And The Headless Cancan is…

Jeff Z.

• November 25 2008
• 3,750 views
• 2 comments

Last week I did a post with some photos from my personal archives called Buried Treasure. There was a shot of an unidentified rider doing a cancan with his head out of the frame. I promised that whoever was the first person to identify him correctly would win some stuff. Apparently, it wasn’t too difficult to figure out that the rider was George Dossantos. Dean Blackburn from England was the first person to send me an email and he had the right answer. I was curious to see who everyone else might guess it was, so I read all 117 emails. Only 21 people guessed wrong, and this archive is comprised of all the wrong riders who were mentioned more than once. Some of the wrong answers were interesting, and others were so completely way off. The wrong guesses were Ron Kimler, Ralph Sinisi, Brian Castillo, Shawn Arata, Ratboy, Butcher, Chris Hallman, Kelly Baker, Joe Tiseo, Chris Doyle, Jason Enns, Josh Heino, Aaron Bostrom, Ty Stuyvesant, Matt Coplon, Vinnie Sammon, Jesse Bowers (Fischer), Afro Pat, Brian Vowel, Vic Murphy, Fuzzy Hall, and Jeremy “Magilla” Reese.

 

George Dossantos

This shot might look familiar because it was from the same shoot as the headless cancan. This long lens shot clearly shows George Dossnatos at the then almost brand new Ithaca skatepark in New York, wearing the Ed Templeton Emerica shoes (preInopia), riding an FBM, with front brakes, a straight cable, and four pegs. Photo: Zielinski

 

Ron Kimler

I got 12 guesses for Ron Kimler and I wasn’t surprised. Ron was riding for FBM at this time, I believe a Live Wire frame. And his bike setup is pretty similar to George’s. And while this no-footed nosepick photo was shot at the Home Ave. ditch in San Diego, I’m sure Ron’s plenty familiar with the Ithaca park, too. Photo: Fudger

 

Ralph Sinisi

Another FBM, four pegs, front brake, and a straight cable earned eight guesses for Ralph. Ralph and I shot this photo in Brooklyn, NY. This was a really popular skate spot like seven years ago, I think it got shut down because they found a dead body there or something like that. Photo: Zielinski

 

Brian Castillo

Brian’s classic setup was just like George’s bike, except back then Brian used to ride GT four-piece bars, and at one time he even rocked the identical four-piece Powerlite bars with a bent cross bar. Eventually, when he rode for S&M, they made the Castillo bars. But this isn’t about handlebars. Four people incorrectly guessed Brian Castillo, but it was a good guess. Photo: Mulligan

 

Shawn Arata

I’m assuming people guessed Shawn because of the FBM frame and they recognized the Ithaca park. However, I don’t recall ever seeing Shawn ride with front brakes and four pegs, I still got two guesses for him, though. This particular photo was shot at an FBM  Ghetto Street comp in Johnson, City, NY, a few years ago. Those contests were awesome. So many random dudes I never heard of would show up, eat shit on sketchy ramps all day, and get up for more. It was a great scene to shoot photos in, too. Photo: Zielinski

Ratboy

The two guesses for Ratboy left me a little confused because nothing about that photo resembles Ratboy. Anyway, this particular Ratboy photo was shot in Denver, Colorado on the second Sombra Tour. You can’t really tell in the photo, but the Gonz is laying down in the grass filming. He was laying on his stomach because he was trying to get a lot of the grass in the foreground of the shot—like really up close. I think he said he was trying to get the perspective of an earthworm or something like that. We usually left the weird angles up to Ells, but for some reason he wasn’t with us at this spot. I think he slept that whole day. Photo: Zielinski

Butcher

I was surprised at the Butcher guesses, too. Again, I think it was because of the FBM frame. Anyhow, this shot of Butcher was from the first time I ever met him. I was just beginning to get photos published and Enos from Base Brooklyn asked me to shoot some photos with Luc-E for a Base ad. So I met Luc-E and Butcher for the first time at the Hackettstown park in New Jersey. Butcher just did this fakie footplant x-up while I was shooting someone else ride the wall. I was bummed because it was my first photo of Butcher and it was shot on the wrong side. Photo: Zielinski

Chris Hallman

I thought Chris Hallman was a really good guess. The bike setup, and FBM, the khaki pants, a cancan, the Ithaca park­—all good clues. I’m really not even sure who shot this photo. It wasn’t labeled, but ­­I’m assuming it was Mark Losey. Regardless, it’s pretty awesome. Hallman’s been shredding forever, this is from his stint when he lived and worked at Woodward East. Photo: Losey?

Joe Tiseo

I was psyched that two people mentioned Joe Tiseo, but Joe never rode an FBM and for as long as he had front brakes he also had a gyro. Joe was always in front of my camera as I was learning how to shoot photos. He was the first person I shot a sequence of when I got a 35mm camera with a motor drive. Even though they’re pretty basic, I think these photos from the Casino park in Asbury Park, New Jersey, were some of the best photos Joe and I shot together. Photo: Zielinski

 

Kelly Baker

Kelly was another guess that surprised me. It’s pretty funny because Kelly and George have such different styles. I actually used this photo of Kelly in an archive a while ago. Every time I see this shot it reminds me of getting sunburn on my ears after standing in the Acres all day shooting and filming with him. Photo: Zielinski