INTERVIEWS

Nestor Judkins Talks Pro Skateboarding in the Age of COVID-19

Published

3 years ago

June 21, 2020

Skate Newswire

The Coronavirus pandemic has had obvious effects on professional skateboarding. It’s not exactly a job that you can do from home. Travel bans, shelter-in-place orders, and social distancing have halted production of video projects, and make it difficult to even get proper social media content. Nestor Judkins weighs in on how this has impacted him personally in a new interview with Seller Door. This sheds some light on why Nestor, and a few others, are now absent from RVCA’s team page.

The virus completely shut off travel for the foreseeable future and left all of us, professional skateboarders, at home. My whole career up to this point has been based on travel. My job was to film video parts, shoot photos for magazines, and travel. So, what am I supposed to do? I’m struggling with that. I’m not going to go out and post skating stuff right now – although that’s the new important aspect of the job. I don’t feel comfortable doing that because I don’t want to promote breaking the stay-at-home order; I take that seriously. Yet that’s a huge part of what our job has been turning into until this point. So what should I be doing?

As for skateboard companies, I do think that this economic crisis will change things. I suspect that many companies won’t make it, and I worry that professional skateboarding is going to be pretty expendable, unfortunately. And to me it’s unclear what will determine who makes it: will it be based on talent and craft or sheer numbers? That’s an important determination with huge impact for the future of skateboarding. That’s my concern.

Maybe these are just my fears because I’ve already lost a very significant sponsor due to this virus. I don’t want to call anyone out because there are no hard feelings. We had a long relationship, and they’re going through a hard time, as are many companies, so they had to cut a certain percentage of their teams to stay afloat. Either way, the point is that the effects are real, and I see them continuing.

Read the full interview here.

Image Via Jonathan Mehring / Jenkem

INTERVIEWS

Justin Sommer Featured in Santa Cruz’s True Grit

Published

4 months ago

January 20, 2023

Skate Newswire

Follow the journey of German skateboarding prodigy Justin Sommer in this episode of True Grit, a docu-series produced by Santa Cruz Skateboards.

Born to young parents, he was practically raised in the streets of Berlin where he got introduced to skateboarding. Justin learned the ropes from his older friends.

He also fell into wayward life when he was younger. But with the help of his genuine friends, he was able to steer in the right direction and has now made a successful career in skateboarding.

INTERVIEWS

Kelly Bird Opens Up in Latest The Nine Club Episode

Published

5 months ago

December 28, 2022

Skate Newswire

Nike SB Global Brand Manager Kelly Bird opens up about growing up in Houston, getting into skateboarding, becoming a pro, and eventually transitioning to the industry side of skateboarding.

Before he became the global brand manager of Nike SB, Kelly worked for DC Shoes and Lakai Footwear.

INTERVIEWS

Catch Up with Mariah Duran in the Latest Nine Club Episode

Published

5 months ago

December 20, 2022

Skate Newswire

Pro skater Mariah Duran has always been into sports as a young kid, she revealed in the latest episode of The Nine Club.

The goofy-footed skater from Albuquerque, New Mexico got introduced to skateboarding when she was around 10. Initially, she would borrow his brother’s board, but her mom eventually bought her a board.

She was also into softball when she was younger and basketball when she was in high school. Later on, she shifted her focus to skateboarding.

Mariah won the USA Skateboarding National Championships Womens Street in 2019, and 2021. She placed 4th in the most recent competition.

She is also a two-time X Games gold medalist for Women’s Street Skateboarding.