#3 Fall 2014

ISSUE #3 FALL ‘14 FREE!

BEN KOPPL

This page: Austen

That Page: Jedd

Photos: Krater

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Rockwell

BEN KOPPL

Age: 22

Hometown: Morro Bay, CA

Current Location: Okayama, Japan

Sponsors: Pugsly Sticker Co. and Hot Mamma's gave me a free slice one time but I think they were closing so idk.

Favorite Skater: Pablo

Favorite Video: Either “Todd FalconBrand New Tricks 2011" (please watch!) or basically anything made by Pontus.

Favorite Website: YouTube

Favorite Trick: Convincing people I would be a good employee, no complies.

Dream Trick: Stalling inverts and a Ph.D, shout out to Will Stein.

Pros of living in Japan: Cheap sushi, I'm an elementary school teacher, vapor wave aesthetics, skaters are super nice, insanely good fi lmers, crazy spots.

Cons: Expensive to travel, long distance relationship, I speak japanese like a 2 year old, people hate you for skating, bust factor, humidity.

Th anks: My family, my girlfriend, art stores that don't lock up their nice pens, Dylan Jones, Cool Dave, Seatt le friends, Japan friends, California friends, Seascum, STFS boyz, Derek Kenney because when I was 12 he taught me switch disasters and told me I had to mention him if I ever got an interview in anything, and Jon and Logan for fi lming me a bunch. Shout out to Justin Purser.

Galen Emery picks his nose at Marginal.

Ph: Jedd Rockwell

Johnny Turgeson smiths at speed. Ph: Brian Mele

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Grant Godard with a Walla Walla wallride. Ph: Brian Mele

Joe Rinehart with the chill nose bonk during ACS. Ph: Jedd Rockwell

Bobby Dodd beanplants to fakie at Cinco de Margo. Ph: Olga Aguilar Uli Ortega came up from Mexico City to method the shit out of this bowl. Ph: Olga Aguilar

Caleb Sieverson backside flips.

Caleb SieversonKickflip to crust.

Ph: Sean Pattison

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Ph: Tim Urpman

Ballard Festibowl

The fi rst annual Festibowl, part of Ballard’s Seafood Fest, went off ! With young guns Griﬃ n Chase and Payton Moriarty taking 1st and 2nd, respectively. Griﬃ n also took home Highest Air while Payton got Best Trick on the tombstone with a back boneless.

It was a blast and I’m hyped for next year!

Clockwise from right: Dane Barker slob fast plants, Griﬃ n Chase with a huge kickfl ip indy, Payton Moriarty hucks a McTwist and Jesse Nelson blasts a transfer from the tombstone over the hip.

All photos by: Jedd Rockwell

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Here: Greg Dehart feebles thru the kink during ACS. Ph: Jedd Rockwell

There: Dustyn Tisdel does not comply with this pole jam and Ryan Stangland pops one off . Photos: Justin Gollmer

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James Humphryes wallies into a 50-50 grind.

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Ph: Dan Hager

Ben Charat gets a boost into this

Saunjay Stocker slides. Ph: Nico Hunter 5-0. Ph: Scott Zorn

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Michael Bala wallie boardslides through corner. Ph: Isaiah Lelea

Morningwood•MervinMfg.USA

SKY SILJEG Starboard side

www.lib-tech.com THE WORLD’S BEST BOARDS

p: Tim Zimmerman

with a mean madonna. Ph:

Mike Swearingen blasts one. Ph: Scott Ragsdale Zion O’friel Scott Ragsdale

NICK SATTER

Clockwise from right: Alley-oop 360 nosegrab at Bainbridge, quick-footed kickflip back 50, feeble grind FS 180 out and a big ol’ kickflip during ACS.

All photos by Jedd Rockwell

Age: 19

Hometown: Federal Way!

Sponsors: Black Market

Favorite Skater: Tony Hawk. Always.

Favorite Video: Slave “Radio Television”

Favorite Website: Thrasher, MeatSpin is a close runner-up.

Favorite Trick: Frontside flip.

Dream Trick: I wish I could 50-50 like my boy Rinehart!

Shoutouts to my boys: Joe, P-Heat, Gangsta Z, Jacob Drunkan, Sterling, Kidney Fail- ure, Galen, Codar, Dzert, Josh McLoff and the rest of the Federal Way rippers, all the Black Market homies, and the OG crew Ben Jame and Sam. Thanks to Big Daddy John J for always having my back, my beautiful mother for bringin me up right, my stepdad Cayce, Macy for keepin it real, my little bro Max for being the youngest OG, Tracy Mc- Gowen, everybody who gets me hyped and anyone else who I didn’t put. I love you all.

