There was a time — almost ten years ago now — where roof gaps and spots on roofs were big in BMX (borrowed from skateboarding where it was also popular at the time). Aside from the death factor, it’s really difficult to explain to security guards why you are on, or attempting to get on their roof.

I’ve been looking through a lot of my old film lately, and came across a couple shots from the “roof era” that I shot back when I worked at Ride Magazine. The first one (above) is of Josh Heino in Long Beach, California. We were stealthfully walking around trying to figure out how we were going to get on the roof when we happened upon a pile of 10 or 12 ladders. It was really meant to be. I posted up on a hill across Pacific Coast Highway and waited for Josh to get up top. I think at the time the angle was decided more by the fact that I really didn’t want to climb up on the roof with all my camera gear, but actually the perspective worked out really well. I don’t think you would have got the scope of the scene from on top of the roof. A similar (maybe even the same) shot ran in Ride.

The second photo (below) is of Robbie Morales, now the owner of Fit Bike Co. We were shooting for a poster in Ride, sponsored by one of Rob-O’s sponsors at the time, Primo. Years prior, Robbie (a former pro racer) had tried to jump a gap over a river, hung up on the other side, and fell straight down into the ditch on his back. Fortunately it was only about 12 feet down, and there was a foot or two of water to cushion his fall. The gap (now gone) came to be known as the Rob-O gap. When we went to shoot this roof gap for the poster, I definitely considered that if that should happen again, it was going to be ugly. Fortunately it didn’t and we shot a few different frames, one of which (a vertical shot) ran as the poster. The filmer in the photo is Anthony Moreschi, who was the editor of 411 BMX, a video magazine at the time.

Incidentally, this was the first time I used my Nikon film scanner since upgrading to Apple’s latest operating system, Leopard. Of course Nikon Scan is no longer supported on Leopard. While there are some other options for scan software, Nikon Scan is freeware and I don’t scan 35mm all that much anymore. Fortunately I still have an older operating system on my old G4 laptop and was able to put Nikon Scan on that, and it worked out in the end. While Leopard is nice, it’s been hassle after hassle on my end.