Around 2006 I met up with Bryan Derballa in SF. We had met 5 years prior when we were 17/18 years old and went skating all around town. But in 2006 it was a gloomy and wet. I was in SF to shoot skate photos and bored out of my mind, so we met for banh mi. He was telling me about being at home on a computer, coding, and excited to make a group blog website, and didn’t stay to hang out that long. I was like, what? Wtf is a blog? That sounds like the corniest nerd shit ever. I actually could not even visualize what he was talking about because I hadn’t seen anything like it before. He created lovebryan.com right when the internet was coming of age, before personal blogs were really a thing, and made a site for friends to visit and see each others’ work.

4 years later, friends in NYC would tell me it was the first website they checked every day, wishing they could be a part of it, and feeling special if a photo of them ended up on it.

I started posting to it around 2012, but in a few years, as the internet really exploded, the concept of a blog website fell by the wayside, and most members stopped sharing.

To me, the concept of a communal group blog is as valuable as it ever was. It serves as an ad-free space to share a series without the limitations and control of corporate social media. You come for your friend’s work and stay for their friends’ work.

With that said, I’m excited to announce the next chapter of our dear lovebryan group blog:

waitokay.com

I hope to see everyone over there!

 

These are the main photos from the 1st 4 wait okay posts:

From Live From New York By Allen Ying.

 

From Vladimir Film Festival 2017 by Connor Kammerer.

 

From Trinidaddy by Josh Goldsmith.

 

From Recent Activity By Nazar Khamis.

 

waitkoay.com

Colin Read made my favorite skate video of all time. I got to go skate with them a few times, and help out a little with some of the shoots.

 

 

I though it looked funny that Colin is pointing his camera at the wall instead of at Daniel Kim, even though I knew it’s a common skate filming technique.

 

It is also common to sit in the middle of the road between opposing traffic to film skateboarding.

 

This would be considered a belt dolly, used to insert the camera into a flood drain pipe from the point of view of the skateboard.

 

This is Colin Read filming skateboarding with his underwater housing while wearing flip flops. The whole time Colin was making this video, he was working full time sitting at a desk, and says it made him fat.

 

 

 

 

The Sony VX1000 is considered by many to be a classic skate video camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here the camera is seen channeling the spirit of a dolphin, or fish swimming up stream.

 

 

 

Taylor ran to a tourist store nearby to get Colin some dry pants, they were a little too big so Colin tucked them into his socks.

 

This was an improptu idea and practice for Leo doing a 360 flip, and Taylor hopping off his board and catching Leo’s board in the air.

 

Later that night, we thought we could push a cement road barrier out of the way if we all pushed together, we were wrong.

 

Eby was trying to gorilla swing from the scaffolding into a wallride. It didn’t work either. A lot of times things don’t work out but were a lot of fun.

 

 

 

 

This was a fun shot to work on. It took a few hours and ended up being a couple seconds in the final movie. Darnell is hanging out of the window to lower the camera down to street level.

 

In order to not drop the camera too far, Taylor was inside holding the orange string, and running with it to a certain point we marked on the floor, so it wouldn’t slack further than that.

 

 

Colin would grab it just in time to film Connor kickflip over a cellar door.

 

It was all very precarious and exciting.

 

These cameras are old, they don’t have an external LCD screen, and playing back the footage repeatedly can stretch the tape, so the common move now is to record the playback through the viewfinder once with your phone.

 

Spirit Quest went on to be an award winning skate video, leading Colin to co-direct a Radiohead music video with Spirit Quest’s Connor Kammerer. Colin has since left his full time computer job and been able to get fit again.

This is the trailer for the video, and by now there have been a few select sections also uploaded to YouTube. I recommend checking them out, they are mind melting.

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GHE20 G0TH1K and Adult Braces are two dance parties that appear nearly polar opposite. One plays gothy electronic rap music, and the other plays 90s alternative rock and pop jams, but they are both manifestations of the same things, movement and expression, with a bit of mesh.

