Behind Closed Paws: At Home with Professional Skateboarders and Their Pets in ‘Tres Leches’ by Heckride

Story by Farran Golding

Photography by Heckride

Valentine hears a knock and hops up from his sun-soaked spot of relaxation beneath the living room’s skylight and takes a curious wander towards the front door. The source of the knock, who he doesn’t recognise, is already a guest in his home by the time he’s made it over there. As quickly as Valentine’s ears perked up at the disturbance, his guard drops equally as fast. Valentine has complete trust in his housemate’s judgement and it’s a gift which enables a mellow life. The guest greets Valentines with a pat on the shoulder. As they take a seat beside each other the conversation quickly turns to cameras and Valentine begins to unwind. Half paying attention, he knows they’ll be at this long enough and he’s right. It’s the beginning of an hours-long conversation about photography which, alongside skateboards and cars, are amongst his housemates key interests. A little later, the guest pulls out a point and shoot camera and asks for a photo. Valentine obliges, his housemate pays the rent so who is he to complain? The German Shepherd, American Bully and Border Collie crossbreed (with a little bit of Staffy in there) perches on his back legs beside professional skateboarder, Ishod Wair. Valentine gazes towards the camera as if to say, “You’re good. Make it quick though.”

A polaroid photograph of professional skateboarder Ishod Wair and his dog Valentine — a German Shepherd, American Bully and Border Collie crossbreed — at home from the zine 'Tres Leches' by Heckride.

Valentine and Ishod Wair at home in Tres Leches. Heckride

The guest in Valentine’s home is Freddy, a South Central, Los Angeles resident who runs the skateboarding blog, Heckride. (Preferring to keep up a semblance of anonymity, he requested being referred to without his surname.) His new zine, Tres Leches is a 64 page publication filled with point and shoot and Polaroid photos of pro skaters, photographers and videographers alongside their beloved pets.

A photograph of a dog's face in its owners hands with the accompanying text 'Tres Leches: A Pet Zine' by Heckride.

The contents page of 'Tres Leches' by Heckride featuring a black and white polaroid photograph of a dog and the names of the skateboarders featured in the publicaiton.

The front cover and contents page of Tres Leches. Photography and design by Heckride

Freddy started Heckride after a few years of conducting Slap’s ‘Pals Questions’ interviews, where the forum posters would pitch in on a crowdsourced video interview organised and shot by Freddy. With the onset of the pandemic in 2020, he was keen to continue interviewing and found the necessary shift from in-person interactions to phone interviews liberating as he felt freer to explore conversations with skateboarders further afield than LA. That said, once life resumed more normally the act of meeting up with his interviewees within reasonable distance stayed with him. Briefing his subjects as they hung out over coffee or grabbed lunch, the familiarity creates a warm and friendly tone for Heckride interviews which span some of skateboarding’s most intriguing, not so vocal, or lesser documented characters including FA and Hockey videographer, Benny Maglinao; Max Palmer; Akwasi Owuso; and Joseph Campos amongst others.

Professional skateboarder Andrew Allen and his dog, Ronnie from the Heckride zine 'Tres Leches'.

Vans rider and Hockey pro, Andrew Allen and his dog, Ronnie in a spread from Tres Leches. Photography and design by Heckride

“Meeting [interviewees] in person, I think it’s better to break the ice. After doing that, it seems like people trust you more and kind of put their guard down. I’ve had people tell me that, like, ‘Whoa, your interview comes across like you guys are friends.’ I’ll have spent quite a bit of time talking to this person prior to the interview. I guess some people don’t do that, they just go straight to the interview, which to me is such a gamble. Like what if they don’t like your vibe or your questions, what if your idea of what is going to be a good story isn’t a good story?” says Freddy. “Meeting with them prior and going through stories, notes, kind of filtering all the good stuff is the best way to get the best interview. By the time we hit record, I know all the good stuff and that’s what I’m hoping to put out.”

A spread of photographs of photographer Matt Price and his dog Hashbrown at home.

Photographer Matt Price and his dog, Hashbrown in a spread from Tres Leches. Photography and design by Heckride

This field research for Heckride interviews enabled Freddy to start capturing endearing glimpses of the skaters he was speaking to alongside their resident critters. Photographer Matt Price and his dog, Hashbrown were his first subjects for the project which he envisaged he’d work on for two or three months. Two years later, the zine covers thirty skaters and their companions.

