RIP: Warren Bolster....SOB Fundraiser at Fight Club 9/9/06

[John Dillon]

I just heard that Warren Bolster, the man behind the lens in many skateboarder mag photos has passed away...may he rest in peace.

On another note note....this Saturday night, 9/9/06, come on out to Fight Club....in Blagden Alley and enjoy 5 bands incl, McRad, from Philly....and Lost tribe, from Va Beach.....plus skate contests in the bowl.....Caveman will be on the grill.....and kegs will be tapped....18 to party, 21 to imbibe w/ brewskis....come on out and support the Skatepark of Baltimore in Washington,DC!! Some heavy-hitters are rolling into town(so rumor says) I hear that Robert Palmer from New Mexico is coming, John O'Shei, from Callie, and I saw Jesse Davis, from North Carolina today........come get stoked on the action....or just listen to the incredible bands! You don't want to miss this one!

[David Riordon]

Too bad about Warren Bolster. He was a skate/surf photographer genius. By the way, he had roots to the Washington DC area. Yep, he was born in Arlington, VA in 1947. Here is the Surfer Mag link for Warren Bolster's passing away http://surfermag.com/features/onlineexc ... ster/#loop

[John Dillon]

Another awesome night of skateboarding in the Nation's Capital.....the guys did slalom around the bravest skate photog....our own local MoFo or Bolster....who tried to get pix from inside the bowl....AND Big T lives in Arlington too.

[Andy Bittner]

To a certain group of people in this world, I am a skateboard photographer. In fact, the nickname "GBJ" dates from my most active period as a skate photog, the middle and late 1980s, when my photos appeared in Lapper, TransWorld Skateboarding, Power Edge and Thrasher. In retrospect, there have been two men in my life who led me to this specialized pursuit. The first was my father, a former US Navy and White House press photographer, and the first skateboarder I ever knew. The story of how my father's friends brought skateboards into my family's life has been told here many times, so I won't tell it again now, but another all-abiding truth of my youth was the presence of cameras. In the home where I was raised, with an accomplished working photographer at its head, cameras were almost as much a part of life as food. If I recall correctly, 1975 was a banner year in my personal development. I received my first urethane wheels on Christmas, 1974, and in 1975 I discovered Skateboarder and became aware of the second man, whose influence and work would eventually fan my interest in pointing cameras at skateboarders, Warren Bolster. My first issue of Skateboarder was Vol. 2, #5. The cover of that very magazine, Waldo, f-side @ Mt. Baldy, is still hanging on my wall. As near as I can figure, the date of that particular issue was probably sometime early in 1975. Somewhere in the next couple of issues, the magazine's Editor (and clearly its top photographer), Warren Bolster, wrote an instructional article on taking skateboard pictures. I ate it up! Many of the suggestions were very particular to the specific styles of riding happening at the time, but his underlying implications, action angles and background awareness, still serve me to this day. With so many cameras available to me, and a skateboard so routinely under my feet, my father and WB had influenced me permanently. Warren also gave me one more lesson in life... things change, not always for the better, and there's often nothing we can do about it. Warren Bolster was Skateboarder. His life, his adventures, the people he knew and their nicknames, were all fodder for the legions of skateboarders reading his magazine and for myself. I seem to remember Warren's nickname was "The Beast". I have no background knowledge on why he was called that; I just know that, still, every time I even think of the name Warren Bolster, my mind and memory includes that particular moniker. Nonetheless, Skateboarder magazine changed forever, and in my opinion, not for the better, when Warren Bolster left. Since that time, Bolster's name would pop up from time to time, particularly as he continued to work as one of the most extraordinary surf photographers of all time. I only follow surfing very casually, but when Warren was mentioned, particularly by denizens of Hawaii's north shore, I would thrill to know he was still working and marvel that someone, who would swim around in the impact zone at Pipeline or Sunset to get a shot, could've found skateboard photography interesting for as long as he did. It's sad that he's gone and sadder still how he went, but, for me, Warren "The Beast" Bolster lives on forever in his influence on my life, and in the work he left behind. I'd like to think that, every time I point a camera at a skateboarder, which, unfortunately, is not all that often anymore, Warren's influence and impact is advanced.