What have you been up to lately?
My one buddy was having like a birthday jam down at Paines so I biked down there and the closer I got the more it rained, and I got there and no one showed up except for me. So I skated flat ground under the tree for like a half hour, then went to work, then to the bar to watch the soccer game. Just got home from that.

How long have you been taking photos?
Skateboarding? Probably about four or five years. But photos in general I’ve been shooting for a long time, my sister and my dad were both really into photography. Then when I started hanging out with dudes that skated, I started shooting skateboarding and got more into it, buying more flashes and shit like that to actually get better skate photos. Most of my progression has been towards skateboard photography and then I do just random shit on the side.

You ever shoot models?
Not really, not many models. I’ve tried but I’m always weird with girls. I’m not good with like intimate settings. I used to work for this magazine in West Chester, where I’m from, for store owners but never got into any sorta high fashion shit.

What kind of side shit do you shoot?
Mainly weddings, every once in a while head shots. I just got hired for a music video, I’ve been doing more video work recently. So I’m doing a music video for this like international Jordanian singer which is a pretty cool experience.

Did you go to Japan recently?
Yeah I was in Tokyo last December. G Shock watches had this like miniramp contest and they invited Nocturnal to come up there so the owners decided that they wanted to send me to try and cover it. I went up with Nate LaCoste, Dan Hetrich, and Kyle Nicholson for like a week. It was pretty rad. It ended up being part of a Transworld skateboard article.

Most stairs you’ve ever hucked personally?
Back in high school I think I ollied a fucking six stair haha. I kick flipped a four. But yea nothing big at all. I’ve always been more on the photo/video side. Me and the homies used to skate and go out to different spots and I’d end up taking more photos than anything, and skating flat ground.

What are some of your favorite places to go skate personally?
For me I do a lot of time at Rizzo Rink, cause it’s like halfway between my apartment and where I work. So at least during the day I’ll go skate flat. Other than that I try to go to Love and Municipal at least once a week. Recently that got kinda fucked up by that Curtis kid from Pottstown. I’ve only skated there once since that happened like a week ago, but Love and Muni are always rad. I like to shoot photos a lot more than I like to film, and at Love and Muni the Sabotage kids are always running shit with filming so I don’t worry about filming anything, I can just bring all my photo gear.

Favorite places to shoot photos? Downtown? Love and Muni?
It’s really random. I like shooting photos wherever. I like shooting photos at Love and Muni but at the same time I like shooting spots that haven’t been shot before. Just cause if you shot a photo down the Love gap, at this point, every angle has kinda been played out. Everyone’s shot from top of the sign, long lens, fish eye, everything’s kinda been done, so there’s nothing exciting about shooting at Love, at least down the gap anymore. The tricks are rad but like you can’t really get creative with photos.

Ever just like drop yr fisheye and break it?
Nah I’ve had a few close calls, I’ve had a bunch of times where I’ve had my lens hit while filming, not so much while shooting photos. I’ve probably had my fisheye hit at least 10 times by now. I’ve had like three or four different fisheyes. Nothing crazy. I’m usually pretty good at pulling out and not getting shit hit.

Ever had any photo gear jacked?
I generally ride on a bike around the city, cause I carry so much gear around with me, but I also have a holder for my board on there, on the back wheel and that got jacked one night just cause I left my bike in front of my apartment in South Philly. That’s the only thing that’s really ever gotten jacked.

You see a lot of crazy shit on South Street?
South street’s always fucking crazy, it’s like the boardwalk, we have people coming in smoking G-pens all the time, which is fine but it’s a little different than what I’m used to. South street’s just wild. Day to day it can vary like we have super mellow days and other days where like every single person who comes in is cracked out. There’s a lot of crust punks on South Street now looking for free money. It’s always different.

Do you try to find spots/think of tricks for people? Or do you usually hope they have ideas.
I used to like tell people I found this spot, you should do this on it, but then you bring people there and they’re super bummed cause yr like, “you should front feeble this rail,” and they’re like, “yea right I can’t even 5050 this.” Especially since I moved to Philly it seems like a lot of the skaters here usually have an idea what they actually want to do. Which is rad. I get siked when someone hits me up and they’re like, “Yo I have a photo idea. We should shoot this.” I’m always down to shoot something even if it’s like a grind on a lil ledge cause for me I have to make it look cool.

Worst part of working at a skate shop?
Can I only pick one? There’s a lot of stuff, like people come in and want to get new bearings and they have completely oiled the shit out of their old ones so your hands are like completely black afterwords. But I would say a lot of the time the small talk with certain people. I love talking to people but certain shit. Like a lot of the time it’s stuff in Philly that I wasn’t around for, so like I don’t know what they’re talking about. Stuff like ten years before I was born.

Best part?
You get to work with something you really like, not like you have some guy breathing down your neck about reports and shit. You get to skate when you want.

Ever been on a blind date?
Not really a blind date, I’ve messed around with the whole Tinder, and OkCupid thing for a little while, really wasn’t for me. That shit kinda weirds me out. Especially when it’d be like, this person lives .3 miles away from me, you should go message them. Like fuck, is this person gonna kill me? Is it actually a girl? I’d rather focus on like being able to skate everyday I have off and actually get stuff instead of get with some chick that I don’t even know.

Favorite liquor?
I don’t know if I’d say it’s my favorite, The most I drink is probably like Evan Williams whiskey. I was at a house party down on like 15th and Tasker the other night and Shaun Williams cracks open a bottle and hands me it. I’m like, oh this is Evan Williams, and he’s like, how the fuck did you know that.

You mentioned it before but those fucktards at Love kind of ruined shit. What did you think about the way the media handled it?
I just did this video for that Quartersnacks dunk that’s about to come out and we planned on doing it all downtown. I remember waking up really early on Saturday and seeing Ki Reeler post some shit about the ranger getting beat up and in my mind I’m just like, “Oh, we’ll never get to film shit ever.” Cause we were gonna try to get everything at Muni. But it was a weird Saturday and Sunday the following days at Muni and Love. It was kinda mellow, nothing out of the ordinary, but the next couple days I heard about people getting ticketed. It’s just a weird situation. Hopefully it will blow over and people won’t look at everyone like those kids. He’s the same kid apparently that started some shit on Go Skate Day, he like tried to fight one of the picture people or something, I don’t know exactly what happened. But he wants to like fuck people up, it doesn’t make sense. Stay in the suburbs if you’re gonna do that.

Words of advice for photogs/filmers?
For film and photography you gotta pay your dues. Like I’m still giving away tons of photo and video work. I’m 27 and I’m still giving away tons of shit all the time. Just gotta pay yr dues and you have to be really good at it. It’s always a learning curve, I’m trying to get better for me personally every time I shoot a photo or film a trick. Just try to get better and better each time you do it.