grit.

When I first started photographing skateboarding, I wasn’t exactly sure what drew me to the sport. The more skaters I photographed, learned from and became friends with, and the more I skated myself, I realized the pull. It’s not just some punk kids sport or a rebels activity. It’s passion, it’s grit, it’s creativity and imagination flowing through the concrete jungle of the city, the park, and the world. It’s not just a sport, it’s a culture, it’s a way of life, and it’s a mentality.

There is a perception of skateboarders as loners, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. The culture and community around skateboarding runs deep and as with many other action sports, the passion to grow and evolve the sport is so strong that the spirit of competition isn’t present the same way it is in other sports. Skaters know there is no pinnacle of skating; everyone has their own style and their own way of seeing the world around them. There will always be another combination of tricks, another line, another idea, another random curb or sign that suddenly becomes the point of fascination for hours, to the point of obsession. The way skaters interact with their environment, turn it into their playground, and flow through a space is mesmerizing.

Something could be said for the determination it takes to repeatedly endure the pain of wood and metal smashing into one’s shin, or ankle, or knee, time after time after time until a trick is landed. You have to have a certain something inside of you to intentionally endure failure to the point of exhaustion. Yet that sweet moment of success after sometimes hundreds of attempts makes it worth it. Sometimes that success is greeted with the echo of decks being smacked on the ground in respect, but that feeling is not diminished when no other eyes are watching and your own voice is the only one shouting.

Here’s to the wild spirit of skaters, whose creativity and stoke fills the city with chaotic and beautiful energy, whose playground can never be contained to a park or a team, and whose passion to flip and spin a plank of wood with wheels on it I am mesmerized by. These are for you.