Awkward (but not bad) Pro Encounters

[Brguy]

Was at a HUF demo today, some kids from where I live were staring at the pros so Mason Silva started giving out some beanies just as I was approaching them, as I was looking he ran out of beanies and sheepishly passed me with his head down, kinda like "sorry bro". He seems like a good fella, enjoyable demo other than the fact you could barely skate with so many people there and the new cement dust ruining everyone's griptape.

[Sightunseen]

Halloween 2021 I had party in my apartment in Brooklyn I guess Zach Allen and T funk tried to come in and my roommates weren't having it (they don't skate so they didn't know who they were) plus they both had no girls or alcohol so they saw them as a lose lose situation me being nosy I walked out my apartment too see Zach Allen trying to plead with my roommate I looked at him and was like "dude are you Zach Allen" and he was like "yeah man can I get in" I said fuck ya and he told me T Funk was downstairs and he tried to call him to come back but I guess he went home. Zach was chill he got drunk and did mad coke tried hooking up with one of my friends but I think she wasn't feeling him. oh well T Funk wish you stayed man I had some goodies for you that I know you would've liked

I’ll take “things that didn’t happen” for 100 points

[Doom patrol]

I don't think Zach Allen crashing a party and mooching a bunch of coke of some dude is particularly far fetched.

[Candied cigarettes]

Homie and I went to SF and he had just set up a Brianna Geering board. We pulled up to Pier 7 and she was literally the first person we saw there. She did a double take on his board, quickly looked away and skated the opposite direction. We left pretty quickly

[chumponthis]

During the peak of the Weck and Biebel childish drama, Biebel came to Vancouver with the Girl team.
I half drunkenly claimed to my homies I was going to call out Biebel for looking small.
I was walking to go have a chat with the lad and before I could even muster a word, Biebel greets me with the most genius smile and offers me a beverage.

Needless to say, I sucked up my negativity and spitballed a slew of praise to the man.

[tonyhawksmanywives]

I was skating the pool at Peck Park for the first time and i was just learning how to skate big transition. There was a group of fully padded old dudes watching my skate the pool. I tried to carve over the light for the first time and I didn't go high enough and i bonked the light with my back truck and ate shit. One of the old guys looks into the pool and tells me "bro you're not supposed to hit the light" I was obviously embarrassed and skated other parts of the park. I go on instagram later to see a picture of that same old man standing next to a young Japanese girl who she tagged as @ericdressen.

A lil extra: Roman pabich and Tyson Peterson came into my work and i was super shocked by romans presence (i had met tyson many times so i wasnt suprised) to which i went "OMG are you roman pabich im a big fan congrats on going pro" and he kinda just looks at me like he's never had that happen before and was like "oh thanks"

im a real awkard guy so i have a lot of real awkward pro stories

[Willie]

Aaron Suski came down and skated our park while I was skating an Aaron Suski deck. He clearly recognized I was skating his deck and I totally knew who he was. We briefly looked at each other and said nothing.

[Huell Howser]

I was skating the pool at Peck Park for the first time and i was just learning how to skate big transition. There was a group of fully padded old dudes watching my skate the pool. I tried to carve over the light for the first time and I didn't go high enough and i bonked the light with my back truck and ate shit. One of the old guys looks into the pool and tells me "bro you're not supposed to hit the light" I was obviously embarrassed and skated other parts of the park. I go on instagram later to see a picture of that same old man standing next to a young Japanese girl who she tagged as @ericdressen.

A lil extra: Roman pabich and Tyson Peterson came into my work and i was super shocked by romans presence (i had met tyson many times so i wasnt suprised) to which i went "OMG are you roman pabich im a big fan congrats on going pro" and he kinda just looks at me like he's never had that happen before and was like "oh thanks"

im a real awkard guy so i have a lot of real awkward pro stories

cringed for ya just readin this lol ty for sharing

[somefucker]

semi-related to a post i made this month

when atiba, strobeck and KB were in the financial district of NYC about 6 or 7 years ago (maybe more) we were shootin the shit by that gold double kink people get bodied on.

we were sitting on those benches right by blubba, looking over our shoulders at the gold rail, and i commented to atiba/KB that you'd get rocked prob trying to balance a 5050 on that.

i didn't know KB came to NYC that day with the intent of trying it, needless to say he got rag-dolled on 2/3 tries and seemed like he was sulking/salty on the sidewalk after

balls for trying but bro i literally warned you

[9inchdeck]

