Kenny Anderson

Hometown:
Las Vegas, NV.

Sponsors:
Chocolate, Independent, Converse CONS, Satori, Hard Luck, Polar, The Back Forty, Goal Zero.

First skateboard?
First board was at age 10.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Creative thinking, Marvin Gaye, fresh juice.

What inspires you?
Energy, smiles, my kids.

What is your favorite place?
Back home in Vegas, Japan, Nica, Brazil. But, I have my favorite parts about each place I’ve travelled.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The KA-II. We spent a lot of time to get this sneaker right.

Nick Trapasso

Hometown:
Phoenix, AZ.

Sponsors:
LE, Thunder, Converse CONS, Pig Wheels, Shake Junt, Hard Luck, Cowtown, Pyramid Country.

What was your first skateboard?
A Nash.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Good music and good friends.

What inspires you?
My friends.

What is your favorite place?
Long Beach, CA.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The Trapasso Pro II right now.

Zered Bassett

Hometown:
I grew up in Cape Cod in the town of Chatham, MA.

Sponsors:
Expedition One, Red Bull, Tensor, Bones, Spitfire, Hombre, Converse CONS.

First skateboard:
My first board was an old banana board my grandfather got at the dump.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Skateboarding gets me hyped to skate. Good vibes and good people.

What inspires you?
Skating new spots inspires me.

What is your favorite place?
New York City.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The new Weapon Skate Ox.

Eli Reed

Hometown:
Boston, MA.

Sponsors:
Organica, Ace, Converse CONS, Gold Wheels, Diamond, Supreme.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Lately, traveling and being around good people that get you sparked! Seeing young kids with that fire in their eye to skate. That gets me hyped too.

What inspires you?
Women always are my inspiration.

What is your favorite place?
New York.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
Kenny’s latest ones are my favorite to skate in. The KA-II.

Louie Lopez

Hometown:
Hawthorne, CA.

Sponsors:
Flip, Independent, Converse CONS, Ricta, Volcom, Bones, Loud, Mob.

First skateboard?
My first skateboard was a beat up all plastic board from the swap meet that I got when I was 5.

What gets you hyped to skate?
The feeling of rolling away from a new trick or landing something that you worked hard for is what keeps me going. There’s no other comparable feeling.

What inspires you?
Reynolds is a huge inspiration to me. He’s been holding it down for years and shows no sign of slowing down.

What is your favorite place?
Australia.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The CTS in suede and the Star Player Ox.

Sammy Baca

Hometown:
Las Vegas, NV.

Sponsors:
Baker, Independent, Converse CONS, Spitfire, Hard Luck, Vol.4.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Homies.

What inspires you?
Homies.

What is your favorite place?
Las Vegas.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
CTAS Pro.

Mike Anderson

Hometown:
Ventura, CA.

Sponsors:
Krooked, Independent, Converse CONS, Spitfire, Loud, Hard Luck, Matix, Hombre, Mob, Five Points skate shop.

What was your first skateboard?
Got my first real skateboard at five. It was a Powell black panther logo board. Had to go through some gnarly surgeries removing tumors from my foot, then picked up the board again at six or seven.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Not keeping up with politics in skating gets me hyped. When I go online I can get bummed out on where skateboarding is going. But skateboarding is rad. There’s still hope, so I get hyped.

What inspires you?
My family, friends, laughter, woodwork, skateboarding, good food, sleep.

What is your favorite place?
My backyard.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
Star Player is my favorite. Love the CTAS Pro as well.

Jake Johnson

Hometown:
State College, PA.

Sponsors:
Independent, Converse CONS, Hard Luck, OJ’s.

First skateboard?
A Shorty’s Lucky Charm’s man graphic.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Hard working people.

What inspires you?
Lazy animals.

What is your favorite place?
The center.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The KA-II.

Jason Jessee

Hometown:
San Clemente, CA.

Sponsors:
Santa Cruz, Independent, Converse, OJ’s, Hard Luck, Brixton, Stance, Mob.

What was your first skateboard?
My brothers Jay Adams Z-Flex skateboard.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Skateboarding is a mood so all sorts of things get me motivated to get moving, lust for life gets me motivated and a hightend sense of reality always works.

What inspires you?
Common courtesy and consideration and sometime chaos, also a fascination of human behavior.

What is your favorite place?
Location scouting, soft beds and bath tubs with my shorts on and the door opened becuase I like talking a lot and don’t want to miss any action.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
Ok, well any Kenny Anderson, and anything with Star Chevron and if I’m having gear dilemma, the Chuck Taylor.

Tom Remillard

Hometown:
San Diego, CA.

Sponsors:
Expedition One, Ace, Converse CONS, Spitfire, Bones, WeSC, Diamond, Stance, Daf, Rev’d, Route 44 skate shop.

First skateboard?
I received my first skateboard at the age of 9.

What gets you hyped to skate?
I get hyped when I see a group of kids skating together at the park or on the streets, etc. Just crews of homies hanging out riding together making fun of each other whatever, capturing the essence. This also includes my group of friends when they are around.

