I remember being 17 when my best friend and only friend within a 2-hour radius who skated went to college. I was happy to see him go, but a different feeling overcame me, too. It was the end of an era, it was the first time “growing up” and my skate world had intersected; it would not be the last. I always swore that I would never quit skating, that I would not stop loving this no matter what happened. That has been true, though “growing up” has made some very serious footprints in every part of my life. Shortly after the watershed moment of my best friend moving from our rural area to Minneapolis, I took a picture of Anders Carlson-Wee doing a backslide on a tiny rail reflected in a metalic sphere. I put that photo on my Myspace, and two years later it caught the eye of a young woman who thought it was so cool that she wrote me an email. That girl is Rachel Rueter, and on September 12, 2009 I married her, almost eight years after the photo was taken. I have been her boyfriend for a long time, our relationship has cut in to the amount of time I spend making the images that you see in ONE, but the time I spend at skate sessions also cuts in to the time I want to spend loving Rachel. I will spend my life with her, and I will also spend my life taking pictures of some of the most memorable moments in skating. Grown-up life is inevitable for virtually everyone reading this, but as real as getting older is, and what it may mean for you, skating is just as real. Cherish the carefree moments you have skating, but don’t be foolish when the most amazing woman on the planet wants some of your time. I count my self infinitely blessed to be both gifted in photography, and in love with a woman as beautiful, kind, courageous, faithful, and joyful as Rachel. I look forward to many more pictures and even more years of being in love. — John Haynes