Elijah Berle Week Day 5: Acosta's Angles

The relationship between a skater and photographer and filmer is a unique one and it can make or break a career. Many times the best tricks have been discounted because of shitty angles, with no fault to the skater. 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. For the last day of Elijah Berle Week we dug through Anthony Acosta's archives for some of his favorite shots of Elijah.

ACOSTA’S ANGLES OF ELIJAH BERLE

Good ole Hollywood Blvd. We were all sessioning one day in the summer and he’s like, “I got these little bus benches you can skate the backs of.” So we went down there with Dill, Ave, Elijah and Cody Green. We get there and he’s backside grinding them and feebling them and dude, those things are like waist high. Ave ended up getting a smith grind but it wasn’t easy. But this dude was backtailing them every try; it was like nothing for him. I think he was even trying back 50-50 gap to back 50-50. He was playing with them basically. Everyone was like, “Dude, these things are high!” And it’s off flat. Granted, it is the best flat in the world right there, that granite. That was right before he got on Vans and I know Ave was super impressed after seeing that in person.
But it was Cody Green that got him on Vans. Cody called me one day and was going out skating out with someone and Elijah. No one really knew who Elijah was, you just heard about this kid that looked just like Corey Duffle. I ended up going to The Valley with them and the dude was just ripping. We were at this 8-stair rail and he must have done every trick, every try. That’s when I was like, “Ok, this kid is pretty good.” But Cody was like, “Dude! I’m getting the gnarliest footage of this guy. You gotta come shoot him.” Cody kept pushing for him and pushing for him. We kept skating with him and dude would get five tricks a day and not just standard tricks, serious tricks. I remember one of the main sessions was when the Alien dudes were in town: Dill, AVE, Donovon, and Tyler Bledsoe. He got this line with a bluntslide off this ledge at this park in Hollywood Hills and it was a psycho line. I think it’s going to be in the Chocolate video because I haven’t seen it anywhere. After that that’s when Ave and all those dudes decided, “Yeah, this dude definitely needs to be on.” The word was put in and then next thing you know he was on. I don’t think he was even on flow for too long. Everyone decided you gotta bank this dude now or someone else is going to swoop. Next thing you know he’s already had three covers under his belt. I felt like these few days of skating with him last summer was years ago. Now he’s a veteran. Probably Skater of the Year. That’s what’s rad about him. He’s got this classic soul vibe. That’s why no one believes he’s only 17. He’s hanging with Dill and Ave and he’s on the same level and it’s genuine. It’s rad; he just has this vibe where he just wants to skate. He’s over all the cool guy stuff. He keeps it simple.



This was on a Phoenix Am Vans Road Trip. They put us up in the swanky, little hipster hotel and this was one of those glass walls with the water going down to look into the pool. I thought it was a rad opportunity for a photo so I was like, “Go get something cool to wear for this shot,” and he comes back with the full cholo outfit. I remember I was just laughing. I got that photo and thought it was tight because he actually looked pretty hard in that photo but he’s the nicest dude. Right after this him and Gilbert completely bic’d their heads. I just liked the cholo aspect of this shot. I think it’s the Dogtown, Santa Monica vibe in him. It has to be because he’s white and I don’t think he cares. It’s that real LA vibe.



This was for an apparel photo shoot that they were introducing him for because now he’s on Vans Apparel as well. So we went to this spot in San Pedro that was right by the water because I thought it would be cool looking with the California-vibe. The first 15 minutes everyone was getting figured out, what they need to wear and stuff. They threw that beanie on him and then next thing you know he’s off skating around and he’s ollieing over that thing like nothing. It’s not small. I start shooting photos and then he just blasts a kickflip over it. I got one try and that was it and I was psyched. It was originally going to be a Vans ad that said, ‘Welcome to the Apparel Team,’ but instead they used him dorking around, which is fine because I got to use this photo in The Skateboard Mag interview and I thought it worked out perfect. Look at that kickflip though! That thing is waist high!