What inspires you?
I’m inspired by trying new things and curiosity. For example trying a new trick, new food, new place, new type of stretch or jumping into the cockpit of an airplane. I just want to try it and if I fail, accepting it with humility and learning from it.

What is your favorite place?
Up until recently Japan.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
For a while the Trapasso Pro II but again up until recently the KA-II. Backing cupsoles again.

Rune Glifberg

Hometown:
Copenhagen, Denmark.

Sponsors:
Flip, Independent, Converse CONS, Ricta, Volcom, Oakley, Mob.

What was your first skateboard?
Toy store Banana Board at age 11.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Skating with my friends. Seeing other people skate hard. It’s always fun to see people push their personal limits.

What inspires you?
The generations before me and the young kids skating today. Both are a huge inspiration and driving force in my skating. I want to keep doing the stuff the kids do for as long as the guys that are older than me. It’s kinda like being stuck in the middle of an age vortex which I like. Mixing the new with the old in my own way.

What is your favorite place?
Copenhagen in the summer. The city is filled with fun things to see and do. Besides Copenhagen, anywhere with sun, fun and friends.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The “Dr. J” CONS Pro Leather is timeless in my opinion.

Ben Raemers

Hometown:
San Jose, CA and London, UK.

Sponsors:
Enjoi, Independent, Converse CONS, Volcom, Lost Art skate shop.

First skateboard?
First skateboard was a fishtail board with plastic wheels from a toy shop when I was 7.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Being on a trip skating new spots I’ve never been to before.

What inspires you?
Skating with my friends.

What is your favorite place?
Cayman Islands.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The Star Player Ox.

Sage Elesser

Hometown:
Los Angeles, CA.

Sponsors:
Supreme, Converse CONS.

First skateboard?
Real young, about 7 or 8.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Watching Aidan Mackey.

What inspires you?
Friends and Family.

What is your favorite place?
Landmark Diner.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
Chuck Taylor.

Sean Pablo

Hometown:
Los Angeles, CA.

Sponsors:
Supreme, Converse CONS.

First skateboard?
Stereo Jason Lee board. I was super young, like 9 or 10.

What gets you hyped to skate?
Watching my friends skate.

What inspires you?
Steve McQueen.

What is your favorite place?
New York City.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
Boat shoe.

Don “Nuge” Nguyen

Hometown:
Oklahoma City, OK.

Sponsors:
Baker, Independent, Converse CONS, OJ’s, Shake Junt, Hard Luck, Active, Happy Hour, Vol. 4, Goal Zero, Loud, Psockadelic.

First skateboard?
First board was a Variflex, first real set up was a Vision Mark Gonzalez with Indys and OJ-II’s

What gets you hyped to skate?
My friends get me real hyped to skate. Just being outside pushing and skating with the homies is the best feeling that cannot be replaced. I wake up everyday thinking about skating first. its really weird.

What inspires you?
Being able to be on the road. Traveling and music are a big inspiration. I want to travel forever.

What is your favorite place?
Barcelona and Copenhagen.

What’s your favorite sneaker?
The CTAS Pro.

Pontus Alv

Hometown:
I am from a small town called Malmö, Sweden. It’s small but it has an amazing skateboard community and an amazing support from the city. Malmö city’s vision is to be one of the best skateboard cities in the world. I think we are on a really good way to get there thanks to all the great people here involved with the city’s development.

Sponsors:
I just want to skate and do my things and just be me. My ideas and visions are supported by Converse CONS & Carhartt and the platform / stage is called Polar Skate Co. It’s all a film to me or a game of chess.

First skateboard?
My first real professional board was a second hand Bill Danforth Alva pro-model. I bought it from a kid down the street. A few years ago Bill Danforth was invited to Malmö city and I met him. It was a epic moment. I will never forget his frontside wallride off a jumpramp with no shirt on and he rides away with this gnarly face. As a kid I was super scared of him and the rest of the Alva hooligans!

What gets you hyped to skate?
All this new fresh energy right now in skateboarding. A lot of new cool dudes taking control starting brands and pushing out new ideas and visions. A lot of new rad skaters pushing skateboarding in rad creative ways experimenting with classic rad elements. I am really happy that style attitude vibe soul and other creative forms are being pushed again. For a while skateboarding became too much of a trick/hammer program and we lost the idea of the soul, the riding, the fun, the playful elements. It’s just a piece of wood with four wheels similar to a toy a instrument. Lets play with it again, joke with it and just mess around. I am stoked to see people in videos playing, laughing, smiling and not taking this culture too seriously. Well, bottom line skateboard culture is alive again and we are going in a very fun interesting direction right now. Really excited to see the next years unfold. Stoked!

What inspires you?
You can find inspiration everywhere it depends on what kind of inspiration you are looking for. Lately I been really into feeding pigeons outside my local supermarket. I really like to watch study other forms of life to see how they do their things. How does pigeons make love? How do they sleep? Things like that.

What is your favorite place?
Malmö, Copenhagen, New York, Paris, Tokyo, so far more to be explored.