Nile Gibbs kickflips somewhere in the Outer Limits. Ph: Hollis Porter

James Lorimer slides his way into a hurricane rollercoaster. Ph: Hollis Porter

Jason Singler bonelesses up a storm in the ATL. Ph: Eddie Think

Jason Singler with a “Wallie North” in NY Ph: Eddie Think

OUR NATURE

Interview with Jake Menne by Jedd Rockwell

All photos by Jake Menne

Where did the name

Our Nature come from?

I thought of it and the guys seemed hyped on it so it stuck.

How long have you been fi lming for it? What made you want to do it?

I started fi lming about 3 years ago as just a short video of a close knit group of homies out of Kenmore. Eventually, additions were made and it became what it is now, a full-length of rad known and unknown Washington skateboarders. It’s been a goal since I got my fi rst VX.

Who will have full parts?

The Roster is: Mike Lind, Dave Dalby, Dustyn Tisdel, Ryan Merriam, Arnold Garcia/James Beckes, Ken Takayama, Dan Ching, Casey Gelderman/Merrit Harburg-Litt le and Jesse Lindloff .

What’s up with the premiere? Will there be DVDs?

It will be premiering at the Jet City

Improv theater in the U-District on October 8th. Yes, DVDs will be on sale.

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Have you travelled anywhere for fi lming?

We have covered Spokane, Portland and Los angles.

What is your favorite thing about fi lming?

The victory playback of a stacked clip feels damn good. I enjoy banger season. It’s always rad to watch the buds throw down.

What are your thoughts on the VX versus HD debate?

You can’t denounce the VX. I plan on using VXs until they go extinct. It is the obvious camera of choice when it comes to independent skateboard fi lms because of the affordability, ability to properly frame, the aesthetic of the colors and the rawness but, HD has it’s place as well. I haven’t dipped much into the high defi nition world but I plan to after Our Nature comes out. It’s gonna be tough though since HD has litt le appeal to me. Prett y sure the sk8 gods still demand the VX.

Dave Dalby - Switch Front Blunt

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“I enjoy banger season.”

What was the fi rst skate video you ever saw? What are some favorites?

In 8th grade my math teacher, Dirty Dan’s mom, played Splash during class and that was the fi rst time I saw the Seatt le skateboarding scene. I’ve always been hyped on the local videos. Kyle Steniede’s “About time” is amazing. I remember gett ing goose bumps at the premiere! Shane Auckland’s “Rat Poison” is so on point. Sk8rats is always down to make things happen. Brandon Jensen’s “Beware of Sasquatch” got me so motivated to get out and start making a full length. Outside of the local scene I’d say the AZ

videos are really rad and well put together. Always something original and you never know whats gonna happen next. These photos are great. Do you see yourself shooting more in the future? Th ank you. Yeah I would like to progress and get a litt le more in depth with fi lm photography.

Any last words, thanks, etc.?

Th anks to all the guys in the video for kicking ass and putt ing down. Th ank you Ben Ericson, Amigos, Maurice, 35th, Becca Downs, Mom and Dad, Casey Gelderman and Corey Greengage.



James Beckes - Frontside Wallride George Kargopoltsev - Back Lip

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Jordan Sanchez - Natas Spin

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Clay Kreiner gets the most high at the recent EZ Rocks event. 17’3” on an 18’er! Ph: Jedd Rockwell

Jaeden Ovenall tweaks a melon at Sedro Wooley. Ph:

James Lorimer back smiths at home on Bainbridge Island. Ph: Jedd Rockwell Dan Hager

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Ted Duerksen can’t stop jamming. Ph: Brian Mele

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Finn Pope - FSA Ph: Nico Hunter Cory Cavness front feebles.

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Ph: Sima Safavi-Bayat

Stuirt Jones - Boneless one and a layback boardslide.

Both photos: Brian Mele

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Joel Wilkins with a short but steep frontside 5-0. Ph: Jedd Rockwell

Gabe “Chode” Saxon - 50-50 Ph: Caleb Sieverson

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Torey Pudwill - Ollie Ph: Jedd Rockwell

Grant Godard crooks a nice litt le gap...

Ph: Brian Mele

...while Gnardo crooks a tight spot.

Ph: Jedd Rockwell

Julien Benoliel blasts a big ass transfer.