 

The styles are impossible to miss.

Ghetto Gothik is the easier way to spell it.

 

 

 

 

Claire may be the only person other than myself to go to both GHE20 GOTH1K and Adult Braces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GHE20 GOTH1K is heavy on the styles, and Adult Braces is heavy on the moves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes this would happen when Torn by Natalie Imburglia came on, which was a cover.

 

90s grunge brings out the angsty teenage aggression.

 

 

Claire may be the only person other than myself to go to both GHE20 GOTH1K and Adult Braces.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These photos were taken between Fall 2016 and Spring 2017.

What does gothy electronic rap music sound like? This is a popular track on GHET20 GOTH1K’S soundcloud:

I shot a lot of photos of surfing in 2016, and nearly none the year after. I’ve been trying to edit down the set, but I wasn’t feeling it, so here’s a full 82 photo set in 3 sections. I felt like it should all be together.  If it’s too long for you, I recommend viewing one part at a time and then coming back to the next later.

 

Part 1 – Bungalow Surf Camp

 

Tori was surf coach.

 

Annelise was head counselor.

 

Imperfect bumpy waters are another kind of perfect.

 

 

Lucas was camp heartthrob.

 

This is Vinnie on a mellow summer ride. I see him out a lot on bigger waves.

 

 

 

I asked Josh what kind of camper he was, I was thinking something like camp jokester, or most enthusiastic, but he said “extraterrestrial liaison and regional cryptohistorian. No no! Cryptozoologist, marine cryptozoologist”

 

Lucas again.

 

Josh took this photo of me. I almost never light leak my film but because Josh touched my camera, it was destined to happen. You should see how boring the non-light leaked photos I took this night are.

 

 

Justin was always there for the sunset session, like the sunset session MVP of 2016. Josh and I were like, WHO IS THIS GUY? Then the next year he was gone, we thought we’d never see him again.

 

Kevin was like the veteran, relative to us newbies.

 

In 2015 I discovered the synchronizing of the full moon rising passed the rock jetty during sunset, and have since been keeping track of the 3 times a year it happens, hoping there are waves that also line up. It’s a lot of nature to hope to line up.

 

 

That’s Russ Dungan. I only know that because of Andreea Waters’ Surf NYC book. These next few are from the Gaston storm swell in late August, which in retrospect wasn’t that big, but was intimidating for me at the time.

 

 

 

 

I think I plagiarized this photo from one of Josh’s.

 

We didn’t know until he saved a drunk drowning swimmer in 2017, but I guess that makes Danny camp lifeguard.

 

 

 

They were like, you sure you won’t want to shoot towards the neon pink sunset? I was like, no, this is beautiful right here.

 

I kept trying to take a photo of myself  and lost my balance and went to switch stance.

 

 

 

 

Part 2 – Hermine

Hermine was the Labor Day weekend storm that prompted NYC to close the beaches, and some surfers got tickets, but tons more were out. It was quite a scene.

 

 

 

 

 

In my mind you had to be pretty gnarly to be out there.

 

 

Somehow Paul synchronized a V form with this seagull.

 

Ray shreds a longboard.

 

Paul is also a popular surfboard maker in Rockaway. I don’t even know how so many people are buying surfboards constantly but his company Paul Surf seems busy as hell.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was feeling super broke in 2016, so I shot some digital, maybe like 20-25% of this series.

 

 

 

 

 

Another natural phenomenon I tried to line up with waves and people surfing them was rainbows.

 

 

 

 

 

This and the next couple are from the day after Labor Day, Tuesdsay, in Long Beach, NY.

 

 

 

I met Buddy at Max Fish, and he works at the Patagonia Bowery store, which has to be one of the most environmentally conscious companies of that size.

 

 

 

Buddy and Tee.

 

 

 

 

 

Part 3 – Harvest Moon to Election Day

The September full moon harvest moon was a super moon and brought some choppy waves. Paul gets noserides all the time.

