PS118
Dad Ollie - Photo: Eric Anderson
Words Written by Tommy Kowalski Photo: Price
We shot a film issue. Film photography in skateboarding has been revisited quite a bit lately. It’s always fun to study the finer details of what can make a good photo great using unusual film processes. This issue of PS118 has become much more than that though. The skate scene in Arizona is made up of many talented people - not only those of today, but also those of the past that have inspired us for years! Working on a film issue hasn’t been just a technological step backwards, but a step into the past altogether. It’s an Arizona skateboarding history lesson for us all. The more these stories are preserved and carried on, the longer they will survive. With contributions from Dave Smith’s Boss Ballin trilogy, a Big Surf spotlight featuring the work of legendary photographer Grant Brittain, and even the more recent feats of the Pyramid Country crew, we can enjoy what makes Arizona skateboarding great through an expired method of photography. So check it out... We hope you like it!
Cover: Caleb Schrank Frontside Nosegrind Provo, Utah Photo: Milianta
Contents: Will Blaty Frontside 50-50 Gilbert, AZ Photo: Kowalski
14 | Caleb
PS118
28 | Brad
Publisher Tommy Kowalski Photo Editor Matt Price Copy Editor Ari Shiffrin
34 | Dakoda
40 | Boss Ballin
Contributing Photographers Hunter O’Shea Sam Milianta Justin Guthrie Patrick Driscoll Jordan Worthy Grant Brittain Dave McCarthy Raymond Nguyen Brad Westcott Graphic Designers Noah Andersen Josh Eberhard Writers Justin Guthrie Hunter O’Shea Matthew Price Maxwell Dope
circa 1987
Spotlight: Big Surf Photos by: Grant Brittain Words by: Matt Price
Big Surf is arguably one of the most iconic skate spots that Arizona has to offer. People have been skating it since before the creators of this magazine were even sperms in a sack. Built in 1969, the Big Surf wave pool was like nothing anyone in Arizona had ever seen. Folks came from all over to surf the fabricated waves and work on their sun tans all summer long. It wasn’t until over a decade later that skateboarders realized the way the wave maker was engineered. It takes a perfect 6 foot quarter pipe that’s about 100 yards wide to help push the water out, and during the off season the pool is bone dry. Once the annual onslaught started it never ceased. Every year there seems to be a creative new way to get inside the fence and every winter people find their way down to that big blue wave to spend long, bright days on what feels like a snowy ski slope. If you don’t have sunglasses you will go snow blind. If you don’t know what snow blind is, then you’re from Phoenix and have never spent three days at Big Surf with no glasses. It’s pretty much sun burning your eye balls! It sucks. Over the last few decades, tons of legendary pro skateboarders have come through to slide around the big blue wave and it’s been documented in countless videos and magazines. Back in the 80’s, some skateboard industry types set up a pro contest at Big Surf and built some wooden props on the flat ground to compliment the wave. We’re just waiting for someone to make that happen again. It’s still there you know...
Christan Hosoi (left) and Eric Dressen (right) Frontside Airs
VHS Sequential
Vinny Mango: Frontside Smith $12.99 VHS Camera Photos: Jake Casey
When Jake Casey picked up a VHS camera for $12.99 at the local Goodwill, he knew that shit was gonna produce crazy results. Because this is an all film issue and the majority of film cameras cannot shoot sequences, we did the next best thing and asked Jake to film something with this massive rig… The viewfinder is black and white, you can’t set the white balance, and you can pretty much tape over any VHS you can find - including the family home video that was left in the camera! So when the recording flashes back to a Thanksgiving dinner from 1996 and there’s a dude in a wifebeater and earrings looking like Vanilla Ice, you’ll know why.
