respect

Ray Zimmerman and I were driving back from Malibu one day and I remarked to him how difficult I thought it was to do rock-n-rolls in the shallow end of bowls and pools. Ray had done a few that day and I always found them much harder to do on the tight transitions. Ray laughed and remarked that it was nothing. He exclaimed, “Dude, what about back yard pools? I mean, a guy like Skreech can do a lien air in the shallow end of a pool. That doesn’t even count  the things he does over shallow stairs!” I had to agree. Skreech did some pretty mind-boggling things in a pool. A few weeks later, I was looking through one of his photo archives and came across this image of Skreech. I asked Ray why he had never used it anywhere. It is a banger! He then told me the story. “Well, this pool was the San Clemente egg pool and I went there with Skreech. He decided to try a frontside 5-0 over the shallow stairs. It is a long way. Gnarly! Well, I set everything up and we got the shot. Skreech threw it down. A bit later, Nick Gates told us that Rhino had been there a few days earlier and shot Peter Hewitt doing the same thing. I groaned inside. Ugh! I love the photograph but out of respect for Peter Hewitt and Rhino, I sat on our image. That is how it is supposed to be done. Respect.” I nodded and thoughtfully pondered what Ray had told me. The photograph of Peter Hewitt did run in Thrasher awhile ago. It was a really good image. I am stoked that Ray has integrity and keeps it real. There are others that do not.  Silence and integrity are not the same thing. Give respect. Earn respect. Skate- Ozzie