flea

I first knew of Tony Roberts though his ground breaking surf/skate videos like “Mental Surfing”, “Progression Sessions”, Speed Wheels Santa Cruz “Risk It!” and many more in the early 90s. His films were the best, maybe because there was a lot of cross over between surfing and skating or because he started focusing on the radical aerial surfing of the Santa Cruz locals and was the one who got photos of guys like Ratboy, Flea, and Barney in the surfing magazines which led to their almost instant success and world wide fame and notoriety. I would see TR on the other side of the lens, skating at Derby or hanging out at the spots that we love the most. If anyone was my “hero” growing up in Santa Cruz as a surfer-skater videographer and photographer it was Tony Roberts.