Pete Trapasso
Switch Backside 5-0, Chandler Gaps From BB2: Still Ballin
Roots: The Boss Ballin Trilogy Words & Photography by Matt Price When I was younger I thought Dave Smith was a total hardass. He wore bandanas over his face and waved around guns and only wore t-shirts that could fit an entire family in them. When the first Boss Ballin video came out, I remember thinking that the guy who skated to Big L and could do 360 flip noseslides would surely beat my ass if I ever so much as looked at him wrong. The same went for everyone else in the video. Alex Hall, Mikey Miszuk, and all the others seemed way too hood for me to be involved with. Not to mention they all skated like god damn pros. Intimidation would be an understatement if you wanted to describe the feeling I had when the Boss Ballin crew would roll up to the park. It was cool that these videos represented a type of skating that was different from what I saw coming out in other local videos. Rap music and ledge skating weren’t super prevalent at the time. The big handrail craze was at its peak and the tight pants trend was just about to rear its ugly head around the corner. When I met some of the Boss Ballin guys towards the end of filming for Boss Ballin 2: Still Ballin (of course they were!) I quickly realized that these hardasses I was so scared of were actually the nicest guys in the world.
They just happened to be young dudes who were into a part of skateboarding that made them look like they were in a gang. It turns out that Dave Smith, or “Ghetto D” as he was referred to in those days, was one of the friendliest people I would ever meet in my entire life. I actually ended up shooting some portaits for a Boss Ballin video of Dave holding guns (at Mark Carroll’s parents’ gun store) and wearing on his face a bandana covered in hundred dollar bills. In between every photo we were messing around and laughing our asses off. A younger version of me would have imagined that photo shoot going down very differently. Over 10 years later Dave is still shredding, still making rad skate videos, and still incredibly friendly. I hope I’m not ruining his street cred by saying that, but I’m pretty sure at one point a few years ago he requested a nickname change from “Ghetto D” to “Lower Middle Class D”, which heavily signifies that he was growing up. The Boss Ballin videos always had the same base cast of characters, but would also be filled with new people you hadn’t heard of or local favorites who were sitting on a pile of gnarly footage and had nowhere to put it. It’s cool that Dave always gives people a chance to put out their skating in his videos and keeps the BB series so fresh. Here’s to the last decade of Boss Ballin and hopefully another one coming up!
Speak.
Caleb Schrank Interview
Words & Photos by: Kowalski
Caleb Schrank has been ripping Arizona’s spots with the most insane tricks for years now. I remember first catching him at Pecos in 2008 doing frontside flips like a god of flick and kickflip crooking things that were not kickflip crook-able. It was around that time that his first video part came out and he got on Brian Sumner’s Reliance Skateboards, which seemed to really push him. Although he’s since departed from Reliance, it’s adequate to say that his name still comes up when discussing some the crazier spots we have out here. “He did that??? NO WAY.” More then anything, Caleb is a great friend and just an all around nice guy, so we caught up with him to get some questions answered and shoot some gnarly photos for this issue. Here’s Caleb Schrank.
Gap to
Crooked Grind
Speak.
Caleb Schrank Interview You recently went on a trip to Utah with a bunch of friends. How was it? Did everyone manage to get some good clips? How was the weather out there compared to our 90 degrees and rising? Oh goodness. There’s so much to say about that trip. Perfect weather for sure. Footage-wise, it was definitely a good trip for me. Although, 75% of my clips came on the last day, including the nosegrind. So for most of the trip I was a little bummed on my productivity, but everyone produced differently. Eric (Danescu) got injured on the first day, and then Dakoda (Osusky) credit-carded and broke his collarbone the next day. So that kind of set a weird tone at the beginning of the trip. I think we were all thinking “Who’s next?” Thankfully, no one else got hurt. On the other end of the spectrum, Rick (Clark) and Vinnie (Mango) were monsters. I think Garritt (Gilbert) said they got like 25 clips between the two of them. Those dudes just skate every spot you take them to and dominate. And then there was Ryan (Lay), who just kept complaining about his jar of peanut butter that got stolen on the first day of the trip. A lot of good memories made on that trip. You get mentioned a lot when it comes to spots all over the Valley. “Caleb hardflipped this gap” or “he back smithed that rail.” Can you think of one person who’s known for skating a particular Arizona spot that you kinda fan out on? It happens all the time, so it’s hard to think of one particular instance. A lot of the tricks I’ve fanned out over have been done on the Wedge rail, just because I’ve always been scared of that thing.John Rob’s
