wallie back 180, with Fern getting some proper BGPs back there.

Alright, this is where the post gets super interesting.

Campos on that texting proggie.

Campos on the banana tip. I should sell this photo to Red Bull.

Colin the leveller.

Me and Alec coming through with some stoke.

Josue photography.

So deep.

Campos rocking.

Philosophical love.

The Last Two Weekends.

2009-01-19T19:27:00.000-08:00

Here are the scattered photos and videos I've taken over the last two weekends.

Yeah thats me at SAMO haha. The lipslide is pretty weak but I didn't feel like trying to film it a bunch of times.

Alec had the idea to skate this middle school gym roof bank thing and we got a couple photos just before running out of light. Beck stuck this back 360 no problem.

After the back three he went for back 360 kickflip and landed a pretty sketchy one just before it got too dark. Hopefully we'll go back sometime soon so he can get a clean one.

Skating the sand gaps on the weekend is always a struggle because there are so many damn people around doing all sorts of shit. We were only there for a little bit, but I managed to capture a couple tricks over the gap. Christian Schultz does the 360 flip to nearly hitting the jogger, and Colin Cook does the steezy switch backside flip.

After the sand gaps we eventually made it over to this ditch in the Palisades. We only stayed for a few minutes so I didn't get the chance to shoot any legit photos, but I did mess around a bit. Thats Josh Campos doing a nollie backside flip back there.

Colin was killing it that day. He stuck a real nice backside flip.

Jesus was filming a little bit.

Skated UCLA a little bit today. Suraj was doing these front shuvs on to the death bank.

The more art farty angle.

Tyler was trying a trick down this sketchy set, but he wasn't really motivated to stick it with no filmer around.

Eventually Austin showed up and the first thing he did was this ollie that he slipped out on. Right after that he tried another trick and busted his foot which took him out for the day.

Tyler jumped on this rail a couple times but got kicked out before he could stick anything. I was pretty hyped on this bail picture though.

North Campus Session.

2009-01-06T11:59:00.000-08:00

Alright, so the recent spurt of posts is probably going to slow down now, yesterday was my first day of classes and winter break is officially over. On Sunday, my last day of break, I skated the northern portion of my lovely campus with a hefty crew.

Before meeting up with everyone else, Josh Campos was killing this ledge. I wiped out the camera for a second and filmed this ledge to manual trick.

We met up with everyone at this famous spot in front of the Public Policy building. Campos had these nollie backside flips on lock, so I had to capture one.

I decided to experiment a bit, shooting from inside the building entrance. Thats Jake Eames tossing a switch flip.

It's a little hard to tell, but thats Colin Cook catching a kickflip in the distance.

Another Jake Eames switch flip.

I decided to film some more of what was going down off the ledge. I'm pretty sure Jake Eames stuck this fakie heelflip first try.

I kept being annoying and asking people to try back to back tricks, my persistence finally paid off and Garrett Blair and Campos agreed to throw back to back 360 flips. Awesome. Cefai's frustration was building up for a while before this, and it finally boiled over after this fall haha.

Some people left, but the session continued over on this concrete slab. Here Josh comes through with a switch nose bonk.

Another view of the nose bonk.

Jake has epic pop, he probably could of kickflipped over a ledge twice as high.

I'm not really stoked on this photo, but I had to post it because of the trick. Switch flip up and over.

One of the things thats cool about shooting photos with Campos is that he likes to be involved in the photo process. He's always down to do whatever is needed to make a photo just a little better. Here he is talking to me after the switch flip.

I wanted to shoot a photo from up on top of this hallway over hang thing and Josh asked me what would look good. I told him a backside flip, and he quickly obliged and stuck one.

Josh killed this bike rack gap, one of the many tricks he did was this nollie backside flip, multiple times. Watch out for a banger of a nollie backside flip in his next Scummish part.

Westwood.

2009-01-03T20:56:00.000-08:00

Skated around UCLA and Westwood today. Got off to a pretty late start, but still managed to get some stuff.

