Ode To Ojo—Dillon Ojo Photo Feature From Issue 33.1

Being the Jackie Robinson of this shit, I feel it’s my duty to check out all who follow in what I pioneered. When I ﬁnd one that’s “like me,” I feel a special kind of joy. Not a selﬁsh type of joy, but an all-encompassing “welcome to the club” joy. All of my #Blacksnowboarders are special to me. All for different reasons. I remember the ﬁrst time I saw a clip of Dillon. Not only was he a tech wizard, but he oozed style. That’s the kind of thing you can’t teach. I immediately slid into his DM’s and got to know him about as well as you can through a screen. It wasn’t until a year later that we met in the Mt. Hood parking lot, post-shred. After the traditional dap and hug, we expressed our mutual admiration for each other. We chatted about the normalcies typical to a parking lot conversation, the past season, etc. Nonetheless, I walked away from that conversation thinking, That boy is special. You know what? I was right. The next year, at Superpark 17, I saw that there were ﬁve or so Black snowboarders and I decided to make an edit. When all was said and done, Dillon’s clips opened the whole thing up. At this time, he still felt small to the industry, but to me, he was larger than life. He was a shining example of not only what a Black snowboarder could and should be, but what a snowboarder could and should be, period. I began to speak with him about his sponsors. I have all respect in the world for StepChild, but to me they didn’t have the bandwidth to supply this kid with what he needed. Like a proud dad with dreams of his kid attending his alma matter, I started campaigning for him at Ride Snowboards. That was all I needed to do. He ran with the ball with a smile on his face and a ﬁre burning in his heart the second the connection was made. Gone way too soon! REST IN POWER, DILLON. – Russell Winﬁeld

This collection of images aims to highlight lesser-known or never-before-printed de-pictions of the style that will live on forever through Dillon Ojo’s impact on and off his board.