Santa Cruz Waves BASM article drone shoot day with Daniel Carettoni

It is always hard to do a shoot and have to wait until you are able to show off the images but it was worth the wait. I was super stoked to see the printed issue and article in the new Santa Cruz Waves issue. I was torn between sharing this photo or not too since I didn't want to give credit to the person that tagged the skatepark the morning of this shoot. Big thank you to Daniel Carettoni owner of Santa Cruz Aerials to fit me into his busy schedule. Daniel shoots the drone footage for the Crossfit Games and a ton of other cool footage.

When we arrived the morning of the shoot my heart sank a little seeing all the orange spray paint. Spray paint for one makes the surface slippery for skating and usually the taggers aren't even skaters. The park gets shut down and they have to water jet clean the surface. I want to thank the skaters that morning that were super respectful and accommodating. My Badass Skatemom came from my passion for skateboarding, design and Crossfit. I didn't name myself Badass I got that from friends and people that don't even know me. They would come up to me and say your Badass or your a Badass Skatemom. One other motivation for me was seeing some goofy images of a skate mom when you google skatemom. I want people to know skate mom's are ripping moms who skate or mom's that have kids that skate. There are of course awesome Skatedads too! Thank you Melissa Duge Spiers for writing the piece.

I loved the article but had a few things I wanted to address. Anyone that has worked with me knows I give credit where credit is due from the photographer, illustrator, production, even the press men when I can. I got credit for designing the Think Local First Santa Cruz, Tepui Tents, and the Socksmith logos. Socksmith had a pretty big design company start that one and I think they finished the final design in-house or probably some help from super talented Timerie Gordon. I'm not sure who designed the Tepui Tents logo but I do work on their ads and the past two catalogs. The TFL logo was designed by Max Davis.

Skate Like A Girl in Santa Cruz

Great SLAG session at the Santa Cruz Skatepark. Were talking crowded. I had a hard time listening to the little boy complaining how bored he was and all he had to skate was this park. I couldn't help but say to him be happy you have this. We had shit stuff to ride and we skated it. We skated anything and everything. San Jose had 8 parks in the late 70's and within 6 months they were all gone due to insurance costs. Don't bitch about what you have. Image having nothing to skate for decades and then being 50 and parks are popping up everywhere. Enjoy. Quit your bitching and just skate.

I couldn't help myself when I yelled "where's your helmet" to the kid about to drop in to the deep end of the square bowl. He looked at me and dropped in the shallow end. Who's parents would allow a 8 year old to drop in to pool without a helmet. I'm sorry but I worked at a helmet company and saw the carnage of what can happen when you aren't wearing one.

Skate Like a Girl is based in Seattle, WA with two chapters in Portland, OR and San Francisco, CA. We are building community. We are creating an all-female skate crew, and we want you to join us.
Skate Like a Girl strives to build community coalitions with other groups and organizations that are working to challenge oppression through education and dialogue, with the hope of creating better communities for everyone.

Photo Shoot at the Santa Cruz Skatepark today

Zach sneaking a run in before the rest are over the fence with the gear.


Lucia shooting Zach Wormhoudt at the skate park named after his father. Rain cleared up and the park had dry spots.


Zach grabs my camera and shot me getting photographed. The wave was a big project and a big part of 2006-07. What was really weird is while we were waiting for the crew to show up Larry Crocker drove by and waved. He is the one that sand blasted the wave with Diamond D Concrete.



After spending 2 1/2 hours stuck at my house in Aptos due to a Sheriff road block at the only road into our neighborhood waiting for the SWAT team to come extract a neighbor who had baracaded himself in. Which caused my kids to missed their dentist appointment with Garrett Kubota at 2:00. (Had a really good excuse.) Ben Marcus emailed about meeting to shoot with Zach Wormhoudt at the Santa Cruz Skate park. Ben was just leaving from shooting Novak and Doug Haut and NHS crew. (Jeff Kendall, David Freil, Bob Denike, Tim Piumarta OG.) with photographer Lucia Griggi. How could I get to the park in 45 minutes. Well I called around and got my mom to come meet me across the field on Haas Drive. As I'm walking to meet her I notice no police road block and get back in my car and head for the park. Called her thanked her a million times over and got to the shoot in time. Ben showed up a few minutes later. Kids were skating in the wet park. One police car did a drive by a few minutes later another comes through the parking lot. Sees us and keeps driving. He then stops at the curb with his lights on and talks to the boys in the park. Zach shows up then Lucia and Jason. After the others clear we jump the fence and do the shoot. The photos might appear in the new skateboard history book with the Tony Hawk, Cab, Blackhart, Olson, The Z-boys, Logans, and many other historic skaters. I know that the Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation will for give us for barging it will be worth it down the road.

Felt Street Skatepark art approved

Got good news yesterday that the public art project I designed got approved. Something I started in 2007. It feels good to see it really happening.

Lake Cunningham session this morning

It's been decades since I've skated a park in San Jose. It was a fun session with friends. Some I skated with over 30 years ago. Time flies.

Flickr Photo mapping

Santa Cruz skate locations. Rainy day busy work to avoid house cleaning.

Santa Cruz Skatepark Wave Finished

More detail work to add contrast by Diamond D Concrete and Crew.

Sky Siljeg at the Santa Cruz Skatepark 4_6

Yesterday my kids and I met Sky, Dan Hughes of Northwest skateboarder.com and Beth at the park. Dan shooting Sky and I'm shooting Dan. My kids get a front row view of the action.