Everyone at McGill's had no idea what was up with Gator on what turned out to be his last day of skateboarding. We just knew something was up. As he left, he was hugging everyone, including the rollerbladers, who, especially at that point, at McGill's, were persona non-grata.
I'd been skating and had no idea he was going to show up, but a few days before we'd talked about shooting photos for an ad for the new company he was riding for, Fishlips. We hadn't set a day or time to do it, so when he showed up I was stoked to be able to shoot - it was easy and I was psyched to be able to make the extra cash.
Gator wanted to shoot some stalefish shots, he was making the connection between fishlips and the stalefish that now seems too obvious, but at the time it made sense, I guess. We shot one roll - he did some off the extension, I shot some low, and shot these up high. Gator was ripping, but he was especially mellow, and he seemed really focused on getting the shots and not really his normal obliteration of the ramps. He dropped in off the extension, did one set up air, and did the stalefish, and back to the deck. Once we got what we needed, he wanted a couple portraits, so we shot the fishlips shot here and a couple others.
There were a handful of locals at the park that day. I think Datis was there, Derek Williams, Koby Newell, Josh Nelson, maybe the Godoys and a handful of others. As Gator was getting ready to leave, he was really friendly with everyone, hugging everyone, making a point of saying goodbye. It seemed weird, but not one of us could've ever guessed why it was weird.
