Interview by Larry Davis.

What have you been doing today?

I was skating with some friends, then I got a back massage, now I’m slow cooking a pork shoulder.

Sick. Where are you from originally?

I’m from Linenhurst, IL. It’s a small town, at the time when we lived there it was mostly just cow farms.

Who was the most popular skater when you first started skating?

Probably Steve Fauser.

What’s the best thing about the Midwest?

The food. It’s just got so much soul in it. It tastes the best, out West it’s just healthy kale avocado crap.

Where you at now, and how long have you been here?

Been living in the Mission District of San Francisco for seven years.

How many different mustaches have you rocked in those seven years?

A few, right now I’m on seventies porn star.

True, what and who got you into digital photography?

I tore my ACL when I was 19, and I still wanted to go skating with my friends. I was going to college at the time, I couldn’t afford to get a digital camera and this photographer, Cory Peterson, gave me his old one. At the time I was going to school for film photography, so it really contradicted itself and I had to basically reteach myself everything. They didn’t even really have digital classes right then.

What were you studying specifically?

I wanted to be a darkroom technician, like a printing master for someone who was actually really good at film photos.

So what made you do the digital switch?

I couldn’t afford at the time to shoot any more film, I was going to college, I was broke. I was shooting Walgreens brand film trying to shoot sequences, and it just wasn’t working out. And my buddy Cory didn’t want to see me stop shooting skating, so he gave me the Nikon d70 and at the time I was shooting Nikon film, so I was able to take all my lenses from that and the story kept going.

Looking to current day digital photography, do you recommend going to college or going to Youtube?

I think college is a good way to go in general, it just gives you the focus time you need. As opposed to Youtubing and relying on yourself to know what you’re doing, it’s just better to go to school for it.

Remember your first published skate photo?

Yeah, it was in Photograffiti, I was thirteen years old and it was this kid Donnie Sanafeld doing a boardslide and at the bottom of the rail it had caution tape. The caption was “caution tape adds boardslide spice photo: Zorro.”

Sick. Does skateboarding pay your bills?

Kind of man… I mean on a good month, haha

Any advice for kids to get their photos published?

Don’t move to California thinking you’re gonna be here to shoot with pro skaters, just skate with your friends and it’ll all work out. That’s what I did.

Favorite person to shoot with?

(Ryan Garshell from background) GX baby! GX!

Yeah, probably G. I mean, Ryan’s just the facilitator of the session, you know, you meet up with him and everything else is gonna pan out. And the one dude I love to shoot with all the time is Al Davis. You know he’s funny, creative, just dope and I love being around that dude. He’s just smart.

Whats your favorite weed?

Minderaser, maybe Third Hump in the Camel’s Back…

That’s it? That’s the top two?

That’s pretty good if you ask me, if you can’t find those two you ain’t looking hard enough.

Lui Elliot: Who’s someone that you’ve shot recently that you hadn’t really heard of that’s really good?

I shot a photo recently of this kid Cory Glick from my hometown in Illinois, his mom used to drop him off at the park with the silver helmet, double wrist guards, the whole nine. He rips now! He came up to SF and fucked some shit up I was blown away.

Any famous people from your hometown?

I guess Jon Dickson…

No like celebrities.

Shit, maybe some pro fishermen.