Concrete Skateboarding Issue 103 2009 Photo Annual

2009 PHOTO ANNUAL Issue 103 . November 2009

E d t e A r t K e n r o d n c h r i t o n

PHOTO ANNUAL i s s u e 1 0 3 CANADA & USA $5.95

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TOREY PUDWILL BACKSIDE TAILSLIDE. THE DAYTON SHOWN IN NAVY SUEDE. ORIGINAL INTENT IS SOLD EXCLUSIVELY AT LICENSED DVS DEALERS. GO TO DVSSHOES.COM/SKATE FOR MORE INFO.

Justin Eldridge. Lipslide to Switch Backside Noseblunt in his signature Theory 1.5. Photo: Atiba. esfootwear.com timebombtrading.com stickers@timebomb.bc.ca

TEN YEARS STRONG

MARC JOHNSON FRONTBOARD 270

MJ2 SELECT / CHARCOAL SUEDE LAKAI LIMITED FOOTWEAR: THE SHOES WE SKATE / JOHNSON / CARROLL / MARIANO / HOWARD / FOSTER WELSH / BIEBEL / LENOCE / CAPALDI / ALVAREZ / FERNANDEZ / PUIG / GILLET / BRADY / JENSEN 955 Francisco Street, Torrance, CA 90502 / www.lakai.com / www.supradistribution.com / sequence by colen

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pictures

40

Staying Lost

52

Forever in the making

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Shuttering From Belgium and Beyond

76

Manipulating Perspective

84

Video Days (and Years)

100 20 22 138 140

by Ed Templeton

snapshots from afghanistan, Belarus, and the Ukraine by Kenny Reed

Lenswork by Arto Saari

The Skate photography of Jelle Keppens

Exploring 4x5 and digital Tilt-Shift photography

How video shoots evolved and changed skateboarding

Exposure Identity // Fred Mortagne Identity // Brian Gaberman The Five Spot // J. Grant Brittain The Five Spot // Michael Burnett

The Bat Cave cover photo and caption

Jay Bridges

This place is known as the Scuttle Holes, north of Belleville, Ontario. It’s a giant hole in the ground that leads to a cave, which leads to the Moira River – I would go fishing there with my buddies when I was a kid.

It’s kinda scary ‘cause if you were to walk down the trail at night you might fall into the hole and die. Dave Nolan almost fell into it trying that 360 flip because the plywood runway was super sketchy and set on a downhill. There was also a bat in the cave when I got there to set-up, but I threw a rock and it bounced.

Duncan McNaughton backside tailslide photo

Jeff Comber

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PUBLISHER Kevin Harris EDITOR / ART DIRECTOR Kelly Litzenberger kelly@concreteskateboarding.com staff photographer / PHOTO EDITOR Brian Caissie brian@concreteskateboarding.com associate EDITOR Frank Daniello frank@concreteskateboarding.com Web / Prepress Dave Keras davek@concreteskateboarding.com

Distributing Memories by

Nick Shinner

“My work has vitality because I have helped, done my part, in revealing to others the living world about them, showing to them what their own unseeing eyes had missed.”

—Edward Weston, American portrait and landscape photographer (1886-1958).

A camera is nothing without its operator and an opportune moment. Today’s photographer could interpret the above Weston quote as capturing unique moments, then distributing them for others to witness for the first time. This fundamental value is what helps advance all that is good and proper in both skateboarding and the techniques involved with capturing it. Essentially, photography communicates important points of reference to a widespread global skate community.

While Exposure stands as our extended photo gallery of moves shot by an assortment of talented skate photographers [p.100], we also have an assortment of photographed moments from a few elite skaters who happen to be talented at wielding the camera themselves...

Over the years, Ed Templeton has published photo books such as The Golden Age of Neglect [2004] and Deformer [2009]. It’s evident that Ed’s camera is always close-by to capture the odd, awkward, or otherwise. Needless to say, we were pretty damn hyped when he sent over some hand-captioned photographs [p.28].

Kenny Reed – a well-known globetrotter with a very signature style on-board – often disappears to experience corners of the world many will never visit. Kenny humbly brought us a little snippet of Afghanistan, Belarus, and the Ukraine [p.40], and we thank him for that.

Most people are less familiar with Arto Saari’s passion for photography than they are with his 7-ply footwork. After his hard-nosed efforts filming for Alien’s Mind Field, and amidst his 10

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current endeavours, Arto found the time to provide us with a selection of images after two calendars worth of requests [p.52].

We’ve been keeping an eye on the photography of Belgium’s highly published Jelle Keppens ever since he sent us an impressive still of Alain Goikoetxea’s stalefish for the contents page of our 2008 Photo Annual. This time around, Jelle exemplifies skate photography as a means of communication by providing a stack of creatively shot skateboarding from well across the Atlantic pond [p.64].

Since skate photography influenced its motion picture counterpart, Sean Mortimer chose to explore this well-oiled video machine for Concrete. The insight he gathered spans 25 years and involves the personal filming experiences of Tony Hawk, Kevin Harris, Ed Templeton, Chris Haslam, Jordan Hoffart, and Rodney Mullen [p.84].

Welcome to the 2009 Photo Annual, Concrete’s fifth, which comes at a time when we’re all speeding down an Information Autobahn during a very Digital Age. Computers do provide the means to view stills, animated sequences and video drawn from sometimes-unreliable mechanical memories. But the screen-viewing medium can never be compared to the organic showcase of quality memories – photographed and presented on printed matter “revealing to others the living world about them,” as Weston said.

