He went to school in RI. A ton of the RI people used to come up and skate the now defunct ZT Maximus skate park in Cambridge, MA. Hence, Providence and Boston were the first two cities where the whole thing popped up. I know. I was there.

Moreover, there was nothing "serious" about it during it's formative years, so now attempting to inject some kinda "hands off don't byte this legit graphic" attitude is about 20 years too late.