bigflip front board was insane. That was one of my favorite tricks in A Happy Medium. Ryan Lay’s backlip shuv sticks out in my mind too because of how steezy the roll away was. But Adam Arunski’s kickflip front tail takes the cake. Mind blowing. Altogether you’ve had five video parts. Out of all the footage you’ve compiled, which part is your favorite? It seems like you’re always sitting on footage, waiting on everyone else to finish up. Is that a pain in the ass? Haha… yeah. Five video parts dating all the way back to like freshman year of high school. I think my favorite is still my Reliance part just because it’s my only real full length part. I’m definitely trying to get another part out soon though. I’ve always filmed with so many different dudes that my footage gets split up and put in different places. It does get frustrating because I end up sitting on footage so long that some of it eventually gets thrown away, even though I had been psyched on the clips. But lately I’ve been focusing on filming with Garritt and Jake Casey, so hopefully I’ll have a couple new full parts coming out in the near future. How would you feel if you were sitting on no footage whatsoever? Would that motivate you to skate more? Sitting on no footage is not a good feeling, so yeah, I’d say it would motivate me. I mean, I go through my droughts where I don’t get a trick for like a month and it just presses me to skate more. But at the same time, I try not to be completely motivated by productivity. With sponsors and stuff,
Backside Bluntslide it can be hard to not let pleasing them become your motivation. I think that’s a poor type of motivation. When I skate just to get clips for footage updates, it’s so much easier to get angry and usually skating is less enjoyable. The motivation to be productive is good, but I think you gotta keep it in check. Otherwise it kind of sucks the fun out of skating.
I heard something about the church donating an RV to the Reliance team? Did you guys ever take trips in that thing? It’s rad that the church supports skating in that way. Haha that’s awesome that you heard about that. When I got involved with Reliance it was towards the end of their touring era. I got to go out for a week with them – to Oregon, Washington, and Northern California - and that was so rad, but that was the only time. So I actually was not a part of Reliance when the whole RV situation
Speak.
Caleb Schrank Interview happened, but they told me about it. They had a pretty long tour planned and the night before they were going to leave the RV broke down. They couldn’t afford to have it repaired, so they did all that they knew how to do... They prayed like crazy! Randomly, they got a call from a guy from a church saying that he had been praying and felt like God was telling him to donate a certain sum of money (I forget how much)to Reliance. The amount of money ended up being just enough to repair the RV. I know skeptics are probably not buying it, but if you don’t want to credit it to God, then credit it to coincidence because that is what happened. Pretty crazy story. Churches are all over the spectrum when it comes to skating, so it’s definitely rad when they support skating. You recently left Reliance - do you have any other plans with skating coming up?
Bump to Kickflip
Yeah, after being with Reliance for four to five years, I came to the conclusion that it’s time for a switch. A lot of thought went into it, but I decided that if I’m gonna do anything with skateboarding, I gotta make some changes now. An opportunity with the Kayo rep opened up and so now I’m getting flowed from Organika. Really stoked on that. And I’m kinda just going to see
where it goes from here. I think there’s another Utah trip in the works for this summer, but nothing set in stone. With skating often having that weird, satanic vibe to it and everything, has your religion sort of been a make or break for your relationships with other skateboarders? The satanic hype and vibe in skating definitely bums me out. But it’s not a make or break for relationships, at least from my end. I will say, though, that in the past I’ve most likely given off a kind of ‘separatist’ vibe. I used to only skate with other Christians, but that has changed and I would say that’s a good thing for me. I actually want to avoid having my faith be a make or break issue. The way I look at it is, why would I separate myself from the very people that (I think) need to know the Gospel? Jesus came to bring those that are far away near to him. So with that in mind, the satanic vibe in skateboarding should actually do the opposite in terms of my relationships. It communicates to me the reason God has given me a talent in skateboarding. Many skateboarders will likely never step foot in a church or care what a pastor has to say. I think God has knowingly and strategically given me the talents I have and placed me in the role I’m in for a reason - to create relationships with those unlike me and that don’t believe as I do. You’re finishing up a sustainability program at ASU right now - how’s that going? It’s great. I love that ASU offers a
sustainability degree. It’s such an interesting field of study. For those of you who aren’t familiar, at its core, sustainability is creating solutions for the best long-term future of the environment, the economy, and society at the least cost in the present. It’s a new school at ASU, and ASU was the first to have a sustainability major, so it can be frustrating because there are not too many proven ways to succeed in the field. That’s pretty understandable though, because when you’re linking ecosystems, society, and the economy together, it’s quite a complicated and complex task to craft solutions that benefit all three. Economy, society, and ecosystems are such massive systems to deal with separately. Put them together and it gets pretty overwhelming. What’s it like being both a student and a skateboarder? Is it tough to find time to go out street skating? Yeah, it can be. I’m not that great at balancing it all out. You can ask my friends. I think they’ll be quick to tell you that I don’t skate enough when I’m in school. I almost always put my schoolwork before skating, so when I’m in school, the amount of time I skate decreases a lot. It’s kind of a bummer, but in the long term I see it paying off. I’ll graduate in a year and we’ll see where I’m at with skating then. Anything we should look out for in the future? Yeah, I should be having a part in Garritt’s Chapters Video Volume 1 and I’ll be working to have a part in Jake Casey’s next video.