Take a look, and take your time.

guest designer Randy Laybourne Marketing Director Richard Neuman richard@concreteskateboarding.com Marketing Associate Kristin Lamont kristin@concreteskateboarding.com Administrator Dave Buhr Contributing Photographers jay bridges, jeff comber fred mortagne, brian gaberman ed templeton, kenny reed arto saari, jelle keppens leo sharp, dave todon J. grant brittain, mike blake miki vuckovich, deville nunes keith henry, owen woytowich rich odam, josh hotz sam muller, joe krolick dan zaslavsky, eric mirbach stephen denton, mike stanfield ben karpinski contributing Writers frank daniello, Ed Templeton niall neeson, kenny reed ryan allan, arto saari jelle keppens, sean mortimer Distribution Ultimate Skateboard Dist. east 705.749.2998 west 604.279.8408

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issue 104 December 18th, 2009

And faster than gerbil with a bottle rocket stuffed in his puckered starďŹ sh...

Photograph by: GrifďŹ n Collins

WELCOME TO THE TEAM, ERIC KOSTON.

POLE JAM TRANSFER, LOS ANGELES.

A PORTION OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE ETNIES THUNDER RVL WILL GO TO THE JOHNNYKICKSCANCER FOUNDATION. VISIT J-GROM.BLOGSPOT.COM AND DLXSF.COM FOR MORE INFORMATION.

etniesskate.com timebomtrading.com stickers@timebomb.bc.ca

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Identity

Lyon, France’s Fred Mortagne – better known to the skate world as French Fred – started filming in 1993 and began experimenting with still photography in 2001. He became widely known for his work in epic video projects such as Menikmati (éS, 2000), Sorry (Flip, 2002), and Bon Appetit (Cliché, 2003). As for still photos, French Fred’s work has been published in almost every major skate mag in Europe and North America.

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Identity

Brian Gaberman is known as a 4x5 aficionado – his body of work combines a unique, timeless vision coupled with classic technique. His skate photography has appeared in all major US publications over the years, and he currently works as an Element advocate. When Gaberman isn’t out capturing quality images, he can be found in the garden growing “anything edible, and a few things not” somewhere in Northern California.

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Location: Minsk, Belarus This spot was unskateable for a long time until a new Mayor was put in place recently.

Nestor Judkins, nollie flip down the banks.

They say you never know someone until you travel with them.

In 20 years of skating and traveling around on-board, I have met all walks.

Professional skaters tend to be a drag to travel with because they’re used to somebody else paying for dinner and reminding them to breathe. This makes some of them aloof and reluctant to demonstrate their talents to anybody other than the accompanying media.

Not so with Kenny.

Of all the sponsored skaters I have ever met, he is the most willing to rough it, mix it up with the locals, and throw down for the sake of the session.

Limelight averse, Kenny rarely documents his skating. In an exposureoverloaded era, this surrounding mystique has made skaters more, not less, keen to see his game.

Although hailing from upstate New York, Kenny did the California thing as any aspiring Pro must. He became a mainstay of the SF scene during its heyday, before tiring of the Industry Babylon and electing to hit the road on a more or less permanent basis.

By now, where he hasn’t been would probably take up less space than to chronicle his intervening years. And truth be told, the acclaim of the spotlight makes this inner-shy kid squirm a bit, so let me round it out by saying: The humblest of people, Kenny is a man alive in the moment – living life through the senses in the here-and-now as we all should. Having learned his craft at the foot of the masters in the great stone temples of our time, he chose the pilgrim’s path – taking the message of our secret faith to all corners of the far-flung globe.

Kenny Reed is more than a skateboard Pro. He is a skateboard evangelist.

More fire,

Niall Neeson Founding Editor, Kingpin (UK) kingpinskateboarding.com

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previous spread

– left

Location: Kabul, Afghanistan A soldier guarding the Queen’s palace. I think we both made each other’s day that afternoon.

He let us in to have a look and skate around the building, which was almost completely destroyed. We watched him try to skate for the first time while holding an AK-47.

previous spread

– right

Location: Kabul, Afghanistan We searched some neighborhoods in the hills and found this little stair gap. The local people were curious, friendly and cheering us on, which is not always the case when skating spots in front of someone’s house.

Maysam Faraj, 360 flip.

Location: Donetsk, Ukraine

We saw this spot while driving along the highway. This was a closed city during Soviet times where they designed and manufactured intercontinental ballistic missiles. Adam Alfaro, backside disaster.

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Location: Kabul, Afghanistan Macroyan is the main spot where all the kids come to skate in the afternoon. The girl in the photo, Louisa Menke, came with us from Europe. The Skateistan crew [skateistan.org] comes by Macroyan every day with a van full of boards to hand out to the kids. Recently, a suicide bomb attack took place 100 metres from this skate spot – now they have to find new spots in the city, which is difficult because of space and good ground.Â

Location: Kabul, Afghanistan It’s always a good feeling to see kids pick up a board for the first time. Even if only for five minutes, its a simple and innocent way to communicate. Concrete skateboarding

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Me – Black Eye California A self-portrait of my black eye and naturally massive nose shot in 2008 during the last week of filming for Alien Workshop’s Mind Field. This was actually from the last clip I filmed and it ended up opening my part in the video – a lipslide faceplant. Thank you very much, I am done filming for now.

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Forever in the Making Lenswork by Arto Saari

intro by Ryan Allan captions by Arto Saari

“It actually happened!?” That was my reaction when I received an email from Brian Caissie about Arto’s photo portfolio being in the Annual. You see, Brian and I have been trying to get this together for about two years – I personally didn’t think we’d ever pull it off.

