Jay Adams: Illustrated Story

For my final project at The University of the West of England I illustrated the life story of the skateboarding prodigy Jay Adams.

Jay Adams grew up in Venice Beach nicknamed 'Dog Town' by the locals.

Jay and the other kids who grew up in Dog town made homemade boards from wooden furniture and clay wheels from roller skates.

Jeff Ho was a local surfboard shaper and artist. He started making skateboards in his workshop so kids could skate the concrete when there was no surf.

Skip Englom partnered with Jeff Ho selling boards at the Zephyr shop.

Skip and Jeff put together a skate team to represent the shop, and gave free boards to Jay and the other members of the Z-Boys to ride in competitions.

Jay and the rest of the Z-Boys would sneak into mansions in the Hollywood hills and skate empty pools to practise for competitions.

Jay got into the punk scene and would go and watch bands at the Brave Dog club.

After a show Jay got into a fight and someone ended up dead. Jay was incarcerated.

Jay couldn't stay out of a life of crime.