EXETER March 28th, 2015 was a day that will live in infamy for Arizona skateboarders. The release of Pyramid Country’s Exeter, their first full length video, shocked crowds of hungry skater kids and old time fans alike. Coming off the first day of Cowtown’s PhxAm weekend, with so much hype lingering in the air, the afterparty event was without a doubt a countdown to the crash landing of Pyramid Country’s fictional Merkaba headed charater. Jackson Casey, Bobby Green, and JJ Horner, along with the rest of the crew,
Words by: Kowalski Photos by: Price Driscoll
put in hard work and man hours on this one. This righteous group that we know as the PC crew has come so far that it can be emotional to follow their saga. To see the amazing talent of these skateboarders shine on the big screen was a pleasure, and it was great to have the world premiere in our own home state!
With exciting skating from local legends like Jahir Carbajal and James Link, plus the introduction of some impressive out-of-towners like Dave Engerer and Kevin Braun, Exeter will undoubtedly meet up to everyone’s expectations. In the older Jackson Casey videos, like Friends with Benefits and Boyish, we saw the early styles of Jonathan Pierce, Justin Modica, Ryan Sublette. Now to see them flourishing in front of a growing audience is an inspiration! For this feature, we collected some great images from behind the scenes of the making of Exeter. Not only the tricks, but the sessions, the production, and the memories.
Ramp “If I die before I wake, at least in heaven I can skate!” That’s from an old song called Heaven is a Halfpipe. But I grew up in a town that was halfpipeless. I never had a chance to skate like Bucky and Tony, so when I heard that J-Mod and Evan were building a new ramp I was juiced out of my skull! When that bad boy was built we went over there and realized how scary vert actually is. Not so much for Aaron Gorncho, who landed his first 540 in under ten tries, padless and with almost no daylight left.
86
Justin and the boys go tranny huntin’ Words & Photos: Justin Guthrie
Aaron (Homoki) over Aaron (Goure)
If I die before I wake, at least in heaven I can skate!
Sabian Miller Backside Disaster
The boys hyped up watching Aaron Goure catch mad air and learning cock drop to fakie
Ramp86
86
watch these Hank Williams, Marlboro motherfuckers shred...
Justin and Evan destroy the ramp, line after line; it was a slice of pie from heaven just to watch these Hank Williams, Marlboro motherfuckers shred. The “86” ramp is what it’s called, and I think those country boy skaters are doing a great thing with it. Ask them to skate it, they might be down! Just please don’t break your jaw on it like Blue Headey! OUCH!
Justin Modica Invert
Greyscale: Brad Westscott Photos with Accompanying Stories.
In winters past, it’s been a tradition to go out and check the status of an old concrete full pipe way out in the desert. It hasn’t been skated since the early 2000’s and has had water running through it every year we’ve checked since. It was beautiful irony to stumble upon this janky 12-foot metal pipe after taking the time to drive (and hike) all the way out to the full pipe just to get denied again. While most of the crew had their tails tucked between their legs, Willy ran out of the car with a smile on his face and got to work on a lesser version of what we originally set out to skate.
