Arguably, I would not be who am (a rebel), do what I do (create cools stuff), live where I live (Los Angeles), if it weren’t for Jay Adams and the Zephyr skateboard team.
It’s weird how the passing of an old icon can bring such a realization. I was just like all those guys they interviewed in Stacy Peralta’s Dogtown and Z-Boys documentary – we saw photos in a magazine that we turned into our own version of reality a few months later. I lived vicariously through Skateboarder Magazine, trapped in the midwest, longing for an ocean and the coast full of cement walls.
I have lots of anecdotes about my skateboard days, but the short story is that Jay Adams was our hero because he was revolutionary, creative, uninterested in the glitz and, well, different. It was the heart of skateboarding – going against the Ralph Lauren clad, football-based, Billy Joel-listening folks that spat on us as skaters. Jay defined possible. Jay exemplified style. We strove to be like him.
As a professional who works in a creative, go-against-the-grain world, I can look now and say without hesitation where I started.
Thank you, Jay Adams, for your inspiration. I hope the waves are bigger and the pools are empty there…