In Pete Thompson’s photography book, ‘93 til, which documents skateboarding through the 1990s, a quote from Tony Hawk appears alongside a black and white image of a man serenely floating on his back in a pool.

“The guy who was really revolutionary to me in the ‘90s was Mike Frazier,” the Hawk quote reads. “People have no idea about the difficulty, the creativity and the boundaries he was breaking, mainly because very few people were appreciating vert.”

For more than 30 years, Frazier reigned as a top professional vert skater. Today, at 50 years old, he still cheats gravity on a skateboard, though, on most days he can be found logging airtime through a different method: mountain biking at Alafia River State Park in central Florida.

He charges gaps and jumps at Alafia with the same aggression and determination that he displays on the walls of 13-foot ramps. Frazier only knows an “all or nothing” approach.

“I’ve done all of the other board sports,” Frazier said. “Nothing has felt as close to skating as being on a mountain bike.”

Growing up near the Gulf Coast of Florida, Frazier cut his teeth on backyard ramps and in competition at amateur National Skateboarding Association contests before turning pro and signing for Powell-Peralta in 1990. Through the peak of his career, his bold style and array of technical lip tricks earned him spots with some of skateboarding’s most influential brands and teams. Frazier still skates at an extremely high level; he recently appeared as part of Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert event in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Frazier’s pro career kicked off right at the beginning of a huge shift within skateboarding. The rockstar era of vert ramp skating, a time synonymous with crews such as the Bones Brigade that carry near folkloric status, was giving way to a more urban, scrappy discipline of the sport called street skating. For many old-guard pros, this change signaled an end to their careers, but a hungry, young Frazier pushed to join former teammate Tony Hawk as he formed the new Birdhouse team.