Jay Boy: The Early Years of Jay Adams
Over a decade ago, Concrete Wave Editions had the privilege of publishing this unique book featuring the photos of Kent Sherwood. Kent was Jay Adams’ stepfather and a gifted amateur photographer. Kent was also the person who introduced Jay to the world of skateboarding and surfing. It was legendary photographer Glen E.
Friedman who initially came to me with the idea of publishing these extraordinary images. Thanks to the generous contribution of Michael Early of Pool King Skateboards, an initial print run of 3,000 copies was produced. While it might be difficult to secure one of those original copies, I am pleased to let you know that the book has received a second life through Universe Publishing.
The book features an introduction by Craig Stecyk and a foreword by Tony Alva. Tony writes, “These photographs are of Jay Adams before life became complicated. They are a time machine. A secret look back into the innocence of Jay that few people ever saw. Angelic on the outside and little devil on the inside” Glen’s essay remarks on how Jay was “the seed for so many – one of the originators and great revolutionaries – and he didn’t do any of it on purpose.” Jay wrote the captions to the photos while he was incarcerated.
Two years after the book’s release, Jay was released to a halfway house to finish the remainder of his sentence. Tragically, he passed away in August of 2014 at the age of 53. Along with photos of Jay, the book features a number of fellow Dogtowners, including Shogo Kubo, Wentzle Ruml IV, Baby Paul Cullen and Tony Alva.
A special thanks to Michael Brooke at Concrete Wave Magazine
Jay Adams talks about where he started street skating and some of the trouble he used to get into with the Z-Boys when he was a kid growing up in Venice and Santa Monica.