Click below to view our book of 2010 Perspectives interviews and photos.
What's Perspectives? It’s a microphone for the people making things happen. Not all bros are pros. These are their stories.
PHOTO BOOK
2010 Perspectives
2010 Perspectives
DJ A-Dog Videos
DJ A-Dog Photos
From the clothes he wears, to the art he creates, to the beats he spins was all ignited by skateboarding and never complete until he applies his custom real-life remix to it.
See A-Dog's upcoming show dates
All photos except DJ performances by: Mike McDonald
Marginal Way Skatepark Videos
All Music By Clayton Carr myspace.com/claytoncarr & iTunes
Marginal Way Skate Park Interview
It’s a community of people that have a stake in the park for the skaters of Seattle. We raise the money, we build it, we maintain it. It’s a public skatepark, built by the public. When we get a truck of concrete, everyone is ready to build.
We sat down with Marginal Way founders Dan Barnet, Shawn Bishop & Tim Demmon to get their Perspective.
Photo by Dan Barnet of Max airing a gap that was only around for a few months before it was poured, closing another chapter in the park’s history
What drove you to create a skate park on town property?
Knowing that it had happened before in Portland, San Diego and places like that. Those guys looked at the lack of skateable terrain, went out, found derelict property, and built it themselves. The real impetus here was the city was tearing out existing skate parks in Seattle with no plans of replacing them.
Why did you build it where you did?
We spent a good month trying to find a good location. The spot we found on Marginal Way was city property under an over pass, used as an overflow parking lot by businesses in the area. The reality is though; it wasn’t the kind of place anyone wanted in the area. There were people living in their cars dealing drugs, prostitution, anything we did we figured would be far more positive than anything going on there originally. Despite the fact that what we were doing was illegal, it was illegal in a much more positive way than everything that was already going on down there.
Despite the fact that what we were doing was illegal, it was illegal in a much more positive way
What was the first day of construction like?
Once we identified the spot we thought, are we going to do this or not? Then we said, we’re going to do this next Sunday! If anyone is going to join us, be there. Tim and I got some materials together, cut some plywood forms ahead of time and showed up. We didn’t know if we were going to get arrested or what, but we got away with it, so it was cool. Throughout that first day 20 some odd people came in and out. Some showed up and gave us $20 and left, others just dropped off a bag of concrete. Most people wanted to be there, but didn’t really know if we were going to get away with it. A few days later we were skating it.
Photo by Dan Barnet of the first concrete feature (left) you can still skate today now part of much longer 40’+ wall ride
Did you have a plan to build a legit skatepark?
I don’t know if we set out to build a giant skate park or not, but we knew it was a possibility; we were just going to take it from there. At that time we just had a small quarter against the overpass wall but we sessioned it for a few months before we built another ramp.
How did you know how to build a concrete park?
We all saw enough parks built to have an idea of how things went together but one guy Greg was in the concrete union that skated who we couldn’t have started without. He never built a park but at least he knew how concrete worked. So between his knowledge and what we’d seen we were able to figure it out.
Putting the finishing touches on a truck load of concrete donated by Planet Earth to complete the new bowl
What was the city’s reaction?
Soon after we built the second ramp, the city started poking their nose around and letting us know that they knew what we were up to and if someone didn’t get in touch with them to take responsibility, they were going to tear it all out. At that point, we started with a two prong approach. On one side, we opened communications with the city, on the other side we created an all out media blitz to get the public on your side. It just seemed like thing to do, we had to go from completely under the radar to on the radar and play the sympathy card, “the city won’t give us anywhwere to skate and is going to tear down our only spot.” In my experience, a little shame goes a long way, so we shamed the city to let us keep going.
How did the media help you?
There was an article in the Stranger, and people started rooting us on. There was a really sympathetic article on TV one night so even the way the media was portraying the story was slanted against the city. One of the things we did during media blitz is register marginal way www.skatepark.org. Even though it definitely wasn’t a skatepark, it showed we wanted to make it one, and made people think of it more legitimately. Once we called it a skatepark it sounded grander than it was.
Did you officially get permission to build on city property?