Arto is one busy dude. Whether it’s shoe design, team choices or generally how things should be done, he’s been instrumental in the launch of Gravis Footwear [gravisfootwear.com]. Arto has also been traveling and filming a part for the upcoming Analog Clothing [analogclothing.com] video – yet another project he’s deeply involved with. To top it all off, he is constantly updating the house he recently purchased, and I’m not talking about just paying some Ty Pennington type to come in and do it all either. Arto is out there with a saw and hammer each and every morning.

So when I mentioned being skeptical about this portfolio making it into Concrete, it’s not because Arto is lazy like many skaters-turned-artists. It’s quite the opposite. Arto is someone that dives into what he’s doing, and dives in headfirst. He got into photography early on and really immersed himself in it. Arto was surrounded by artists and absorbed every bit of info off them he could. Combine that with his gear-obsession, and you have the makings of a great photographer. That is, if you can get him away from his other obligations.

Reggie McKay and May Anderson Hollywood, California

Steve Forstner – Ollie into the bank Madrid, Spain

Reggie and May share a moment of love. I don’t think either one of them needs an introduction.

Right where Steve rides away is possibly the busiest intersection in Madrid. With people everywhere, he waited for the right moment and went for it. Got it. Sealed the deal.

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(top photo) Grand Canyon Riverflow Supai Indian Reservation, Arizona

(bottom photo) Conhuir Lynn – frontside rock Somewhere deep in Texas

Hasselblad XPan: 50 ISO, a red 2-stop filter, and a tripod.

This photo was shot on one of many epic camping trips.Â

One stylish mofo!

(this page) Steve Forstner – frontside noseslide Madrid, Spain Here’s Steve Forstner performing a pinnacle frontside noseslide during one of the first Gravis trips to Madrid in 2008. He came along as a friend to shred with, and to have good times, but he wasn’t actually on the team until mid-trip. Steve traveled with a pack, sleeping bag, and maybe three boards wrapped in a black trash bag (he was planning on sleeping in the bushes in front of every hotel we would stay at – a truly epic statement). He would get out of the car at every spot, motivate everyone else to skate, and talk shit about bad American diets.

(other page) Omar Salazar Sacramento, California One of Omar’s prized possessions, a Puch moped. A week before we took a trip to Sacto, he told me he got into mopeds. When we got there, he had three sitting at his house. Omar was like, “Dude, this one rides like this...” while taking it for a spin out front and letting us take turns on ‘em. He was so amped, and so were we. If you want to get a moped that’s tuned up, get ahold of Mike Rafter – he builds ‘em up.

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Ewan Bowman German Autobahn This is Ewan doing a pedal-to-the-metal in Ali Boulala’s Caddy on the way to Scandoland. He was wearing a head-piece that belongs to the Munich leather scene. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words, but in this case the eyes tell a story of a summer in Barcelona with the Flip crew. And let me tell you, that definitely needs more than a few thousand words.

David Gonzalez – kickflip frontboard San Diego, California When David mentioned he wanted to do this, I was already shit scared for him.

I was thinking this kid is out of his mind (which might very well be the case). Like any other sunny California day, we drove down to SD and checked the school. No cops.

So we hopped the fence, and after barely getting the cameras out, he was already frontboarding the rail like it was a plate of rice and beans that he eats at home every day for lunch. Next thing you know, he was spitting on the ground from the side of his mouth saying, “Fuck it! Satan! Hell baby, yeah!” He went for it every go and on maybe the fifth one he road away clean as a whistle. I shat myself and fell off the thrash can where I was shooting the sequence thinking: “Fuck! I ruined the ride away!” But it looks like it’s all good. This is one of the gnarliest bits of skating I have ever witnessed.

ALL HAIL COLUMBIA! 60

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•

Shuttering From Belgium And Beyond The Skate Photography of

Jelle Keens intro by

Frank Daniello Jelle Keppens

captions by

A decade ago, Belgium’s Jelle Keppens would have never guessed that an opportunity to partake in a feature photo-folio would arise, especially in a Canadian magazine. This is due to the fact that photography was of little interest to Keppens back when he was studying at Henri Van De Velde Institute in Antwerp. At the time, he was more content with washing dishes than pulling the trigger.

“I was still studying for my degree in Product Design and Development – which included courses in photography,” says the 30 year-old from Mechelen, located near Brussels. “I didn’t know anything about photography, but my Mom did. She was interested enough to shoot the photos I needed for class. During the second year at school, I even hustled a friend into shooting some photos for me in exchange for doing his dishes. I hated walking around town shooting photos back then, and would rather spend my time hanging out and skating at the local spot.”

After obtaining his degree in 2002, Keppens suffered a knee injury that “made it pretty much impossible to skate for a long time.” The idea that photography could keep him involved in skateboarding initiated what would eventually lead to a productive and preferred life behind the lens. Keppens’ freelance work has appeared in numerous 64

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European skate publications such as Freestyler [France and Italy | Playboard [Germany | playboard.de], Soma [France | somaskate.com], Dogway [Spain | dogwaymedia.com], Monster [Germany | skateboardmsm.de] and Free Magazine [Czech Republic | freemagazine.cz]. freestyler.com],

By 2007, Keppens became the staff photographer for Volcom in Europe, a dream position that allows him to travel most of the world.

On top of that, he was offered the position of staff photographer for Belgium’s Wood magazine [woodmag.be] in 2008.

In the Digital Age, Keppens prefers to utilize film whenever possible, favouring his Hasselblad medium format setup for action, and the sometimes-temperamental Holga for shooting portraits on 120mm film.

“I try to shoot with film just because I like the look, and I get satisfaction out of picking up developed photos from the lab,” he explains. “You can be pretty creative when you shoot with film – by getting it processed in a special way, letting light leaks in, burning it, or printing it a certain way. I try to leave the digi camera in the bag as long as I can. But sometimes it has to come out, so that’s why you’ll see a mix of digital and film on the next few pages.”