 

I named this blog post after the song Harvest Moon by Neil Young. There’s a new cover by a band I like called Sunflower Bean that is nice with female vocals.

 

 

 

The air was getting cooler but there’s this really nice hot outdoor shower, it’s like a New York City hot spring.

 

 

 

 

 

These next few are from the Matthew storm swell in October, this is Ray shredding.

 

I’ve always heard New York surfers are much more chill about dropping in on each other, compared to places that people take their surfing really seriously. I mean it’s still not that chill but relatively speaking… When there’s a storm swell though, stakes are a little higher, as well as safety concerns. My favorite was when I heard someone a few months ago yell, “Don’t fucking do it!” to a guy considering going for the same wave.

 

 

I love when rainbows form in the ocean spray, and disappear and reappear repeatedly as the spray settles and the next wave crashes.

 

 

 

 

 

Election Day 2016 was a big day for a some people. Vote and surf seems like a nice ritual that I was lucky enough to follow again in 2017.

 

These last 2 were Paul again. I don’t know how I ended up with so many photos of him, I barely even saw him in 2017, but that’s the beauty of something like surfing in NYC, you go and unintentionally see people, like how Max Fish or Tompkins Square Park used to be, and get to know each other in little bits without using electronic screens.

I find myself wondering about these photos. Why should I share them? Why do we bombard the world with our nonsense? Why should anyone look at these random snapshots? I don’t know, but my friends say one day it will all be over. They might be right, but I don’t like to admit it.

 

This is a photo from 2015, of a summer night bike ride. Everything else below is from 2016.

 

Glynis and Nazar outside Market Hotel.

 

If you go sledding down these stairs, be careful of the low wall at the bottom of the last set, it’s sometimes hidden behind snow. One of our friends got knocked out and went to the hospital that night.

 

Kevin and Danilo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went bowling for Josh’s 30th birthday.

 

 

 

 

There are a handful of interesting celebrations in the Hasidic neighborhoods. These kids were roaming around in costume for Purim, in March, collecting cash. I happened to drive by them as they were in the middle of a busy intersection without their parents or any adults. Maybe they were old enough for that, but at the time I didn’t think so.

 

 

This is the elder compost lady of LES ecology center at their Union Square food scraps collection table. You can buy back the compost that is made.

 

The great double rainbow of NYC, June 5, 2016.

 

Danny Weiss narrowly escaped death in a freak motorcycle accident. At first he was recovering at Burke Rehabilitation Center, which is in the neighborhood I grew up in, in White Plains.

 

We met at the food co-op. I complimented her sweater, and she asked me about my Bernie 2016 pin. It was kind of love at first sight, if that exists. It didn’t last, and she has nearly zero internet presence, which is one of many great qualities.

 

Josh made a rare appearance in North Brooklyn.

 

A young couple at Knockdown Center.

 

There’s this big mural in the LES that I really like seeing from the bridge. I thought it was being taken down because 2 giant panels are missing, but over a year later, I think it’s still in that state.

 

 

 

 

Italian and American Flags on Lorimer St.

 

Nazar makes shirts that say skim milk.

 

 

 

 

 

Ihab from Oasis was taking a break, and told me my car was “the greatest car ever”, and that they used to be taxis that held 7 passengers.

 

Danny Weiss, a few months after his motorcycle accident, at Tompkins Square Park. Danny just had a really nice series of portraits he shot of Tompkins youth published in the New York Times.

 

 

I’ve seen plenty of photos of people doing wheelies, and I see guys doing it down the block from time to time, so I snapped one while I was unloading my car one day. They’re not that easy to catch unintentionally.

 

Jin and Dana are a photo duo called Jin and Dana.

 

 

 

Summer 2016.

 

We moved this slide across the creek and set it at a precarious angle, I don’t think I slid it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When authorities kicked us out of our favorite spot, we explored new territory.

 

 

 

Whitey didn’t stake his tent, so when wind picked up it started tumbling in towards this pond, he chased it and barely caught it in time!

