SGV: (en route to meet P-Rod for a photo of a secret trick at a not-so-secret spot that I can't tell you about) I've been trying to get this interview with you for so long, and I'm realizing why that is; you're a really busy dude.
ATIBA: Yeah, and everything is so spastic because of the way my life runs.

SGV: Well, it must be running pretty smoothly because I've been seeing your work out there constantly... forever... I know you're out there grinding.
ATIBA: Grinding is exactly what it is. Hustling and grinding constantly.

SGV: You've become the photographic seal of approval in the skate world. If you're shooting some skater, that dude becomes somewhat official.
ATIBA: Maybe some people think of it that way, but I don't. I guess the convenient thing about people skating with me is that the photo will probably get used most of the time, which if I was a skater, I would just go with that.

SGV: Since your time is so valuable, do you still have the patience to jump over fences and get kicked out by security at spots?
ATIBA: Where we're going today, there's no fence. Hopefully there's no one there, sometimes it gets crowded. I went out and got really drunk last night based on the premise that I knew there wasn't gonna be any fence for me to climb over. Hopping over a fence hungover is the worst. I've done it before, though. It doesn't really matter to me anymore. I haven't gotten to the point where I'm so fat that it's a nightmare to do... when it gets to that point I'll be over it. Getting kicked out of spots has always been annoying, but that just comes with the territory. I'm not so annoyed at the fact that we're getting kicked out as much as I am that I know this guy can get his trick if you just let him skate it for a while. I never think of that stuff as a waste of time or how I could be shooting Vince Carter instead of getting kicked out. If I was thinking about it like that I would be shooting skating for all the wrong reasons. The reason I do it is because I like shooting skating and I like seeing new tricks go down. Like I said, it comes with the territory. 50% of the time you're gonna get kicked out of a spot. Like my mentality for today is that I hope we get to skate the spot and even then I hope the dude lands his trick.

SGV: So what's your tolerance for inconsistency? Are you patient? Can you sympathize with the skaters you're taking photos of?
ATIBA: Yeah, totally. I know what its like to not get a trick. The way I look at it, even though the skater might not be thinking of it, if he lands the trick we both get the trick. It's good for both of us. He made my day and hopefully helped his own career. That's a lot of weight on his shoulders if you think about it. But I skate, and I know what it's like to have a crack bother you and how you can focus so hard on that crack that you can't concentrate on doing your trick anymore. So me being a skater, yes, I can sympathize. I can't even backtail a curb... how can I lose patience with somebody trying to backtail a rail?

SGV: You're not a new jack and you learned most of your photographic chops on 35mm film. Now that you're pretty much fully on the digital program do you approach photography differently than you used to?
ATIBA: Oh, yeah. Like the amount of frames you can shoot now, or how you know you've got a trick right away. It's definitely a different WAY of shooting but my approach is pretty much the same. You can't beat instant gratification... I'm 100% into digital photography. The amount of stress it takes away from the photographer is amazing. Think about it- when I first started I was shooting on slide film, and with that you have to have the most perfect exposure... can't be over exposed or under exposed. This was even before I realized I should be shooting with a Polaroid back to check my exposure. This was before I realized I should be doing snip tests on my film. These are things that people don't even need to know about anymore. There's no need for it. All these procedures I used to do are useless to people who just learn on digital now.

SGV: A few years ago you started The Skateboard Mag. What made you want to leave TransWorld to start something new?
ATIBA: It was an opportunity that just came and it seemed like it made a lot of sense that we could sorta be in control of our own destiny.

SGV: What specific things are you doing different than what they were doing at TransWorld?
ATIBA: I guess our biggest thing is to make it look clean. That's not a dis or anything, but we want to do something different. An example would be our ad-to-editorial ratio. We have a cap on the amount of ads and we try to keep it core in terms of the companies that advertise. That might not make the most traditional business sense, but we felt like there needed to be something out there that really focuses on legit skateboarding. We own it, and there's no one to answer to... no Time Warner or anything... that's a lot to bring to bed every night. It was a great opportunity and we're lucky to still be around and doing okay 3 years later.

