I'm running for the International Downhill Federation board

I’m running for the International Downhill Federation’s board of directors as the public relations lead.

For those who aren’t super familiar with my career, I have 11 years of professional experience in downhill skateboarding as a photographer, videographer, writer, marketing person, and sponsored rider. 

On the publishing side, I co-founded Skate House Media and was a staff writer and photographer at SkateSlate Longboarding magazine. On the brand side, I have shot photos and video for dozens of brands as a freelancer and worked for Madrid, Venom, and Comet as a staff photographer and marketing manager.

I’m running as part of the Global Gravity Association slate. You can read about our larger vision for the future of the IDF–which we want to rename the Global Gravity Association to prevent confusion with the Israeli Defense Force–on the GGA website.

My personal vision for the public relations role is rooted in an understanding that downhill skateboarding, luge, and other gravity sports are niche interests, not global spectator sports. As such, the main purpose of the IDF/GGA public relations is to communicate with its membership. I have some specific plans to improve that communication.

Throughout the course of the year, IDF/GGA members should know what the organization’s leaders are doing and why; so I will publish regular updates on the board’s work and establish a formal communication channel so members can get timely responses to any questions they have for the board.

On event weekends, riders and fans should know what’s going on at the hill. To that end, I will develop a standardized procedure for event communications so nobody has to wonder when practice starts, what time racing is happening, or where they need to go to check the live brackets or find the video feed.

While I do not expect to be on the ground making media at many events, I am eager to share the lessons I’ve learned from 10 years of photographing downhill racing with the world. I will work with Tyler Topping, our media coordinator, to create a guidebook for event media coverage. If there is interest, I will also do a recorded web version of the “how to take good skate photos” talks I gave at events in 2019.

To aid event announcers and outside media, I am going to work with Brian Cortright, our web developer, to start collecting biographical information on event registration forms and the IDF/GGA website.

Broadly, my goal here is to set up durable systems and develop institutional capacity to help the IDF/GGA serve its membership long into the future. I am hoping to serve for a single term to get things set up and running, then hand the role over to someone else (ideally a woman, an lgbt person, and/or a person of color).

Voting starts on January 21st and runs for 48 hours on the IDF website.