Ingel Catindig is originally from Milpitas, California, and he was one of the original members of the 408 crew in San Jose growing up with members like Jon Julio, Jayson Reduta, and Robert Guerrero. Ingel even had clips in VG 12 Battle My Crew ‘Juiced Sucka Foos’ section in the early 2000s, most notably after doing a disaster kindgrind on Hubbas Hideout he looked at the camera and says, “I’m fucking juiced like a foo!”
It’s been many years since those days, but Ingel has always stayed loyal to his craft, even incorporating it into his current profession of being a performance artist, stuntman, and actor in Los Angeles.
On May 4th actually, just one day after my birthday, I got a great surprise when Ingel let me know that he was going to be in the area for work, and he suggested that after he was finished we should meet up and skate. I decided on a ledge spot that I figured would have some potential for some lines and possibly a photo.
We met in the evening and immediately got to work filming lines. In between clips we reminisced about spots from the past, and sessions we remembered from back when we both lived in the bay area. We talked about how much blading has meant to us even now, and how even when sometimes life gets in the way, we always find solace in blading.
In my opinion, I’ve noticed that one of the best things about our skate community is that we have a common bond through a shared history. The stories and people may be slightly different, but we can all relate to how blading has influenced the course of our life. There are many reasons why we may have had to take a break or not take it as seriously, but the love we have for these shared experiences is deeply woven into our consciousness. I could feel that underlying feeling of joy and respect as Ingel and I skated and filmed.
The sun was going down as I decided to bring out my camera when to my surprise, the flash battery was drained, so I was forced to use natural light. Natural light for skate photography isn’t my favorite but this was such a special occasion that I wanted to capture it. I had already decided that my fisheye lens would be the best way to show the height of the ledge and the length. I also knew I wanted Ingel to be as close to the end of the ledge as possible while still having both feet positioned correctly. In order to do this I needed to jump out the way as Ingel landed his trick. I shot this with my Sony 7iii 12mm lens at 5.6 ISO 800 and 1/800. The shutter speed at 1/800 was enough to freeze the motion, and the ISO 800 allowed enough light to hit the sensor so that the amount of ambient light from the sun gave the scene the correct exposure. Lucky for me, Ingel did a perfect sweatstance to fakie on this waist-high ledge with ease and we had the photo within a few minutes.
After shredding the ledges we went and finished the night off at a local brewery with some beers and conversation about our personal lives and future aspirations. I hope all of you reading this have similar experiences in the future with your friends from your early years of skating because it is truly something special.
You can catch Ingel Catindig on instagram and TikTok at @ingelwood, where he incorporates blading into his acting and stunts to help publicize our sport! — Steve Steinmetz
