Today is Go Skateboarding Day, and we would be remiss if we didn’t give some kind of acknowledgment. This is a photo series called Life of a Skateboard (滑板的生活), which offers a glimpse into a day as one of the city’s skaters.

I took this series of “portraits” of my own board in Shanghai. In Pudong on the east side of the Huangpu River, I was using this board to get where I needed to go every day. Eventually it grew from a simple mode of transportation into a lens through which to view and interact with the city. Pudong is more residential than the bustling west side of the river (Puxi), and skating through the area I got to know a recurring cast of characters. This photo series cuts me out of the equation, offering the viewer that same experience I had, alone in Pudong on this Chinese skateboard, +C vitamin soda in hand, getting to know some of those characters.

Originally shown in an exhibition on Century Avenue, these photos are now made available here to celebrate Go Skateboarding Day, and the country’s growing skate community.