INTERVIEWS

Jason Jessee Explains the Interview That Exiled Him From the Skate Industry

Published

4 years ago

March 4, 2019

Even the most casual follower of skate culture should be familiar with Jason Jessee’s story, and the controversial ‘90s interview from Iron Horse magazine that resurfaced last year, and resulted in Jessee being dropped by Converse and Santa Cruz. It was the subject of a Vice exposé, and Jessee personally addressed the incident via Instagram last summer. He gives a three-hour account of what happened in the latest episode of The Nine Club starting at the 11:23 mark.

Yeah, I said some terrible shit. If I say what it really was, it will sound fake… Obviously I would never use [those words] now. It wouldn’t work. We would hear stuff downstairs and next door [at a motorcycle shop]. And it drove us crazy. I was a motorcycle enthusiast, and I have been my whole life… There was this biker scene in the ‘90s that you could not relate to. It was stonewashed jeans; and everything about it was terrible… So, not to skirt around this, but if you read the whole thing; it’s pretty sarcastic. It’s bad. But we had fun doing it at the time. [We were] idiot kids… there were no consequences back then. So we were like fuck these guys. Let’s talk shit. They sell it [Iron Horse Magazine] downstairs. They’re gonna see it. Let’s just go full bozo with it. And we blew it. I blew it. We were partying. And I grew up never drinking or partying… You do things to get a reaction. And it was an easy target. We took the easiest thing… I wanted to get a name for myself in the motorcycle world; because skateboarding will always be there for me.

Dive into the full interview above.

INTERVIEWS

‘Good Work’ Episode Features Lisa Whitaker and Meow Skateboards

Published

2 months ago

September 23, 2022

Skate Newswire

Skater Lisa Whitaker narrated how she started Meow Skateboards in this episode of “Good Work”.

She also related how she got introduced to skateboarding and how she founded Girls Skate Network in 2003.

Whitaker started her skateboard company in 2012. Now, Meow has more than a dozen talents including Vanessa Torres, Mariah Duran and Kristin Ebeling.

“Lisa has always been the catalyst for women skateboarding”, says Torres who was one of the first skaters to join Meow’s roster.

Produced by Red Bull, the Good Work series features skater-owned and operated businesses.

INTERVIEWS

Monster Energy’s Aspire-Inspire Episode Features Mami Tezuka

Published

3 months ago

August 31, 2022

Skate Newswire

Get to know more about Mami Tezuka in this episode of Aspire-Inspire by Monster Energy.

Surrounded by skaters growing up, Mami showed interest in skateboarding at around the age of three.

She started participating in competitions abroad in 2017. In 2021, she won silver in the X Games Women’s Skateboarding part. She landed third place in X Games Chiba 2022.

Fellow Monster Energy rider and friend Lizzie Armanto describes Mami as easy-going, fun to be around, and inspiring. “When I’m around her, I want to push myself better,”

Tezuka admits that she enjoys filming video parts more enjoyable than participating in contests.

“Competition is kind of stressful for me”, Mami said. But added that she does enjoy seeing everyone at contests.

“Filming part is more fun for me…it doesn’t to be hard, tricky trick, but you can see the style and progress of the skating”, explained Mami.

I want to inspire girl skaters and young people. Do what you love and then don’t be afraid to be yourself.
Mami tezuka

Aspire-Inspire is a mini-documentary series by Monster Energy. Previous episodes featured Aurelien Giraud, Kelvin Hoefler, Rune Glifberg, Ayumu Hirano, Nyjah Huston, and Matt Berger.

INTERVIEWS

The Nine Club Features Elliot Sloan

Published

3 months ago

August 24, 2022

Skate Newswire

Elliot Sloan narrated how he injured his neck while doing a 900 and his other worst slams on the ramp in this episode of The Nine Club podcast.

He also talked about getting into vert and then mega ramp, building his own vert and mini mega ramp in his own backyard, and hosting the X Games in his backyard among other things in the two-hour podcast.

Sloan is a four-time X Games Big Air gold medalist. In the recent X Games held in his backyard, he landed second place in the debut of the Mega Ramp category and first in the Skateboard Vert Best Trick.