Jim Goodrich Interview
What first attracted you to skateboarding ?
Jim Goodrich : I was born in San Diego , so I was in the middle of where it was all happening . I started as a skater in 1976 . My brother was skating and I said that sure looks like fun , so I had a friend make me an aluminum blank that I put roller skate trucks on with clay wheels and just started skating . I had no clue of the bigger skateboard scene out there and that all this stuff was going on . I was just skating in local spots and had no clue what I was doing .
Then I hit a pebble and took a Superman dive and broke my wrist and arm and took a lot of skin off various parts of my body . While I was recovering in a cast , I picked up a camera and just started taking pictures of my friends , who ended up being the top skaters of that time .
La Costa was a place where a developer had taken a hill and graded it for homes , and they paved the street and put in sidewalks and streetlights . Then a recession hit and the money fell through , so they never built the homes . We had this beautifully paved asphalt street and nobody bothered us . It was technically private property , but the police didn ’ t seem concerned . We would go up there and have these skate events . We would slalom and downhill , and people would freestyle in the street . All the top skaters from the time , even the Dogtowners from Los Angeles , would drive down and hang out for the day . It was the perfect area to skate before the skate parks came along . I always referred to it as the Mecca of skateboarding because it was a place for all of us to come together . I took my camera up there and started taking pictures of these people who were my friends and also happened to be getting into Skateboarder magazine . They were the top names of the day .
When I got my cast off , I started skating again , and my camera just sat in the car because I was a skater for the most part . But then my friends would say , “ Hey , get a picture of this !,” and so it progressed from there . At some point , I met Warren Bolster because he used to be at La Costa a lot as well . I would bring pictures to show my friends , and one day he walked over and said , “ Can I see some of your photos ?” He really liked them and printed a few in the magazine , and six months later he asked me to come on staff at Skateboarder . I always had my skateboard with me , but over a period of months , [ I ] just started skating less and shooting more .
Did you have any idea that your photos would become defining pieces of skate culture ?
No . We were just kids playing , and I was in the middle of it . I was creating content for Skateboarder and at the vortex of everything going on , but still didn ’ t relate to the big picture . I related to my friends that I hung out with . Yes , I was shooting photos for my job , but I never had the attitude that this was a business . Even though we realized there were millions of dollars being made by these companies , I still never gave much thought to that because it just wasn ’ t what skateboarding was to me .
I realized when we traveled that there were fans and groupies everywhere . I know that I had fans as a photographer , but the focus , of course , was on the skate stars . The big names like Tony Alva and Stacey Peralta and guys like that who were in the magazine . I had the luxury of being the guy behind the camera who didn ’ t get much attention . It was good for me because it allowed me to shoot without much distraction .
I always had injuries from skateboarders slamming into me , but that was probably my own fault because I always felt that the best picture
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