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y
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grapher painter filmmaker
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I started skateboarding when I was 5 I
grew up in this
Beach town called Dana Point kind of
between San Diego and Los Angeles and uh
I was born in 1969 so by like
1974
75 76 78 77 like that whole period was
like a really big explosion in
skateboarding like where I lived like
every girl every boy every everyone was
skateboarding
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by the time I was about 13 or 14 I kind
of got into the next phase of
skateboarding and then that became a lot
of part of my life and like I was making
fan zenes and skating a lot and and then
I eventually started like when I was 17
I started writing I wrote my first
article that was in trans world and um
eventually became a photographer
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I knew at one point that he was starting
to do photography but he didn't really
know what he was doing he just had a
really good eye and uh I did hear the
story about him going to Spain and
shooting some Pro job I can't remember
what it was I have no idea how he hooked
it up but he had he manages to hook up
and crazy stuff and uh he called Spike
on the phone to get any any kind of
information he could on how to use the
lights and how to use the uh you know
the aperture settings and you name it
and uh and he did it so he's still
shooting still doing
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good Thomas's voice I think Thomas has a
very distinct voice in in everything
creative that he does and his writing
style you know you get an email from him
and it's written in such a way that you
know immediately who it's from uh you
see a photograph I know immediately oh
this is one of Thomas's you see a video
like everything has his kind of touch
and his voice attached to it it's a very
strong
distinct what all this oh here's some of
my zen when I first started making it it
was called joke Zen CU I thought it was
like a joke I think I made
about
nine nine different ones I had like a
Roop class um in high school in that one
I so I did these all with offset
printing like I made plates I made the
negatives and everything and ran them
through process yeah and that's why like
like I put like purple down there and
black up there and then that's how it
printed that I had ad for Schmid sticks
for lucer I drew it the main
skateboarding magazine that I work
for for all the years was trans World
skateboarding magazine and I shot this
cover right here that's Steve Olson I
think that's in Germany like maybe right
by the monster
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contest old trans World skateboard
photos uh and it was just like wow who's
this lunatic making these pictures he
obviously knows how to use a camera but
at the same time it doesn't even look
like he knows what he's doing but he
gets it he gets these amazing photos so
it's obviously intentional so that
always stood out to
me I shot that this picture of Tim
Bros Tim was a really good friend of
mine I used to do a lot of his
Graphics um
for SMA and Santa Cruz I remember this
picture I shot of Ed at monster I think
that mostly people at the contest they
would just be like they'd have one Flash
and I was like [ __ ] it I'm going to just
try to get some good photos so like I
brought my other flashes out there and I
was like Ed come over here or like just
getting my different friends to come
skate the different parts in the
practice well Thomas and I worked on um
a special edition Skateboard Magazine he
was the art director I was the editor I
think that Thomas was way more
passionate about about using certain
photos or having certain looks and it
was good having his perspective and I
think that we both learned a lot in the
process it was a lot of fun just because
we were learning as we went and we
didn't have many rules to follow this is
the second issue of uh skateboarder this
cover here I I shot this picture of Rick
Howard out in the desert we made made
some obstacles out there with Mike Bard
one thing that I was traveling a lot
internationally and one thing that I
tried to initiate in skateboarding was
like taking people to like distant
places which I didn't think had been
done so much before in the first issue
of skateboarder I took Jeff rally Steve
Olsson and D Donnie barley to Morocco
second issue I took uh Adrien Lopez Kyro
Foster and Brian suner to uh Hong Kong
and Vietnam
it's probably the best picture I ever
took in skateboarding I like when photos
are really graphic and I think I
accomplished that
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here in
1999 or 1998 skateboarding was really
fractioned you know you had like kind of
the tech Street guys and then you had
kind of the Nar dog Street guys and you
had like The Pool Guys and you had the B
guys and there wasn't like a lot of
camaraderie like it was kind of like
[ __ ] those guys you know like it was
really separate and I just didn't like
it I didn't really like the vibe at the
time also being at the bottom of the
stairs like with people doing really
gnarly things it was pretty [ __ ]
emotional at a certain point like I
didn't really want to be there for like
people [ __ ] losing their minds you
know since all the Parks have came about
in America and around the world I think
that
