Spotlight: Ray Echevers

Welcome to your Spotlight Ray, may I call you Ray?

That's my name, so I don't see why not.

You never know, tell us a little bit about your history, where you're from, etcetera

I been filming skateboarding from 1996-present, but I took a 4 year hiatus from 2000-2004. I'm originally from Panama City, Panama, and i've lived in a few states after Panama but I moved to the Boston area permenantly in 1994. And i've been here in the Boston area pretty much since then. I started skating in Georgia in 1989, then moved to the Miami area with my family a couple of years after that.

Beyond a few professional sports victories the last few years what do you like about Boston, would you ever leave?

I pretty much love everything about it. I like how you can literally skate around the city if want, it's small enough where you can do that, but it's also big enough that you can find a lot of stuff to skate and do if you please. Lots of stuff to skate right outside of Boston too, Somerville, Cambridge, ect.

I also like NYC and SF a lot, I always have fun visiting those cities. LA can be fun too, but it's a lot more spread out, you need a car to get around there. Boston, NYC, SF, you can get around via public transportation, subways, trolleys, and buses.

NYC is 4 hours away, so it's close enough to visit frequently, a few people I know would at times take the Fung Wa bus there every weekend. It's a $15 bus ride.

How do you survive the winter months?

It can be tough, there are indoor parks to skate right outside the city, so some people go that route. Myself, I don't think i've been to an indoor skatepark in like 4 years. I tend to just not skate as much, and just skate outdoors whenever it's not too bad outside. We definitely still street skate in teh winter, but just not nearly as often because of the windy, cold weather and the snowfall. I usually end up going away to visit other warmer cities for at least a few days. At least once a winter.

What projects are you currently working on?

We just finished up Know The Ledge Vol. 2 a couple of months ago, so I haven't really started to work on anything specifically since then. We are definetly doing a KTL Vol. 3, sometime next year most likely. There are a few other things we have talked about, maybe some smaller projects or such, stuff for Ready Amongst Willing. But in general, I just been working with Steve and Kevin on everything under Ready Amongst Willing. RAW, RAW Private Stock, and The Positive Kit.

What exactly is RAW, Private stock and Positive Kit about?

To put it simply, RAW is our apparel brand, RAW Private Stock is our boards, and The Positive Kit is our hardware brand.

Do you have any full length videos in the works? Or maybe even KTL 3 in 2009?

KTL Vol. 3 is the next major video project, hopefully for 2009. That will most likely be the ender to the series. We will do other video projects besides and after that too. Possibly, and most likely some HD projects. KTL Vol. 3 will still be SD though.

Is it only in SD because Jason Jenkins is robbing all the fisheye angles on his vx1?

Ha, but no not really. I forgot to mention before, Jenkins filmed probably 1/2 of KTL Vol. 2, he's a major contributor to our video projects. And he loves that VX1000, well I do too! It's a classic camera, there aren't many video cameras that are so sought out and in such demand, years and years after they have stopped production on. I myself along with probably hundreds, bought a newer Sony camera, VX2000 or VX2100 and traded them in for the older Sony VX1000's. The white balance chip, the image and look of the VX1000 is just gold. And the wider available fisheye too.

Of course, in the last few years, on sp basically, people figured out how to mod a vx1000 mki lens on the newer sony cameras. It improved them for skateboarding, but the newer cameras couldn't replicate the look of the VX1000.

The VX2000/VX2100 mki mod setup is a nice setup though. I really like the DVX100b setup also. R.B.'s been rocking that DVX setup for a while.

Most definitely, well since you're one of the few that own both the HVX200 as well as the VX1000 how would you say you divide the time up between the two?

When we were filming KTL Vol. 2, if Jenkins was around, which he usually was, I'd film a 2nd angle of the trick with the HVX200. If he wasn't around, then i'd usually use the VX1000, unless I had a certain shot I had in mind where I would want to shoot in 24p, either SD or HD. So the VX1000 was/is still the primary setup I use. All the fisheye shots I used the VX1000.

Well then, I guess it might be a decent time to wrap this up. Any last words before we close this out?

Last words? Filming wise, don't be afraid to "break" these so called filming rules. Cutting heads, filming on the "wrong" side of the skater, ect. There are no rules! Hell everyone did all that stuff back in the day, even the great ones like Daniel Harold Sturt, Dan Wolfe (who brought skateboarding filming back to life, single handled), Mike Ternansky, ect.

Thanks to all my old cameras, Canon A-1 Digital & Sony VX-3 (both hi-8), thanks to all my friends, family, compadres and anyone's who's ever helped me out in anyway, thanks KG and co., you guys did it, BIG! Banner 17!

Have fun skating & filming, don't be afraid of change, experiment, skate fast, and........ never forget the past! (that sounded corny)

(end interview)

Be sure to check out Ray's Blog @ www.re1000.com for all sorts of random information on various items like the Boston Celtics and Metal Gear Solid.

Also keep your eyes peeled to the Ready Amongst Willing website for product and team updates