Where you from and where’s the coolest place you’ve been?
Born in West Texas, but I’ve lived in Albuquerque for fifteen years so that’s over half my life. So that’s more my home than anything. Coolest place I’ve been to yet I’d have to say is a tie between Miami and NYC and San Francisco is up there as well you know, that’s the fucking spot. Can’t pick one, like all three of them have had a huge effect on how I perceive skateboarding and the difference in the environment, and how people skate. Being from New Mexico it’s just like, we have ditches and that’s it. But going to big metropolitan areas it’s like, “whoa, we don’t have this here let’s fucking shred.”
What was up with Miami?
Miami was sick, but we did have to do a lot more driving. But there’s probably two good ledges in the city that I live in, and in Miami it was just like we’re going to this school, and there’s just butter ledges everywhere, it’s like a skatepark at a school.
So how’d you get into skating?
I got into skating, I gotta say, during that whole Tony Hawk boom when I was a little kid in west Texas. And caught some wind of some x games bullshit that was going on. And right after that I moved to Albuquerque and there was a ditch right at the end of my block.
Sick.
So I’m like oh cool I can skate here all the time. We had skateparks, but they were on the other side of the town, same with the shop. I’d be fucking fourteen riding the bus for two hours to get a board and then skate the park, go home and tear the board up in the ditch.
How’d you get into photography?
Um, I started out mainly filming. Since I started skateboarding I had the old vhs camcorder that my step dad gave me, so I always filmed my brother, and the neighborhood kids skate. And I got the chance to take a photography class at school and after that I just liked photo more than video. Like video is fucking badass but just something about being still, and it creates a whole different story. You wonder the circumstances, you wonder what they had to go through.
So what’s up with the gallery you own?
I mean, getting into a gallery is hard thing to do out here. You know, so when I had enough cash to open up my own spot, do it my own way, it opened up a whole new world for my work and friends of mine. I started it before I moved to SF, ran it for six months, and then moved to live with my girlfriend. Ditched the whole gallery thing. Then right when I got back, I had my eye out on certain spots that I thought would do well, and a friend of mine, who also moved out to the bay, I swooped in on his spot. The name is Separation.
Sick. So what cameras are you usually packing?
At the moment I’m doing all analog. Funnily enough Nich Kunz gave me what I’m shooting on right now. But last time I was in SF I was shooting on the Canon AE1 and with a sony dslr also. Then my Canon locked up on me, some mechanical problem, and Kunz just goes, “Here my friend was about to toss this it’s a Minolta SRT202.” And the cool thing is that it was Toad’s old camera.
Rad, shout out to Toad haha.
I met Toad way back in the day he came through on some trip, I had to have been like fifteen, sixteen and we were skating this pool. It was super funny.
So what’s the full set up, lenses? Any digital?
At the moment no digital, when I moved back to Albuquerque I had to sell all my digital equipment to get my spot. Some of the photos of Dave were shot on the Sony dslr, and that had interchangeable lenses, the whole nine. Very few flashes, I have one strobe, but most of my skate photography is natural light.
So you build dark rooms a bunch right? You do all your own printing?
I do, yes. I used to print in my gallery, but I moved into a one bedroom spot and my living room is my room, and what would be my bedroom is my darkroom.
Fuck yeah. Have any photo influences?
Matt Price, Grant Brittain, good homie of mine Rocky Norton. As of recently, just like mad heads on the internet, like where did all you guys come from? I see the sickest fucking pictures all day. From Indiana, New Orleans, I’m like what the fuck? I’d also have to say Sam Milianta, from Utah. Just a go getter, I love his shit.
Whats your biggest photo accomplishment?
Uh, I’ve made two publications, I’m working on three more at the moment, haha. I printed my first book, right when I got back from SF last November, made twenty copies. I sold em the first week, I don’t even have one myself, I sold my copy haha.
What’s yr favorite beer?
Tough one. I’m drinking Modelo especial on the regular, but I work at a bar. So I get introduced to some killer beer. I had one from Italy, it’s called Bachiammi Lipsia. Translates to kiss of the lips. It’s a sea salt sour. It was fucking excellent. It was almost like drinking pickle juice.
Gross, favorite candy?
Twizzlers.
What happened last time you were in sf bombing hills?
Man, on my last day there after leaving the Skate Jawn bbq at 3rd and army, we went to bomb some hills up by twin peaks and uhhh, I fucking cracked an ollie over a rough spot, lost my balance, and landed shifty and fractured my skull. I didn’t split my head open, I just fractured the skull, and I didn’t find out until three days after. I just had a consistent headache the whole time driving back, taking mad Tylenol and shit, it just wasn’t going away.
Fuck.
So I went to the ER, they saw me in five minutes and were just like, “Your brain’s bleeding.”
Are you skating again yet?
I am skating. The two month recovery period was fucked too. Just gathering myself again, it was kind of tough. But absolutely, skating.
Goals for the next three hours?
Two more beers, couple cigarettes, and pass the fuck out.
