Daniel Lutheran Comes to An End With Acosta's Angles

What’s the old saying? Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% percent perspiration? Well, it’s pretty safe to say the way skateboarding is conveyed for visual consumption is 60% talent, 40% angles. At Vans we’re lucky to have two of the best in the business in filmer Greg Hunt and photographer Anthony Acosta helping us show you all the great skating our guys are doing for this upcoming Vans video. Because, let’s be honest, if a trick drops in the woods and it looks like dog shit, does anyone care?

Since Ace Photographer, Anthony Acosta, was the first one to meet Daniel it only made sense to wrap up Daniel Lutheran week with some of the photos Anthony has shot of Dan Lu over the years and have him recount some of the stories behind the images.



It’s a pretty standard, shitty weekday spot. A small ass rail to learn tricks on. This was two years go maybe, I don’t think Daniel even lived out here yet. I had actually shot with him long before this in Albuquerque. The first time I met him he was so rad. We went on an Emerica trip with Heath, Leo and all those dudes. I was working on that Leo interview I shot and we went to Albuquerque and no one had connections. We were there at the hotel and I had just seen Daniel’s Mag Minute and saw he was from Albuquerque so I hit up Shad and Shad gave me his number. I cold called him and he called me back within two minutes, super psyched, standard Daniel, down to meet up. “Let’s meet in a half hour!” That was it, he’s been my buddy ever since. He was the coolest, most genuine, raddest dude. We had the gnarliest crew: Heath Kirchart, Leo Romero, Braydon and all these big timers. And he was not holding out, he was showing us the goods. At the end of the trip his dad invited us over for steaks and whiskey. We were all at his parents' house on the last day of our trip. With the mom! She had all her friends over and they were watching The Oscars and they were all dressed up. It was the sickest trip because of Daniel. And those dudes wanted him so bad on Emerica but once I got back I told Jamie Hart, “We need to get this dude.” Johnny Layton and Leo went back out there to get more tricks and I think that’s when they talked to Daniel about coming out to Long Beach and now he’s a staple.



That was in front of our hotel on that Phoenix Am trip. We’re waiting to get picked up and I think he was screaming for coffee. You know that dude, he can’t function without weed or coffee. I just remember him showing us countless pictures of chicks on his phone and endless stories.



That’s a first try 5-0 on a gnarly hubba that Geoff Rowley made famous a long time ago in Monrovia, California, near the foothills. It was the end of the day and we were checking out this last spot and he wanted to try and grind it but it was about to rain and it was getting super dark; you can kind of see in the background it’s real shitty. He grinded it after a few tries and we got back in the car and we’re about to leave and Leo said he should 5-0 it and he bet him dinner that he couldn’t do it first try. He got out of the car, ran and did it first try. I didn’t even have time to set up flashes or anything. He just got back in the car and we took off.



That was a portrait we had for his New Jack Interview. I was so stoked on how he made that sticker. It was a Toy Machine sticker and he took apart all the letters and made it. He was standing there all awkward like, “What do I do?” I’m like, “Just bite the board or something.” We got 90% of his New Jack shot on that very first trip to Albuquerque with those Emerica dudes. He was the one getting the hammers with the dudes. He would skate every spot and try just as hard. He was killing it. He nollie backside heel’d down a 12, nollie heel into that crazy bank into the ditch…he got like 4 things in 4 days with other dudes cashing in too. That’s how he does it. And he wasn’t trying to impress. He didn’t have a vibe to him, he was with the dudes skating. They probably felt like he was in the dirt with them, getting dirty, more than him trying to impress them or take them out. He was being more of a bro than a show.





Oh man, the story with those pants…they’re in every photo! It was at the Maloof DC contest and apparently he took this chick home from the bar and he stole her pants then wore them during his contest line and wore them and skated in them all day. They were her pants! The ones she was wearing when he met her. Dude! Look at those things! Can you even imagine what the chick looked like? Who would wear those? “Hey, babe. I’m just going to take your pants today.” And he’s been running them. They’d be around his neck, around his head, on his legs, he wouldn’t let them go. I thought they were just some Albuquerque flavor but they’re not. They are…what would you call those?…evidence, I guess.



This was in the new Vans catalog. He looks pretty steezy in it; I like the way he has on red pants with the Rowley shoes. This is right by the LA river, near those train tracks. You can see the Union Pacific flag under the American flag. This bank sucks. It’s humpy. It’s a hump, not a bank. Hump to backtail.



A friend with weed is a friend indeed.



That just shows the relationship between the team. Bros on the road. The Vans trips are tight. It’s pretty friend-based. Everyone just kind of kicks it. I think between Gilbert and Daniel there’s constant joking around and pranks in a friendly way. I remember I was shooting this portrait of Daniel and Gilbert saw me taking the photo and he got closer and closer and closer until Daniel felt his presence. That’s when Daniel gave that awkward look.



This was about 5 minutes after we shot his first Vans ad and he grinded that crazy double kinked rail. I think he’s happy that he’s safe because he got smoked on it first try. It took him a little bit to try it again and this was right after he landed it he walked over to the car and sat there and he was glowing. He was literally glowing. Just shining. I think he’s grabbing his heart in thanks.



This was used on The Skateboard Mag’s website. See the lurkers in the background taking pictures? That office building is a skate industry job placement building. It’s like a job temp agency for the skate industry and that’s their parking lot and they moved their cars for us to skate. It was pretty sick. They were so stoked. One is the owner and they’re all out having a cig watching Daniel kill himself. It was funny because we didn’t know what the office was, we thought we were getting the boot when this guy came down and he’s all, “Hey, is that car in your way?”



This is right when Daniel came out to California and that spot was new. It was bittersweet. He was stoked to be in California but I don’t think his living conditions were ideal. That was all the more motivation to get him out to skate. When he would skate he would just crush it because he didn’t want to think about where he was staying that night. And he’s one of those dudes that always gets a trick. This nosegrind is sick, it’s not a shocker or anything but he did it three times while we were skating.



This was funny. This was in the hood, like Gardenia and South Central. Somebody hit that bar with their car and made this flat bar that went around that bench. We were skating it and the gas station dude kept coming out and kicking us out, as long as we didn’t go on the left side we could stay. We couldn’t go on his property so every time Daniel would accidentally go over there he’d yell at us. I couldn’t put a flash on that side but he was totally cool if we stayed on the right of the line. It was pretty sick. Daniel feeble grinded and stayed on his side.



This just shows his energy anywhere; just stoked. Keeping the vibes high always. This is just Panda Express, nothing to get excited about. But he’s stoked. 99% of the time that’s him, right there. You can probably hear the noise he’s making. “Yeeeow!”

Check out this preview of Dan Lu's episode to start the new season
of Adventures with Chris February 22nd