A cat and dog escaping from the arms of skateboarder Frankie Decker.

Skateboarder Salomon Cardenas smiling whilst holding a ginger cat on his lap.

Frankie Decker and his felines in an outtake from Tres Leches and Salomon Cardenas and his cat, Ginger. Heckride

“Cats are pretty hard to wrangle,” says Freddy on the practicalities of having people pose for the photographs. “I shot a couple of Frankie Decker with his cats and it wasn’t happening. They just jumped and I got a photo of him trying to hold them together.” However, unpredictability gave way to a better vision for the project. “The funny thing is originally I wanted everyone to look at the camera, the first handful I shot are like that. Then I started capturing better photos of people either not looking at the camera, the pet either doing something funny, or more of a wholesome shot. I think Salomon Cardenas was the first where that happened and I was a little more loose from there.”

With the release of Tres Leches — currently available for free at Marriage Skate Shop and Des Pair Books with any in-store purchase — Skate Bylines spoke to Freddy about his Heckride zine and the lesser known furry pals who eagerly greet skateboarding’s familiar faces when they return home for the day.

Joseph Campos and Fernen

Silver Lake, Los Angeles

Joe and Fernen are probably the best shot in the zine. Originally, he had a hairless cat but when I met up with him, he had this guy. Joe’s smoking a joint coupled with the cat’s expression feels like such a “Hockey” photo. The cat looks pissed and he’s looking right at you. Being a black cat, and Joe being someone kind of mysterious, I think that’s the best example of where the skater matches the pet.

All of the photos are shot with Olympus Stylus Epic point and shoots and SX-70 Polaroid cameras, except the covers I actually shot with my Nikon FM2. Using point and shoots was loose and I was amazed when I developed them. I got hooked on photography a couple years ago. I gave digital cameras a shot and it just didn’t do anything for me. Other people say the same but the thing about film is you don’t know what you’ve got until you get it developed. Jerry Hsu once said something along the lines of the photo is never exactly what it was in your head. It’s always either better or worse. That gamble was exciting for me. — Heckride

Stu Kirst, Olive, Maude and Frank

Echo Park, Los Angeles

I was hanging with Stu around the time we were doing his interview. He had three dogs at the time, now I think he has four, so he’s holding two dogs and his wife is holding the last dog which only has three legs. His name is Frank.

It was cool to get people like a Joe [Campos] or a Stu involved where maybe you see footage of them, and they seem really gnarly, but meeting them in person a lot of these guys live regular lives outside of skating. Maybe while they’re skating they’re — not intense — but are portrayed with a certain image. When you meet them outside of that, like in their home, they’re a little bit more comfortable and with their guard down are very normal.

Originally, I just wanted to give the zine away. I met up with Ronnie Campone who owns Marriage Skate Shop and is in the zine with his two dogs. I was like, “Can I just have some in the store and you give them away to anyone that buys something?” He was down when and then when I did the photo with Stu, I knew his wife has a bookstore [Des Pair] which is a really cool bookstore that everyone should check out. I asked her the same thing and she was super hyped on that. — Heckride

Davey Sayles and Wishbone

North Hollywood, California

I think pets give skaters something else to focus on. Davey said Wishbone gave him a responsibility, something to keep him level-headed. Some people are really about taking their pets out with them. When Wishbone was a baby, any session that Davey was on, you’d see he had him with him in the background of clips. — Heckride

Aaron Loreth, Yuzu and Wallis

Ventura, California

A split second after I took that photo both of those cats, like, mauled Aaron. He was trying to hold them together and it just wasn’t working. They scratched him so hard he was bleeding out of his forearm. He was over rounding them up, like, “I don’t think it’s gonna happen…” It still made for a great shot. — Heckride

Ishod Wair and Valentine

Studio City, California

You want to talk about camera nerds? I met up with Ishod at his house, we hung out for hours between his place and his studio, and we didn’t talk about skating once, just photography. His dog followed him everywhere, sitting there all chill.

Most of the dogs were pretty friendly. I’m sure they’re used to seeing people come in and out of their owner’s home but Valentine was really mellow, he just hung out. I started petting him and he sat by my feet. He’s a really well trained and sweet dog.

Ishod’s place has a lot of good natural light, it’s really colorful. The photo almost looks like they’re both kind of leaning in a particular way, looking at you all cool and kind of tough. — Heckride

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