Showed up to UCLA and Austin Squire was already front boarding this rail. I climbed up on top of a wall to snap some shots and two boardslides into it a cop on a bike gave us the boot.

Tislam Smith is gnarly. After getting kicked out we skated this little bank thing on top of a parking lot nearby. This here is Tislam doing a frontside ollie of death into that little bank. On the left is a 5 story drop and to the bottom right is like a 20-30 foot drop, so fucking sketchy. I just shot this one photo then decided I didn't want to encourage anyone to keep doing it and get them killed haha.

(double click and fucking watch it in HD!)
Shot a couple little videos of people skating the bank thing. Here Jake Eames killing it. I love watching Jake's flip tricks because they always look so epic and powerful.

Here is Austin messing around. Remember that there is a huge drop on the other side of the bank.

After the parking lot spot we checked out this rail spot in the hills of Westwood. Austin was the only one feeling up to it, and easily slid this boardslide to regular and to fakie.

I got a couple different angles.

Austin was done but I asked him to slide it one more time so that I could shoot from this angle, and of course he snapped his deck. Sorry Austin!

Lots of Skating.

2009-01-01T16:33:00.000-08:00

I'm on a roll now. So a couple days ago I skated at UCLA with a pretty big crew. Right as I showed up Tyler and Tislam were already getting beastly on this rail at the Wooden Center.

Unfortunately we were also getting kicked out at the same time so I couldn't really set up for a photo. I dig whip out my camera for a second though and got this shot of Tislam tweaking out a front nose. Can someone tell me what Tislam's full name is? I was in such a rush that didn't even realize I was shooting at 3200 iso. After the rail I spent about an hour shooting photos of Tislam, Josh, and Austin throwing themselves down this ridiculously long set of stairs. Unfortunately none of them landed their shit, so I'm not gonna post the photos.

(Make sure to double click on the video and watch it in HD).
Yesterday (new year's eve), I went skating around Chinatown again. After skating this famous metal ledge spot for a while I busted out the camera right before we left. Max Schwartz stuck this switch backside nosegrind pop out (like a champ) right away, and we moved on to the next spot. I love Max's switch backside nosegrinds and one of my favorite photos I've ever shot was of one: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1433/1395049290_f1ec009d01_o.jpg

After the ledge spot we went to this nearby street gap. This is just a snap shot I took while Josue was warming up. After this he got gnarly and stuck a ridiculous trick, but I'm not gonna post up that photo quite yet.

I also took this video of Josue's ollie, but my camera really couldn't keep up with it in the lowlight and with Josh moving so fast. At least it shows how fucking big this gap is.

Last but not least Whitey came through with this amazing and not at all faked, Airwalk. Steeeze. Check the facial expression, so smooth.

I'm Back.

2008-12-29T19:29:00.001-08:00

So I haven't posted anything in ages mostly because I had my D70 stolen and I'm too lazy to get film processed most of the time. Well anyway, I have a new camera now so I should be updating decently often. My new camera has an awesome little video mode as well, so expect some random clips along with the photos.

Just messing around at this ledge spot near Chinatown with Josue. Watch your back Grajeda Films. You can watch the clip in better quality if you double click on it and click "watch in high quality."

Then we went to this high coped ledge spot down the street from Chiparaki. Christian was stoked just sitting in the sun.

Josue was working on some shit.

Josh Campos - Switch Front Nose. I really wanted to shoot this ledge straight on but unfortunately there was a car parked right in front of the skateable part of the ledge.

Another view. Still getting back into flow of things.

This shit should be a O'Quinn ad. Josue trying to be all cool.

Kicking it in the car.

I deleted the montage of clips and instead I"ve decided to present all my video clips separately, and treat them sort of like photos. Here they are.

Josh Campos - back tail fakie.

Josh Campos - switch front nose.

Josh Campos - back tail shuv.

Josh Campos and Max Schwartz - tail skid doubles.

Random Roll

2008-08-09T18:17:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to developing a random roll of film I shot a while ago. Nothing too exciting, but here is what I got.

