Thrasher Magazine

Despite describing himself as the “C-List” staff photographer at the mag, O’Dell’s been in the field with the game’s most enigmatic figures. Who talked shit on Jerry Hsu? Who slept while Heath rowed the Sea of Cortez? Read on for the official accounts from the Epicly Later'd host. As seen in our January, ‘25 mag.
Have you ever noticed when someone sends around a GoFundMe for a skater whose house burned down, or whose mom has cancer, Atiba is always one of the top donations? There’s a lot to admire about Atiba professionally, but this is the thing I admire the most.
Before I took this photo of Kevin, I had spent the last few months trying to quit smoking. It was hell. I had the flu, quit drinking and spent weeks walking around in a bad mood. I think I was even complaining to Kevin about it constantly. Smoking is terrible for you, but the main reason I quit was I was tired of bumming smokes out; they’re too expensive. Anyway, Kevin decided to START smoking right around this same time, and he was definitely old enough to know better. I really wanted to keep him from going through what I went through so I took this photo and was like, This is what you look like when you smoke. I am sure he smoked for another ten–15 years after this picture, but now he’s definitely off it. 

Is Tony banned from Thrasher? Can I even mention him? There was an article once called “The 15 Most Hated Skaters in History” and he was one of them. Tony told me Jake didn’t like the cut of his jib. I think he had dreads in the ‘80s or something, who knows? But Tony was a pool god in an era when not very many people skated them. The first
time I met him it was at a barbecue at his house. I went with either Sam or P-Stone. Usually, the tunes are Sabbath or Misfits at these types of things, but I noticed a Guided By Voices record, then a bunch of Morrissey stuff. We just hit it off on music, and I don’t think I’ve ever talked to Tony about anything else to this day, certainly not much about skating. I hope this is a Thrasher unbanning.
Filming Heath’s episode of Epicly Later’d was kind of life changing. Ever since visiting him and Boosh in the Sea of Cortez, I just felt like I needed to get on some adventures myself. Life, of course, always gets in the way, but Heath and I did manage to spend a month boating down the Mississippi River and doing a couple of backpacking trips. It’s amazing seeing people who get the most out of life and aren’t consumed with the everyday bullshit.

Boosh was a mess on that boat trip with Heath, sleeping all day, drunk while Heath rowed and did the work. They went on rafting down the Colorado River—which I would’ve given anything to do if I’d had the time—and he did the same thing: drank and slept, didn’t help set up camp or clean or anything. He was a mess, but not long after he quit drinking entirely and is a changed man. It’s pretty incredible what being sober for two years will do. I bet he’d row at least 35 percent of the time now.

Chaz lived near the Dodge Skatepark in Columbus, Ohio, in the projects and he must be the single-most talented skater I’ve ever known. His main moves were flyouts and bowl transfers, usually early grab. He could do 720s, maybe even a 900 flyout. It was just unreal. Phelps said, “What happened to Chaz McGee? Did he drop the ring?” Yeah, unfortunately.
Ben is for sure my favorite current pro skater. We are actually doing an episode of Epicly Later’d on him and it was a real gamble when we asked because I hadn’t so much as heard the sound of his voice before. Ben can look at you like he thinks you’re the lamest person he’s ever met, but it only took a few days for us to get past it.

I referred to Andrew as Buzzkill Chick Salt Cop Magnet (quoting J Strickland) in a Baker tour article for Thrasher and I thought he was gonna kill me. Instead, he told me he loved the story, which lined me up for a job as a semi-official Baker photographer for the next few years—my all-time favorite era in skateboarding.

Sam lived in the laundry room at our late 1990s skate house in San Francisco, which was called the Howard House. He rode a Danger deck by Schmitt Stix and skated pools and bowls with a style people called “sloppy” but really he just hung onto tricks when most would have kicked it away, which made for a lot of excitement. One time he got knocked out skating at Skatopia and, as a concussion protocol, I asked him who the president was. He distantly said, “Uhhh, Jimmy Carter…” Sam said his favorite section of Thrasher was Photograffiti, ‘cause that’s where the “real skaters were out doing some real skateboarding.” So I made it a goal to get him in there—wrote a fake letter and everything, and mailed it in. Thrasher printed it.

