Heikkila - Top 10 Photos from 2022

Photographer Mike Heikkila gives us his Top 10 photos from the year and some background on the captures.

1. Josh Wilson, frontside flip, Birmingham, AL.
Josh got this only seconds before a freak storm cruised in and flooded everything in the city for a day. You could see it pouring only a few blocks away and getting closer each try.

2. Kevin Bilyeu, 5050, Philadelphia, PA.
This was a cool one to figure out because I needed the 3M to pop off the Nocturnal Skateshop Kalynx colorway. No flash is actually used here, just a camera light on the ground and one in my hand above the lens to make the 3m glow!

3. Masaki and Shintaro Hongo, Ollies, San Francisco, CA.
I had the best time exploring SF in April with the Hongo bros. They perfectly synchronized these Ollies over the walls of a driveway into a back to back hill bomb while filming for their Metric colorway project.

4. Bronze56k feat John Shanahan, Collab #2 advertisement, Brooklyn, NY.
From a brain dead idea on the couch to the pages of Thrasher, building this hilariously detail rich office environment for the return of the Clocker silhouette for Bronze was super fun. This was all real and shot in one single photo, including the shoe in the water cooler.

5. Wes Kremer, Hardflip into bank, San Jose, Costa Rica.
If you saw the board that Wes did this on you just wouldn’t believe it, nose and tail completely destroyed, grip barely doing its job, the man works miracles on a skateboard. He is not human.

6. Jahmir Brown, SW back tail billboard with Blabac. Philadelphia, PA.
So unreal to see a photo you shot physically that big out in the wild much less in a city that we skate. Getting to have my skate photo next to a portrait of Jah shot by Blabac was an honor.

7. Evan Smith feat Wes, wallride Plus Skateshop. Orlando, FL.
After roadtripping to key west and back with the no hotels crew Evan turned the back of the skate shop into a spot for his velcro patch Manual Hi colorway.

8. Shintaro Hongo, 5050 jam, San Francisco, CA.
Shin and a small window of shade made this my favorite photo from this trip. Sometimes less is more.

9. Ben Bilodeau, 5050 to FS board, Pittsburgh, PA.
I actually got to go on a DC snowboarding trip in January, that’s an entirely different world for me but id love to get out there again!

10. John Shanahan, BS powerslide, San Jose, Costa Rica.
Always known for his high flying or tech ledge wizardry it was nice to see him just do a little power slide into this hill bomb in front of a beautiful Costa Rican landscape, pure vida!