Eniz Fasliov frontside flip Alicante, Spain camera: Eos 1D mkII lens: 70-200mm f2.8 ISO 400

Eniz is one of the most amazing and complete skaters in Europe right now.

He’s from Helsinki, Finland where it’s dark and cold during the winter, so he’s always stoked to go on trips to the south of Europe where it’s nice and warm.

It’s a shame that he’s afraid of flying, though. But it’s funny to see him stress so much over a little turbulence.

Gregory Lagast pivot fakie Ghent, Belgium hasselblad 500cm 80mm f2.8 Kodak T-max 400

camera: lens: film:

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Amazing spots make good photos.

Serge Gooskens frontside air Heaven Hasselblad 500cm 30mm fish film: fuji velvia 100F camera: lens:

We call this spot Full-Pipe Heaven. It’s located in a 40-metre-deep pit that’s about the size of five soccer fields. The pit is filled with hundreds of full-pipes, all different in size and length. It’s only skateable on Sundays, and the setup changes every week.

Julian Dykmans lien to tail Antwerp, Belgium Hasselblad 500 cm 30mm fish fuji velvia 100F

camera: lens: film:

The crazy colors in the photo are caused by light-leaks on the film.

I unwound the film a little bit, but kept it tight in the middle with my hands so the leaks wouldn’t interfere with the action. I was sweating while I did this, but it worked out pretty fine.

Fabian Verhaeghe frontboard Praha, Czech Republic

These days, most people would think this was done in Photoshop. Wrong! The purple colour is obtained by cross-processing and pushing the film two f-stops.

Hasselblad 500 cm 30mm fish film: fuji velvia 100F camera: lens:

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Hans Claessens backside disaster Algorta, Basque Country (Spain) Eos 1D mkII 70-200mm f2.8 ISO 800 camera: lens:

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This is basically in the backyard of the Volcom team house in Europe. The park is right next to the beach, and the whole area is pretty crowded during the day. We got the idea of getting up at six in the morning to shoot a trick in the park while it was empty. I remember it started raining right after we shot this photo.

Levi Brown kickflip transfer Antwerp, Belgium Eos 1D mkII 50mm f1.4 ISO 100 camera: lens:

Amazing style makes a great photo.

•

Shuttering From Belgium And Beyond The Skate Photography of

Jelle Keens

Ben Raemers backside smithgrind Rotterdam, Holland

I like to experiment a lot. It keeps things interesting. This is two medium format shots put together with staples. It’s something different, and I like the panoramic element of the photo.

hasselblad 500c/m 120mm f4 film: Fuji Velvia 100F camera: lens:

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PETER HEWITT

HEWITT 2 / ANTIHERO

W W W.VOX F O OT WE A R.C O M / H E WIT T2A NT I H E R O W W W.WICKWINDER.COM

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Manipulating Perspective Exploring 4x5 and Digital Tilt-Shift Photography by

Frank Daniello and Brian Caissie

With a lot of patience, the pliable accordion-esque bellows leading to the lens of a 4x5 (large format film) field camera help provide the ability for tilt-shift focus and perspective control. A unique aesthetic is achieved from manipulating the lens by bending and moving the camera’s bellows. Tilt-shift focus can creatively draw attention to specific details of the subject being photographed, while de-emphasizing other elements. It can also control perspective by “correcting”, for example, how we naturally see the narrowing height of a building while looking at it from the ground. In recent years, lens attachmens for digital SLRs has been developed for photographers who appreciate the results that stem from the classic 4x5 field cameras. However, both the old-school and new-school options have their ups and downs.

box of 10 shots can cost about $35, while the processing can run at around $3 per shot. If the camera is equipped with an instant film back, 10 shots are approximately $50. Add professional RAW scanning to the mix, at around one dollar per megabyte, and the costs associated with using this classic format can run high.

Ranging from around $400 to $4000, a few 4x5 camera brands from this price scale include Shenhao [shenhao.com], Crown Graphic, Omega View, and Linhof [linhof.de]. You can only load one shot at a time into the camera using a special film holder, and each holder needs to be prepared and loaded under the cloak of darkness. A

Although 4x5 cameras are ideal for still life – portraiture and landscapes – their ability to shoot action is a little more limited. For skate photos, tricks that are held in position – like a stall or a long grind – produce the best results. It’s also a must to mount these cameras on tripod and keep them very still. Despite the extreme

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“The first time I shot with a 4x5 camera was a shock to my system – a generally slower process,” says Brian Caissie, Concrete Skateboarding’s photo editor, who has a Shenhao field camera in his arsenal. “The focusing, depth of field, viewfinder being backwards and upside down, and the process of loading film into the holder was totally backwards to what I was doing before. Then I got the photos back and realized that it was a magical process – well worth it.”

Coal Harbour, Vancouver (above) Shenhao 4x5 field camera | HP5 400 B&W film (below) Nikon D3 (with a 45mm NIKKOR tilt-shift lens) | ISO 400

Spencer Hamilton, 360 flip Nikon D3 (with a 45mm NIKKOR tilt-shift lens) | ISO 400

“The main reason I shot the same image with both camera formats is to show their focus capabilities. As you can see with the 4x5 image, it’s quite a bit different. You can really bend the look of the photo due to the added forward-and-back abilities of the bellows versus only the up-and-down tilt/ side-to-side shift movements of the digital lens.”

—Caissie

“At a high vantage point, you can see the full effect of selective focusing here. I actually shot a sequence of this 3-flip with the lens tilted up, and kept the still that Spencer chose. 11 frames-per-second definitely helps.”