This was pretty embarrassing at the time, but now I find it hilarious. About 6 years ago, the birdhouse team came to film in my town of Pensacola, FL. One of my friends had a roommate who moved here from Cali that knew the guys in the team pretty well. My friend was hanging with me and and some of our other buddies and told us he was gonna go chill and watch them skate downtown. Later that night, me and my other friends were trying to get ahold of him to see if it’d be cool if we came out to watch them too. He posted an Instagram story of them building a kicker at a spot, but he wasn’t responding to texts. After a while I called him and it kept going to voicemail so his phone had died. Even though we weren’t invited, we decided to drive downtown to find them because no pros ever come to this area. It felt like a once in a life opportunity. So we drive by and see them about to start skating this kicker to an out rail. We kept driving past them and parked down the road at a church. The church had a pretty good view of the spot, so we walked up to the church and hid behind the columns and walls of the church so we could watch them without them knowing we were there. It worked for about 20 minutes or so, but Clint Walker was standing at the run up and decided to turn around and look behind. He saw all three of us hiding with our heads peaking out and yelled “What the fuck! Who’s over there?!” Clive Dickson and Shawn Hale turned around and saw us too. My friend stepped fully out and said sorry we’re not trying to poach we just wanted to watch y’all skate. They just kinda scoffed and said “Well that’s fucking weird” and turned back around. We did the walk of shame out of there and went back home. Our buddy and his roommate were at the landing which was at a lower level because the out rail had a drop, so they never saw us. They told us the next day about how Clint and them caught some dudes spying on them last night and me and my friends were like “no way wtf that’s crazy” haha.

[elbarto]

This was pretty embarrassing at the time, but now I find it hilarious. About 6 years ago, the birdhouse team came to film in my town of Pensacola, FL. One of my friends had a roommate who moved here from Cali that knew the guys in the team pretty well. My friend was hanging with me and and some of our other buddies and told us he was gonna go chill and watch them skate downtown. Later that night, me and my other friends were trying to get ahold of him to see if it’d be cool if we came out to watch them too. He posted an Instagram story of them building a kicker at a spot, but he wasn’t responding to texts. After a while I called him and it kept going to voicemail so his phone had died. Even though we weren’t invited, we decided to drive downtown to find them because no pros ever come to this area. It felt like a once in a life opportunity. So we drive by and see them about to start skating this kicker to an out rail. We kept driving past them and parked down the road at a church. The church had a pretty good view of the spot, so we walked up to the church and hid behind the columns and walls of the church so we could watch them without them knowing we were there. It worked for about 20 minutes or so, but Clint Walker was standing at the run up and decided to turn around and look behind. He saw all three of us hiding with our heads peaking out and yelled “What the fuck! Who’s over there?!” Clive Dickson and Shawn Hale turned around and saw us too. My friend stepped fully out and said sorry we’re not trying to poach we just wanted to watch y’all skate. They just kinda scoffed and said “Well that’s fucking weird” and turned back around. We did the walk of shame out of there and went back home. Our buddy and his roommate were at the landing which was at a lower level because the out rail had a drop, so they never saw us. They told us the next day about how Clint and them caught some dudes spying on them last night and me and my friends were like “no way wtf that’s crazy” haha.

Holy shit dude lmfao. At least your friend didn’t see y’all, that probably would’ve been much more awkward.

[honey island]

This was pretty embarrassing at the time, but now I find it hilarious. About 6 years ago, the birdhouse team came to film in my town of Pensacola, FL. One of my friends had a roommate who moved here from Cali that knew the guys in the team pretty well. My friend was hanging with me and and some of our other buddies and told us he was gonna go chill and watch them skate downtown. Later that night, me and my other friends were trying to get ahold of him to see if it’d be cool if we came out to watch them too. He posted an Instagram story of them building a kicker at a spot, but he wasn’t responding to texts. After a while I called him and it kept going to voicemail so his phone had died. Even though we weren’t invited, we decided to drive downtown to find them because no pros ever come to this area. It felt like a once in a life opportunity. So we drive by and see them about to start skating this kicker to an out rail. We kept driving past them and parked down the road at a church. The church had a pretty good view of the spot, so we walked up to the church and hid behind the columns and walls of the church so we could watch them without them knowing we were there. It worked for about 20 minutes or so, but Clint Walker was standing at the run up and decided to turn around and look behind. He saw all three of us hiding with our heads peaking out and yelled “What the fuck! Who’s over there?!” Clive Dickson and Shawn Hale turned around and saw us too. My friend stepped fully out and said sorry we’re not trying to poach we just wanted to watch y’all skate. They just kinda scoffed and said “Well that’s fucking weird” and turned back around. We did the walk of shame out of there and went back home. Our buddy and his roommate were at the landing which was at a lower level because the out rail had a drop, so they never saw us. They told us the next day about how Clint and them caught some dudes spying on them last night and me and my friends were like “no way wtf that’s crazy” haha.

