Standerd Slides

Subject: Eddie Valdez
Photo: Josh Letchworth

TSQ Location: Book 1.2, Juice section, pages 8-9

Back in the Florida Keys again for the Nike 6.0 shoot. Man, the weather in the keys is straight up weird sometimes. We woke up the first morning to torrential downpours and lightning that cleared after 20 minutes of rumbling. The weather comes and goes so quickly. Think about it… you are pretty much sitting in the middle of the ocean on a tiny strip of land. The whole week we battled rain, strong winds, boat traffic and tidal fluctuations.

As I mentioned before, the ad concept required that we fit other riders into the shot, so I was constantly on the lookout for ways to show others in either the foreground or background. One afternoon when the sun decided to pop out for us, Eddie started hitting double ups in this little cove behind our house. As the boat came around I thought that I might be able line up a shot that showed a glimpse of the boat in the foreground with other team riders sitting in the bow, side rails and back deck. Again, I must have had Eddie hit 25 double ups over and over. He was a trooper, thanks Eddie.

When I saw him do this trick, I knew that was what I wanted to shoot. I love the way he was positioned in the air. We were never really able to see the others in the boat the way we intended to, but nonetheless, we still walked away with a good shot from the deal. Shortly after this shot, the tide dropped so much that when the boat would make its turn toward the double up you could see sand spitting out of the rooster tail. Crazy.

-Letchworth