Professional Sidekick

 My name is Steve Emig, and in 1991 I got tagged with the nickname, The White Bear, by my then roommate BMXer/entrepreneur, Chris Moeller.  That's become my penname over the years.  I've spent much of my life as kind of a professional sidekick.  The photo above is a still from the 1989 Vision Skateboards video, Barge At Will.  I'm still not sure who Will was, but we were supposed ot barge at him.

 The skater on the left, above, is Ken Park, airing over the spine and channel on Tony Hawk's Fallbrook mini ramp.  I'm the guy sitting on the rail to the right.  I was hoping to actually meet Tony that day, working as an assistant for Don Hoffman.  But Tony was off doing a demo.  I did have lunch with Don and Frank Hawk, Tony's dad, which was pretty epic day in the skateboarding world then.

 Here's skater Joe Johnson, same video, same spine.  This is from the Super 8 footage I shot that day, while Don Hoffman was shooting amazing 35mm footage that the skaters didn't like because it didn't show their whole body.  Can't please skaters.

 Same video, with Kele Rosecrans snapping an ollie over a little banked hip at a school.  That's me in the background, with the 35 pound, $50,000 betacam over my head.  Video cameras were beasts back then.

Ken Park again, boardslide over the same spine.  That's me standing against the pole on the far left, shooting Super 8 footage, I think.  I've done a lot of things in my 50 years on this planet.  It's time to stop being a sidekick and do my own thing.  Welcome to my blog of my stuff.