I grew up in Culver City, California. At least after living in the gheto’s of Inglewood and Watts, before moving north after my parents got divorced. This of course is also after I crossed the border from Mexico into the U.S.A, a product of a crappy life in Mexico.

I got into skateboarding in 1997, I was 14 years old. My stepfather bought me a Maple skateboard, my friend Brendon broke it a week later.

I didn’t get a pro model deck for 3 years afterwards, but I had Powell Blanks (no graphics on the board) for the interim.

Meanwhile there was a skateboarding industry that was being dominated by a very awesome company, World Industries, pushing the boundaries of creativity, skateboarding, and throwing a middle finger to the law.

Recently, I received an issue of Skateboarder magazine and inside there was a picture of Daniel Castillo in my old stomping grounds, Culver City, California. He was photographed walking a dog, and there was a bunch of questions about his life, and one of the things he said was that he loved living Culver City…

I did too.

I of course get emotional at the reading, and then hit youtube, and find that he was skateboarding the same skate spots that I used to skateboard, only he did them in 1992 when I was 9 years old…before I was even a skater…here’s the video.

I miss my mom, my sister, my old friends, my old church, even my old job at the Video Store.