A long time ago I met a 14 year old kid who always, and I mean ALWAYS wore sunglasses. At that time, the only other people who wore sunglasses all the time were battered wives and Corey Hart. Every time I would see this kid, he was excelling at something else. I think he was the first person I ever saw do a lot of things that meant everything to a fellow 13 year old. Amazing feats of adolescence such as an en-do, a boomer-rang, a cherry picker, a decade and if my memory serves me correctly I think I saw the brother pull off a Miami Hopper. Now I know what your thinking…What the fuck am I talking about. Well, I’m talking about the golden age of 1980′s BMX + Freestyle. A time when bikes were painted fluorescent colors, seat posts were laid back and spokes became mags. Yes, those were some good days.
At around the same time, the kid with the sunglasses ended up befriending a neighborhood legend we used to call Ninja. I think him being of Japanese decent had a little do do with it, plus the fact that he was also super fucking precise at everything he decided to dedicate his time to. So now we have the kid with the sunglasses and the Ninja hanging out- all the time. Every now and then I’d see them, with their bikes all tricked out doing some crazy shit ever so effortlessly.
Then, one day I saw the Ninja on a skateboard. Up to that point the only other skateboard I had seen was a green plastic banana board that one of the Jackson twins had in their garage. The one that the Ninja was riding was no plastic banana board. He was riding a Madrid Claus Grabke, that he said he’d gotten on a recent trip to Japan. That thing was fucking MASSIVE. And as you guessed it, Ninja was sick with it. I don’t even know where he’d seen people doing the tricks he was doing, but one thing was certain- He was killing it.
The course of the next few events are a bit blurry, my apologies but we are talking events that go back about 20 years ago. So anyway, it’s summertime. The sun is beaming. At this point we have all ditched our BMX bikes for skateboards, and we’re out there for hours on end sacrificing our shin-bones, ankles and bare palms in the name of our new salvation- SHREDDING! It was around this time when I saw something that Malcolm Gladwell would later describe as, A Tipping Point. I, with my own eyes saw something that would forever change the course of my adolescent life. I saw the kid with the sunglasses do something in the Pepe’s Pizza parking lot that in human terms, I had no explanation- I saw him do an OLLIE. Now I know we’ve come leaps and bounds since those early days, but for a moment try to think back to a moment of your lives when a singular moment had the power to transform your life. For me, it was that moment in the Pepe’s pizza parking lot when I saw the kid with the glasses do that first OLLIE. What he did in that moment was like throwing a Molotov cocktail, into a bucket of gas- KABOOM! After that, shit was very on…
For the next 15 years skateboarding became our religion, our social club, our identities. And our fellow skaters became our brothers, teachers and inspirations. Within that brilliant tapestry, skateboarding provided us a creative outlet that many times over would flow into a multitude of new incarnations. For some it was painting and graphic design, for other it was photography and music, for some it was filmmaking and writing. All and all, that 15 year period will forever continue to reverberate through all my future creative endeavours.
Now back to the kid with the sunglasses. That 14 year old life changing kid with the sunglasses is my brother from another mother… Matt Bass. Over the last 20 years, in my life Matt Bass has been my biggest influence. Luckily for me, he still continues to inspire and teach me more and more every time we touch base.
Matt’s latest Pepe’s Pizza parking lot moment for me is his new documentary film SK8FACE. For me there’s nothing like seeing the union of the perfect mission for the perfect person. This is that mission, and this is that person.
SK8FACE……A Film by Matt Bass
Where did skateboard graphics come from? How did they evolve? Meet the masters who changed the face of Art History and Skateboard Evolution. If you like grip tape, paint markers, pens, pencils, pools, curbs, ledges, concrete, plywood, power tools, sawdust, grinding, art, design, photography, music, film, video, xeroxes, silk screening, spray paint, urethane, sealed bearings, going fast, old school, new school, making stuff or skating stuff, you have arrived…
- Matt Bass
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