the kind of mentality of skateboarding
Now is really really open and kids like
they don't have any barriers they're
just like yeah let's go skate the park
or let's go Street skating or or just
seems really like the kind of idea of
skateboarding that I've always thought
and that's kind of what made me inspired
to want to decend it pi
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the first real film that I made by
myself it was called The Love Supreme
and that was for Supreme the skate shop
in New York I was living in New York at
that time I just kind of filmed for a
few months on 16 mm film kind of skating
and like the life in New York and when I
lived in New York I was listening mainly
to Jazz was like the soundtrack to the
place to
me the first day that I started filming
Love Supreme was the first day that I
ever touched a 16 mm camera so that was
how I learned I didn't know what I was
doing but I just tried to figure it
out the new skate film that I just made
it's called quatro suenos penos I just
thought it would be interesting to bring
some kind of like dreamlike or surreal
IDE aidea into the movie you know and I
kind of came up with that idea of like
the the dream sequence also like when I
was coming to like think about making
the film I was very inspired by European
Cinema like especially Cinema of like
the' 60s and 7s like drao brucci Gard
that kind of stuff and and very subtle a
lot of like what's happening in the
films is kind of comes across on this
subtle level that hopefully all the
subtle things add up to one more
impactful
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idea we decide to uh film the whole
movie in Spain because this is where I
live we're trying to play with this
dreams and reality we've been looking
for a specific
locations is really amazing because we
get to go to all these awesome places
like on top of the highest mountain in
Spain
skating through clouds and then we're
skating rocks on the
beach I'm just
feel mad pleasure for being part of this
you know
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I would just say that like art making is
like a journey in itself you
know every kid they're they're creating
stuff they're making stuff at some point
they stop some don't but most do they
stopped creating visual
art so for me there was a period where
it wasn't maybe between like 8 and 13
that I didn't do art that much but then
at 13 I decided that I just wanted to
try to make art you know and it was
because of skateboarding and because of
being inspired by creative people in
skateboarding and seeing those guys like
it just looked like they were just
having like [ __ ] you know like I was
like wow those guys you know like
they're having fun I want to have fun I
can try and I sucked at it and then I
just like kept trying and kept trying
from all that time for the last 31
years I've just been on a journey you
know I don't really see myself as like a
a painter or like anything specifically
I just see myself as like being a
creative person and then adapting the
creativity to whatever it is is in front
of me and skateboarding really gave me
that you know if it wasn't for
skateboarding I don't know if I would be
a creative person at
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all we're going to my
friend Jeremy's house to skate his
quarter pipe it's actually more probably
a sun ol quarter
pipe
and it's like a
little wuss quarter pipe which is my
favorite because I'm the team captain of
Team
wuss here you go
all right Thomas riding for Toy
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Machine invert revert
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documenting skateboarding is just like
documenting my life that's I'm a
skateboarder that's what I'm from that's
what I documented I just wanted to skate
all the time I didn't even want to take
pictures because I just wanted to
skate and then eventually because I was
so poor I started taking pictures and
that helped me not be as poor
being skating and being documenting
skateboarding it's just I was just
documenting the thing that I was most
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interested yep yep
yep skateboarding is probably one of the
largest creative movements in in the
history of the world like as far as like
people making graphics people making
advertisements people making photographs
making movies some people from
skateboarders like Mike NS or Spike
Jones making feature link like some of
the best Oscar nominated movies ever you
know like it's just a huge expanse of
creative humans coming from that DIY you
can do it you know pretty
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amazing yeah
yeah and it's all over the place you
know it's like from all through Europe
and South America North America
Australia Asia Russia and parts of
Africa you know like it's it's something
that's so expansive it's everywhere in
on this Earth
it's it's really amazing you
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know there's a lot of exciting people
today that you know like French Fred or
or Ponto Sal
and you know those guys the way they're
seeing skateboarding is like awesome you
know you're not confined or they're not
trapped they're like [ __ ] your rules and
that's what skateboarding is about
skateboarding is a [ __ ] Outlaw
culture and it's about [ __ ] your rules
let's do it the way we want to do it now
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