I busted my ankle skating at Samo a couple months ago, I still can't do any nollie flick tricks. Anyway, this is what I saw when I was laying down being super bummed right after it happened.

Suraj was there.

I went bike cruising with Christian one lovely afternoon. Taking pictures with a manual camera while trying to ride a bike is fucking difficult.

Shot a couple photos while lunch breaking it at work.

Need a mattress?

Some unlucky guys were getting arrested.

Nicole and I took my visiting British cousin Jenny and her friend Thea to this famous Malibu beach spot.

My feet.

This dude killed me. Just a snap shot as I walked by.

Just some water and a rock.

I went on an amazing trip with Nicole to San Francisco. Sitting on a ledge, waiting for the bus.

Kennedy poke.

This isn't from the roll, but it is awesome. Spotted this graffiti gem while driving in the mountains. I had to stop and get a photo.

Gone Inland.

2008-07-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

On my first full day as a 22 year old I headed inland to skate some of the typical industrial spots you can find out there.

During the mandatory flatground warm up session I noticed that Jesus had an epic sweat ghost on his shirt.

Garrett Blair was killing it as usual. Here he warms up with a front board as the lurkers lurk.

Garrett moved on and stuck this front tail.

I can't wait to see Frankie's photo of this.

Austin's back is fucked up so he can't really skate. Instead he tried to sneak a peak up my shorts. Caught in the act.

We went to this amazing loading dock spot, but unfortunately security called the cops pretty much as soon as we got there. What are they trying to secure? This isn't the photo I wanted to shoot, but here is Garrett snapping over the rail.

Ray was really afraid when he heard the cops were coming.

We moved on to this awesome stair ledge spot. Alec Beck was skidding some proper back tails.

As was Ray Maldonado.

Frankie's Feet.

I decided to get experimental with some overhead fisheye shit. More sweet Ray back tail action.

Another Ray back skidder.

You've probably already noticed, but Alec isn't a fancy footwork type of skater. His style is all force and dedication. As a consequence, he always seems to end up on the floor.

Right after spinning out of a back lip.

Unfortunately the day light ran out before Alec could stick this back lip. My picture really doesn't show how high that fourth step was.

Now that you've looked through my boring shit go check Jesus' amazing new Scummish Montage. Some dude in a purple tee does the most buttery nose manny.

Michigonians Maul McBride.

2008-07-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Justin hit me up to shoot some photos on this table he found outside McBride Elementary School that was sitting in front of an epic painting. I didn't have lightstands for my flashes and the ambient light kept changing every few seconds, but I guess it still worked out alright.

Garrett Blair fucking kills it. The session had barely started and he was already locking into these kickflip back tails.

I'm stoked Christian came out skating. Here he glides out of a crook.

Another view. You guys better be actually clicking on these horizontals to view them at full size.

Justin Cefai comes through with a back smith.

Garrett was mashing through these back feebles.

After sticking a few back smiths, Justin moved on to back 180 nosegrinds.

A fisheye view.

Sorry for the major ass shot, I was still set up for Justin's back 180 nosegrind when Garrett stuck this perfect front crooks.

Paul Revere Quickie.

2008-07-08T17:03:00.001-07:00

These are just a few shots from a quick little session at Paul Revere a couple weeks ago.

Just messing around on this one. Back lip from the flat. I totally forgot this guy's name...can anyone help me out? He was killing it anyway.

Alec had a pretty frustrating session. He spent the whole time trying to stick this front blunt pop out, but he just couldn't quite stick it.

Alec looking frustrated between tries.

Looking at the enemy.

Looking pretty beat.

Session over.

Calumonn.com

2008-06-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of my shots of Guffey front feeblin' from a few weeks ago are up on Calumonn. Check out the site and I think you'll agree with me that it's worth bookmarking.

Lunch Break.

2008-06-11T17:51:00.000-07:00

Alright so here is the second set of photos from this one roll of FP4.

This trailer randomly showed up on the dirt one day. Alf mocks it by taking a giant bite of his sandwich.