Willy Akers Frontside Carve
Greyscale
While skating around Seattle this past summer, we stumbled upon this crazy bump to bar and Preston wanted to stop and check it out. This was in a cutty area and there were people selling drugs 15 feet from us the entire time. Preston didn’t let the sketchiness factors of the lurkers or the crusty spot affect him.
Left: Preston Harper FS Boardslide Bottom: Tim and Brett hopping a fence
Right when my feet hit the ground, I remember pulling my camera up and waiting for Tim and Brett to hop over this fence. This is one of the few photos that I’ve shot which I truly remember seeing before it happened.
Ryan Lay works well under pressure. I specifically recall him rushing to try and get this trick due to having conflicting schedules. Ryan had talked about wanting to try this switch boardslide for a long time, but it was just a matter of lining up a solid crew to go take care of it.
Ryan Lay Switch Boardslide
Chris Livingston Frontside Grind
We had one winter out here where almost every pool that was going had ride-able stairs. This little 6 footer hosted some epic sessions over the 14 months or so that it was around and it was always a treat to watch Chris Livingston destroy this thing from either side of the fence.
almost every pool that was going had ride-able stairs
Chris Dimon Layback Grind Every so often Chris Dimon talks about some sort of spot he found in the middle of the desert while he was out chasing down a lead on an old truck or motorcycle. I always love going on his missions because the spots end up being unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. This thing was impossible to skate, and I’m still amazed he was able to figure it out.
Back in 2007, Lee Bender and I hopped in Wez Lundry’s 1964 Plymouth Valiant and headed out to the very first Rumble in Ramona vert contest. On the way home it started over-heating, which prompted us to pull over continuously to assess the damages and let things cool down every 30 minutes. I remember thinking that we’d never make it home but we did somehow.
Lee Bender
Greyscale
Dewzer
Dakoda Osusky Interview + Experimental Alternative Printing. Dakoda Osusky can easily be described as one of the gnarliest go for broke kinda dudes I’ve met. He’s been crushing it out here since he was a little kid in the bowl at Tempe Park. His influence from dirt biking, mountain biking, and BMX shows through in his skating. I mean, he’s one of few who can legitimately do a backflip on a skateboard. Sure, a lot of skateboarders can relate to that somewhat - you grow up, you ride your bike, you take your rollerblades to the skatepark and have your dad film you dropping in. Dakoda took all of that to the next level when he was young, jumping dirt bikes with his dad and doing double BMX backflips into foam. Maybe his extreme maneuvers stem from his motocross upbringing, or all the Mountain Dew he drinks, but we’re stoked on that because these days most kids really push themselves away from that, trying a little too hard to be be that stereotypical cool-guy skateboarder, instead of just being themselves. We sat down with Dakoda to talk. To add in a little creativity, each photographic negative is printed as a gum bichromate. So here we go, Dakoda Osusky.
Words & Photos: Tommy Kowalski
What is a
bichromate? A light sensative mixture with watercolor pigment added to a sheet of paper, exposed to sunlight with the original photographic negative to achieve a positive image.
Hardflip, in turquoise, shot on Tri X. Sunlight exposure time of 35 minutes.
You grew up mostly around Tempe and Pecos, some of the most popular skateparks in Arizona. Do you think those parks influenced your skating a lot from a young age? Were you kind of a park rat? I was definitely a park rat. I would catch the bus from wherever I was in Ahwatukee and take it to the skatepark. I’d stay there as late as possible to still catch the last bus home. My neighbor Tino (Rincon) mainly got me into skating because his dad would always take us to parks.
How much time would you say you spent at Tempe Park when you were younger? Did you do a lot of flyouts? How did you learn backflips out of tranny on a skateboard? I would go to Tempe whenever I had the chance and with whoever was willing to pick me up. I used to play for my school’s soccer and softball teams, and we would always have tournaments at the fields there. Yeah, softball. When the games would end, I would change out of my cleats and skate over to the park. I would pretty much only do flyouts…
Growing up riding dirt bikes and mountain bikes with your dad, do you think it had an influence on how you skate now? It’s pretty much like growing up watching Rocket Power. It influenced me to try all sports. Spending time watching my dad progress at mountain biking for his age (45) makes me want to skate for as long as I can, and it keeps me psyched on it.
