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RIP Joe Salas 4TheRiders

My heart stopped for a moment when I heard this news last night. Nooooooo.

It has been a long long time since I've had the pleasure of riding, photoing and just BS'ing with Joe.
An epic person with such talent, both on two wheels, behind the lens, or just sitting across the table.
I'll miss ya bro. Wiping the tears now, dammit.

Peace and many happy memories to Bri and the daughters.

Saddened... John
.
 
I'll keep this as short as possible

Joe was a photog and moto enthusiast that hung out mostly on SBR, he really wanted to start shooting trackside. So I offered him a job in 2004 or 2005 to shoot AFM RD1. He did something nobody else was able to do at the time and that was to tell a story via the images he took. Back then he didn't really understand shutter speed and Motos so a lot of his photos looked frozen but they still had a certain pop.

Fast forward a few months, we are building a trackside photography company, he's sleeping on my couch in San Jose, bumming Starbucks Wifi, up for days on end traveling from San Jose to Buttonwillow to Reno Fernley to Thunderhill then back to San Jose, shorting photos, manually processing credit cards and building a website. For those that do not know, not only was Joe a great writer but he was great with coding and could build anything on the web but he HATED IT and it was a bit comical to see him start to pout cuz he didn't want have to build a website.

One night on the way back from Reno Fernley, we were discussing a business name, Seppes.com (His) and Sidewazzz.com (Mine) needed to be one and so the names started flying. 4Theriders.com wasn't the first choice as it limited us on clients (moto only) but we rolled with it anyways and it was born on HWY 80 at 11 or 12pm.

From there he was the bad boy of the trackside photo world, he would push boundaries and make new ones. He really rolled with the "4" in the name and constantly threw 4 fingers up in the same manner you would see someone do a westside "W" only his version was a 4 digits lol. He was really the first to publish crash photos consistently online (this was Taboo) and got a lot of heat for it but he was always there defending it with ANYONE. The funny aspect in this was the guy could really piss people off but he somehow managed to make friends with them eventually. He took a lot of photos (Candid Paddock) that photogs like myself considered a waste of time but clearly they were popular amongst the people as he was able to capture moments nobody was paying attention to.

Funny/ Not So funny story's
*Kitty getting Stolen
*Kitty catching fire T12 at Thunderhill
*Plucking Ticks off him
*Start/ Finish lady at Fernley that almost turned me into Bacon bits
*Getting banned from a Trackday provider
*Getting Banned from Buttonwillow

While I had a lot of great times with him, unfortunately I think Joe's selfishness ruined the friendship. He knows I would have enjoyed to have a beer with him and say "I told you so" and just laugh it off. The guy lived life the way he wanted to. Rip Joe, Seppes, Com3
 
Joe would post pics of riding in the most unlikely places. I started 2wheel backroad exploring partially due to his photos. Thanks Joe, you were an inspiration.
 
Joe and I have been friends for 21+ years. This news is terrible he was way too young and sadly he will not see his kids grow.
I will always try to just see his smiley.
Condolences to Joe's family. Godspeed Joe
 
@J-Boat great pull on the vid.

What was that guys name…. TJ??
 
Really sad to hear about Joe's passing.

A story for the crew: I'd known Joe for quite a while, he'd taken pictures while I was racing, I'd struck up a casual friendship, and at some point my friend @U26A1 who was an early adopter of Brammo thought it'd be fun to do a fake Brammo ad. The Brammo was his third bike, and we conned Joe into coming out to just have some fun shooting video and see what sorta hijinks we could get up to to make a video that didn't take itself too seriously.

After some playing around at the house, they took off to do some shooting around SF. There's a famous tabletop in SF, and Joe was like "well, it'd be sick to jump this, so let's have a go at that", and U26A1 asks him "how fast should I hit it", and he says "I dunno, about 30-35, and stay on the gas when you hit the lip", and so he sends it, lands the bike, locks the rear and slides to a stop down the far side of the jump, and Joe is like "that looked great, why the dramatic landing", and U26A1 goes "well, I've never jumped a bike before". He had assumed because we were all friends that of course U26A1 was just as broken about motorcycles as the rest of us. :laughing

I'd always hoped that I could con him into cutting that footage into a video, especially after Brammo got acquired and killed by Polaris. It just wasn't to be. That photo still hangs on the wall of U26A1's place - one of I think 2 photos that came out of that whole experience.

RIP buddy. Wish things had been different.
 
Z3n said:
"I dunno, about 30-35, and stay on the gas when you hit the lip"
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Haha yes, I think I had been riding for all of 18 months or so at that point.

A slight correction: Brammo did actually hire Joe to do real promo content for them: marketing stuff, profiles and footage of owners riding the bikes and such. We just . . . decided to make it more fun. Which was kinda Joe's whole M.O., in retrospect. That picture is indeed still hanging on my wall, and sadly made all the more meaningful now.

Also, I dug through old files and found (from the same day) a photo of Joe taking a photo of me doing a burnout behind old Scuderia -- which I think is a lovely bit of quiddity if ever there was one.

RIP. I will miss you, dude.
 

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It was Impossible to not laugh around Joe, even if you were trying to be mad/ stern. Impossible. I'll miss Joe's humor and candid shock comments. Several stories, but my fav was his AFM event fight at Thill....lots of Board meetings talking about that one. Joe is bold and outlandish, even in his new digs.

Go call or hug a friend this week.
 
