Where skateboarding & photography meet.

I started skateboarding when I was 12 and from then on, I was hooked. Skateboarding became my passion and for the last 25 years, it has been at the center of my life. I began lobbying the City of Ottawa early on for greater investments in urban development to increase accessibility to skateboarding in the City. Through this work and with the help of the skateboarding community, my friends and I were able to build Ottawa’s first custom concrete skate park – Legacy.

While attending university, my friends and I kept dreaming of ways that could improve the city’s urban landscape to benefit skateboarders and non-skateboarders alike. What were originally ideas sketched out on the back of napkins & notepads finally culminated into a brick-and-mortar skate & coffee shop – Birling – that we opened in 2017 in Ottawa’s Centertown.

Skateboarding has given me so much, but most importantly, it has allowed me to find my community. In 2011, I decided that it was time for me to use skateboarding as a way to give back to the city so I cofounded the Ottawa Skateboard Association (OSA). OSA provides recreational opportunities by promoting the physical, social, creative, and community-building benefits of unstructured free play through skateboarding.

As my love for skateboarding started to grow, so did my interest in capturing candid moments within street skating. One day, I picked up my parents’ old-school VHS video camera and began documenting curb sessions outside of my childhood home. Over the years, I started filming more, and eventually, I moved on to full scale skateboard video production. After the slow retirement of the VX-1000, I graduated to point-and-shoot camera and I’ve been snapping away ever since. To me skateboarding is an individual practice that provides an avenue for self-expression while being surrounded by like-minded individuals who share the same desire to have fun and enjoy the creativity that comes from skateboarding. It is that joy – to be out skating & enjoying simple-yet-good times with friends while highlighting the places we discover together – that I strive to capture in my work.

I believe in giving back using what I have – my love & passion for skateboarding & photography. If you are a non-profit or a charity and need a little help documenting your project, please reach out. I would be happy to help in any way I can. :)