Thrasher Magazine

“Sometimes skateboarding involves not skating.” Often attributed to “Sloppy Sam” Batterson, it’s a deceptively simple quote which is actually profound. It captures what skaters have always known: that the in-between moments when you’re not on board are crucial to the whole experience. Meeting up with friends, spot hunts, hanging out, knowing when to wind-down a session, getting a bite to eat, and countless other snapshots of time—these are the threads that stitch together skating's attempts, makes, and slams.
  

Kyle Hofsass published a photo-book called “Maplewood” which involves his town's skate scene in Rochester, NY. He seems to understand the importance of “sometimes not skating" in that he pays special attention to those in-between moments. With careful editing, it’s easy to showcase only the tricks and good times. But those ordinary days that blend together (and even the bummer doldrums) are part of the equation, too. They serve as a necessary contrast to the good times and Kyle knows they have value and are worth documenting. –Adam Creagan

Over how long a time period were these photos taken?
I put together this project with a year’s worth of photos.

You seem to be more interested in capturing the vibe of your town’s skate scene without emphasizing actual skate images. Was that your intent or did it just unfold that way?
Yeah, that was really what I set out to do from the start. I take plenty of skate photos so I could’ve just made a zine full of that, but I wanted to photograph skateboarding in a way I hadn’t tried to photograph skateboarding before.

Was there a specific goal that made you want to publish?
My interest in photography and skateboarding started from looking through magazines and photo books when I was younger, so I’ve always wanted to put my photos in print someday. With this project it just clicked that this was the perfect thing to do that with and I could even publish it myself. I just prefer to have a physical copy of things like this rather than an online gallery. It’s more satisfying to look at photos that way.








Do you constantly document everything around you or are you more selective?
I like to have a camera wherever I go but I have a habit of carrying it around for hours and not taking any photos, so I guess it’s a little of both. I’m always looking for photos but I don’t really pick up the camera until something strikes me and I feel like there has to be a photo of it.

Have your friends gotten used to you taking pictures of them all the time or do they get annoyed?
I’ve definitely asked myself that question a lot and I really had to pay attention to it when I was working on this. Generally, they didn’t seem to care too much, but there were a few times they asked me to not photograph certain things, and I took breaks from it every once and awhile, too. They’re my friends so they’re not shy about telling me when I’m goin’ overboard.

Describe Krudco.
Krudco is the local skateshop in Rochester. We don’t have any other ones ‘cause it’s a pretty small city, but the shop has existed in some form or another for 20 years and it’s where I bought my first deck when I started skating. All the guys in the zine I met through being at Krudco, so it was a good place to start things. I thought it was kind of important to add into the project because I’m not sure the project would even exist without it.









How do you cope with the winters in New York?
It kind of sucks for skateboarding here ‘cause half of our year is spent buried in ice and snow or it’s bitter cold at least. We only have one indoor park, too, and it’s more of a bmx park, not to mention nobody has $15 to spend every time they want to skate there in the winter. So it really ends up being a mash up between skating when there’s a random break of warm weather, sucking it up and paying the money to skate inside or skating various indoor mini ramps we can get access to. Otherwise we’re just holed up inside watchin’ skate videos and drinkin’ beers. You just have to wait it out.

Which skaters are you digging these days, pro or otherwise?
I’ve been psyched on some of my friends recently. Specifically my friend Japhey Dow. He already had two solid video parts come out this year. One in John Marello’s The Keepers and another in Tim O’Rourke’s S.O.S. On top of that, I’ve gotten out skating with him a bunch while he’s been filming for our friend Taryn Ward’s video Happenstance. He’s been driving all over upstate New York getting’ clips. And speaking of The Keepers, Rob Wootton’s part was sick as hell, too. Another guy I didn’t know too much about 'til he was up in Rochester with Quartersnacks and Nike in August is Max Palmer. Other than that I’ve been hyped on guys like Rowan Zorilla, Brandon Westgate, and Gilbert Crockett.

The writing in Maplewood is a bit philosophical about skating. Want to share any more knowledge about skating or life?
Yeah, I guess it kind of was. It made sense to me to ask myself questions about what skateboarding is since I was already trying to photograph what skate culture in my town is. I guess if I were to say anything about skating and life I’d just say to remember that you’re still just a dude pushing around on a stupid flat piece of wood floating through space on a giant rock, so go ahead and get out there and try hard and stack clips or whatever the hell gets you hyped but try not to take yourself too seriously ‘cause you’ll probably live and skate a lot better when you don’t get weighed down by it.

Any last words or do you want to give any shout-outs?
Shout out to my parents for supporting me and my stupid art stuff, all the guys I regularly skate with for putting up with my camera, Duket$, Happenstance, and anyone else who has ever helped me out or let me take photos. If anyone gives a shit there’s a Maplewood Vol. 2 in the works, release date: eventually. And thanks Thrasher.

Check out more of Kyle’s work here.