The early 1990s was a time when skateboarding was slowly emerging from its downturn in popularity. Vert skating was essentially dead, technical street skating was progressing daily, and public skateparks were years from being constructed — yet the hardcore skaters of that time continued to create their own skate spots and reality. As the locals and regulars were honing in their tricks at Embarcadero plaza, Southern California resident Remy Stratton was caught lofting his original seatbelt ollie above one of the prized remains of the Berkeley Hills fire zone just across the San Francisco Bay. This renowned piece of skateable architecture, known as the Black Bottom Pool, was one of over a dozen pools that entertained numerous skaters over a two year period, and Remy destroyed it!

Rick Howard, backside 180 nosegrind, 1992, Embarcadero, San Francisco. EMB was the epicenter of the skating world in ’92- everyone, from everywhere, made a pilgrimage to skate the ledges and brinks at Justin Herman Plaza. At any given time there could be 100+ skaters cruising EMB.

Pepe Martinez, 1998, Kearny St., San Francisco. I grew up with Pepe in the Washington DC metro area- when I moved to SF in ’90 all my friends ventured out to skate the hills, EMB, and to eat burritos. Wild times. The city was a giant playground- full of brick sidewalks, steep hills, late nights, and still being invisible to the rest of the world.

I became fascinated with cameras at an early age, specifically black and white photography. I made my own darkroom at the age of nine and studied developing film and printing throughout high school. Shortly after graduating, I moved to SF because that's where skateboarding was. After befriending some of the pros, I started shooting them. Very early on I became friends with Drake Jones. He was very kind, always willing to go skating, and his style was unmatched. Photographs age like baseball cards: if someone has an amazing career, does something great, or their style ages gracefully, their photos are all the better to look back on. For me, Drake is the epitome of this. He had a relatively short career, but I love looking at these images that I took over 30 years ago.

Jaya had spots that only he skated. In San Francisco that's not easy to find, or roll away from. We skated together since our teens, but I never took my camera out unless it was planned. Unlike most skaters’ spontaneous outbursts of magic, Jaya was meticulous and calculated. At the time of this photo I pretty much lived on his couch, so when he told me he had a photo to shoot, I knew I was in for a treat. Moscone center has seen its share of legendary skating, but no one thought of, or wanted to hit this narrow roll up to grind. Death drops don't appeal to many. I shot a couple frames from the top to show how narrow the run up was, it didn't tell the whole story. I went down below to get the angle of justice, and shot a couple more frames. Jaya was getting close. The 50-50 was locked. He just had to roll away. It was a still photo, no filmer, only him and me, no one would know, but unless you roll away, it doesn't count. That was our code. Right when I could feel the make coming, this lady drove down the loading ramp where I was and parked then got out and watched, as Jaya went for another go. The lady was blown away by what she saw, and was stoked! She watched one more go while I shot the photo of her watching while he attempted to land the trick. He didn’t, and she had to go to work. I knew the value she added to this already amazing shot so I convinced her to stay where she was, and continue to watch. She agreed! (Normally I wouldn’t pose someone in a shot but this happened naturally, I just extended it a bit.) Two frames later he landed, and the shot you see here is the one he rolled away from. I really miss Jaya a lot. He was one of my best friends, and one of the biggest influences in my life. RIP.

I don’t remember anything about this day before or after, but every detail during this moment is etched in my brain forever. Just a regular day in Marin, call the homies to see where to skate. I don’t know if I called Morgan, or he called me, or what the plan was, but it involved going to the city. Also very regular. Now that I think about it, we didn’t have plans! Because when we both saw the full pipe on the truck, as we came down the freeway towards the golden gate bridge, the first thing I said was “Do you have your board!!!”. At the same time he asked, “Do you have your camera!!!”. We both said “YES”. With wide eyes and excitement, we parked behind the truck and strategized quickly. I needed to put a fresh roll in my camera fast and pick my angle. He needed to jump in the back and start skating before anyone knew what was going on. Crazy adrenaline! We were both ready and he went for it. Morgan is a great skater that can rip a pool, ramp, street, whatever, so it was the perfect person for the job. Even for him, this pipe is small and hard to skate. I knew I didn’t get him where I wanted for the photo yet. I told him I needed “front side vert”. At the same time the driver turned the truck on and shook the whole pipe! Morgan jumped out immediately to avoid being stuck as he drove off. I noticed the driver looking at me thru the rear view. I did the thumbs up or thumbs down move to see if he was cool. He gave the thumbs up! I yelled at Morgan to get back in and skate, he was like “fuck that”. I explained that the driver said it was ok. Took some convincing, but Morgan got back in, got the front side to vert, and I knew I got it! We ran back to the car, jumped in, and drove off knowing that we had just experienced a once in a lifetime event for both a skater, and photographer. I knew it then, and it is still true today. I wish for every photographer and skater to experience their own version of this one day.

This photo was the 2nd photo I was lucky to get published in Transworld skate magazine. This day was one of the longer skate days in 1989. Mickey and I started out in the Mission, as you can see here with this wallride at 24th street and Mission. We took a bus to the top of Corbet and skated down, then skated 7 miles to Ocean Beach. This day went on forever and was so fun. At the time I liked shooting at a slightly slower shutter speed to show some movement. I also liked to make the sky darker on most prints I made.