These words and photos originally appeared in issue #18, 2008.

There’s a saying I recently came across: Deye mon gen mon.

It’s an old Haitian proverb that when translates reads “Behind mountains there are mountains.” If there were ever words to describe my work, and the last three years of my life, then these are them.

Making a skate video is a brutal non-stop succession of fence climbs, U-turns, plane flights, DV tapes, doctor visits, mini-marts, motels, euros, dollars, pesos, security guards, trespassing tickets, shattered boards, broken spirits, and endless days on the road. The process of getting just one trick on camera can often take days—if not weeks—and in the end, thousands of these clips are shaved down into just an hour (or less) of a final film. It’s a psychotic endeavor, and one in which both the audience and those involved have only the highest of expectations.

The following pages offer a glimpse into my latest project, Alien Workshop’s Mind Field. Now in the final months of shooting, it’s already become a haze when looking back—most of the in-between moments bleeding together into one gigantic blur. So with this in mind I keep a camera on me at all times, as these hazy moments are often the richest, and always the first to slip away. 

Des Moines, Iowa. 05/18/08

-Greg Hunt