SGV: How is your workload now at The Skateboard Mag compared to when you were at TransWorld.
ATIBA: It's pretty much the same role as when I was at TransWorld. It's more the little things like the politics that go into a magazine now come into play, why somebody doesn't like this or that. Before it was like, "who cares?!" And I'm not the big dog anymore... I'm not the big cool magazine dude I used to be.

SGV: I don't get it, please explain.
ATIBA: I don't know who the biggest dog in the yard is, but everyone knows TransWorld Skateboarding. And to go to a magazine where people are like, "what's it called?" It's different not being that magazine that everybody knows. It's a great challenge to put in front of yourself because it makes you wanna grow something. All the dudes who moved on with us, like Grant Brittain; he helped start TransWorld. It's awesome to see those guys do it again and make a great product, and to be a part of that. That's one of the biggest differences. We were so used to us being part of this giant thing, and then to come back down to... I mean at the beginning we were the smallest magazine on earth. Now I think things have changed, obviously. It's cool to start from the ground up again.

SGV: When I first heard that you were gonna start The Skateboard Mag and who was involved with the project it sounded like a no-brainer.
ATIBA: That's one of the reasons it wasn't TOO stressed. If it wasn't gonna work, those dudes are smart enough not to have done it.

SGV: Why did you guys decide on The Skateboard Mag as the name? When I first heard it I remember thinking how generic sounding it was.
ATIBA: I didn't like the name at all. That name came along really early. And just like you, I thought that it sounded just really cheesy. I would have rather had just Skateboard Mag and drop the "The" In the end we had to make sure the word skateboard was in the title. Have you noticed that if you have the word skateboard as the main word in your title you'll sell a lot? For the last couple of years of Big Brother they began putting Big Brother Skateboard Magazine. Then there's TransWorld Skateboarding... notice how small the word TransWorld is compared to Skateboarding on their covers. If we would have gone too obscure with our name we would have completely cut off our potential newsstand audience. A crazy obscure name would have been fine for the skateshops and subscriptions, but we didn't want to be a magazine that was just limited to that. Newsstands are a huge part of being successful in the magazine business. You begin to see once you start a magazine that people can say they are down with you and down with the cause, but at the end of the day everyone is a businessman and if your numbers aren't straight they're not gonna support you.

SGV: If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense?
ATIBA: Yeah. That's when I realized that a lot of these guys are really into it for the business. I'm not mad at them at all, and can't blame them. But it's funny when you think some of the companies that [we thought] would for sure come support our cause, didn't. Still even now, some of these companies are really set in their ways of what's comfortable for them and what's not. That's fine if that's what they want to do- business is business. Now I have a whole different perspective of how things work. When I was with TransWorld I didn't think about advertising or who was advertising with who. I never once thought to myself, "wow, that's weird how that one company never advertises with us." The magazine [TransWorld] was so big that I guess it didn't matter. I guess what I'm saying is that now I look at how people run their companies differently. It's not an easy thing for anybody; advertising is not cheap. Our rates haven't gone up since we started. Our rates were set according to what was it would take to support THIS kind of staff, THIS kind of paper quality.

SGV: Getting back to your photography, are you classically trained? Did you go to school?
ATIBA: Not at all. I took a basic black and white photography class in high school but that's it. I learned a lot from Grant Brittain. When I was living in Colorado I would send pictures to Grant and he would send them back and tell me what I was doing wrong. That was huge. I've never heard of any photo editor who would take the time and energy to help me the way he did. And it's funny because a lot of photo editors at magazines are not really photographers, they're more editors. So I'm really lucky that Grant was willing to help me so much with my skateboard photography. He basically taught me a lot about portrait photography. Later on I got to assist this guy named Andy Bernstein who is the Lakers' team photographer.

SGV: So when did this happen?
ATIBA: Around 1999. I was assisting him during the 3 years the Lakers won back to back to back.

SGV: Were you getting paid?
ATIBA: Not really. I would get some money sometimes, but most of it was free.

