Joe Valdez – Trevor Prescott Seasons 3 (2005)

Joe Albert Valante Valdez Junior.

If you have heard of the legend Joe Valdez then it is almost because of two things: The Dime Glory Challenge or his ollie across the outside corner of the wall at China Banks with the 4 storey drop.* That last highlight came first and basically cemented Joe Valdez as a true daredevil of skateboarding.

When Trevor Prescott started to release Seasons, his seasonal video magazine focusing on the San Francisco and Bay Area scene, it was only a matter of time before Joe Valdez got featured. During the time and probably still today, Joe had a mystical aura about him. You didn’t see much footage of him but whatever was filmed was usually something extremely unique and dangerous.

As a nerd, I attribute this elusiveness to Joe’s attire which matches another nomadic individual, Gershon Mosely, with the all year black beanie pulled to just over the eyebrows, black swishy windbreaker and black baggy jeans. A true modern day ninja outfit.

It is safe to say, Joe Valdez likes his run-ups skinny and with big drops on either side. There have been others such as Ryan Johnson, Lennie Kirk or even Mark Gonzales who have rushed along narrow precipices, however they only ever did it once of twice. They never produced an entire video part of such hair-raising stunts.

Joe seems unfazed by fear and takes it all in his stride. As he says at the start of this video part “Stay alive and just be happy.”

*My memory might fail me but I believe this trick was first featured in the Something Else column of Thrasher Magazine or one of the Thrasher videos?