"What's back there? Cardiel's back there, get some!"
Jai's print of John Cardiel, hanging above our production area!
So this week, we were fortunate enough to trade a few of our straps for an incredible print of John Cardiel from our friend, Jai Tanju! Jai is a huge inspiration to us! Having started the Film Por Vida print exchange program (*the reason we send a print with all of our packages), being an incredible professional photographer and also having started his own gallery, "Seeing Things" in San Jose, Jai is totally the man! We also caught up with him to discuss the photo and what it was like shooting with Cardiel!
All hail Cardiel!
Jai: The shot was taken at a Vans skatepark in Woodbridge, Virginia in April of 2000. Vans was on a big push to build all these skateparks in strip malls so it was kind of a weird situation? A bunch of the Vans team guys went out there for the opening of the park and I was invited to cover it for Skateboarder Magazine, even though I knew that they wouldn't be interested in using any photos I took at the park for the mag. We did get out a bit to skate around the surrounding areas and into Washington, D.C. for a day too! The best part was a trip we took to the legendary Landsdowne skatepark in Maryland! I had been on a few trips with Vans before because I am good friends with Jason Adams and Salman Agah who both rode for vans at the time so I got included is some great trips, and a few of them that John was on too! John is something else man! Such a cool guy who was down for anything! He would just be ripping and all I had to do was ask to take a photo and he would go for it! It's rad because he is that same way now whenever I see him! Always a rad hand shake and wants to see how I am and what I'm up too! Epic Human for sure!
Our custom leather camera straps for Seeing Things Gallery!
Keep killing it out there Jai! Can't thank you enough for the incredible print!
Check out Jai's instagram: @iajanut
The Seeing Things instagram: @seeingthingsgallery
and our instagram: @maruthecirclebrand!