Comittment

Lately, I'd been thinking about this piece of video footage that I'd filmed back in 1994 with Sean Young. This mellow kid arrived from Atlanta and was a new resident to San Francisco at the time. I'm not sure where it came from, but he'd acquired the guts and determination to bomb down the many steep hills all over the city. No foot drags whatesoever. Here he is dropping a straight line down Jones Street on a busy mid afternoon. The rest is history as they say.

From The Jam Drops in on Stumptown

Late in January I had the chance to catch the reunion tour with the UK's original Jammers Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler and their touring outfit known as From The Jam. Along with Dave Moore (guitar and keyboards) and Russell Hastings stepping up for The Jam's vocalist and front man Paul Weller, the power and energy of FTJ was captivating as they rocked through anthems of my youth. Without a doubt, Hastings took control and properly filled the shoes, vocals and guitar duty Weller left behind over 25 years ago. When I closed my eyes, the band's audible energy (and vocals) filled the small confines of Portland's Aladdin Theater as if I was listening to The Jam live. Note for note, their performance was great.

From their set list they nailed The Jam's greatest hits - "Going Underground", "Down in the Tube Station at Midnight", "The Eton Rifles", "Strange Town", "Town Called Malice" and one of my favorites, "Smithers Jones." It was an amazing evening not soon to forget. Thanks for the heads up on this one Chris!

Animated and Virtualized

Last year I was asked to be involved as a real life character within Activision's newest edition of Tony Hawk's highly acclaimed skateboarding video game titled "Proving Ground". At first, I wasn't so warm to the idea, but after a bit of thought, I gave into having my likeness animated and voice digitized for the sake of entertainment. The experience is something that I can look back on years from now and perhaps show my family and grandkids. Although, at the moment I've still to reach the "career level" of the game where I (my character) interacts with Stevie Williams at Philadelphia's renowned Love Park.

Check out the game trailer in the window below. And look for the guy clutching the camera wearing the green jacket with the SkateDaily.net tee shirt. Ha!

Priceless Bad Ass

This one is dedicated to all of the Mark Gonzales fans out there. The date was April somethin' or other of 1988 and we had legally gained permission and access with the US Park Service to shoot a feature story on Alcatraz for Thrasher magazine. We brought along a rented prison suit and shot some images within the prison walls and in the exerise yard under the pretense that there would be no actual skateboarding. Well, long story short, our assigned ranger left us to our own accountability and we did what skaters do and got kicked off the rock by his not-so-impressed superiors.

On our way back to the ferry dock below, Gonz opted to hit up this banked wall just for the sake of being a bad ass. This image was never published and the rest is history. I wonder how many more gems I have floating around my photo archive.

2000 Tahitian Eyeballs

Back in the summer of 1987 I was shipped off to French Polynesia for spontaneous skate demo in Papeete, Tahiti. My clothing sponsor at the time, Billabong wanted to seed the Tahitian surf culture with modern skateboarding and I was put to the task literally.

While some street spots were discovered and skated during my visit, there were no skateparks or suitable skate areas for a demo. As a result, I worked with Tahiti's Ministry of Sport, pulled together a lumber list, drew up some quick plans and got dirty with the local carpenters. In one afternoon we built a narrow half pipe, a manual box/ledge and two jump ramps for the previously announced and arranged skate demo. I mean, it was promoted in the local newspaper and on the local TV stations so the pressure was on.

The photo above depicts this solo skate demonstration in the South Pacific where all eyes were definitely fixed on me. Fun, but not fun.

Hell Bent Hill Jockeys

Several months ago I took to the streets of SF to film this short piece with a pair of thrill-seeking madmen. Although they had no previous experience with seated stuntboarding they were up to the task and took care of business.

Far East Flavor

As 2007 rolled towards an end, the adidas Skateboarding team embarked on a tour to China (via Hong Kong) to sample much of the new, varied and abundant street terrain in Shenzhen and Shanghai. A mandatory stop at the "World's Largest Skatepark" located just outside of Shanghai was also on our hit list. That place is truly ridiculous!

Have a look to view some of the moments we lived and experienced under the cloak of the dimmed afternoon sun. Yes, there's no place like home when you've been on foreign soil for over two weeks.

Mandatory thanks go out to Eric Ray, Lee Jay, Brian Siswojo and the entire crew at adidas Asia/Pacific for their time and help to show us a great time in their regions of the world!