Backside Tailslide Exposed for 30 Minutes
Dewzer Do you think that kids these days are kinda pushing towards being artsy and abstract with their tricks and style, in comparison to the early 2000s era of growing up watching someone like Bam or the Muska? If you had to choose, what would you rather see and why? I think it’s cool how there’s always something “new” in skating. It’s cool to watch because it’s different. As far as the early 2000s era goes, if you think about it, Bam Margera just had the “skater” style of that time. Nowadays there’s just a different style that fits the stereotypical skater. I’m not too sure who I’d rather watch, because you gotta respect the past but also appreciate what’s new. A lot of skate stuff that people like you and I were into as 90s kids is nostalgic or kooky now,in a funny way isn’t it kinda timeless and classic to see skating like that? Yeah, it’s just one of those styles skating was born into, so it is classic to see Muska 50-50ing wall rails with a tanktop and baggy JNCO pants. I don’t know if he wore baggy JNCOs but that jean was pretty big back then, no pun intended.
Backside Wallride Exposure time of 45 minutes
Do you feel nostalgic about older Arizona skateboarding? Yeah, I think I mainly looked up to the “skateaz” dudes, who were filming for Potpourri at the time. That ended up being my first video premiere and introduced me to the skate scene here. Arizona’s scene is just really friendly. I like that about it.
Dewzer
Whenever you skate handrails you always rack at least once. Is there some kind of science behind racking rails? This one ties in with dirt biking. You just gotta have no fear. I’d say it’s the one thing everyone wants to avoid, but if you get it out of the way it’s not in your head anymore. I dented a rail with my gooch once. You dropped two video parts in the last two months. Any plans to have some more sweet clips? I have a couple racks I wanna film. I don’t have any plans really.
Lettering: Zach Anderson
They think going to be to the be nextthe sponsored skater, however, They thinkthey’re they’re going next sponsored skater, there is no sponsor… however, there is no sponsor… Only the dudes willing to put in enough sweaty man hours will make the call of Ghetto most recent full length video. You will gotta Only the D’s dudes willing to put in enough sweaty man hours makebe up to quite fewfull favors to make the giving call of Ghetto D’saLast length video. You the gottacut. be upAtolittle giving dirty workfavors and to getting your andgetting knees never quite a few make thedown cut. Aon little dirtyhands work and down hurt anyone. If you don’t get the fisheye right in the on your hands and knees never hurt anyone. If you don’t get the action you’re gonna be left with a stale shot and no fisheye right in the action your gonna be left with a stale shot and no room to capture the big finish. BB4 is recorded before a room to capture the big finish. BB4 is set to a live studio audience with live studio audience with some of the sexiest skating some of the sexiest skatingWe’re you’ve talkin’ seen to date, we’re talkin’ massive the you’ve seen to date. massive handrails, handrails, ledge ledge tricks, big gaps nameyou it. Smile the Smile camerafor and the techest tricks, big you gaps, namefor it. enjoy the check outs of Dave Smiths last big production. This is the camera and enjoy each check out from Dave Smith’s newest Boss Ballin 4This casting creation. iscouch. the Boss Ballin 4 casting couch.
Name: Dave Smith Stage Name: “The Ghetto D” Years in the Biz: 25 Signature Move: Boardslide to Switch 5-0 Photo: Price
Name: Matt Jones Stage Name: “Buck Naked” Years in the Biz: 12 Signature Move: Poppin’ Mad Ollies Photo: Price
Name: Dashawn Jordan Stage Name: “Captain Kielbasa” Years in the Biz: 7 Signature Move: Hella Gnar Boardslide Photo: Kowalski
Name: Klay Andersen Stage Name: “Buster Cumalot� Years in the Biz: 15 Signature Move: Madonna Photo: Kowalski
Name: Marcus Carr Stage Name: “Wesley Pipes” Years in the Biz: 14 Signature Move: Kickflip Noseslide Photo: Kowalski
Name: Adam Arunski Stage Name: Big Tex Years in the Biz: 16 Signature Move: Noseblunt Photo: Kowalski
Toy Camera Sync It is safe to say that the newer methods of photography provide superior technological features to capture skateboarding in a way that could never be captured before. These methods, although profitable and gratifying, also can become a bit formulaic. Place the flash here, use the fisheye, shoot the big trick down the double set. Although there are many ways to twist the progression of digital formatting, imagine looking at it from a complete 360 degree point of view, where you are simplified down to the photographer, one plastic camera, and a limited number of exposures, with settings that are not up to the par of the norm.
