Jake Donnelly - February 2010 Skateboarder

I believe this was Jake's first full-length interview in a magazine. The scans are a bit off because of water damage. Words by Christian Senrud and photos by Gabe Morford. The front tail frontside flip out on the bay blocks blew my mind when I first saw the sequence.

Gonz ollies over Schaaf and Jake kickflips over Ishod

At the beginning of his part in the 2001 video Real To Reel, The Gonz gets towed by Max Schaaf on a motorcycle towards a street bump, where he proceeds to ollie off of it and over Schaaf as he rides by. This trick was also used as an ad that appeared in the July 2001 issue of Thrasher (and maybe in other magazines, but my scan is from Thrasher). I didn't know until a few days ago when I first read the text that Max and Gonz had already done this before for an earlier Real ad, but hadn't thought to film it. I've never seen that one, but would love to try and dig it up someday in the future.

Twelve years later, when Ishod Wair and Jake Donnelly were both in town (San Francisco), someone at Real got the idea to recreate the ad with the two of them. It sounds like it was a little nerve-wracking to do, as Ishod had never ridden a motorcycle before, but they pulled it off and the photo appeared as a January 2014 ad (my scan is specifically from that month's issue of Thrasher). The footage of this appears on Real's YouTube page. Same bump, same motorcycle, same filmer (Dan Wolfe) and photographer (Gabe Morford). Such a cool ad idea. I wonder if they'll do it a third time in 2025? 

"Real Minnesota Sk8brdrs" - Real Skateboards in Minnesota

Davis Torgerson and a few friends from the Real team get some clips & photos in Minneapolis and Saint Paul during a summer 2009 trip (the article appeared in the November 2009 issue of Skateboarder). This was the first time that I'd (knowingly) seen pictures from Minnesota spots in a magazine, and I was pretty excited; the ollie up pivot fakie by Justin Brock is only a few miles away from where I grew up! It was also the first time I'd heard of Davis, and seeing his nollie heelflip crooks on a handrail blew my mind, as it did for many others. It's still really gnarly 13 years later.

Words by Darin Howard and photos by Morford.

December 4, 2024 - scans were updated