By Mark Whiteley. Photos by Joe Brook, Lance Dawes, Zach Malfa-Kowalski, Anthony Acosta and Mark Whiteley

Nearly 20 years ago, Chris Carter and Mike Hill yanked the wheel and took a sharp turn off the skateboard highway when they decided to create the Alien Workshop. Along with original rider and creative genius Neil Blender, they quickly set a tone for the visuals of the company and the kind of riders they’d sponsor, which still hums today. Physically separate from the rest of the industry out in Ohio, they went about their own thing in their own way from day one, employing unique skaters and graphics. Within a year they dropped their first video, Memory Screen—arguably the most visually original skate video ever made. Since then their path has been steady and clear to see, creating a mixture of powerful skateboarding and creative artistic output. Their fourth and latest video, Mind Field, is just hitting shops, and after spending time on the road with a lot of the team over the last year, we’ve put together some of our favorite photos with some words from Carter and Hill on the past, present, and future of the Alien Workshop.

The most recent abductee, Finnish barbarian and dedicated SLAP pal, Arto Saari long lipslide in the Centennial state.

10 pushes, several "Woo!"s, a nollie heel up and a tailslide down- Omar Salazar is a rolling frenzy!

When, where, and why was Alien started?
Mike Hill: September, 1990. Dayton, Ohio.
Chris Carter: The main idea was to do things independent of restrictions or scrutiny.
MH: It seemed like there was another way of doing things with your own company.

Has there been an on-going goal or direction that’s driven Alien over all the years? Do you feel like you’ve been consistent in your direction, or has there been much change?

MH: I'd say the only goal or direction has been to do what you want, for whatever reasons, without paying mind to what others are doing. Change is unavoidable throughout 18 years, but the internal guts of what was started still spills out.

CC: We’ve also always strived to provoke thought while creating an unmistakable identity.

 

What do you look for in a rider? What makes somebody worthy or not?

CC: Personality and ability. It’s the combination that makes someone interesting to us.

MH: A skater has to fit the Workshop's trip on the world in their own way, and be someone who the other team riders respect. CC: They have to mesh with the rest of the team, and the feeling is normally unanimous amongst the riders whether or not someone fits.

 

More than half the current team has gotten on since the last video—do you feel like you’re in a new era for Alien?

CC: A new era of team riders perhaps, but the ideals remain the same.

Near vertical 5-0 to fakie with room for four wheels down plus a quarter inch or so. Dill gets in where he fits in.

Van Engelen , full-speed 50/50 up the elevator and into the curl.

Memory Screen broke the mold for skate videos, and also set the tone for most of your visual output that followed. In talking to Greg Hunt it sounds like you guys are looking at Mind Field to be the most intensively produced and edited video since Memory Screen—what all does that entail, and do you feel like that’s been achieved with the new video?
MH: It comes down to a huge amount of actual work. Being immersed in AWS since the beginning takes care of what it is “supposed” to be. Greg had worked extensively with the team for the three years prior to the editing, filming, and traveling, and that funneled into boiling it down in an intense, focused three months of compiling the project. Chad Bowers and myself built rigs in a back room to create as many in-camera visuals to contribute to the effort. We were driven by the team’s skate footage and Greg's commitment to the video. All of us felt an unspoken responsibility to create something for everyone involved with the Alien Workshop that would stand the test of time.

Equal power on street or tranny, Grant Taylor floats up to tall tail scorch.

Imagine all the cool stuff Dylan could have impossibled over- a cow, an six-year-old, a picket fence, maybe even the Urkel mobile. But, like he does, he kept in clean and opted for a whole lot of air.

How has being physically apart from the rest of the industry factored into making Alien stand out?

CC: We have four seasons of inspiration! MH: It's our life and we live in Ohio, so naturally it's going to come off differently than California-based brands. We're dealing with snow, ice, and dark days in the winter, just like 90-percent of the skaters in the States. The struggle, exclusion and bipolarism can't help but come out in the wash of the Workshop.

Jake Johnson fakie leap frogs over and into the skinny kinker.

A good word to describe Kalis's style is "proper". Bigspin popped high, spun flat, landed bolts- in other words, proper.

Why did you decide to sell Alien after so long, and how has and will that change what you can and can’t do?

MH: We just did what we wanted to do, as we’ve always done, and nothing's changed in terms of creative freedom.

 

What does the future hold for Alien, and how will you guys personally factor into that?

CC: Working together to maintain the high standards set by the Workshop, and creating an experience for our customers different than that of our competition. MH: More projects, keep things moving forward. There is no escape. It's in our hands.

Big dude, big spot, big state. Mikey Taylor 50/50 transfers to sidewalk hop in Texas.

Quick bump, tall wall, crunchy concrete and a back tail so level you could serve afternoon tea on it. T-Blood .