Yeah Alf! Handle that shit!

Alright the rest of the photos are going to be from a walk my esteemed colleagues and I took to the sandwich shop and back. Exciting I know. Here we have a head shot of the Alf.

A lot of epic work has been showing up on the backside of the warehouse.

Left foot stride.

Deegs, Jakobe, and Alf strolling.

More strolling.

Deegs is sketch. Finishing off his pre lunch brew.

A bit later. So fresh.

Crossing the tracks.

Alf didn't hesitate when I asked someone to go stand out there.

Pretty sketch.

Strolling across the bridge. "Oh look at us looking all sexy with our sweet shades on."

Jakobe made a good point. Why put a fake tree in the middle of the industrial district? Trying to blend in with the scenery?

Jakobe has been rocking a sweet beard.

Badasses.

Deegs is an ace because he conquered his sandwich before we were even half way back to the warehouse.

Finished off the roll with this shot. Main Street near the bridge over the LA River.

Some Film!

2008-06-09T22:10:00.000-07:00

So I just recently developed the first role of film I've shot in a while. Since I'm so broke I'm making every frame count and behaving like a total amateur by posting practically each frame I shot. Sweet. Here are some of the shots from the first portion of the roll.

This is the Chiparaki warehouse, which is where I work. All the shots in the next two posts are going to be based around this awesome place.

I decided to have a photo session in the bathroom for no good reason. For a more awesome version of this photo, check Alf's awesome flier for a party you should of been at.

I'm fucking deep. I should of done something more like this.

Wall meets window in the bathroom. Really fucking similar to this older shot of mine.

This could be a paint roller. Reminds me of book I recently had to read for my Social Psych class. "Mindfulness" by Ellen Langer (looking fresh!).

View of the bathroom roof from the toilet. What some other people look at.

The dirt right outside Chiparaki. Not too long ago (1984) this dirt and the field to the right looked like this. You can even see the Chiparaki building over on the left of the frame.

Anyway, sorry for the boring non skating post. Be prepared for another one in a couple days.

Dena Ditch Again.

2008-05-24T14:52:00.000-07:00

Went out to this Pasadena ditch spot again with the UCLA homies. It was fun but some asshole waxed the shit out of the floor on the landing, so we all ate shit a lot.

James has skinny steeze. Check the back smith.

I don't think Suraj landed this switch nosegrind, but it was probably because of the stupid wax.

For some reason Suraj thought it would be a good idea to wear this epic Santa long sleeve. He thought he was hard cause he had a little boo boo on his knuckles.

I, on the other hand (pun intended), am a true badass with dried blood all over my arm.

Matt was looking fresh.

James doing a super sweet drop in.

If you look closely enough you might be able to see James' steezy back tail.

Stretch, Sk8, Suraj, Smith.

And now, with a completely different color balance, back smith again. Check the chicken wing.

LACC

2008-05-19T19:58:00.000-07:00

So for some reason everything is underlined. Sweet. So a little while ago I went to LACC with some people. Here's what I shot.

Guffey wasted no time getting straight into this back feebs.

After a while he moved up to front feeble. Justin Ponce was also shooting, maybe his photo will eventually show up on Calumonn.

A closer look.

A blacker look. Guffey kills it. Anyone familiar with UCLA should check out this link. How insane is Guffey's tre flip?

Tyler touches down on a nollie crooks.

Back foot nosegrind?

After LACC we went to this ridiculous rail on Vermont, but not surprisingly, nothing was landed.

Public Policy.

2008-05-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

Just a small little post, but I have some more photos that I've just been too lazy to deal with yet. They should be up real soon. For now I have a few photos from a little session at the Public Policy building at UCLA. I've been skating this spot after class a lot lately, it's a good time for sure.

Pretty random. I found this frame on my memory card and thought it was sort of funny. Matt and Kevin fix pushing.

Kevin takes off.

Suraj throws some steeze on this back smith.

All lines lead me to believe Matt is gliding a crooks across that smooth coping.

Suraj desaturates his back smith steeze.