—Caissie

patience required, high trial-and-error rate, and costs encountered while experimenting with tilt-shift perspective focus via the 4x5 camera, the quality and reproduction potentials from a successful photo are unmatched.

“The technology is around a hundred years old and the cameras haven’t changed much, but their movements are almost endless,” Caissie explains. “Shooting with different film types gives you more options and flexibility. The extremely minimal focus plane, selective perspective focusing, and the ability to produce billboard size prints at high resolution are just some of the reasons why people like using these cameras.”

Tilt-shift lens attachments for digital camera bodies are designed to mimic the creative focus abilities produced by the 4x5 field cameras.

Although the range of movement options with these lens attachments can be limited in comparison, their ease-of-use and versatility is far greater. And while in the long run the digital option is a more cost effective means of achieving the 4x5 aesthetic, the start-up price is

lofty. For example, the Nikon digital tilt-shift lens (PC-E Micro NIKKOR 45mm f/2.8D ED) – shown on the opposite page – retails at about $2300.

“With the digital lens, perspective control is created by moving the lens in relation to the camera sensor. I was actually surprised at how well it compared to the 4x5,” explains Caissie, who spent some time experimenting with the aforementioned lens provided by Nikon Canada for this feature. “It increases the options when shooting skateboarding compared to the 4x5, and you can shoot sequences.

You can easily check your photos on demand and you don’t have to use a tripod, which allows total freedom and a quick response time.

I’d say the biggest disadvantage is the maximum print sizes from the digital images – it’s still nowhere near the quality of a large format print. But adding the 4x5 aesthetic to your digital images is a good way for them to stand out.”

The following pages explore images shot using both classic and digital tilt-shift focus technologies, along with notes from the photographers.

Neil Smith, backside 5-0 Super Graflex 4x5 field camera | Fuji Velvia 100 film “I almost couldn’t fit the whole rail and smithy in the shot due to the proximity of a main road right behind me, so I had the tripod as low as it would go and balanced on the curb. The only lens movement I used was a little bit of a swing to the left since any more would have reduced the area of sharp focus to the width of Neil’s left eye.”

—Leo Sharp

John Hanlon, frontside smithgrind Shenhao 4x5 field camera | HP5 400 B&W film “Shooting skateboarding or action for that matter with the 4x5 can be very frustrating and is usually a gamble. Sheet film costs a lot and takes time to load, so trying to catch any flip trick can take multiple tries. But creativity is in abundance with these cameras, so I tried to make this look as different as possible by tilting the front and rear planes diagonally.”

—Caissie 78

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Dustin Montie, frontside nosegrind Shenhao 4x5 field camera | HP5 400 B&W film “Not only can you blur a 4x5 image (which a lot of digital photographers try to mimic with Photoshop), you can also change the path of the focus. I kept the tall grass in the foreground in focus, as well as Dustin in the distance. This was done by pulling the bellows back and tilting the lens down.”

—Caissie

Mikey Plantus, backtail Linhof Technica 4x5 ‘V-Field’ camera | Kodak Ektachrome 100 film “For Mikey’s backtail, the camera was placed about six feet high and tilted down to get the desired angle. Because of the fluidity of the camera, I was able to have both the front and rear standard tilted back so they would be vertically leveled to hold the focal plane and keep the trees straight up and down.”

—Dave Todon

all photos on this page were shot with a nikon d3 and 45mm nikkor perspective control lens

Magnus Hanson, frontside wallride ISO 500 “The lens-shift being used here altered the building’s lines and positioning. You can see that the top of the building has been tailored to bend inward, and the focus has been selectively blurred. While checking the photo on my camera’s screen, I noticed that Magnus’ hand kept blocking his face. If I shot this with a 4x5 camera, that small flaw would’ve been harder to notice.”

—Caissie

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The Corner of Nelson and Richards, Vancouver ISO 800

Vancouver Building ISO 2000

“It’s really fun to make a regular setting look miniature with this lens.

You can look at the screen and get the focus just right with the digital camera. With the 4x5, you have to put a small magnifier up to the back of the camera to fine-tune the focus, while using a blind to block any outside glare during the process. At night, focusing with the 4x5 can be even more difficult.”

—Caissie

“The best thing about using this lens with a digital camera is the wide variety of shutter speeds and ISOs. You couldn’t achieve these ranges with the 4x5 camera. In this photo, the lens was tilted upward and focused in the middle.”

—Caissie

Concrete skateboarding

Mike Schulze, backside smithgrind ISO 200 “Having foreground and background helps a lot for the focus-look of this photo. Taken with three flashes, I could really freeze him while filling in the shadows. This took a few tries for me to get a good photo, so luckily it was shot digital. This shoot would’ve cost a lot if it was shot on film.”

—Caissie

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Video Days (AND YEARS)

stacy peralta. 1984

How Video Shoots Evolved and Changed Skateboarding

by

Sean Mortimer

There have been mainstream skateboard video products before – cable-access TV shows with elderly hosts, and cheese-ball theatrical movies with Broadway-style skate songs – but the “skate video” as we understand it detonated in the living room of Tony Hawk’s family home in 1984. Powell Peralta premiered The Bones Brigade Video Show, a counter-culture 34-minute motion picture blasting a punk soundtrack featuring the “Skate and Destroy” theme song. Skaters were unsure of what to make of this new innovation, and most homes weren’t stocked with the hi-fi visual device of the time – the personal VCR.

grant brittain

Video Show sold over 30,000 copies, surprising everyone including Powell Peralta. The following decade was blanketed with a blizzard of video creativity. Powell led the charge with annual releases, many of which continue to sell today – a rarity in the skate market. Blind – with the help of Academy Award nominated director Spike Jonze – released a perennial favorite, Video Days in 1991. Plan B subsequently stripped off the polish and showcased raw top-shelf skating, and Toy Machine landed an archetypal punch with 1995’s Welcome To Hell, which marked a turn in the way skate videos were conceived as a whole. Not only did Jamie Thomas and Ed Templeton up the gnar-volume to 11, they employed a wide range of music and editing techniques that captured the creativity, aggression and black humour of skating. Gone were the days of filming a video part on the way to catching a flight at the airport, and limiting popular skaters to four-day shoots.

