John Cardiel is the best! He has the one of the best styles, has the best hands, and he's one of the most genuine people in the world. I had the pleasure of meeting Cardiel in 1996 on my second trip to SF. I showed up with my friends from Philly, A.J. Mazzu and Kaii Laws. We seriously had no plan and no place to stay. We ended up meeting this skater by the name of Gus Coronel who just took us in. Back in those days when not everybody and their mom and had a skateboard, people would just take in random skaters visiting from out of town. I'm not sure of how we met Gus, I think through Chris Senn who was friends and rode for the same company as Matt Reason. I just know that we didn't know Gus. Gus lived in the mission and this was before the mission was gentrified so it was pretty much hood. One of Gus's best friends was John Cardiel. John would come over every night and smoke weed with Gus and A.J. I had no idea that pro skaters where so mellow and down to earth. Well they are really aren't, Cardiel just was. I just remember the few times we skated with him, he skated really fast. Years later I would reunite with Gus when I worked at Listen because we did a demo at the shop he now owns in Grass Valley, CA called Goodtimes. I would also reunite with Cardiel when I was working for 411 and I was fortunate enough to go on a Satori trip to Jamaica with him. Cardiel has a true love for skateboarding and reggae music. I'm really honored to have ever met John and every time we see each other, we always talk about our trip to Jamaica. Thanks for being one of my favorite people I have ever met.