this photo of cole wilson was shot after a shorter-than-the-current hiatus from shooting. during the time when we were running the "random acts of gnarness" with theProgram, we were building and fixing a lot of spots around the city of louisville. the ledge went unnoticed for quite a long time and, in fact, i still haven't seen anyone shooting or filming on it. it's pretty gnarly, actually.
anyway, you may not be able to tell from the photo, but the spot was originally intended to be skated the other way. the ledge is shorter from that direction and the gap to the ledge isn't as long. but if you know cole, then you know he has to go against the grain with a lot of what he does. i think this was the last photo he shot before cutting his hair, as well. maybe someone out there can confirm that?
when i look at this photo, i remember one thing, really: cole and i weren't really "gelling" this day. he was bummed about something already and i was just bumming him out even more. one of my flashes was humming loudly because the battery pack was dying, i was tripping out because he kept falling awkwardly into the gap on the other side, and it was probably 100 degrees. after one fall, we kinda had a little back and forth that was, well, less than friendly, but we worked it out and banged out this photo. eventhough he made the back smith, he figured out that it was actually easier just to do a backside 180 out of it because it made clearing the gap a little easier. skateboarding is an amazing thing.
cole wilson, backside smith grind, backside 180 out.
