Skateboarding
Circa 1975, Pasadena California, 9 years old I rode my very first skateboard and it has been a part of my life ever since. I never entered or won any contest or hung out with the cool kids, it was just typically me, my board maybe a friend or two and a ratty old ramp, sweeping out a ditch or cleaning out the Darwin stew from the bottom of an abandon Arizona pool.
Along with checking out many of the skaters of the day and reading the write-ups through Skateboarder and Thrasher magazine, I always, ALWAYS, looked for the photo credits and took note of who was capturing these awesome moments, Glen Friedman, Craig Styck, Ted Terrebone, James Cassimus, Jim Goodrich, Mofo, Grant Brittain are just a few names that come to mind right off the bat, and these photographers have had just as much of an influence on me as the skaters themselves.
Fast forward to 1990, fresh out of the Navy, moving back to Colorado, I find myself doing the whole “time to grow up thing” school, work, marriage etc. and with no one to skate with or skateparks around at the time, I didn’t even realize that I had started my skateboarding hiatus.. This is what growing up tends to do to you.. one day you miss a session..the next day you wake up and 6 years has gone by.
After a bad year in the mid 90s I decided to leave Colorado and move back to California, This was the restart I needed in life and motivation that directed me back to a couple of old passions skateboarding and photography. After realizing I hadn’t skateboarded for about 6 years I picked up a new board and shortly after I purchased my first digital camera.
On August 16, 2000, I bought my very first domain name “bowlrider.com” with the hopes of combining and sharing my two favorite passions of skateboarding and photography.
Over the past 15 years or so I have had the opportunity to cross paths with, skate and shoot a variety of events, socal locals, many of my old skateboarding heroes as well as the young guns who would grow up to push skateboarding to new limits. Many of the names you will see on the site are those people that I have been so fortunate to meet over the years and allowed to capture some great moments in their life and/careers. Cant forget about a few photographers that I have had the opportunity to share the deck with over the years, Brian Fick, Ted Terrebone, Mofo, Grant Brittain, Ray Zimmerman, Lorrie Palmos, Dan Borqui… who have all become new inspirations in photography that I am always learning from.