Terry Roland is a skateboarding photographer. But, you probably
wouldn’t know he’s a skate photographer because at
29 he doesn’t have a car. It’s kinda hard to pick
up skaters and go to spots on an old Schwinn 10-speed. But Terry
has killer equipment, a passion for skateboarding and a passion
for shooting photos. So for now, he shoots stuff in his small
coastal hometown of Santa Cruz, California. Sometimes he writes
me desperate letters saying, “Sonny, buy me a car. If I
had a car, I would shoot photos day and night. I don’t
care. Oh, and send me film too. I have to quit my job putting
lamps together before I go postal.”
Then he’ll call me and have talks about the future. But
like a true artist, his rants trying to get me to put him on
retainer tangent into cool photography ideas, how much he skated
that day, and his view on media. Crazy Roland is a cool guy.
So here are four photos that he captioned and wanted to share
with you. - SM
In Aptos, the southern part of Santa Cruz, there were some foundations
leftover from burned out buildings. Local kids turned this into
a skate spot, bringing whatever they could scavenge. In every
scene, there’s always the one kid who is a shithead brat
who you love to hate, but has the skills to back it up. Corey
Ryan is that kid and he backs up his loud mouth with a noseblunt
slide.
Alan Petersen is one of my favorite skaters to shoot with because
he doesn’t complain about his trucks being wrong, his shoes
not fitting right, or his grip tape being dirty-there’s
no excuses. He simply does what he called you to shoot for,
such as this padless frontside invert at his board sponsor’s
training facility. In
Santa Cruz, the scene is divided between two groups: those who
skate Derby and those who skate the high school. All the fresh
guys skate the high school and love to talk shit about Derby.
Dustin Zimmerman is one of the fresh guy alpha males in town,
but he’s not too cool to have fun and show ability at the
vintage skatepark, as illustrated by this rather large shifty
ollie.
Also located in Aptos, this is not a glamorous skate spot. It’s
a splintery wooden rail with a rough runway. But a skater like
Texan Jake Nunn doesn’t care. On this day, he threw down
a frontside boardslide, even though his board was broken. -Nicole
Webber
Terry Roland is a skateboarding photographer. But, you probably
wouldn’t know he’s a skate photographer because at
29 he doesn’t have a car. It’s kinda hard to pick
up skaters and go to spots on an old Schwinn 10-speed. But Terry
has killer equipment, a passion for skateboarding and a passion
for shooting photos. So for now, he shoots stuff in his small
coastal hometown of Santa Cruz, California. Sometimes he writes
me desperate letters saying, “Sonny, buy me a car. If I
had a car, I would shoot photos day and night. I don’t
care. Oh, and send me film too. I have to quit my job putting
lamps together before I go postal.” 
In
Santa Cruz, the scene is divided between two groups: those who
skate Derby and those who skate the high school. All the fresh
guys skate the high school and love to talk shit about Derby.
Dustin Zimmerman is one of the fresh guy alpha males in town,
but he’s not too cool to have fun and show ability at the
vintage skatepark, as illustrated by this rather large shifty
ollie.