To The Life And Love Of Our Friend, Dylan Rieder

Portrait by Brian Kelley

May 26th, 1988 - October 12th, 2016

Years ago, I turned up to an empty warehouse in Honolulu for what I heard was a free show. The Growlers were playing a secret Volcom party there, and so few exciting things happen in honolulu, that there was a secret anything was enough to pull me from whatever teenaged angst I was surely steeped in.

In the crowd before the show, a friend nudged me. ‘Is that Dylan Rieder?’ With a point of his head in the opposite direction I turned to a tall, slim, striking man wearing a leather jacket in the Hawaiian heat and a massively brimmed hat in the dark of night. It was he. 

I remember thinking, ‘handsome fuck’ in a sarcastic, envious tone. ‘Should we ask to take a photo with him?’ my friend asked. ‘Nah, I’m good.’ At this time, I was still riding the high of his Gravis part released only a couple of years earlier and I felt a vague resentment at his being a real and tangible person rather than a deity. 

Like an asshole, I prepared the flash on my camera and without turning my head, snapped a photo of him. It was bright and obvious. I didn’t acknowledge it. A moment later, I felt a tap on my shoulder. Again, it was he. 

‘Did you just take a photo of me?’ Dylan asked. I could sense a tingle of annoyance in his voice. ‘Yes’ I said with the sort of weak stoicism of someone about to be told off by their hero. ‘Well, now I have to take a photo of you.’ he said. ‘What?’ I replied. ‘You took a photo of me, I take a photo of you.’ 

Suddenly a flash of white burst from him and blinded me. With a smile, he said ‘there, now we are even.’ We laughed together. That was the first time I met Dylan Rieder. He was sweet. That night and every night I’d see him through the years, a smile, a joke. He was sweet. His ashes were spread on a Hawaiian shore as the sun rose timidly, turning the sand hot and gold.

His impact on skateboarding is enormous, but his impact on our lives is even greater, and will endure forever. He made us kinder, our lives brighter, our fingernails blacker, and our hearts full. Our friend, our muse, our troublemaker, our team captain. 

All of our love.

-NK