 

Whitey carrying his tent back to camp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goggles turned out to be handy when cooking over a smokey campfire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer 2016.

 

This is how it starts.

 

 

 

 

Dawn.

 

 

Nemo vs Willy, the race is on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knuckleheads.

 

 

 

Local kid.

 

 

 

 

Josh hates this spot cause it’s all damp and full of creepy crawlies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes it’s hard to swim up to these waterfalls.

 

 

 

There’s a dam slide in the river that was like the local water park. It wasn’t technically legal, but there was freedom. Shortly after this summer, it was reportedly shut down by authorities, and has been since.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shadow puppets making their way back home.

 

Stay tuned for jig of life, part 2.

Today is today
Today is it
Today it is
Today is always

– Pati Mera

Pati text messaged this to me last year when we were making plans for one of these beach days. I thought it was a beautiful poem and had jotted it down. A year later, with our busy city lives, growing into various interests, it’s become gradually harder to make these beach days happen, and sadly this sort of mantra can feel out of reach.

 

This was December 2015, an annual winter night dip. The next December I was sick and couldn’t make it.

 

 

 

Surfing has taught me the beach is great year round, or that summer never really ends.

 

 

 

 

People always say it’s so crazy to get in the ocean and surf when it’s freezing and snowing. Well, a year later I got a winter suit, and well, by the time I got it, it was late March, the end of winter, but it didn’t seem that crazy. You put on a winter coat, boots and gloves to walk outside, you put on a winter suit and booties and gloves to surf, it seems pretty normal.

 

And a little frisbee sesh in the snow can be normal too.

 

 

 

 

 

Last winter I really wanted to learn how to double dutch.

 

Then it was late Spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then it was Summer.

 

 

 

This is Pati.

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey can you keep your dirty sandals off my old dashboard? the wood pops off sometimes ;)”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The more time you’re alive, the more time there is to develop a variety of hobbies. Eventually skate events can seem “ABD” as we call it in skateboarding – “already been done”, or feel nostalgic, and every now and then still feel new and exciting. These are some photos from a few different skate events in 2016.

 

Stoops Magazine issue 03 photo show.

 

The Stoops party was in a sort of open office space.

 

To me it’s funny to see nicely dressed ladies at an event full of skater kid, but i guess that’s normal now.

 

Ryan Garshell at his GX1000 video premiere, at Sunshine Cinema.

 

Word on the streets is this was the last skate video premiere at Sunshine, not because everyone smokes weed and drinks beer at them, but because Sunshine was coming under new ownership, and/or there was some tagging done that night.

 

 

Whole Bitch video premiere pregame, Kevin Graver.

 

These guys hung out here so much, they call it the couch and made a skate video themed around it.

 

 

 

Whole Bitch video premiere

 

 

And the after party was back at the couch.

 

 

 

 

Colin Read at his Spirit Quest premiere at SVA Theater. This video was such a hit, his next project was a music video for the band Radiohead.

 

Alex Fogt with his Spirit Quest posters. The animals are made of a collage of wood block prints, where the wood blocks were scarred used skateboard decks.

 

Skater kids love sitting around on the ground, I used to too.

 

Giovanni Reda at his slideshow at the new Diamond Store. Reda was the older established NYC skate photographer when I arrived from the suburbs. He’s a great talker, which made his slideshow extra fascinating.

 

Danny Supa, Anthony Correa, and RB Umali were some of the defining NYC skaters and filmer when I was a young skater kid. In the early 2000s and prior, it didn’t seem like there were that many crews of skateboarders in NYC. The scene felt somewhat centralized. Now, as is somewhat exemplified in this post, but only cracking the surface of, there are a variety of crews in the expanded local scene.

 

Dave Ortiz and Vinny Raffa, all these guys have so much character.

 

These are some of what you might call the “younger generation” that came out to Reda’s slideshow of the “older generation”.

 

 

 

 

I took the title of this blog post from a song I like by Chairlift.