Awkward (but not bad) Pro Encounters

[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.

[Franksnose76]

I made fun of Mike Plumb in Augusta Georgia, it was on his "passion tour" trip with the whole bonged out stoner loser's.  Long story short my roommate was hosting them for a few nights, I was shit faced drunk and just didn't get it with the whole nicknames and I proceeded to make an asshat out of myself by roasting the whole squad but more especially that crooked nosed beak of his.

[mendo]

I made fun of Mike Plumb in Augusta Georgia, it was on his "passion tour" trip with the whole bonged out stoner loser's.  Long story short my roommate was hosting them for a few nights, I was shit faced drunk and just didn't get it with the whole nicknames and I proceeded to make an asshat out of myself by roasting the whole squad but more especially that crooked nosed beak of his.

you got a bit of a thing about noses?

[ben e. hanna]

in like 2017 or 2018 the boys of summer guys were in town. I went on my break to the starbucks down the street from my job at the time, it was almost always empty but i walk in and was stunned to see Alex Olson sitting in there on his laptop (it turns out the whole crew was staying at the hotel across the street from there) I tried to play it cool/not bother him and walked by to order but we kind of made awkward eye contact. I got my coffee and as I'm leaving we make eye contact again and I'm like hey are you Alex? and just said what's up and asked if they were skating today then was like "welp gotta get back to work", totally normal interaction and he was super chill but I still felt like I somehow weirdly kooked it on my walk back to work (but that's probably a social anxiety me issue/maybe slightly intimidated lol) then the next night atiba and ako were having a dj night at the bar of the hotel they were staying at so a bunch of friends and I went. it was pretty much all skaters there, the guys on the trip and hella locals, and everyone ended up just mingling and partying which was awesome, it was the first time I ever really was around pros like that, some I really looked up to/had watched in videos for years, and it was awesome to find out everyone was just super cool and normal. Everyone proceeded to get super hammered, I'd just got my last drink when it was definitely time to be going home and I walked past nuge, and in my drunken state I pretty much just yelled NUUUGE at him (although the Jeffersons were BLASTING stay fly - three 6 mafia), nuge looked at me just kind of surprised but he was also pretty turnt and he yelled back at me tongue out like "WAAHHHH" and we fist bumped or cheers'd hahaha, also super chill didn't feel weird in the moment like everyone was kind of on that level but I remember jerry was sitting beside him and was kind of smiling/giggling I think like yo get a load of this guy, not in a mean way just probably how I or anyone would've reacted sober to someone else doing the same thing, but I kind of get a little red in the face remembering that and imagining jerry thinking I'm a drunk idiot hahaha. but overall 10/10 experience

[Stony Hawk]

1994 (Fort Walton Beach, Fl) - After the Hell Tour World Demo I went to my local mall and the World Industries team had the same idea - unbeknownst to me.  I saw Rodney Mullen reading a book outside of Aladdin’s Castle as I was walking to my record store.  The rest of the World crew was inside Alladin’s Castle playing video games.  Of course I recognized him and had to say hello.  He was super kind and signed my motorcycle helmet (the only thing I had with me).  I asked what he was reading and it was a math book (no shit).

1996 (Magic Mountain Los Angeles) - I was in California visiting for the first time and decided to spend the day riding rollercoasters with the friend I drove cross country with from Florida.  I was already buzzing with excitement from just being in California and was scanning everyone’s shoes and shirts seeing if I noticed other skaters as we were walking through the park.  I noticed 5-6 dudes walking around together that looked like skaters - except one of them had a button up cowboy shirt, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat…it was Paulo Fucking Diaz walking around with Daniel Castillo, Gabe Rodriguez and the rest of the Chocolate Crew.  I completely lost my shit internally but kept it together enough to approach them and say hello.  I was 21 at the time and looked like a skater so it wasn’t too hard saying hi.  They were all incredibly friendly and stoked that I talked to them.  We actually hung out and all rode Goliath after that.  One of the best days of my life.

2000 (Dortmund, Germany) Sean Sheffey shared his ostrich jerky with me in the parking lot at the hall where the world championships of skateboarding was taking place.  Danny Way was with him and had a fresh black eye from the night before.  I was stationed in Germany (Air Force) and went to Dortmund for the contests 2 of the years out of the 3 that I lived there.  Good times for sure.  Also, Danny Way was the only person I’ve ever been too intimidated to actually speak to other than hello and a handshake.  Dude is gnarly af in person.

2005ish (Santa Maria, Ca) I was stationed at this point at Vandenberg AFB, Ca.  My friend owned Dan owned One Way Board Shop in Santa Maria, Ca.  He told me the Blind team was coming through for a demo so I was stoked to see Markovich.  He is from Gulf Breeze, Fl, and I thought it would be cool to say hi and let him know I was from another town super close to him - and we actually had met and skated together before more than a decade prior to that very briefly in Niceville, Fl - small world.  When I finally saw him and awkwardly said hi at the demo he was not interested in where I was from, that we had previously met, or that I was a fan of his skating…but it was cool seeing him skate in person like always.  Oh well.

[Franksnose76]

Expand Quote

I made fun of Mike Plumb in Augusta Georgia, it was on his "passion tour" trip with the whole bonged out stoner loser's.  Long story short my roommate was hosting them for a few nights, I was shit faced drunk and just didn't get it with the whole nicknames and I proceeded to make an asshat out of myself by roasting the whole squad but more especially that crooked nosed beak of his.

[close]

you got a bit of a thing about noses?

Maybe..... I have noticed there's the Adrian Brody krooked beak,  Mike Plumb it's curved wonky and he sucks as person, something about his mannerisms that irk me. can't say anything about Frank G shnozz except it's a looker.

[Jim and Dan]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

I made fun of Mike Plumb in Augusta Georgia, it was on his "passion tour" trip with the whole bonged out stoner loser's.  Long story short my roommate was hosting them for a few nights, I was shit faced drunk and just didn't get it with the whole nicknames and I proceeded to make an asshat out of myself by roasting the whole squad but more especially that crooked nosed beak of his.

[close]

you got a bit of a thing about noses?

[close]

Maybe..... I have noticed there's the Adrian Brody krooked beak,  Mike Plumb it's curved wonky and he sucks as person, something about his mannerisms that irk me. can't say anything about Frank G shnozz except it's a looker.

User name checks...

[Darkslideofthemoon]

Went to ask for a tool from a guy I saw using one, dude looked up and it was winkowski and I just kinda froze cause I wasn’t expecting it to be anyone, and we just made awkward eye contact for a while before I finally asked to use the tool. Dude was super chill after the weird pause though.

[drewdown]

Expand Quote

Expand Quote

I made fun of Mike Plumb in Augusta Georgia, it was on his "passion tour" trip with the whole bonged out stoner loser's.  Long story short my roommate was hosting them for a few nights, I was shit faced drunk and just didn't get it with the whole nicknames and I proceeded to make an asshat out of myself by roasting the whole squad but more especially that crooked nosed beak of his.

[close]

you got a bit of a thing about noses?

[close]

Maybe..... I have noticed there's the Adrian Brody krooked beak,  Mike Plumb it's curved wonky and he sucks as person, something about his mannerisms that irk me. can't say anything about Frank G shnozz except it's a looker.

Not for nothing but he (or someone else I can't remember) deemed him/self the anorexic eagle back in SLC.