Ph: Brian Mele

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SASHA BARR

Interview by Jedd Rockwell

Tell us about where you’re from and how you got into skateboarding. I tell people I’m originally from both Memphis and Nashville, TN. Born in 1982 in Memphis, grew up in the Nashville area, then went back to Memphis in 2000 for college and my “formative” years before moving to Seattle in 2007.

My first real exposure to skating was CCS, truth be told. I was in the 7th or 8th grade(‘95 or ‘96) and some older kids had a CCS they were getting t-shirts from. The I Heart Cops shirt is one I definitely remember from that time. The Fuct shirts, Freedumb Airlines, that kind of stuff. Some time around then a buddy in my neighborhood and I got a couple of Walmart boards and just started dicking around on those. I lived about 30/45 min drive from Nashville and the closest shop(Vertical Inline, terrible name), so it took a while to actually get up there for a real set up considering we

had to rely on our parents to drive up there. If I remember correctly my first set up was a Beer City blank with Indys.

How and when did you get into art and design? Did you go to school?

I was pretty much raised on art. My parents were both in graduate school for art, my mom printmaking and my dad ceramics, so the art stuff has always been a big thing in my life and upbringing. After graduate school my dad started teaching ceramics, then had the opportunity to help start a digital animation department at MTSU where he taught, probably sometime in the early 90s. Because of that we always had a modern computer in the house, all the early Macs and whatnot, so I’ve been around computers pretty much my whole life. I moved back to Memphis in 2000 to go to college(University of Memphis), and my dad sent me with one of his old Macs, which had Photoshop. In school I was primarily a printmaking student,

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but early on I became super interested in street art stuff , as most art students do. I started messing around in Photoshop and quickly made this b&w image of Buddy Holly and started wheat pasting it around Memphis all night every night for a good long while. I started applying what I was fi guring out in Photoshop to my printmaking classes, screen-printing especially. From there I became interested in show posters, like Hatch Showprint in Nashville. I was friends with some local Memphis bands, so I started doing posters for bands and venues in Memphis. I began to teach myself Illustrator because the vector art made more sense for what I was doing with screen-printing, and that was a real turning point. Eventually the bands asked me to help them with album art stuff , t-shirts, whatever they needed, and it just kept going. It wasn’t long before I barely concentrated on my school work and was just freelancing. Eventually I started doing editorial illustration and other kinds of design

work–branding, layout, etc. I’ve never taken any design classes, I just fi gured it out along the way, for better or worse.

What brought you to Seatt le and how did you end up at Sub Pop?

During my poster years I’d made friends with a number of people in the poster community through doing these poster conventions called Flatstock a couple times a year. I think I started being a vendor in 2002. The fi rst one at Bumbershoot was in 2003, I think, and that was my fi rst exposure to Seatt le. Th rough Flatstock I met the guys who are now my coworkers in the Sub Pop art department, Jeff Kleinsmith and Dusty Summers. Jeff ’s been at Sub Pop prett y much from the start, and Dusty started some time around 2004/2005. I stayed in touch with them over the years, we always joked about me moving to Seatt le, and I always joked about working for Sub Pop. At the time it really was a joke, Sub Pop had never had more than 2 people in the art department. Eventually in 2007 a number of my close friends in Memphis had moved or were moving away, and I just spur of the moment decided to pack up my stuff and move to Seatt le, with no real plan. I ended up staying with Dusty and his wife for a couple weeks once I got to Seatt le, and was freelancing a litt le bit. Dusty and his wife were expecting their fi rst child, and I was asked to fi ll in for him while he took paternity leave. Th is was towards the end of 2007, right before Sub Pop’s 20th anniversary in 2008, and there were lots of big things planned for that year so I was asked to stay through the year part-time to help with whatever they might need. At the end of that year I ended up just staying on and switched to full-time, and I’ve

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been there ever since. It was really just a stroke of luck and being in the right place at the right time. I never applied for the job or even supplied a resume. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever put together a resume. It really is a great place to work and I feel super fortunate to be there.

What kinds of projects do you like working on the most? Least?

Do you enjoy freelancing?

That’s a complex question to answer. Over the years I was super jazzed on posters and album art, but as time has gone on I’ve grown less and less interested in that stuff. Thankfully at Sub Pop I have many responsibilities, not just dealing with albums. This year we opened a store in the Sea-Tac airport, Jeff and I pretty much designed it from the ground up (with some help, of course). Everything from the look and feel of the store, the products themselves, the art on the products, the packaging, signage, hiring artists, you name it and we did it. It was a crazy, crazy project and in the end it’s been incredibly rewarding. We opened in May, and are now working on new stuff for Fall/Winter. So, at the moment, doing that sort of work

is what I like working on the most. That and the Amigos/skate stuff, of course.