Oh yeah, fuck UCSB. Last night someone stole my board at my friend's birthday party. I'm pretty sure it was this guy. He's probably pushing mongo on his way to Freebirds as I type this.

Tweaker Zine.

2008-04-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

Go check out tweakerzine.com! Not only are they a rad independent skateboarding and art online magazine, but they also just did a feature with my photos and Jesus' Scummish Activity trailer. For our feature just click on the scroll thingy in the top right and find "Its a Los Angeles Thing."
Or I guess you could just click this link. But I highly recommend you check out the whole mag, it's good shit.

Arizona Trip - Day Four.

2008-04-16T20:03:00.000-07:00

Alright so this is this last post of the Arizona stuff. On day five we just drove home and didn't do any skating unfortunately.

The first spot we hit up was this super fun thunderbird skate park. This photo might be really shitty, but check out Mike's salute.

Alec was killing it as usual. Back smith over the hump.

One trick wasn't enough of course. Back tail over the hump.

Ian was getting some footage.

Broah was...Broah. Check his shots from the day: Broahtography

For the second year in a row Mike just barely could not land this front board. It was ridiculous how close he was getting. Next year Mike, next year.

After thunderbird we got directions to this cactus ditch spot. Even though there were rocks everywhere, it was still fun. Mike was feeling it.

Evan started things off on this thing with a gap to grinder.

Evan again. I think he might of 5-0ed this one.

Mike was popping some steezed out ollies.

Straight ahead.

Mike reinforces Asian stereotypes with this flying ninja kick snap.

Evan has fun with a foot planter.

Last but not least is Alec with a frontside 27o to slider. He only got to try it a few times before we got kicked out by a park ranger, which sucks cause he had it for sure. Next year? I hope so.

Arizona Trip - Day Three

2008-04-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

So on day three we started off the day at the amazing Pecos skate park.

Mike dips his nose in preparation for landing in the tranny pocket after clearing the flat bank.

Alec frontside airs out of the tranny pocket and over the flat bank. My shadow makes it look like I'm wearing some sweet JNCO's.

Broah got crazy with his grip tape.

Mike is stoked to be at Pecos.

This angle doesn't do the trick justice at all. This is Mike slashing copping frontside on the super steep tranny wall.

This kinda gives an idea of how tall and tight the beastly thing is.

Another view. Once again this one kinda fails to convey how damn tight this thing was.

Jose, Colin, and Alec in the van.

Tyler scopes out this "spot" that was a few blocks away from where we were staying. We didn't get to skate it for long, but fortunately everyone threw down a bunch of flip tricks really quickly.

Evan was feeling it.

Tyler spins a kickflip with typical mellow Tyler steeze.

Alec keeps a close eye on Ian's tre flip.

Broah comes through with a banger: fakie frontside flip.

Evan has to show everyone up and take his nollie heel to the next level.

Ian spins another smooth tre flip.

If you haven't already, go check out Broah's corresponding day three post.

Arizona Trip - Day Two.

2008-04-12T21:19:00.001-07:00

Ah yes, the annual spring time Arizona trip. For the last few days I have been skating around the Phoenix area with Alec Beck, Colin Cook, Mike Limb, Broah, Zach Plehn, Jose, Tyler Kindred, and the Edwards bros. I missed out on the day one skating cause I couldn't leave LA until the evening, but check Broah's day one post. On the second day of the trip I wasn't feeling very inspired to shoot so I spent most of my day skating, but here are the photos that I did come up with.

The first spot we hit up was this skate park in Chandler with this pretty burly bank to wall. Alec handled a back tail no problem.

Mike frontside airs into the same tranny that Alec just tweaked an indy out of as Ian captures the footy.

Yeah this photo sucks, but I had to post it because of the awesome view of Alec's rear.

Teamwork. Another view of this epic threesome at work.

After Chandler we hit up the infamous Tempe skate park. As it was getting dark Alec was killing this cradle thing in the bowl, so I was forced to whip out the camera. Here he does a proper back smith.

A long lens view of Alec's gnarly back smith.