Brian and I were friends in the Howard House days. Brian is a skater who I think should have been pro for Habitat or some shit. Once I filmed him do a nose manual nollie 360 flip out which was one of the A-Team skate challenges for a contest they were doing, but we never bothered to send it in. Brian can play any heavy metal song on guitar and we used to drink forties all night when I should have been focusing on my school work.

Ocean moved into our skate house, which at the time was pretty low in the San Francisco skate house hierarchy. We were mostly photographers and filmers, as well as unsponsored rippers, like the aforementioned. Well, Ocean moved in and he was the absolute shit in street skating in the very early '90s. His H-Street part with the Doors song was legendary, but then he disappeared. It was like having Tom Penny move in, or Jake Johnson if you are younger, or Kevin Rodrigues if you are even younger—like a total enigma. Ocean is smart, college-educated but kind of a pile like us, so it was perfect. One time he was hungover and said, “I think I got sponsored last night at the Kilowatt.” Some bolt brand put him on and pretty soon he filmed that Ipath part. It was a pretty sick mini-comeback.

Believe it or not, Jerry got hated on when he started out. Could it have been some SF-vs-San-Jose beef? Or his sponsors? I don’t know. I talked to pros who were like, He’s good, I guess. Luckily, that meant I could shoot photos with him, since I was always the C-list skate photographer. The worst I remember was some kid coming up to him and saying, “When you first came out, me and my friends all hated your style but it’s getting better.” I can say all this now because he’s proven himself as one of the greatest of all time.
My friend John Sims from Columbus, Ohio has been in the scene a long time. He’s got an Ohio skate-history Instagram page called @dudleyclips and I’m pretty sure he’s never had a photo in a Thrasher, so he’s a guy I really want to shout out here. This photo is a half-Cab ollie in the '90s at a parking garage we used to skate in downtown Columbus.
I don’t know this guy in real life, but he always writes encouraging comments under my photos or sends really nice DMs. He dresses like Tom Penny and he rips. I just wanted to show my appreciation back. I have this rare opportunity to put whoever I want in Thrasher and I know he’ll be stoked. There’s so many people trolling from the sidelines, or trying to tear you down. I gotta shout out somebody who’s always writing nice stuff. Thanks, Doozer!

Donny worked every day at Dodge Skatepark in Ohio. He made a zine called Smelly Curb Zine, which I copied by making my own just like it. It was called Rye Zine, a name I’m embarrassed to reveal. Donny used to get free boards sometimes from small brands like Small Room or Arsenal skateboards and I thought that was incredible. He told me once, “Someday you’ll get some free boards too; it’ll happen.” Not possible, I thought, and every time I get a box or a board, I think about that. Through all the ups and downs in a career in this industry, getting a free deck is pretty heavy.
Tino was my best friend when he checked IDs at Max Fish. This was once I moved to New York City. We lived in an apartment with no electricity. I ran an extension cord into the hallway to charge my flip phone. I talked about him so much on one trip that Erik Ellington was sure I was making him up, my imaginary friend in NY. You should see us in NY! Tino is the most popular person I’ve ever met in my life and he likes almost everybody. In the rare instances I’ve heard him say anything bad about anyone I knew that they truly must have fucked up.
I saw Erik skating recently and noticed his shirt was worth thousands of dollars. It was like Prada or Gucci or something—way too expensive to be skating in. Erik can make anything look cool. He used to go into a mall and come out with the freshest outfit. Here is Erik on a tour we went on through Europe and he wore the eye mask he got free on the plane for like a week straight.

I skated with Chad Knight a lot in Columbus, Ohio. Even though he wasn’t pro when we were in high school, it seemed obvious he would become one. So, in some way, he was the first pro I shot pictures of actually street skating (I shot a lot of pictures of pros at Dodge and Woodward, but that might not count). Anyway, we got to tour together a few times with Osiris. This pic was taken the day after he passed out in the street and got beat up and robbed in Puerto Rico. Chad is sober and doing great now, and he’s still the most shredded skater I’ve ever met.

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