On the way to Spain. photo:forstner
I had a 2nd strong feeling of “I wish I had a small camera for snapshots” while on the flight from Munich to Barcelona. It’s a short flight, but you fly over some amazing mountains with a great view. Luckily Philip DOES have such a small camera, and shot the photo above when he flew the next day.
The plan in Spain was to get shots of all the Powerslide Pro riders; skating,b-roll, and studio portraits. I was skeptical on the productivity of the group, since typically when you have a group of 10 or more pro’s the lagging factor greatly increases. However, many of the guys had never been to Barcelona before, so they were incredibly excited and motivated to skate around all the perfect spots growing throughout the city. I think every skater naturally reacts this way when they experience Barcelona for the first time. The first day was one of the best days of shooting I had in months. I find the country to be incredible photogenic, and even the most basic places have lots of character in the details.
View from the Flat
Hanging out at a sesh
Skating Zone
Dominic and Philip
The 2nd day started off just as good, with a perfect bank ledge in a park near a school. We were looking for another place, got lost, and found an even better spot. Tons of kids got out of school and started gathering, and each time somebody did a trick there was thunderous applause, countered by ridiculing laughter anytime somebody fell.
The next spot was a disaster that changed everybody’s life in some way, and was all too close to being the most tragic thing i’ve ever witnessed. Billy O Niel, a good friend and pro skater from Staten Island was 180ing into a steep bank, and the landing fed into a parking lot next to a busy street. On all his warm up gaps, he was able to carve in the parking lot with no problem, but for some reason when he 180′d, he hesitated for a split second before carving. Realizing that there was a busy road in front of him and the window of opportunity to carve left was gone, he threw himself on the ground to stop his momentum, but his speed carried him into the street. As he looked up he was met with the front bumper of a car going about 30 mph. The whole thing is on video here, and it’s pretty intense so if you’re the sensitive type you may want to skip this one.
one of the most terrifying moments of my life
Bumper destruction courtesy of Billy O Neil
It’s crazy how time slows down in those kinds of situations. I was really close to the road and saw his face right before the car hit, and was positive that I just saw a great friend die point blank. It’s a feeling that is impossible to put into words, and one that I’d rather never experience again. As I rushed up to him, to my amazement, he was sitting up screaming, trying to pull his skate off. There was still a mix of fear and confusion, but also relief that he was even alive. Later we learned that when he saw the car, he swung his legs up and kicked the front bumper as hard as he could. This ruined his ankles and sent him flying back, but at the same time saved his life by taking the force of the impact away from his body and face. The more we checked and talked to him, it seemed that nothing was broken other than his ankle, plus some road rash and scrapes. An ambulance arrived quick, and even amidst his pain he managed to crack some jokes with the paramedics.
A few hours in the hospital and we was released by nightfall. The next 24 hours was a haze of replay’s in our heads, calming the nerves, and telling Billy about 10,000 times how glad we were that he was alive and sitting in the room with us.
Oli’s place looking pretty organized. photo: forstner
After the incident, it was back to business as usual, and we still managed to come away with some great images in our last few days. We spent lots of time in the car, and driving by so many interesting places I decided that as soon as I was home I would finally invest in a small snapshot camera. I got lots of good language practice, and kept a pretty good notebook of new spanish words and phrases I learned along the way. Oli and Cristina were really helpful in that area.
Quality Control. photo: forstner
Spanish girls reaction after realizing she was blocking the shot
The Forum Ledges
Philip and Jeff at work
Bent sign, bent tree
yep, it’s real
Dominic flexing the DJ abilities
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005 … also including near death experiences
an archive photo from Barcelona circa 2005
This is what happens when a guy from England who can’t speak Spanish points to something random on the menu
driving by a monument that is probably really important and full of historical value … but we were on the way to go skating so obviously no time to stop. photo: forstner
Philip also came for the 2nd half of the week, and it was really fun to work with him on the shoots. He has been doing lots of other photography gigs over the last year, and is always willing to share the new things he’s learned. Plenty of hours geeking out with photo-talk. Enanoh was really busy with school but made it out a few times to hang out, he’s still on the DL with an injury. Oli held up really well considering he had nearly 15 people invading and trashing his house, and he was in charge of driving and coordinating each day. He gets a bad rap sometimes in the industry but in my opinion he’s a good guy.
I flew home on a Sunday morning, but everybody had been speaking highly of “Razzmatazz”, aka the best place on earth you have to visit on a Saturday night. Despite the need for sleep and the small cold I was developing, I gathered enough energy to visit this legendary place. Just the building is a sight in itself. It’s a full city block wide, and 5 stories high. Each story has a different type of music, and hundreds of people in each room. A lot of the music isn’t really my style, but the atmosphere makes up for it. I’d recommend visiting if you find yourself in BCN.
Another virtually sleepless night, straight into a full travel day wasn’t the smartest idea, but looking back it was worth it. This was the shortest Europe trip I’d ever been on, but the whole 2 weeks were so busy and fast paced it felt like a lot longer. Before I knew it I was on a plane headed home, and got to see Greenland out my window. I just happened to look out at the right time between the in-flight movie, and was glad I did. You can see lots of mountains, glaciers, and giant icebergs from the air. I’m not sure if i’ll ever get to visit it closer to sea level, but it definitely caught my interest… and yes, I was ready to buy that new camera.
The maze of Barcelona alleys. photo: forstner
leaving Oli’s house. photo: forstner
Jero – your fucking incredible… You are my inspiration brother – keep posting your non-skating work, it is something we rarely get to see and its fucking great.