JASON DILL WEEK DAY 3: ACOSTA'S ANGLES

Welcome back to Jason Dill Week. If you missed Day 1's classic interviews or Day 2's Alien Workshop Ad Archive you should definitely check them out.
Day 3 is Anthony Acosta's Angles. The relationship between a skater and his 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 third day of Jason Dill Week we dug through Anthony Acosta's archives for some of his favorite shots of Dill and the stories behind them.

ACOSTA’S ANGLES OF JASON DILL

I think he invented that trick that night. It’s funny because he called me super-hyped to go shoot something he was playing with the night before at the skatepark. He was like, “I know it’s weird shooting something at the skatepark but I got this sick trick.” I was like, “What is it?” And he couldn’t even describe it so I thought that was rad. He’s like, “It’s like a backside bodyjar wallride.” I was like, “What do you mean?” So we get to the park and every try he was fully scraping up and down that thing; it was sick. It was like a full backside air but he’s wallriding on his tail. It’s one of those rad tricks that when you see in person it’s even better. I tried to shoot a still and make the warehouse look not like a skatepark so it just looks like a ramp on the wall. We ended up using the sequence in The Skateboard Mag for that last page Black Out thing so you can see a bit more of what’s going on but I was always super-hyped on the still because it looks like an old school Hosoi-style backside air. It’s rad but I guess you can’t really tell that he’s scraping up and down on the wall. That’s what’s rad about Dill; he’s always on something weird and sick and next level. Neil Blender-style. Gonz-style





We shot the wallride first at this spot in Downtown LA he found when we were cruising around with AVE and Greg Hunt. It was sick. It was at this cathedral school thing that’s brand new. It’s a glass wall; it’s not even a bank you can see in the last photo it’s only slightly slanted. If you drive by it you don’t even think it’s a spot. It’s super-steep. It’s rad he saw it as something he could skate. He was trying to do a wallride on it and he was so timid at first because it’s glass. He started getting comfortable and the glass holds fine but it was weird at first. Then he starts doing the hugest backside wallrides and we shot that. Then you can see that a little later he took his jacket off and he ended up getting a sick backside ollie over one of those metal seams. I was pretty psyched on that photo and we ended up using it in The Skateboard Mag Photo Issue. It’s such a timeless photo with the wife-beater, the Authentics, the arm steez.
I was just psyched that it didn’t break. It was sketchy at first.



That’s in the LA River. There’s a spot across from this, a bank that people skate in the ditch and we were skating it with AVE. AVE had the cover doing the wallie over the fence and this was the same day. This is on the other side from the AVE cover spot, they were doing construction, you can tell by the rubble in the background. Dill left while I was shooting AVE and came back and was like, “There’s all these wooden palates everywhere; it’s sick.” So we went over there and these things are pretty heavy; that’s thick plywood and 4” x 4”s. We started moving them all around; we had like 5 dudes moving these things. First we were making these manual pads and then he started making these bank things and then we ended up making this; it was the raddest looking thing. So he’d ollie up and was doing really big backside flips on it. I always think it’s so rad that he’s always down to put in the work just to create something that’s rad and not cheesy. He knew what he was doing and what he was looking for. We tried maybe two or three other set ups to nail what he was into and then he just did his thing. He’s always looking around the corners from wherever we’re at, lurking around, looking for little knickknack spots and trying to create something out of nothing.



This was in Mexico City on an Alien Workshop trip on a filming mission for Mindfield. I want to say this is one of the earlier times when I started taking pictures of Dill. I don’t know if he was skating much. I think he was big on the party scene back then but I got a call to go on this trip to help finish the end of the Mindfield video so we went to Mexico and Dill was super-rad. This is just him warming up doing nollie 180s. I was just trying something weird to show the roller-skating rink.
Before this I would see him back in the day at Huntington Beach High School in the 90s. Every now and then you’d see that dude at the Huntington Skatepark, because that was one of the only skateparks around for a while. I was a little kid back then but when you saw him we were like, “That’s Dill!” You could tell that dude form a mile away.
I was nervous when I first got to shoot him. Hell, even now I still get nervous because he knows aesthetically what looks good. He does certain things for a certain reason. Like that backside flip above; he knows that could be a rad photo so that’s why he set it up. Same with the backside wallride on the glass wall. It’s hard because you’ll be shooting something and he’ll come over and tell you, “That’s not how it’s supposed to look.” It’s crazy but it’s sick. And it’s rad when you do nail it the way he envisioned it like with the backside flip, he gets psyched like, “See. That’s how it’s supposed to look.” On the other hand if it’s not looking right to him he’ll belike, “No. Don’t shoot it.” Even with filmers I’ll see him be like, “No, film it like this, not like that.” He’s an expect at what he does and how he wants to see it and he’s always right, you can’t argue with him. He’s set in his ways, he sees it one way but in a lot of ways he’s truly right; when you shoot it his way it comes out better. That’s why I get nervous; I hope I’m doing it right.
After shooting with him for a few years now I think I definitely earned a little more trust from the dude but it’s still the same. Like with that first photo, that backside wall skid he wanted a sequence of that. He saw the sequence in his head. I was like, “Let’s shoot a still.” He let me shoot like three stills and then he was like, “Ok, that’s enough. Let’s get the sequence now.” He knows what he wants. I think it’s rad that he’s like that. There’s a lot of dudes that don’t even care how it looks. He’s trying to say a certain thing with what he wears or what he skates and how he skates it. It’s an important lesson for young guys to think about how they want to portray themselves.