i'm getting this story tattooed on my back

[Jonny7.5Alive]

This was pretty embarrassing at the time, but now I find it hilarious. About 6 years ago, the birdhouse team came to film in my town of Pensacola, FL. One of my friends had a roommate who moved here from Cali that knew the guys in the team pretty well. My friend was hanging with me and and some of our other buddies and told us he was gonna go chill and watch them skate downtown. Later that night, me and my other friends were trying to get ahold of him to see if it’d be cool if we came out to watch them too. He posted an Instagram story of them building a kicker at a spot, but he wasn’t responding to texts. After a while I called him and it kept going to voicemail so his phone had died. Even though we weren’t invited, we decided to drive downtown to find them because no pros ever come to this area. It felt like a once in a life opportunity. So we drive by and see them about to start skating this kicker to an out rail. We kept driving past them and parked down the road at a church. The church had a pretty good view of the spot, so we walked up to the church and hid behind the columns and walls of the church so we could watch them without them knowing we were there. It worked for about 20 minutes or so, but Clint Walker was standing at the run up and decided to turn around and look behind. He saw all three of us hiding with our heads peaking out and yelled “What the fuck! Who’s over there?!” Clive Dickson and Shawn Hale turned around and saw us too. My friend stepped fully out and said sorry we’re not trying to poach we just wanted to watch y’all skate. They just kinda scoffed and said “Well that’s fucking weird” and turned back around. We did the walk of shame out of there and went back home. Our buddy and his roommate were at the landing which was at a lower level because the out rail had a drop, so they never saw us. They told us the next day about how Clint and them caught some dudes spying on them last night and me and my friends were like “no way wtf that’s crazy” haha.

We have a winner 🏆

[Huell Howser]

@9inchdeck i had my own teenage-awkard-feelings from the past arise just reading this one, 10/10. creepin in the bushes after your friend dodged your calls/texts is next level

[jgonzalez]

This was pretty embarrassing at the time, but now I find it hilarious. About 6 years ago, the birdhouse team came to film in my town of Pensacola, FL. One of my friends had a roommate who moved here from Cali that knew the guys in the team pretty well. My friend was hanging with me and and some of our other buddies and told us he was gonna go chill and watch them skate downtown. Later that night, me and my other friends were trying to get ahold of him to see if it’d be cool if we came out to watch them too. He posted an Instagram story of them building a kicker at a spot, but he wasn’t responding to texts. After a while I called him and it kept going to voicemail so his phone had died. Even though we weren’t invited, we decided to drive downtown to find them because no pros ever come to this area. It felt like a once in a life opportunity. So we drive by and see them about to start skating this kicker to an out rail. We kept driving past them and parked down the road at a church. The church had a pretty good view of the spot, so we walked up to the church and hid behind the columns and walls of the church so we could watch them without them knowing we were there. It worked for about 20 minutes or so, but Clint Walker was standing at the run up and decided to turn around and look behind. He saw all three of us hiding with our heads peaking out and yelled “What the fuck! Who’s over there?!” Clive Dickson and Shawn Hale turned around and saw us too. My friend stepped fully out and said sorry we’re not trying to poach we just wanted to watch y’all skate. They just kinda scoffed and said “Well that’s fucking weird” and turned back around. We did the walk of shame out of there and went back home. Our buddy and his roommate were at the landing which was at a lower level because the out rail had a drop, so they never saw us. They told us the next day about how Clint and them caught some dudes spying on them last night and me and my friends were like “no way wtf that’s crazy” haha.

