Photo: Transworld Cover – July 2011
Dave Chami

Skater: Elijah Berle
Trick: Frontside 50-50
Spot:
Daly City, California
United States

Footage: Girl/Chocolate, “Pretty Sweet” (2012)
Ty Evans

Additional Notes:
Transworld – Hot Off The Press – July 2011

Dave Chami on the trick/cover;
“We went to this spot in South SF when Ty was up here with a bunch of the Chocolate dudes, not to skate this rail at all but rather the big blue flat bars that you can grind and transfer into this bank and drop off. It got dark and we called it a day. The next day I was moving houses all day and then that night I called Ty to ask what we were going to do the next day and he was like, ‘Oh, we went back to that school and Elijah grinded that handrail.’ I was like, ‘No fucking way!’ I think someone had tried to grind it, maybe Bob Burnquist had tried to grind it backside years ago. I don’t know if they changed the school but now it’s almost impossible to do because you have to skate at it on a 90-degree angle because of the building that’s behind it, by the runway. I was like, “Let’s go back and shoot the photo.” Elijah was into it but then he got hurt. He stayed in SF with some of his friends for like a week longer and I just waited until he was good enough to go back and we went back with him and a couple of his buddies and got him to do it again. He did it really quickly. He would carve in—that’s the craziest thing about it, the way you have to carve in and then you have to ollie beside it. But once he gets on he just rides down it no problem.
I knew there was an AM issue coming up and that could be a really good cover for it and he had a bunch of photos so he was probably going to have a little interview in there anyway. But it was kind of nerve-wracking because he had already done it and he didn’t really care that much. I was the one that cared about it. I was like, ‘Is he going to do it? Is he going to be alright? Is this going to suck making him do it again?’ But it ended up being super mellow.
I had never even thought about anyone grinding that rail, to be honest. It doesn’t seem possible. When they told me he did it, it was insane to me. I couldn’t believe he’d done it. And the best part is that he wouldn’t have even cared if he had gotten a photo of it or not, to be honest. It’s not like he was, ‘Ty, I can’t do this without a photographer here.’ And then it ends up being a cover.”