Initially their concern was liability but I educated them on the fact that in the state of Washington there was a recreational sports law that says “any public or private entity is not responsible for injuries as a result of recreational activities such as skateboarding etc. on their property.” Seattle has a long history of skateboard advocacy so we worked with those people that were already in with the city and once they realized they were talking with responsible tax paying adults, they were much more open to listen. So we did eventually get a letter of permission from city to build the park on their property. One of the things we asked them for is mitigating the prostitution, homeless problem, so they gave us a row jersey barriers to keep people from parking there. The jersey barriers were a skateble feature and later became a foundation to build bigger walls on top of and are still under there.
Photo by Dan Barnet of Tim hand mixing concrete from the days before the concrete & pump trucks
Who’s responsible for building and managing the park today?
One of the rad things about marginal way is we take credit for getting the ball rolling, but it’s since built it’s own community that continues to pick up speed, now with it’s own life force that’s bigger than just us or any one person involved. It’s a community of people built up around the park, that have a stake in the park for the city, the skaters of Seattle and those that want to work to make it bigger and better. We raise the money, we build it, we maintain it, we do everything. It’s a public skatepark, built by the public.
We build it as we can afford to, one concrete truck load at a time.
How much time & money does it take?
It’s not like a public park where an engineer draws it all out and then you build it all at once and it’s done. The fact that each part of each section is built separately at a different point of time, often by different people is what makes skating it so unique. Each section has a different look and feel so the park as a whole is constantly evolving. We’ve been at it for over five years now and spent close to $30,000 to create the 10,000 square feet we’ve got so far. We build it as we can afford to, one concrete truck load at a time. We raise the money by holding events, barbeques, concerts, selling tee shirts, and receiving all size donations online and from companies, it all adds up. One section was paid for by a members of Pearl Jam that skates, another by Redbull when they needed a large flat area to hold a comp and more recently we just finished the shallow bowl thanks to a concrete truck load of cement donated by you guys at Planet Earth Clothing.
What’s marginal Way’s future?
Right now we’re still trying to expand into more areas of the parking lot. Its like an art project, it will probably never be complete, we can always change or redo something or repair a section that can be improved. It’s not like a city skatepark where it’s done, this is going to be forever evolving.
Photo by Dan Barnet of the before and after shallow bowl construction
What would like to tell other skaters?
Its great in this day and age to create something to the scale of marginal way without any city or business or government financial backing. You don’t have to wait for the government to give you a hand out. Anybody can do this, all you have to do is start building and see what happens. Sometimes you’re going to get a way with it and if you do get away with it, and build one thing at a time, you’ll have a skatepark.
Max testing the new bowl’s freshly cured concrete. Photo by Dan Barnet looking through the same gap seen earlier in this interview now finished
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Grain Surfboards Videos
GRAIN SURFBOARDS INTERVIEW
Mike LaVecchia and Brad Anderson are a couple of guys living on a farm on the coast of Maine who pride themselves on their woodwork. Unlike the typical furniture builders in the area, they’re building surfboards.
All photos by Nick LaVecchia
What drove you to start building wooden surfboards?
Mike: I knew a little about traditional boat building. Growing up snowboarding and skateboarding, I always knew that surfing was in my future. I think it was a combination of the things that I love which turned me on to wooden boards. So one summer a friend and I decided to build a board for fun. We built 1 or 2, trying different methods, After showing them around, some friends and family said they’d love to have me build them one. We never intended to build a business; we were just building stuff to ride.
How did it transition into a business?
Mike: N’East magazine did a little story about a couple guys in southern Maine building wooden surfboards. The Associated Press in Portland saw it, and ran their own story on us. About a week before the story came out, Clark Foam closed down and the whole industry was turned upside down wondering what was going to happen. So our story was picked up immediately by newspapers all around the world. We started getting emails from people all over the country and even military guys in Iraq and suddenly overnight we had 6 orders from people in Florida, Hawaii, and all over. Brad came in as co-owner and we were off.
Why wood instead of foam?