After getting bored of back smiths, Alec moved on to back crail slides. Here he delicately pinches his nose with sophisticated steeze.

Now go check out Broah's day two photos and sequences.

Killing it in the streets of Santa Monica.

2008-04-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I met up with Tyler Kindred to skate around Santa Monica and get some urby as fuck photos. After accomplishing that we met up with the one and only Jake Eames who was soon followed by Michigonians Dan Mancina and Max Schwartz. Oh yeah and Cory was up in there too but I didn't get any photos of him (sorry Cory!). All in all, it was great session. Here are the photos I came up with. Enjoy!

If you've seen Scummish Activity then you've seen Tyler do an epic line with a switch tre over the sand gap then wallie this tree. Here he adds a nose grab for extra urby points.

I couldn't decide which photo I liked more, so you get both.

After hitting up the beach we rolled over to this wallride spot on Lincoln and Tyler killed it with an extra little method grab out.

Heres the long lens version.

Later on we met up with Jake and skated this other sketchy wallride spot on the side of SAMO next to the freeway. Jake was pushing backside wallrides no problem.

Jake is awesome.

And he is good at skateboarding.

I can't believe I caught Tyler smiling.

Jake producing some epic shadow puppets.

Is that suppose to be a duck?

Uhhh.

Stoked.

Not stoked.

Dan shows up!

I had to snap a photo when these guys on scooters came by.

I love skateboarding.

Jake thinking about his next attempt.

I still love skateboarding.

Right towards the end of the session Max comes through and lands one of these ridiculous mega pop crooked grind taps. There is only a couple inches of space between the edge of the ledge and the fence. Needless to say I had to make him redo it for a photo. He landed it a couple more times but I never really got the photo I wanted, lets go back and shoot it again Max!

Scummish Activity!!!

2008-03-27T17:36:00.000-07:00

It's finally here!!! Check the trailer if you don't know what this is. To pick up your own copy you can either head down to ZJ's at the corner of Main Street and Ocean Park in Santa Monica. Or you can order one online from their website. If you don't live in the US or Canada and you want one you can email me at tfitzgibbon@ucla.edu and we can work something out. Anyway, in honor of the official release of Scummish Activity I am posting up a bunch of photos that I never posted and are of tricks in the video.

This heelflip from Mike Limb is in the friends section, and it's fucking insane.

But what is even more insane is that Josh Campos nollie flipped the thing, which is one of his bangers towards the end of his part.

Josh is amazing. Switch backside flip.

Josh actually didn't land this nollie 180, but you check out the slam he took in the bails section.

Alec Beck shows off his versatility with a switch pop shuv over Josh's rail gap.

Another angle of the switch pop shuv.

Jake Eames shares a part with Ray Maldonado in the video, but for some reason this ollie wasn't in there. Whats up with that Jesus? I'm calling you out.

Tyler Kindred has a few tricks in the friends section. This steezy front feeble is one of them.

Eddie Flores also has a mini part within the friends section, this back salad was his last trick.

Alright so this back lip from Alec Beck didn't make the cut because he back lipped something better, but still Alec killed this rail in is part.

This switch flip from Josh Campos is massive, but it didn't even make the cut for his part, thats how amazing his part is. If you wanna see the footage of this switch flip you'll find it in the bonus montage.

Yeah I know my photos of it suck, but i was haven't major camera difficulties and ended up having to shoot film for the first time in a while. Oh and only two of my flashes were working. Anyway, if you've seen Scummish you know that this is the last trick in the video and it's a front crook indy grab that certainly speaks for itself. I was honored just to be there and witness the madness. If you've seen John Cardiel's epicly later'd then just think back to what Julien Stranger said about his drop in at burnside, thats what it was like witnessing this.

More Suraj!

2008-03-11T22:35:00.001-07:00

Sick of Suraj photos yet? These are from a couple weeks ago, but I've been too busy to edit and post them. Enjoy.

Yay for Suraj back tails!

Fucking psycho.