Concrete gathered a few of the skaters responsible for this evolution to discuss filming experiences – what sucked, what ruled, and what the future might hold for skaters bound to be captured by movie-making devices.

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Tony Hawk On his way to becoming the most famous skater in history, Tony invented over 100 tricks, won over 70 Pro contests, and pioneered the “late-grab” technique on vert making technical mid-air tricks possible.

“The Bones Brigade Video Show established a scenario instead of just random tricks. Lance Mountain was well-rounded enough to act as the thread throughout the video, which showed all aspects of skating at the time. They ‘premiered’ it at my parents’ house during a Del Mar contest when lots of skaters were in town. I remember thinking it was cool that Stacy [Peralta] and George [Powell] opened a bottle of champagne at my house. That made it an event to me.”

“It wasn’t until the Animal Chin explosion [1987] that I realized how big the video [audience] was. That was when we realized we had to bust out something special and try tricks over and over. It was around Chin and Ban This [1989] that people began getting excited to see what skaters were coming up with for videos. For the Ban This shoot, I had just learned ollie 540s and wanted to get it on film. It was the last thing we shot, and Stacy was ready to give up on it because it was taking over an hour to shoot. Back then, they were shooting on film and it was costing money. I think [CR] Stecyk was one that encouraged him to stick with it.”

“Somewhere around that time there were guys on Powell that weren’t competing or didn’t do well in contests and made a name for themselves through their video parts. I’d have to say Frankie Hill was the catalyst for that. But there were tricks that I did, especially for Ban This, that I didn’t want to do again. I’d slam super hard on some tricks

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peralta and stecyk at tony’s ramp. stalefish, 1988

and I didn’t want to take that hit again. I knew Stacy was shooting high-speed film and once he had shot it, I could just move on.”

grant brittain

“My Dad had a VCR. That might have been why the premiere was held at my house and also that my parents were welcoming of a giant crowd – they didn’t care. Probably half the people watching were staying at my house anyway. People were stoked on the video, but there weren’t any surprises – nobody was gunning for ‘video tricks’ yet. That wasn’t the concept of videos at the time. For some reason though, people latched onto my fakie ollie footplant. They said it was amazing and it was just some random thing I threw in there. I didn’t think it was that hot.”

mike blake

Kevin Harris The first legit Canadian professional skateboarder, Kevin was ranked second in the world in freestyle during the mid-to-late ‘80s as a member of the Bones Brigade.

“Being a top Pro and placing in contests [the sole method of legitimizing Pro status for most of the 1980s] didn’t automatically mean that you’d be in a Powell Peralta video, which were monumental at that time. Part of it probably had to with me being in Canada – there was an expense. With the first few videos, I wouldn’t necessarily get flown out to California just to film a video part. They’d fly me down to the premiere of a video like The Search For Animal Chin, but I was only in it for half-a-second. It was strange that they’d fly me down for that, but not the filming. Don’t get me wrong – I was stoked to be in Chin.”

“It wasn’t until Ban This – and I had been on the team for seven years – that I had a full video part. I filmed in California for four days total, including the days I flew. They made sure to tell me to bring a bunch of different clothes to film in, but some of the clothes I skated in during video parts were given to me by Powell Peralta for promotion or maybe for the way they looked against the background. The red sweatpants I wore in Propaganda [1990] were definitely not mine.”

“I had no say in my part, but I was completely stoked to have my own part in a Powell video. Back then it was the biggest thing. They shot a lot on film – I’d never try a trick that I made only once out of 50 tries.

I was always worried about their time and effort filming, and the cost.

I’d apologize all over the place! For a freestyler, you didn’t want to film a trick you couldn’t land in less than five tries – it had to be tricks you had dialed enough to land in a contest.”

“Powell videos also emphasized each skater’s personality. They had parts with interviews, skits, dorking around. Nowadays when I watch a video, there’s incredible skating but with the majority of them I don’t get a sense of what that person is about. A Powell video was all over the map – you watched vert to freestyle to street to funny bits and personality stuff. It was just a different type of entertainment.”

kevin harris. 1981

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Ed Templeton One of the first generations of street skating heroes whose freak vision fuels Toy Machine. He starred in and produced Welcome To Hell, a precedent-setting ‘90s video “I turned Pro in 1990 and even though I watched videos, by that time I was feeling that I was part of this culture that was making videos. I can remember the first video I was in. Paul Schmitt called me up and said, ‘We’re making a video. I’ll be at your house with Chris Miller. He’s going to film and I’m going to film.’ Basically, it was: ‘We’re going to be at your house for a couple hours, and that’s your video part.’ I was stoked. I was going to show off and do all my stuff for these guys. We went to the spot I skated daily, and that’s what skating was. I had zero influence on what was happening to me in that case.”

“There’s something to be said [about that process]. It’s like a Polaroid, a snapshot of what’s happening at that moment. That’s a pretty good view of the truth of what we got in a day or two. With today’s Pros, obviously there’s a difference with the kinds of tricks they’re trying. I know Heath Kirchart goes back to spots multiple times because he just gets broken. Obviously, that’s more intense than stuff I can do first try over and over.”

