Awkward (but not bad) Pro Encounters

[Benevenstanciano]

When I was in middle school I met Louie Bartlett and Cairo foster at the airport (2008-9ish).

Flat ironed hair, skinny Jeans, brace face, middle school me stares at them for five minute than walks up and asks

 “Are you Louie and Cairo from enjoi?”

They (could not have been nicer) say “yeah man its good to meet you what’s up?”

I say “cool” and walk off.

[PuleosTrashCollection]

Met Steve Nesser in an awkward way. His board shot out and hit me in the ankle after a contest. He profusely apologized several times. He's a solid dude, but it was a weird way to meet him.

[BluffsideTank]

For some reason, there's been a lot of Sk8Mafia content being suggested to me of late, and specifically, Wes Kremer stuff. So, I was pretty surprised when I ran into him at the Ralph's in Studio City (LA) yesterday. You'll be absolutely shocked to know that he was stoned to the Bejesus belt. He had an 18-pack of Pacifico and must have spent 10-15 minutes wandering the store before he ended up at self-checkout. I was a few minutes behind him but got my stuff, checked out, and walked by him still checking out (with the attendant, this time). Thought about asking him to throw up the Sk8Mafia sign but honestly it might have confused him more and the guy checking him out looked a little frazzled anyway.

Wonder what else he was looking for.

[Haze]

That’s a cool wes kremer encounter right there. Self checkout huh? Digital! Glad to know he got analog as well.

I met BA at a store in NY once. I fanned out and shit was chill and I asked him  “what are you doing here!?”

His face got a little serious and he said “I’m just visiting some friends.”

Then the vibe was different so I thanked him and I left the store.

It’s always cool seeing a pro skater out there random. That was before BA did the documentary with Reda where he came out. AND, it turned out he was living in the vicinity of the store. Weird shit was I remember wearing those B.A. dunk sb’s like a couple days before I seen him.

I’m still just thankful i didn’t kook it.  I think…

[Joust Ostrich]

   Way back in the mid-to-late nineties, I worked at a skateshop in Northern Indiana so I had several pro encounters.  They were made awkward by me being an extremely awkward teen.  In the summer of 1995, the Consolidated team came through.  The shop had a terribly designed skatepark and the ripped it in a way no local ever has or seen.  It was full on classic Consolidated, Alan Peterson, Karma, the Paez Bros, and Andy Roy.  The park had this crazy vert wall with four feet of vert and no coping because it was considered to high for anyone to reach.  AP dropped in on it (the only person to ever do that), did a rock fakie, fs and bs disaster, and pivot fakie, all in a row with no bails.  Karma looked like he was having a bad day, Andy Roy was amazing, his style was completely different then it is now.  The Paez Bros were also awesome.  After the demo, AP saw we had a stack of stickers of his first SMA graphic, he said "I loved that board!  Can I have those?" He gave me a signed pair of red suede Pumas in exchange, and now I wish to God I never skated 'em!  The younger Paez was going around looking to trade boards and wheels for weed, and couldn't find any!  That's when I learned a valuable lesson, always have weed on hand to trade at demos haha! 
   The Consolidated team skating the park was a huge contrast to the Osiris team, who showed up four hours late, and just bitched and complained about the park (it was pretty bad tho) and didn't really even try much.  The funny thing about that demo is that everyone was there to see either Smolik or Josh Kasper, and neither of them were there, so most spectators dipped out pretty fast.  No one gave a shit about Chad Knight or Kanten Russel.  I "accidentally" knocked Tyrone Olsen's beer off the deck of the mini ramp because I was a shit kid.  A young Jerry Hsu single handedly carried the whole demo, he was the only one landing anything.  I had a qp to trade for gear, but I was stuck working in the shop, and a friend of mine who has the same shitty weed I did got to them as they got out of the van, so they didn't need any by the time I got to them.  He got a Jerry Hsu Maple board signed by the whole team.
   The Santa Cruz team also came thru, and in the Thrasher article about the tour, they talked shit about the shop owner and he stopped selling Thrasher!  I was bummed because as a shop employee, I got an issue of all the mags for free.

Alan Peterson is easily one of the most impressive pros I've ever seen.  And that was maybe 1991.