Hey did you ever end up landing this back lip Suraj? He probably didn't cause all he knows how to do are back tails.

Yes another back tail! At least this time I focused on something a little more interesting...

Suraj was trying to impress the ladies on other side of stadium.

Alright, Suraj actually does get props from me on this one. Front board pop out on the ultra sketchy bench of death.

Suraj Session Part 2.

2008-02-17T16:41:00.000-08:00

Alright. Here is round two at the Melnitz ledge.

Immediately making up for the lack of back tail photos on the bench.

More back tail.

Suraj is ahead of the game...ha...

Back smiff!

Suraj trying to find me.

Hell yeah. Suraj grinding through a proper back smith.

Epic Suraj Photo Sesh Part 1.

2008-02-15T21:15:00.000-08:00

Damn, its been over a month. Been really busy with school so I haven't been shooting much. Been skating a lot with Suraj around UCLA lately and the other day my knee was hurting so I busted out the camera for a change. This is the first batch of photos from skating that day, I'll post up the next batch within the next couple days.

Suraj gets his crooks on.

In case you didn't know already, Europeans are fucking weird.

Oh so graceful haha. Suraj gets his no comply on.

Skateboarders get to experience things that most people don't, like laying on the floor of grimey parking lot.

Front crooks.

High enough for you Suraj? 360 flip.

This would of been a back tail, but we got kicked out, because clearly we were bothering a lot people by skating on the top floor of an abandoned parking lot. Noseslide.

Dena Ditch.

2008-01-13T21:51:00.000-08:00

Pasadena/Altadena is an interesting area. Skated this awesome ditch out there today, was a lot of fun. I only shot for a few minutes because I wanted skate, but here is what I came up with.

Not sure if Cory landed this backside 180 nosegrind, but he was getting into them perfectly.

Josue killed it today. Here he is easily balancing a fakie five oh.

Jesus stole my trick. This is a front nose that is way steezier than any I've ever done.

More Josue. Back tail.
Sorry Suraj and Whitey, we'll get some flicks next time.

LEAVES.

2007-12-28T22:10:00.001-08:00

Went skating at Paul Revere again, but this time Josue and Jesus joined us. We got there really late, so all we really did was sesh this awesome pile of leaves that was on one of the banks.

Christian was really enjoying the leaves.

Faces are overrated haha. Mr. Campos shows off his backside flip.

Campos spins a tre.

Hahaha. As if you couldn't tell, Jesus was helping out by throwing leaves at Josue. 360 flip again.

Hell yeah Jesus! No comply 180.

Josue Campos boosting an ollie, frontside.

Yeah go me! I should of posted my frontside ollie before Josue's. Jesus gets credit for the photo.

This one is sick Jesus! Josue kickflicks to fakie. Once again shot by Jesus.

Jesus was trying to shoot a photo of Christian doing a 360 flip on flat with leaves flying everywhere, but my flash was running low on batteries and wouldn't fire. I rescued the ridiculously underexposed image in photoshop and got this spooky thing.

A Whole Lotta Christian.

2007-12-23T19:08:00.000-08:00

Had a quick little session with Christian at Paul Revere the other day. After skating for a while I decided to climb up on top of the gym and get some pictures.

This is Christian doing a backside pop shuvit.

These shots are kinda played out in skate photography, but fuck it, I love them anyway. 360 flip.

Sorry Christian for making you do so many damn tre flips!

A closer look. If you know Christian, you know he has the best tre flips, but I don't think my photos really show just how awesome they are. The best part about them is the way he really stomps them down hard on the bolts; the exact opposite of little kid tre flips.

I had to get a photo of this little kid who was shredding up the banks with his dad.

A million tre flips later and Christian was still somehow in a good mood.

Definitely think I like the horizontal version more.

Christian came up with this idea, so give him credit if you like it!

The Infamous Chinatown Loading Dock.

2007-12-21T18:38:00.000-08:00

Headed over to the east side of downtown for a session earlier today. We couldn't get the photo we set out to for because of some parked cars, so we settled for a more mellow session at the always fun Chinatown loading dock. I busted out my camera for a bit while Jake and Sean we trying to film some tech hammers.