“Welcome To Hell was ’95 and I think with Jamie Thomas’ influence, there was a definite pressure to make something really, really good.

Video parts were something that you worked on but it didn’t seem as heavy as it is now. I edited Jump Off A Building [1997] myself and I think because my nature is different, it was a lot more free-form and not as strict with making everything super intense.”

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“I didn’t realize until years later that Welcome To Hell was such a touchstone for people. Usually a video comes and it goes, but none of that happened. It had a good run, and over the years people kept talking about it. But I can’t say at the time that I thought ‘Yes! We succeeded in making a great video!’ or anything like that.”

“Jamie came in really strict and butted heads with a lot of people, but he got his way. He made sure that the songs were awesome, he edited to the music, and there was real scrutiny – we’d look through it over and over and say, ‘That trick just doesn’t hold water over multiple viewings.’ We’d have discussions about it, and take stuff out. I don’t know the history of videos as well as other people, but the [higher] production values and that the skaters were peaking right when the video came out – all that stuff had a factor. Even the whole Muska debacle – he was in it [Welcome To Hell] and got kicked off the team at the premiere. That gave it an air of mystery and drama.”

“The team, at that time, did skate together. Even the recent Toy Machine videos – the success of Good And Evil [2004] comes from the fact that all of us are friends and skate together, and that shows in the footage. It doesn’t look like a bunch of mercenaries put together to make an excellent video where there’s barely any footage of them hanging out and having a good time. Welcome To Hell and Good And Evil really focused on the fact that we are friends. We have to keep the kids satisfied with good skating, but put it in balance with ‘This is who we are, this is how we live, this is our face – we’re not just automatons doing hard tricks.’”

miki vuckovich

frontside bluntslide at hubba hideout. 1995

chris Haslam Chris earned TransWorld’s 2005 “Reader’s Choice Award” thanks to his perfect blend of humour, creativity, and gnar in Almost’s Round Three. His “leftover” footage was so heavy that he won 411’s 2006 Versus video contest with it.

note is the norm now. That’s what I was going for. That trick got a lot of attention, but the trick that got me the same level of attention was the bluntslide on another board – a lot of people liked that trick better than anything else in my part. People ask me to do it at demos.”

“Where I lived in Singapore, when I started skating, videos were the only thing to compare our skill levels with. We had the Internet, but it wasn’t as good as now – you couldn’t watch videos on it back then.

I didn’t know how they were filmed, I was just hoping they weren’t landing those tricks first try.”

“That reaction changed my perspective on tricks. They don’t have to be ridiculously hard tricks where you get hurt for eight months.

As long as they’re creative enough and different, they can go a long way. It changed my whole concept of filming for videos. I want it to be entertaining to watch.”

“[Haslam eventually moved to Richmond, BC] Outside of my sponsorme tapes, which I did for years and nothing came of them [laughing], my first legit skate part was in Skate Canada #6, in ’99. I wasn’t traveling a lot so I was going around trying to find new local spots. I was trying to get quality, but I was just getting stuff to fill up the part.”

“We’re starting to film for the new Almost video and I find myself thinking about my tricks differently. If I go to a spot, I’ll think about doing tricks that maybe Torey [Pudwill] or Daewon [Song] won’t be doing so my stuff can stand out. I feel like I’m going insane sometimes. You don’t like filler tricks and you want everything you film to be one that you could put at the end. You can frontside flip a 12-stair and it goes by in two seconds, and is forgotten, but you fractured your toe for ten months. And who cares because [Andrew] Reynolds will frontside flip over your house.”

“Filming for the Almost video [Round Three, 2005] was a little more stressful. I thought: ‘This is my first huge video project. I have to do something that stands out.’ I started cutting down the quantity and concentrating more on the quality of the tricks. I was just trying to do tricks that I’d never seen before. The kickflip backsmith terrified me the most. I lived near the Hollywood High stair-set so we’d always drive by it. One day I just said, ‘Screw it. I’m doing it tomorrow.’ It took me an hour just to get to the point where I’d flip into it. I don’t usually deal with that type of mental strain because I don’t usually try massive rails. The fourth one was the one we used. That was good because I did not want to do it again. I think ending a part on a high 90

Concrete skateboarding

“We’re given this opportunity to put something out that can be remembered. Hopefully people will watch it like I watched videos with Jamie Thomas and John Reeves. If you can film something that has the same impact on a skater that those videos had on me – that’s what it’s all about. If a video can do that to someone than it’s so awesome.”

brian caissie

frontside feeble grind pop-over. 2004

“I was just trying to do tricks that I’d never seen before.”

Jordan Hoffart ManAM for far too long, Jordan used Powell’s FUN! to display the ferocity of his inner gnar-beast, and it helped launch his Pro career.

“I started skating without seeing any videos. My Uncle skated and he got me into it. My sister and I would just skate around. She went to Slam City Jam in ’95 and brought home the Airwalk promo video with Tony Hawk and Jason Lee. I watched that every day. After that, me and my friend started buying 411s. For us, that was the window to what was going on and what was possible. I’d just think: ‘Why are these guys so good?’ It wasn’t until later that I really figured out how much time and effort goes into getting one trick.”

“The first legit video I had to film for was the Digital video, Get Tricks Or Die Trying [2006]. I went out on filming missions, but it was just kind of whatever I got. Filming for FUN! [2009] was the most pressure I’ve ever had. My oldest trick in that was three years old. There were a bunch of deadlines that kept getting pushed back.”