SGV: By that time you were already a very well established skate photographer, right?
ATIBA: Yeah, I was able to make a decent living off of skating. I just started assisting Andy on the side. First off, I'm just a huge basketball fan- a Laker fan. To have the opportunity to sit on the court and learn more about photography... best experience ever. And he is such a cool dude, not scared to teach someone. I feel like a lot of photographers, myself included, aren't down to spend a bunch of time and energy to teach someone who could eventually take your job. Dude was so cool about not being a weirdo. Dude really taught me how to BE a professional commercial photographer. Grant taught me skate photography, but this guy taught me how to work with a client, things like that. I was really soaking in a lot from assisting him. It's cool because around that time I was developing a relationship with Slam Magazine, and I was able to take what I knew about skate photography and what I was learning about commercial photography and apply it to that. I wouldn't even be shooting on medium format right now if it wasn't for this guy showing me that I could shoot action with a medium format camera. I'm not the guy who invented shooting skating with medium format, people had done it long before me. But obviously what I learned from Andy changed skateboarding photography, because now a Hassleblad with a fisheye is the norm. I remember when I first started running that, no one was really on it. I think only Blabac was, but he didn't run the fisheye. And I remember when I started shooting with that setup and I would show the pictures afterwards and people would totally notice the difference and ask me, "wow, what did you shoot that with? Why does it look so good?" I learned all that from Andy, he really pushed my skate photography to a whole new level probably without realizing it. And with my basketball stuff I was able to take things from skating and apply it to that. It elevated me in SLAM's eyes as being this unique photographer... things like shooting action with a fisheye and cross processing and all this stuff. They were like, "wow, that's cool" They were used to a more commercial look and I was able to give them a more raw look. Now I'm shooting digitally and that was all stuff I learned from the NBA. We were shooting digital back in 2000. With skating it never really got popular till 3 or 4 years ago. I remember people would ask me, "what are you shooting with?" People didn't really like digital back then, it's only recently that people like digital. I would always hear, "looks like a shitty digital frame grab"

SGV: Do you ever get star struck anymore? Either with skaters or athletes?
ATIBA: there's always a little bit of a fan in me. Guy Mariano, to this day, it's like, "oh my god, it's Guy Mariano" People like PJ [Ladd]... I know that certain skaters I should be more of a fan, like Andrew (Reynolds), but because he's such a good friend of mine I don't think of it like that. Same with [Eric] Koston. I guess I'm less star struck with these new younger kids because I think there's a point in your life where you're like a silly kid fan vs. a more mature vibe. I'm a huge fan of Dennis Busenitz, but I wouldn't go all crazy like I would to meet Michael Jordan, or Iverson. But those dudes aren't my everyday dudes. And professional athletes are such a totally different kind of person than skaters. They are still like weird jocks, and skaters are... like skaters. Don't get me wrong, I've had some great conversations with the pro basketball players... but those guys are bazillionaires. That's such a different type of person. There are some skaters out there who are making some pretty good money, but c'mon, Kevin Garnett's earrings are worth somebody's yearly salary vs. Jereme Rogers's earrings that are probably not worth a person's salary. They're different. I think that's a good thing because it keeps skaters more humble. There are skaters out there doing their thing partly because they have to in order to survive. There's more of a hunger instinct to survive in skaters. The pro basketball players are very nonchalant... everything is casual. Except maybe for a Kobe, who you can tell is an intense dude.

SGV: You've been in the industry long enough to have witnessed countless amounts of skaters' careers go up and down, you've seen kid's come from relative obscurity to blowing up.
ATIBA: I've seen a lot of generations. Sometimes I'll feel like I'm skating with one generation, then I'll go skate with Andrew and Eric and they are the generation where I came in. Then you go skate with someone like Pat Duffy... that guy has really been around. Andrew is a vet, but he's not like a vet like Duffy. And yeah, I've seen a lot of kids come and go. Back in the day you would see a young kid with potential and say, "that kid is gonna make it" You can't even think that anymore because you never know which kid is gonna be around and then be gone. I've seen a lot of talented kids just disappear. I can't wait to see what Nyjah Huston is gonna be doing in 10 years, he's only gonna be like 23. If he's still around in 10 years he's gonna really push it, that kid is so talented it's ridiculous. He's really special. when you go skating with him you'll notice how focused he is. He's not driven like a psycho or anything, just really calm and focused. Those are the best things you could have to get a skateboard trick going. I've never seen him throw a temper tantrum. Today when I was talking to Paul he was saying that it was funny to think that I was his age when we first met each other. I think I met him about 8 years ago. That made me feel really old.