This shot was pretty accidental, but I like it for some reason.

Jake Eames is a beast. Locking in to nollie flip back tails no problem.

Some more nollie flip back tail.

This is the pose Christian came up with when he saw that I was shooting a photo of him.

Watch out for Jake's part in Ian Edward's upcoming video "Cali Haze." Some more nollie back tail.

A lurker watches Christian Schultz ollie off the launch.

Sean Bowers balancing a switch back nosegrind.

Christian joined me on the center divider, so I shot a picture.

Not Skating.

2007-12-19T20:49:00.001-08:00

I spent this past weekend up in Lake Arrowhead with a bunch of friends, but I only busted out my camera once while we walked around the neighborhood looking for somewhere to go sledding.

Andrew punched through a giant slab of ice. Hahaha.

The rest of these photos were all taken with the old cliched photographic concept of "man vs. nature" sort of in mind.

I was obsessed with basketball when I was kid. I was feeling kinda nostalgic one afternoon last week and decided to shoot a couple photos of the hoop in my backyard that I grew up playing on. It's funny how old and dilapidated it is now. Go Lakers!

Hopefully next post will be full of epic skate photos and not this random bullshit you guys don't care about.

The Best Place in Malibu.

2007-11-17T19:43:00.000-08:00

Went skating at the infamous abandoned house spot in Malibu yesterday. Shot some photos of Alec Beck and Justin Cefai killing the ridiculous pole jam. Enjoy.

Didn't do a good job of showing the landing, oh well. Justin floating after jamming.

Justin is amazing. Pole jam back 180.

The strangely overcast day in the Bu' didn't seem to bother Alec, he did this pole jam tuck knee a million times.

More sweet knee tuckin' action!

What the hell? Is his back knee touching his board? If he can bend like that on a skateboard, imagine what he could do in bedroom ladies. Thats Mr. Grajeda up there filming. Get hyped for the Scummish Activity premiere later this month and watch the trailer on his blog!

Been a while.

2007-11-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

Haven't been able to shoot much lately, UCLA and work has been kicking my ass. Fortunately, I was able to shoot for the first time in ages at this awesome spot in Irvine.

Josue was killing it as usual. 360 flip over the barrier.

More Campos, backside flip.

Maximus got this nice front crook on the third step.

Josue skidding a back tail.

It was getting pretty dark so I busted out the flashes, I liked the natty light way more. Maximus - front crook.

I feel like people are gonna hate me for this shot. Thats Hendy nosegrinding up there.

Little Evan Edwards has a got a beauty of a frontside flick.

Hendy's 360 flip was perfs.

Some more frontside flip catch action from Evan.

Tyler Skates a Rail.

2007-10-14T15:15:00.001-07:00

Went to this rail the other day to watch Tyler Kindred destroy it. I just messed around and experimented a lot, heres what I came up with.

The team at work. Go to 411vm.com to see the clip Jesus made from this session.

Fucked with the colors on this one.

Jesus, we really gotta get this Moomat shit going.

Nollie.

Nollie.

Whitey looking trim!

Jesus looking trim!

Ty was stressing for a bit, but he got his trick.

I guess skating a handrail for an couple hours is tiring or something.

Switch Front Board.

Last and least is me being an awful photographer and shooting photos of my big head instead of Ty's trick.

Alec's Backside Up.

2007-10-07T15:43:00.000-07:00

Went to Chino park the other night at Alec was throwing himself upside down doing this backflip invert thingy over the spine, so i had to throw on my on-cam flash and get a couple quick shots.

Here we get a lovely view of Mr. Beck's behind.

How 80's does this shot look? Oh my Taylor, that shot is sooooo 80's! If that light trail on Alec's face was just a little higher it would of made the most epic moustache .

The enemy is listening to his Ipod. Check how Alec added a tuck knee into this one (he landed it too). Why is he so good? And why does he look like a depressed grandpa in all these pictures? We may never know.