We were checking out this spot in LA with Ty [Evans] and there was a dumpster right next to this loading dock, full of all these disgusting, rotten vegetables. I’m talking big dumpster, filled to the brim. I remember walking up to him because he kept putting his shirt over his nose and I’m like, “What are you doing?” I walked over there and instantly smelled what he was dealing with. And I got this photo. I have a picture of the rotten vegetables too but you don’t won’t to see that; it’s disgusting.
But he’s always doing something with his shirt: losing it, unbuttoning it, shirt off, over his head. He always has different ways of wearing his shirt, not on his body.



This was the first day we got to Austria. I think this was his first time out of the country and that’s the face you get, right there with a perfect skate spot in the background, European babes walking around and just psyched. Psyched to be out of the country and he was stoked. You could just tell everything was new to him like, “What? They sell beer at McDonalds?” It’s sick to see that always. But man did he produce. He got some bangers. A few photos from that trip are below.



Look how high that frontside air is, dude! That’s Lincoln Ueda steez! Small skatepark, going twice as high. The park was random. Usually on a street trip you rarely hit parks; it’s strictly business. But Elijah is a fiend to skate and any time he’d see a park he’d be like, “Dude! Pull over! We’re gonna skate!” We ended up pulling over and everyone would sit down and watch him skate. He was just annihilating the spine. I think he has like three lines of just frontside airs, tailgrabs and bonelesses over that plus 50 other tricks over the spine. It’s sick because I feel like he’s just a skateboarder. You put anything in front of him and he’s gonna skate. He’s not like, “I don’t really skate tranny,” or “I don’t really skate rails.” I feel like he just skateboards. He keeps it simple and whatever is in front of him he’s down to give it a go. And he ends up killing whatever it is because he’s a natural.
But he does get a big boner for tranny. But who doesn’t? If you could stand up on a frontside 5-0 grind going 30mph and then to hit the hip in front of you…sign me up. One of the best feelings is not having to push.



Look. There’s another broken board in the car. That’s obviously an intentional board break, right in the middle. So that’s two intentional board breakers. Must have been after a battle of some sort.
Elijah smokes like a 40-year-old. He’s such an old man with his tattoos, jaded, tons of stories and he’s only 17. I guess that’s why he likes the older women, I don’t think he could deal with a chick his age without being like, “You’re so wack!”



You never got to ditches when you go to Europe. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an actual ditch over there. This was a sewage plant and I guess it hasn’t been filled in a while. You can see everyone up on the top left smoking doobs and drinking. You didn’t want to chill down at the bottom because you could tell it was a sewage plant and it didn’t smell too pretty. On the other side of the hip it was very disgusting and swampy too. You didn’t want to go on the other side of those flatbars.
It was a crusty hip and this dude was, of course, blasting off it. You can see the other hip behind him that’s where Gilbert Crockett did that ollie up noseblunt that was in The Skateboard Mag article. You can see how gnarly and terrible the spot is.



For some reason The Skateboard Mag wouldn’t let me run this photo in their magazine. This is The Gonzales pool. Elijah lives maybe a mile away and he loves skating this thing. The back-story to this super famous pool in Santa Monica that Tony Alva and all those dudes used to skate is the dude that owned it, his name was Mr. Gonzales. And he’d always let people skate but it was a permission style pool. He was some Hollywood producer dude but he was down for skating. He lived there for a while but he passed away. The pool was empty forever but no one could skate it. His family owned the house and they ended up selling it but when they were putting it up for sale they finally gave permission for people to skate it until they sold the house. There was a three-month window where you could go and hit it and Elijah was all over that thing. He probably had four photos in his Skateboard Mag interview there excluding this one.
Someone bought the house and redid the pool and filled it with water.




Pfanner had just gotten a banging trick right around the block and it was at dusk so we were just sitting back enjoying ourselves. Elijah was skating this weird set up. It’s not even a spot. It’s a sign up to a barrier. He was doing pivots and all kinds of stuff. I was like, “Let’s shoot a photo real quick. Do a front rock.” He’s like, “Dude! I don’t even know how to do front rocks.” He was dead serious. So I set up and two seconds later he gave me one front rock and pulled it perfect. That was it. I got one shot at it. Look at the form! It’s old man form!
This guy is living life in the fast lane and I hope he can pull it off. I feel like a lot of people want a lot of stuff from him already, really quick, with the Chocolate video and the Vans video. If he keeps it simple and keeps shredding I think he’ll be a legend in the making.