One of the coolest parts of being on tour in California is the amount of random dudes you get to blade with. There are always people living on sofas and in blade houses in search of the legendary spots and freakishly perfect weather. I was traveling from Portland to Long Beach on AJ’s latest tour crazyness when I got the chance to snap this picture of Matty Schrock at the infamous 3rd & Army spot in SF. Matty is living at the Shredweiser house in Oakland, and was really pumped to show us around the Bay Area for the day. I shot this with a fisheye and some thorny, thorny plants. I try to preserve the natural lighting as much as I can when shooting during the day, but I also need it to not look like a turd. I had one light about level with the ledge, camera left, and another light about as high as Matty’s head, slightly rim lighting from the right. — John Haynes