“There’s a 50-50 gap-out over a flat down stairs [in FUN!]. I actually had a nervous breakdown at that spot. I was delusional. I was stressing so hard that I wasn’t even making sense. I had to walk away. I was shaking. I was eating shit for three hours and right when I was getting close I’d break a board. I’d have to set up another board. I was listening to Dethklok’s ‘Thunderhorse’ on the brink of a meltdown. I finally just said to myself, ‘There’s nothing more you want to do than to do this right now. Whatever happens, just go for it and commit.’ Luckily I pulled one out. We were there for five hours. I was so wrecked after that I couldn’t skate for a week.”

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“The biggest bitch in my FUN! part was the bigspin heel blunt. I actually did it the first day I went to that spot but it was filmed like shit, not useable. I went to another rail closer to home, broke two boards and got kicked out. Now I bring extra set-ups. For the first part of the video, I wasn’t really as hooked-up as I am now. I only had one pair of trucks, but now I can call Indy and get a couple pairs. I like to have three set-ups ready – I can break three or four boards in one day. Anyway, I went back and tried it for four hours and got so tired.

I finally got the trick on a Saturday night, and the first premiere was on the Monday. It was my fourth trip back to that rail before I got it again.”

“I got pretty hands-on [with the editing], which I was super stoked on because I’m really happy with how it turned out. We couldn’t slack it, we had to make an impact. That was the backbone of everything we filmed. We all watched each other’s parts and tried to take each other’s egos out of the equation to cut the filler. We had to be really honest with ourselves, which was kind of painful when you saw what was on the cutting room floor.”

deville nunes

ollie through the wires. 2007

Rodney Mullen “The Mutt” laid the foundation for modern street skating by inventing flatland ollies, kickflips, impossibles, and numerous other tricks. He lost one freestyle contest in over ten years of Pro competition and has spent the last three years erasing his stance.

quickly after we filmed. I don’t even remember the first time I saw it [Video Show], I didn’t have a VCR at the time. We were pretty slow to get things like that on the farm.”

“I think I was 15 and Stacy [Peralta] took me to Lakewood skatepark for [Skating In The ‘80s] the unreleased precursor to The Bones Brigade Video Show. He said, ‘We’re testing out this new equipment, skate as much as you want.’ I went out, did my little song and dance, and that was my filming. I didn’t know what to think of it. A Devo music video had just come out [featuring skating] and Stacy was working with a cinematographer who filmed that video, but I’d never seen a skate video before. I’d never seen a video camera before.”

“For Future Primitive [1985] we just shot my part against a wall. Stacy was driving me to the airport after a contest and he said, ‘I just want to take you skating for a little bit.’ I skated for half-an-hour and he filmed me. It was always like that, for photo shoots or whatever. I didn’t think about it. I’d jump out of the car, do my thing and go back into the car. I was like a little dog. I didn’t get the whole context of videos or what they meant. I know people consider Future Primitive as a cornerstone in video history, but back then I just watched it once.”

“I never though about filming for The Bones Brigade Video Show.

Stacy just said to do something, and I just did it. We were shooting in an area towards Los Angeles and I remember looking out the window and seeing the neighborhood go from good to bad. We filmed in a park and a guy came up to us and said, ‘Pay us a few bucks and we’ll protect you because you have these nice cameras.’ We left pretty

“Rubbish Heap [World Industries, 1989] was the start of filming tricks just for videos, but I was just a quick sideshow that Spike [Jonze] filmed. We went out for a few weekends, maybe three or four, and that was my first experience trying tricks over and over for film. But at the time contest skating and consistency was such a big thing. There was a bit of disdain, a sneering tolerance of ‘video skaters’ having

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“There are only a few videos that have been enormously powerful to our culture...” to do tricks over and over to finally make something. It was a really derogatory term in the beginning. But skating is about motion, about really seeing it. I might miss some issues of magazines, but I catch every possible video and watch the decent ones multiple times.”

“It was Mike Ternasky [original Plan B founder] who introduced me to what today’s filming is really like. In fact, his version was more intense than anything else I’ve even known. He used multiple cameras to get multiple angles, and he’d essentially work on you all night until you agreed to try something that you previously thought you couldn’t do. He was a visionary. He’d encourage you to watch the rest of the team’s footage, and I’d be blown away by Pat Duffy killing it. Everybody was killing it. I’d watch it and think about how I was going to look like an idiot. I’d go home and not be able to sleep, then come back that much more charged. He was hoisting you up. It was so intense. There are only a few videos that have been enormously powerful to our culture, and Mike was one of the guys who made those videos. So what he said, you did.”

“A good video part captures who the skater is. The Baker videos, which I like a lot, have a lot of footage of them being themselves, and you can’t not get a sense of who these guys are as people. There are also a few skaters who have done that without a lot of extra footage. Look at Jamie Thomas’ parts. It takes a special person to give you that feeling without all the extra personality footage – it’s the nuances.”

“For me, filming turned the corner and impacted my skating with the Globe video Opinion [2001]. I’d just gotten on Enjoi, and I was talking with Marc Johnson [who started the company] about how I wasn’t getting the same satisfaction trying to catch up with what other skaters were doing. There are times when I concentrate on measuring up a little bit. Marc encouraged me to just do what I did and not to think about anything else. That [Opinion] is one of my favourite videos because it’s just me doing my thing. Now when I film, I try to stand back and think about what I did before, and what I want to do that’s different. You don’t want to make it a formula, you want to push away from whatever you’ve done but keep the essence of who you are.”

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J Grant Brittain started shooting in the early ‘80s while he managed the famous Del Mar Skate Ranch near San Diego. He contributed photos to the first issue of TransWorld SKATEboarding in 1983 and became their Photo Editor and Senior Photographer for 20 years. Brittain eventually left to help form The Skateboard Mag, where he’s currently the Director of Photography. jgrantbrittain.com

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