U26A1 said:
Haha yes, I think I had been riding for all of 18 months or so at that point.

A slight correction: Brammo did actually hire Joe to do real promo content for them: marketing stuff, profiles and footage of owners riding the bikes and such. We just . . . decided to make it more fun. Which was kinda Joe's whole M.O., in retrospect. That picture is indeed still hanging on my wall, and sadly made all the more meaningful now.

Also, I dug through old files and found (from the same day) a photo of Joe taking a photo of me doing a burnout behind old Scuderia -- which I think is a lovely bit of quiddity if ever there was one.

RIP. I will miss you, dude.
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Ahh yes, I had forgotten that. Yet another way he was just exceptional.
Holeshot said:
It was Impossible to not laugh around Joe, even if you were trying to be mad/ stern. Impossible. I'll miss Joe's humor and candid shock comments. Several stories, but my fav was his AFM event fight at Thill....lots of Board meetings talking about that one. Joe is bold and outlandish, even in his new digs.

Go call or hug a friend this week.
Click to expand...
I had forgotten about that one, what a thing. :laughing
 
When I needed crazy onboard riding footage to complete a presentation to the Office of Traffic Safety in '08 I went to Joe and he provided crazy!!

Sure grabbed the attention of the people in the auditorium and landed me a long term appointment to the CA Moto Safety Committee and CMSP Advisory Committee.

Thanks Joe... a lot of good came of that crazy.
 
Oh man... This is devastating to hear. I knew about the leg injury (and re-injury) and hadn't seen anything from Joe in a while... but I was hoping things were going well for him in NC. When I was first getting into riding some 20 years ago, Joe was posting his first videos to BARF. (I'm pretty sure it was his videos that got me hooked on NIN and a bunch of other great music.) That sort of video was pretty novel at that time and *really* got me excited about riding. Saved up money, bought gear, read/watched more on BARF, and eventually bought a Ninja 250. Been riding ever since and it has been a life changing sort of thing. Riding is my passion and a big part of how I define myself and want to experience the world. I've had so many great memories (just rode the Alpine Loop last weekend) and guys like Joe, Gary J, etc. were a big influence - literally changed my life.

:rose

 
Just now heard.😢 Joe was a fixture in the little world I inhabited for so long, the brightest of lights. I’m so saddened for his family and for all whose lives he touched.
I vividly remember him having a laugh as he introduced me to Toe (so sorry brother)
- 🦶
 
Kestrel said:
(I'm pretty sure it was his videos that got me hooked on NIN and a bunch of other great music.)
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Oh man, you just reminded me that I first heard OhGr’s solo stuff (former Skinny Puppy) on one of Joe’s videos!
 
I'm absolutely devastated.

Joe was responsible in so many ways for where I am today.

A hundred years ago budman invited me to the AFM banquet. I was a noob on Barf but was doing ride reports and taking photos with a cheap ass Nikon I bought from a barfer.

Met Joe that night and hung out with him for a good while.

He told me I should talk to Oxymoron about shooting AFM with him at Sonoma.

He gave me my first track access to Laguna.

He got me to quit smoking.

He approved of my wife the first day he met her when she gave him shit all day.

He was the only phone call I answered on my wedding.

He checked on me when I had my twinz.

I literally can't trace my last 15+ years without it going back to him someway.

This one fucking hurts.



I will be doing 4theCocktail at AFM this weekend Saturday night and taking donations for his family.
 

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I heard of his passing through Supermoto USA instagram. I met him at my first VCGP race the 50th Anniversary race the most miserable one. I bought some pictures from him of me riding in the mud. RIP Joe.

He was behind the lens of this shot. In the trees and mud.
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I met him IRL at Sonoma. Stayed in touch over the years, especially after his accident. Never realized how much that affected him until we chatted one day. Especially when he needed to get something done that he would normally have done himself, like climb on the roof to fix the chimney.

He'd been over the house a couple of times, the last was to bum a charger for camera batteries.

I was always disappointed that he disappeared after his accident but I understood why. I'd reach out now and then just to see how he was doing.

Always admired his work. Especially all the crashes he ever managed to capture. It was like "hold on" and he was swinging over to the impending crash. In sports photography, they say you have to know your sport and he certainly did.

Godspeed Joe. Condolences to your family.
 
i_am_the_koi said:
I'm absolutely devastated.

Joe was responsible in so many ways for where I am today.

A hundred years ago budman invited me to the AFM banquet. I was a noob on Barf but was doing ride reports and taking photos with a cheap ass Nikon I bought from a barfer.

Met Joe that night and hung out with him for a good while.

He told me I should talk to Oxymoron about shooting AFM with him at Sonoma.

He gave me my first track access to Laguna.

He got me to quit smoking.

He approved of my wife the first day he met her when she gave him shit all day.

He was the only phone call I answered on my wedding.

He checked on me when I had my twinz.

I literally can't trace my last 15+ years without it going back to him someway.

This one fucking hurts.



I will be doing 4theCocktail at AFM this weekend Saturday night and taking donations for his family.
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I miss you around here.
I also thought of you immediately when I saw this thread.
You're in my thoughts, dude.
 
Thanks bruv

Life's been crazy but I'm doing the best I can to get through it.

Stay at home Dad life was not what I expected to be doing but I'm not complaining. Struggling but not complaining.

This one hurts. The random people reaching out to check if it's true has been hard. I can only imagine what Bri is going through. I know it's really hard for a couple people that knew him well and even better than I did.

This one hurts.
 
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