I’m a girl and there’s nothing more I appreciate than great skateboard decks and some cool skating clothing. My dad’s a professional skater so I guess that’s what got me into it. By the time I was 4 years old, I was already skating down the street faster than I could ride a bike. By age 6, I was already doing ollies and kickturns. I guess you could say skating has become my life the way it’s become my dad’s. That’s why it’s really important for me to have great skating gear and skating clothing. I have a few boards, including a really cool longboard, but when it comes to finding affordable and quality gear, I like to go to GoSkateorGoHome.com because of their wide selection of gear for not only guys, but gear and skating clothing specifically designed for girls. And even though my dad says I’m as good as any guy, he also thinks it’s important to find the right boards, decks, and clothing that works for me. It’s also pretty cool that they have an entire section with gear just for girls, even though sometimes I buy things from other sections also.
Not that I can’t do sweet tricks on a board, but I’ve got a serious passion for film, and I’ll admit it, I’m kind of even an A.V. geek. So when my skating crew started working on some crazy stunts, we needed a film guy to shoot some videos and post them on our website and of course, I decided to take on the role. Being a skating crew’s film guy is no easy task—everything from focus to timing has to be perfect in order to capture the perfect shot. One thing I knew I needed was proper skating clothing. Because filming stunts does involve a bit of a risk, I wanted the right skating gear so people would know who I was, aside from the really obvious video camera in my hands.
So now whenever I’m filming a shot or even leisurely skating on my own, I wear my Alien Workshop Film-School hoodie that I got at a really great online skating clothing store. My skating crew’s starting to look pretty legit…Of course, sometimes I put the video camera down and do some stunts and tricks of my own, I wouldn’t be a real skater if I didn’t from time to time.
Skateboard decks are used to great advantage in 2009′s “Putty Hill” directed by Matt Porterfield. Roger Ebert gave the film 4 stars and wrote in his review of it:
In a way rarely seen, “Putty Hill” says all that can be said about a few days in the lives of its characters without seeming to say very much at all. It looks closely, burrows deep, considers the way in which lives have become pointless and death therefore less meaningful. It uses fairly radical filmmaking techniques to penetrate this truth, and employs them so casually that they seem quite natural.
Porterfield filmed the movie in Baltimore, using mostly local non actors hanging out in locations they were most comfortable in, with the props they were most comfortable using. A particularly awesome scene takes place at a skate park features bunch of kids doing tricks with BMX bikes and skateboard decks. You can tell how much Porterfield loves and respects skaters by the way he keeps the camera on them, and the music he sets the scene to. It ends up looking like some rad skate/bike ballet.
(Little known trivia: if you see a photo of the director, look closely at his chin for scars from countless skating wipeouts in his own teenage years.)
“Putty Hill” has been traveling the film festival circuit, and will be released in theaters nationwide in early 2011. Make sure you go see it–and bring your skateboard decks.