I first met Jovontae about 16 or 17 years ago so you can imagine how many stories there are. Back then, I was of course into cars and going out, alot. European cars to be exact. Tae was also into cars and I think at one year Thrasher put out some article on him and said he owned like 23 or 35 cars or something. I had this 1984 bmw which of course was fixed up and although it went through about 4 color changes, it was probably one of my most favorites of all the cars I’ve owned. One day, I decided to sell the car and told Tae that I was going to sell it for super cheap cause I picked up a 5 speed 535 off some Samoan dude for 5k. So Tae bought it and gave it back to me about a week later cause he was over it.

Fast forward 13 years later and Tae and I, whether it’s a bmx cruiser or some junker khs track bike, we’re still flipping back and forth and forth and back. In 2003 Track bikes in SF weren’t as mainstream as it is today or even a year ago when it peaked here. I was talking to Tae and at the time I had this IRO which I bought off a friend. He was like, dude.. take that brake off and why are you riding that bike? He was of course over the whole track bike thing cause he’d been doing it for many years and had this crazy competition rock climbing bike. So he jumped on my IRO and started doing backward 180s and figure 8’s and I about dropped my jaw when he did this one handed wheelie. Very impressive.

This shoot was for an ftc ad for Japan which I shot downstairs. I was building up a Bob Jackson which took about 4 months to arrive but it turned out to definitely be worth the wait. If you want to see him skate or catch an interview, Google or youTube him. It’s definitely been an interesting 16 years.

Please check back to see the progress of our collaboration with Jovontae. It’ll definitely get your brains thinking. For now, here’s a lil video we edited of Tae, Yoppi and the Mash Crew from earlier this year.