You’ve got 1/125 of a second, nine frames, and a skater trying something they’re only gonna get to try once. The odds are not exactly in your favor. There are so many factors that restrict what creates the photo but can yield results that some people may not have approached. Dave McCarthy was nice enough to allow us to use his collection of toy cameras, each of which capture an image differently. Every photo in this piece has some sort of situation or process behind it that had to be followed. Here is toy camera sync.
Toy Camera Sync John Oneal: Kickflip HOLGA 120 with Ektar 100 color negative, blue flash gel, shot square format and then not fully advanced on each side to create double exposure. Photo: Kowalski About a year ago John and I looked at this bump over rail and he tried to skate it but he could never get his board over it. This year we jumped on the opportunity to take a photo there. The sideview was restricted due to the parked cars, but with a click of about 16 holga frames I was lucky enough to catch John killing it film style from the front. New year, new tricks - well, same spot but different tricks!
Toy Camera Sync Left John Rob: BS Flip Right Jeff Stevens: Foot Plant Canon Rebel 2000 35mm 6 year old expired film Photos: O’Shea
My photos were shot on a Canon Rebel SLR with a variety of expired 35mm film stocks including a black and white roll that sat in an Arizona garage for six years. I wanted the pictures to have as much grain/texture/ scratches (aka look as shitty) as possible and all negatives were self scanned. I love Tommy and PS118 for doing an all film issue. I think current magazines are lacking the beauty and organic substance that only film can offer.
There’s nothing better than dipping your toes in a pool of ice water on a hot day. On this particular day, I was in the fountain 20 minutes before Randy even started skating the ledge. Having an underwater fisheye camera is the best excuse I can imagine to stay cool on a session. Too bad the film got left in my car and practically melted the next day. At least you can still see what’s going on.
Toy Camera Sync
Randy Ploesser: Frontside Bluntslide Underwater Fisheye shot on Velvia 100 cross-processed Photo: Price
John found this spot randomly while driving past an abandoned QT one day and thought he could make it work. When we went back, of course John did what he does best and fixed the spot up real nice. After a few tries of landing primo and getting a heel bruise, he came out the winner. I shot this on an Holga using Forma 400 film.
John Motta: Frontside Lipslide Holga 120 shot on Forma 400ISO Photo: Nguyen
Toy Camera Sync
Tyler Gould: Backside Smith Holga 120 shot on Provia 100 Photo: Kowalski The infamous mosque double set has been destroyed in Arizona videos for the greater part of this decade, but few have touched the kinked rail that sits on the wall at this compound. You’re not always welcome to jump around on religious property, especially in the heart of South Phoenix, but Tyler was able to roll away from this for his last clip in Brian Masterson’s Brainsworld video before anybody started to question us. Reluctantly, I attempted to run and hide from a local that was pulling into the complex and I accidentally knocked my camera against the ground, causing the sweet light leaks.
Dave McCarthy: FS Selfie Underwater Fisheye shot on Velvia 100 cross-processed
When we took on this toy camera project, our epic bearded friend pictured above, Dave Mccarthy, graciously let us use his awesome collection of novelty toy cameras to shoot this whole portion of the magazine. When we set out to pick our toys of choice, however, we didn’t think Dave would have left film inside them. Matt Price picked out the underwater fisheye camera and it had about half a roll left to be shot. It wasn’t until the film was cross-processed that we discovered Dave’s selfies left over from a year back, sitting in the camera the whole time. Dave is the best, so he’s got a trick this issue: frontside selfie underwater with PBR in hand. He also shot some toy camera skate stuff himself so peep those too! Thanks Dave!
Toy Camera Sync
Evan Okeson: Frontside Air Holga 120 shot on 400ISO BW, with fisheye attatchment Photo: McCarthy