SGV: Me and my friends have been having this discussion as of late about what age means in skateboarding. And I think the conclusion we came to is that age means nothing nowadays.
ATIBA: Nothing. I'm 30 years old now and I won't even be the oldest dude at the spot anymore. I went skating the other day and we all got ID'd by some cops and Koston was older than me, and Meza is older than any of us...

SGV: Koston is older than 30?
ATIBA: Don't get mad at me Eric. I think he's 32.

SGV: So he's older than Mike Carroll?
ATIBA: Carroll is a baby. It's amazing what Carroll has accomplished for his young age, and how long ago he had to do what he had to do. Yeah, so Koston is 32 and everyone knows how amazing he is. Look at Berra, he's like 33 or 34 maybe. No dis to vert skaters, but their careers are longer than your average street skater and the vert guys don't have as many little kids nipping at their toes. We were just at a skate spot right now and some random kid was legit-ly trying a hardflip crooked grind on a handrail. Even if you're Paul at 22 years old, you gotta be thinking, "what do I have to do next?" That is what I think is so amazing about Eric and those guys, that they are so driven and still have the fire burning underneath them to push their skating. Before you would ask yourself if 30 years old is too old, but nowadays legit skating has no age limit. I think this is something that came into the picture recently. I remember skaters thinking that 24 was old, and that you had to move on with your life. But why move on, when what you're doing is so fun? Especially since skating is so accepted now. I've never once thought that it was awkward to be shooting pictures of 13 year old kids... which is kinda creepy if you think about it. It's weird... but not weird in skateboarding. Nyjah's dad is out skating with him, that's pretty cool. I think it's great for kids that young because they learn a lot about life, real life, being around something like skating and hanging out with older skaters. I wouldn't have learned the things I learned if it wasn't for the skaters that were 3 and 4 years older than me that I was around.

SGV: To people on the outside, having skaters as role models might sound like a sketchy thing.
ATIBA: But they're actually the best ones out there. I totally know what you mean though. Now it's cool to be a skater because Bam is a skater. When I was a kid skating was not cool. Girls didn't like skaters and jocks didn't like skaters. Now it's totally different. Bam has legitimately made it totally COOL to be a skater.

SGV: I hate to think that Bam is the only reason it's COOL to be a skater.
ATIBA: He's not, but let's just cut to the chase. Skating is cool everywhere. Lupe Fiasco and Pharell made it COOL in the hood and Bam made it COOL to the hessians. Skaters are still outlaws, but when I was young I was legitly an outlaw to my peers, to the cops, and to society in general. there were 3 or 4 real skaters at my school... and this was after Animal Chin had really blown up, during the pressure flip era. I guarantee you that about 75% of the shoes that kids are wearing in school nowadays are skate... and this is after the D3 phase. It's still blowing up. It's COOL now. Element as a brand is COOL. Hawk Clothing for kids is COOL. This didn't even exist when I was skating. Like Varnette was COOL, and that was barely semi-skate. It's like, what the fuck?

SGV: Would you agree that in recent years that the rate at which kids progress is just unbelievable?
ATIBA: That goes for tricks and careers too. About 5 years ago Jereme Rogers was just moving out to California... pre tattoos. Now it's 5 years later and he's probably the gnarliest contest skater out there- has a pro shoe. That's how it goes. That is the new progression rate. Whereas 10 years ago when I was fresh on the scene, it was kinda weird that anybody would get a shoe. If you weren't a Cab, a Tony Hawk, or a Jason Lee, why would you even have a pro shoe? I remember even for somebody like a Rob Dyrdek it was kinda weird that he was getting a shoe. "he's getting a shoe?! really? shouldn't he have been pro for like at least 10 years minimum and been the top dude?" Now Jereme's career has gone from some kid from Boston to where he's at now. Who knows how much money that kid made off contests? It's awesome- it's all legit. He worked really hard for it, nothing was given to him and it wasn't marketing. He's got a pro board on Girl Skateboards and a pro shoe on DVS, That's huge, all that in 5 years... that's insane.