Since I started working full time a couple years ago, I quickly realized I prefer being employed over freelancing. Freelancing has it rewards, for sure, but chasing down work/payment and not having health insurance can take its toll. Plus, now that I work a 9-5, when I get home I just want to do normal life stuff. I only want to be working at home if it’s something I really want to be doing, and for me that’s the Amigos and skate stuff. I don’t really take on that much freelance these days, unless something comes along that I really want to do.

Some of my “crowning achievements” while freelancing would probably be the board I did for Chocolate in 2007 and the handful of boards I did for Stereo in 2010/2011. Growing up a skater/artist doing work in the skate industry was always a dream, and while I thoroughly enjoyed working in the music industry, doing skate stuff was something next level. I’m really thankful for the opportunity to work with both of those companies,

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nding work in the skate industry can be super hard. Th ankfully in 2011 Maurice and the other Amigos guys tossed out the idea of starting our own company. Being someone of the artistic persuasion, having the desire to work in skate, and having some small business knowledge, I quickly spoke up and said, “Sure, why not?”

Who or what influences you?

My parents, fi rst and foremost. Memphis. The PNW. Anyone that’s doing it from the heart. The young kids with the good att itudes. The weirdos. Too many artists/designers/musicians to list. It’s an ever growing thing. Always fi nd new influences, keep looking.

Tell us everything about Amigos .

Around fall 2011 Maurice sent out a group email to some of who are now the owners of Amigos, kind of joking about turning what was then just a blog called Amigos into a board company. I’d only met those guys shortly before this, but couldn’t help but speak up and jump at the opportunity, as I mentioned earlier. At fi rst it seemed like a rad opportunity to do my own art on boards and work with friends, and it’s just grown from there in both the scope of the work and what it means to me/us. Maurice, having been a part of the Seatt le area scene for a long time, already had a list of dudes in mind for a team, and quickly got Ryan Stangland, Dan Ching, and Shad Spencer in Denver involved. From there we added Ken and Sean, then later Chris Jameson and most recently Dustyn. There’s a number of us “D Team-ers” that own Amigos.

Of course anytime you start a company that’s involved in products you’re going to want those things to sell, so you

have to keep that stuff in mind, and the skateboarding world is certainly no easy place to do it. Over the last 2.5/3 years Amigos has evolved in to a way to not only make cool stuff and give some of our favorite local skaters the supplies to keep doing what they’re doing, but also a way to interact with and be a part of the community. Events, art shows, collaborations, skate maps, whatever we can think of. We’re not in it for the cool points, we’re not trying to shove an image down anyone’s throats or be the cool guys or even try to make money off it. Seatt le has such a rich and huge skate scene, and it’s more than an honor to be a part of that. We just want to give back, to be able to offer community and experiences to the skaters in Seatt le, something we can all be a part of. It’s not just about the products, or the videos, or seeing who’s the best or who did what where, it’s about the community. The Amigos.

fi

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When you’re not skating or designing, what do you enjoy doing?

I have a dog, as anyone who follows me on Instagram probably knows, and to be honest I thoroughly enjoy just walking my dog. It’s my everyday zen time, or something. I live in the Ballard area and it’s prett y perfect for it. I’d also consider myself an avid gardener, vegetables and all. When my knee isn’t bothering me I like doing long bike rides, so I guess that’s a thing. I also spend a fair amount of time doing non design related things for Amigos. I research the production stuff and handle some of that. I make the buttons by hand, put all the hang tags and whatnot on all the products, put the sticker packs together, fold the skate maps, whatever needs to be done. Just busy work you do while watching a movie or whatever. I actually like doing that sort of stuff . I like to stay busy.

Any upcoming projects you can talk about that you’re excited to work on?

The next wave of stuff for the Sub Pop store, and some exciting things on the horizon in relation to that. I’ve been curating/putt ing together the monthly art shows at 35th N, and this fall we have some rad stuff lined up- Michael Hsiung, a Quiet Life show, and Jay Croft from Street Canoe. I really enjoy putt ing those shows together and being able to show not only Seatt le artists but rad folks from around the country. Just got an invite for a Portland based skate art show called, Ride On, I think that opens in November. I also gott a get to work on the next round of Amigos boards and whatnot. I also need to walk the dog.