This was on a trip to New York a couple years back. He used to live in the Lower East Side and ended up moving to Brooklyn and he knew we were coming out so for two weeks he went out looking for spots in Brooklyn for the team. He was scouting because he didn’t know the ins and outs of Brooklyn as much. This is just us skating through and there was a pretty sick slappy curb. But he took care of us out there. He had tons of spots lined up for us like this down bar he’s backsmithing and this bump to bump; he did all the leg work. I think he was just psyched to get some new dudes out to skate with. It was Johnny Layton, Dustin Dollin, AVE and Gilbert Crockett. We ended up getting Tino Razo and Black Dave Willis involved. It was a really productive trip thanks to him. It’s trippy to think of how deep his NYC ties are since he’s from Huntington. I think people trip when they find out he’s from Huntington because they just assume he’s from New York because he’s put in so much time there, way before it was cool to move there. He’s one of the OG dudes. But I guess it’s not that weird, I mean, Gonz is from South Gate, a little Mexican town south of LA. Guys like that are sort of from everywhere, not one place; they belong to the world.




OG dudes at an OG spot: Lockwood. That school has just as much character as Dill. It’s super-thug but if you’re a skater you know where that is and why you have to go there. It’s rad knowing he’s from that era of old World and 101 videos. That’s our history! The new wave of history, not like Bones Brigade history, but street skating rawness, next level. Think Gino. He was there for all that stuff and he was doing all that stuff. There’s picnic table stuff that he was doing back in the day that’s still mind blowing and I thought it was a rad photo just having that dude there knowing all the history. I think people know Dill is OG but when you watch those old videos he was doing nollie 180s switch back 50-50 on Hubba 20 years ago! Tricks that no one even does now. He was definitely an innovator/tech master and stepped up his skating over the years. I don’t think people give him as much credit as he deserves for pioneering street skating to the next level but people know. Those that know know. Skate nerds know.
Huf is another one that has time put in. He just happened to be there when we were checking out this bank to two benches that were set up and I was lucky enough to capture a silly moment between them. Look at that creepy face on Dill! I bet you those dudes have known each other since they were teenagers. They’ve been killing it for over 20 years. It’s just rad to see both of those dudes still skating and doing what they’ve been doing.
I think the secret to longevity is hopping fences. That’s the secret to life and staying young. You have to hop a gnarly fence to get into that spot and these dudes are not too old yet to hop that fence and that’s the secret to the fountain of youth. Once you’re too old to hop fences you’re too old to skate or do anything cool.



That was at this skatespot in Downtown LA. I went over to take a leak in the bushes and they have these big plants, like enormous cactus and I look over and I see Dill’s name inscribed in it. He tags that in random places. I think that’s Stefan Janoksi’s name above it. Luckily I had my camera with me and I took a photo. But neither of those guys were with us, I was with a whole different crew. I just chuckled to myself. It’s the little things in life, Dill knows that and that’s why that’s there.



I was always psyched on that jacket. He was running it hard for a while. It would be super-hot out and he’s be wearing a down jacket. The metal Slayer pin was so sick! He ran it good too. Look at that dude! That photo can be from 1960s or 90s or whenever. He has a classic look.



And then he has this homeless look. It’s insane. We went up to Ventura to skate with Mike Anderson with AVE and Dill. He was up all night and didn’t sleep so he was lagging around and didn’t really skate. We went to this spot at the end of the day, this bank to ledge, and dude just decides to lie down and take a 15-minute nap. When I got the film back I was like, “This dude looks like a full-on homeless dude.” If you crop that skateboard out of the photo that would be a guy that you see everywhere in Downtown LA begging for money. It’s pretty funny.



The wrist. I know he’s got a never-ending issue with that thing. Whether he does a flatground trick and just puts his hand down on accident it’s broken again. I just always thought it looked cool; he runs it cool. He makes that thing look rad. This is fresh off the broken wrist and he probably took the cast off the next day when he’s not supposed to. This just looks like a tough photo: broken wrist, wife beater, and cig.



We shot this at the House of Vans at one of their opening parties. Look at Dill; he just fits on the team sitting with all the legends. He is a legend. Cab, Alva, AVE and Dill; it just makes sense, it’s every era of skateboarding’s history. I think it’s such a rad addition to the Vans family and team having that kind of history with the Dogtown dude, The Bones Brigade dude and you got Dill, street innovator. He’s in the same boat with them and that photo means a lot to me.