SGV: I'm tripping on how blurred the lines are between the pros and the ams now a days.
ATIBA: Basically, yeah. Is Nyjah Huston a pro or is he am? He's so gnarly. But I don't want to completely agree because there are a lot of these pros that are definitely doing things that ams just can't do. But there are SO many ams out there that definitely cross the line. It's like, "that dude is breaking it off WAY harder than certain pros that have a shoe and everything." I know ams that don't even have a board sponsor that I could go out with every weekend and probably get at least 4-5 legit tricks. I mean L-L-LEGIT tricks. I think this is a great cleansing process for the skate industry to not just put on whoevers. These guys deserve to get what they get and not just take it and leave in 2 years.

SGV: I wonder what kids must feel like when they know for a fact that they skate better than most pros and they might not have any sponsors at all. They know that all they need is a break, someone to give them a chance. A few years ago I tried to get a job in the skate industry and I was being denied. I remember someone telling me that I was never gonna get a job because I wasn't in the "fraternity" I have always felt like that about the skate industry.
ATIBA: I know what you're saying. It's totally a fraternity. It is; if you're IN, you're fucking IN. As long as you do good and work hard, you're probably never gonna have a problem being in the club. But it's HARD to get in... it's really fucking HARD. And it's hard in every aspect. It's hard for you, like you said, it's hard for a dude to get a team manager job, it's hard for dudes to become photographers, it's hard for dudes to become filmers. And of course it's hard for dudes to become sponsored skaters, it's not easy to get in. For every job there is in the Skateboard industry, I know at least one person who is way over qualified to fill the position but they just have to wait in line for their opportunity. It's weird, and I remember when I was an outsider for sure. I remember one pro skater, whose name I won't say, but he was like, "this guy is gonna shoot for TransWorld? Who the hell is this guy? you're gonna hire that dude?" And that's because I wasn't in the club yet. Once you're in it's a great club, but it took a lot of work to get in the club.

SGV: On the SGV Myspace page for the part where you list what movies you like it says, "any skate video with Atiba in it" That was a little joke for me and the homies because you became such a stamp of legitness in so many of our favorite vids. You were even in the Tony Hawk video game.
ATIBA: Now I don't get out as much as I used to. I just run with certain crews that I like. But yeah, for a few years my head was popping up everywhere... I was THAT dude. But yeah, I was out there way more than I am now, and also there weren't as many videos coming out back then. I was trying to get in that Enjoi video but I don't really know any of those dudes except for Jerry Hsu. That's the thing about skating now too, back in the day there were so few of us. Now it's spread out and there are SO many good skaters. We were with 3 really great skaters today, but somewhere out there there were like 8 more of those sessions going down. Where was Leo Romero today? Where was Koston today? Where was Carroll? Where was Jamie Thomas? Where was Daewon Song? The list goes on and on, whereas I feel like when I first started taking photos you would hear on Monday what went down at Embarco or what went down at Hubba or what went down at what spot. There were only so many companies and everyone talks. Today some no-name kid might have landed a hardflip crooked grind as far as we know and that other kid might have landed his heelflip 5-0 on the rail. The point is, these things are going down everywhere.

SGV: Because you're now so fully immersed in the industry do you find it hard to keep up with everything going on? Are there stacks of skate vids sitting on your desk that you haven't watched yet?
ATIBA: Yes. It's sad, but that's part of growing up. I remember 10 years ago being blown away that [Dave] Swift wasn't cracking open his 411's and watching them as soon as he got them. I remember thinking that was so fucking wack. That's me now. When I get home I wanna just chill with my wife, I wanna play some music, I wanna play with my dog, and I wanna skate my mini ramp. I'm not gonna sit down and watch a video. I actually watch more videos when I'm on the road. It's just part of growing up. I feel kids knew all the videos before because there weren't as many videos coming out. Now because of things like YouTube how can you keep up? It's total overload. It's terrible in a way, but it's great. It's helping to make skating a bigger monster, and thank god for that.

more sick ass photos here. check it fool!
www.atibaphoto.com