Certified SLAP pal activities lol

[TheLowerBack]

Around 2008 or so I was visiting a buddy in San Diego. He didn’t really drink or go out and I was on vacation so I cruised over to Tower Bar by myself. Standing behind me in line for drinks , I noticed a short dude with braids down to his ass. We made eye contact and he smiled and gave a nod. I was like “oh, you’re Kien Lieu?” He seemed hyped I recognized him.  I introduced myself and he tried making small with me. Then the chick he was with just started shouting shit at me like “The DONGER! HE’S THE FUGGIN DAAHHHNGGERR! HE OLLIED A FUGGGGIN CAR! You should buy him a beer. BUY HIM A BEEER! FUGGGIN LLLEEEGGGGEENNDDD!”
The whole time I was wide eyed and quiet. I could feel his embarrassment. He just kinda was shaking his head and quietly laughing. After a couple of “uh’s” from me to his girl he quietly said “you don’t have to buy me a beer “
I just laughed and basically said nice to meet you and good luck.
Turned my back to them and spent the rest of the night avoiding her.

[Madam, I'm Adam]

Around 2008 or so I was visiting a buddy in San Diego. He didn’t really drink or go out and I was on vacation so I cruised over to Tower Bar by myself. Standing behind me in line for drinks , I noticed a short dude with braids down to his ass. We made eye contact and he smiled and gave a nod. I was like “oh, you’re Kien Lieu?” He seemed hyped I recognized him.  I introduced myself and he tried making small with me. Then the chick he was with just started shouting shit at me like “The DONGER! HE’S THE FUGGIN DAAHHHNGGERR! HE OLLIED A FUGGGGIN CAR! You should buy him a beer. BUY HIM A BEEER! FUGGGIN LLLEEEGGGGEENNDDD!”
The whole time I was wide eyed and quiet. I could feel his embarrassment. He just kinda was shaking his head and quietly laughing. After a couple of “uh’s” from me to his girl he quietly said “you don’t have to buy me a beer “
I just laughed and basically said nice to meet you and good luck.
Turned my back to them and spent the rest of the night avoiding her.

What?? Haha what a weirdo

[handrailshredder420]

every time alex olson would come into my coffee shop

[too fakie]

I think any time you meet someone that you know way more about than they do of you is destined to be at least a little awkward. If not for you, definitely for them.

[TurdyBird]

Not entirely awkward but recently some of the Ace and Pepper guys came through. Most of the guys was chillin near where my buddy and I posted up.

At some point Spanky would kind of chill on the same slab of concrete we were on. The second time he does it, we try to keep it cool, but we both look over at the same time and he notices. He said "what's up guys" and scooted off.

My buddy and I joked, Spanky acknowledged us!!

Don't get me wrong, fanned out but also. It's such a surreal thing to see people you've seen in videos half your life. It made me trip out hard.

Either way, fun to be at a demo again. So fun!

[sometimeperhaps]

every time alex olson would come into my coffee shop

What would he order?

[cky enthusiast]

Expand Quote

every time alex olson would come into my coffee shop

[close]

What would he order?

hot dog cum

[shouldn't]

this was literally the day i decided i wanted to be a skateboarder and got my first board. i used to play video games/air hockey and watch my brother skate at vans at the block in orange. one day i finally said “what am i doing? i wanna do that.” my dad bought me my first board and i was fucking ready. i go in and it’s literally my very first time rolling through the park and the very first fucking thing that happens just as i get into the kind of “beginner section” they used to have, i look over and austin seaholm (had no idea in the moment obviously) is coming straight at me doing a one wheeled nose wheelie thing and i just deer in headlightsed the fuck out of it and completely froze. he had to bail out of it and immediately starts screaming “FUCCCCCCK!” over and over literally as loud as possible and slamming his board at the ground, throwing it across the park and ripping his shirt off. i was completely freaked the fuck out cause i’m freshly 9 years old and this grown ass dude (seemingly to me at that time at least, he was probably like 17) is flipping the fuck out cause i accidentally cut him off. i look up at my brother like “holy shit” and before i say anything he’s looking right at austin and is just like “that dude is a fucking douchebag, don’t even worry about it buddy” and we went to the other end of the park. idk if he was ever pro but, i look back on that now and chuckle here and there. same dude that threw his tampa trophy for getting second.

[TheLurper]

Austen Seaholm was one of the first pros I ever showed around town. He did a 180 impossible over a gap and I couldn't even understand it.

He went on to shill for EFX with Tyler Hendley, which is sad/awkward.

