Prints

At a Maryhill Freeride in 2010, a bunch of skaters held lights and took a night run down the spaghetti section of Maryhill Loops Road. I had long wanted to create a light trail shot of skaters riding down the hill during a full moon. With the help of Maryhill Ratz Dean Ozuna, we made it happen. I set my camera on a tripod at the top of the hill and riders cruised down the moonlit hill with lights in their hands to create a light trail shot at an 86 second exposure.

On April 19, 2012, skateboarders race down the track at the world famous Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. 31 years earlier, Roger Hickey scored an upset victory over John Hutson, then the winningest skateboarder of all time. It was a dream and a privilege to photograph in a location with deep roots of downhill and racing.

When I started shooting downhill skateboarding, Mike McGoldrick and Brian Elderkin were two extremely stylish skaters that I loved to watch. In 2007, Coast Longboarding organized an impromptu “Fuck the Rain” tour for Canadians and others to escape the winter rain and enjoy some dry days at Maryhill. As the afternoon light bathed the hill beautifully, I saw these two legends cruising down the hill barefoot. I stepped into the road to get a closer angle of them riding through the never ending left. They gave me exactly what I wanted, a perfect exposure oozing with style.

Rowena Loops Road is part of the Historic Columbia River Highway Scenic Byway. Rowena and Maryhill exist thanks to the vista-inspired railroad lawyer Samuel Hill and engineer extraordinaire Samuel Lancaster. For months, I tried to get a cover photo of skaters riding Rowena Loops Road while shooting from the overlook. I didn’t have a wide enough angle to get what I envisioned and the weather didn’t cooperate on many occasions. Finally, Billy Meiners and I got a crew from Portland, Oregon and everyone road down in a pack while I shot the photo. I then shot more photos in every direction and stitched together a panoramic photo to get this final result, which was the cover of Skate[Slate] in Early Summer 2013.

At a Maryhill Freeride in 2009, I took a couple of runs with Mischo Erban and Billy Meiners with the hopes of creating a photo that put you in the action but focused on one rider alone. I shot this photo of Mischo from a luge while Billy rode to the side of Mischo, pointing a flash at him. His death stare makes him look a little like super villain and I love it.

Before drone technology advanced to what we can see nowadays, a helicopter was one of the only ways we could get a bird’s eye view of the hill. At a Maryhill Freeride in April of 2011, Dean Ozuna rented a helicopter and a select few media folks took photos and video from inside. At the time, I remember being a bit bummed I didn’t get to ride in the helicopter. Looking back now, I am stoked I was able to get the view from the top of the hill as the helicopter flew extremely low to the ground. I dare say my photos turned out better than the ones shot from the helicopter. This is one of my favorites for sure.

In 2013, while visiting some friends and shooting skate photos for Skate[Slate] in the Bay Area, I captured this golden photo of Byron Essert throwing out a casual backside blunt slide as he dropped down a popular steep hill in Oakland.

After Scott “Scoot” Smith dominated the competition at the Maryhill Festival of Speed in 2007, he came back the next year and became the World Champion in 2008. Normally, the final race heat would consist of a tight pack of racers drafting and passing all the way to the finish. I had not previously shot from this angle on Cowzer’s Corner, but this turned out to be the perfect angle for the final heat of the race. This photo was on the cover of Concrete Wave Magazine.

In 2006, I shot this photo at Danger Bay 5 in Pender Harbour on the Sunshine Coast of BC, Canada. When the downhill legend Noah Sakamoto led this race heat through Carnage Corner, I pointed my camera with black and white film loaded at the racers and couldn’t help but include the cardboard cut outs of money in the frame. It symbolized the risks the racers took to win the prize money.