[Blind Trucks]

when i was like 10 skating the park this older kid like 16 pointed to this local shredder and said that he rides for dc and billabong ,and since id never seen a sponsored skater i said no way then this older kid yells out hey aaron this kid doesnt think your sponsored and he said i dont care. and thats when i found out about Aaron Rowe who is known as the australian jeremy wray, the older kid reached in his backpack pulled out a dvd and said go home and watch this so i go home and watch Billabong hits from the bong video and yeah i felt like complete idiot haha skated with him many times since then and he still amazes me evey time i see him skate


Fourstar signing at a skateshop in Australia (2014 i think)
I just finished getting my poster signed by the team and im chilling at the end of the line of skaters waiting for my friend behind me who is still getting his poster signed
I look to me left and mike carroll is sitting they smiling at me and im like oh whats up man you shred!
he said no you shred and i just started laughing then he pointed to my Hoon skateboards shirt and said are you a hoon? i said nah its a local company and pointed behind him to the board wall that has some hoon decks on it
he said thats sick do you skate for them? i said no and he said i should and i just laughed and left the shop

Wes kremer DC signing was probably the chillest guy ive ever met really nice and after we took a photo we just talked for for a few minutes and he looked at my cameras fisheye that had been lense hit a few days before the signing and asked what happened and to it and said to keep getting them clips!

when we pulled up to the demo you seen the van doors open and it smells like some dank my mum was pretty pissed

Saw BA get pissed after falling at a fourstar demo focused his deck and some drunk guy walks over and asks for the broken deck and ba was like hell yeah dude an gave him it and the crowd was like fuck yeah!

Met Bam in 2007 at an element signing was too shy to say anything was starstruck but he was nice and took and photo , tosh townend was drunk as and a bit rowdy and josh rio was chill

christian hosio was really nice and killed the demo with a deep end boardslide around the pool

nyjah seemed pissed off the whole time like he was bummed probably just tired i mean your on a skate trip

chris cole was chill as and was telling some funny stories about how this girl at his highschool smelled like cheese or something haha

tommy fynn skated up to me introduced himself shook his hand and asked if i was having fun i was thinking in my head like holy shit ive been seeing this guy in the mag since i started skating, i think i quietly said hi you shred hahah

felt really awkward asking corey kennedy for a pic since he was talking to someone but it think he was just tallking to a TM i awkwardly say hey corey can i get a photo and instantly turns to me like hey man how are you hell yeah lets get a pic

was sitting out the front of a skateshop in brisbane called skatebiz i seen local pro pedro day walking to the street i say to my friend who is a big fan of him thats that him my friend walks up the him as hes about to enter the skateshop and says are you pedro day thats rides for dgk and diamond and he looked kinda scared and awkwardly said yeah and my friends like no way! was pretty cringe to witness i felt his pain he totally seen my friend coming and knew it was gonna be awkward

evan smith was wearing a spider man suit during the signing haha

I said to mike mo after a dc demo that i dont mind that he didnt skate because id heard him say in interviews he doesnt like skating demos he said thanks for understanding and we skated this little quarter pipe with marquise henry and my homie

[Makaveli]

Met Figgy at a party, and I drunkenly was like “that k grind you did was rad.” And he said “I’m stoked you call it a K grind.”

[skate_or_dingus]

Sunset Beach (Vancouver) 2013: Had just moved to BC three days prior and there was some comp that had pretty much every skater you could think of lurking around in some capacity. Notable moments from that day:

- Asked Cody Mac if there was a beer tent around (I was a waste at that time) because he looked vaguely familiar and thought he was a local.

- Trying to front blunt a barrier ledge that everyone was skating and the Baker guys were sitting about 20 feet further up on the same ledge. Spanly called me over at one point to show me a recon photo he had taken of said front blunt on an old crappy flip phone. All I could muster up was a "thank you so much" and for whatever reason "thank you for skating to Captain Beefheart". Still the nicest pro interaction that I've had albeit totally fucking surreal.

- About ten minutes later, on the same barrier (trying the same trick) I accidentally shot my board out at a small child who had ran slightly ahead of his parents and felt the need to climb said barrier at that exact moment. Kid cried, I felt like a fucking idiot, parents were cool, Herman and Riley Hawk just kinda stared at me dead-eyed. It sucked.

[switchfrontshuv]

At TF, gave wax to the ever respectful tompkin's finest whilst he gave me a passionate 30 second lecture about the superiority of thunder trucks compared to any other truck ever

[PatrickSkateman]

I farted really loud while using the urinal next to Ben Kadow at the Supreme premiere. I said “excuse me” afterwards, which made it awkward.

[jgonzalez]

I was at a bar after a show in sf with my date and I was crying because I was pretty much begging her to be more affectionate with me. I was at a table and zack krull and his brother were at the bar. I had an all over print FA hoodie on too lol.  Bar was pretty empty too like 12:45 am on a weekday. He probably didn’t notice tho