Brad: Well for thousands of years people were riding heavy solid wood surfboards so it’s nothing new. Around the 1920s this guy named Tom Blake started building wood boards hollow. So instead of weighing 200 lbs they weighed more like 90. They were made of plywood and were basically pointy boxes with square sides. Eventually new materials and technologies employing foam, fiberglass & polyester resins were discovered and that brought even lighter weights and infinite 3D shaping possibilities. We’re just bringing it back to the roots of where wood surfboard construction left off but using new techniques that can produce some of the most advanced shapes ever made. It’s great to close the circle.
What makes your boards different from other wood surfboards?
Mike: It’s got an internal wooden frame like a wooden boat which the board gets built around, kind of like a ribcage. The big difference is a milling process, we use only about a third of the wood used in other wood boards. Since we build up the blank around the frame, and don’t hollow out huge chunks of solid wood, what goes into the board stays in the board. Most unique is the way we build the rails hollow & lighter than any other wood board process.
Are there any environmental benefits to this construction?
Brad: It’s still unrealistic to achieve absolute sustainability but we’re far closer than traditional foam board building. First of all we use sustainable-yield local wood. Unlike foam, wood is naturally structural, so we only need one thin glass layer rather than the multiple layers required to give foam strength. That means we use less glass, which takes amazing amounts of energy to produce, and much less resin. The resin we use is also an epoxy instead of polyester so it doesn’t emit volatile greenhouse gases. We’re always experimenting with new potentially green epoxies & cloths. These materials cost a little more and may take a little more time to work with, but obviously it’s worth it to keep finding more ways to impact the ecology less.
Is the reduced environmental impact a good part of why people are buying your boards?
Brad: Look – there’s no avoiding the fact that everyone is going to have to think more about how we’re going to move forward without slamming the planet with everything we do. That means everyone needs to do things differently. This is just one way for surfers to get closer to doing the right thing. People buying our boards are making that choice.
Tell us about the actual business
Brad: We run this place on 100% flex time, as long as people get their work done, it’s all good. So we get people who are fully into what they’re doing. People just want to get involved; we’ve even got people that just donate their time to us. A new friend of ours came in last week and rebuilt the engine in our old truck. He just did it. People are just into what we’re doing.
What attracts people to get so involved?
Mike: Although we work really hard here pretty much seven days a week, in some ways it’s more of a club than it is a business. We don’t say, “Shit, we got to build 20 boards this week!”. The place is partly a hang out, where a group of friends happen to be doing work they want to do. We even offer classes here, where people come in for a week and go home with their own board.
That’s sick! Anyone can just come in and make their own board?
Mike: Yeah and for locals, we also open the shop 2 days a week during winter, so people can just come in and use all our tools. We want to be part of a community that’s about more than just creating a business. That’s what it’s always been about. If you’re not enjoying it and getting something out of it on a personal level, I don’t really understand why you’d do it.
So why do you live in the North East? You’re as far from the So. Cal surfing epicenter as you can get.
Brad: Maine is where the wood grows! Seriously though, we’ve never even talked about moving west, Grain just fits into the lives we were already living here. And if our experience is any guide, the decisions that you make for the right reasons just seem to implicitly be good for you.
What’s your plans for the future?
Brad: Most companies imagine themselves growing right now. We’re a company growing as it needs to. We’ve borrowed almost no money and just have a small line of credit. It’s like instead of going out and getting a mortgage, we’re building a house as we have money to buy the nails, the wood, the siding. It’s growing slowly, that’s an important part of our model’s crawl, walk, run methodology. We don’t follow the traditional model because we want to have fun doing this, and borrowing leads to pressure, and that kind of pressure bleeds the fun right out of everything.
Any last thoughts?
Mike: This little company is our life and we just want it to be as good as it can be. For us, good isn’t measured by “how big”. It’s measured by how fun it is to do and how much people want to be around it, by what level of quality goes out the door, and by our place in our environment and among our community of friends.
Check out their boards at GrainSurfboards.com
DJ A-Dog Video
DJ A Dog is a staple in the Vermont music scene and go-to music guy for the biggest events in the skate & snowboard industry throughout the US. His passion for skating has influenced his so much of his life and career no other sport could.
333 Skis Video
333 Skis is founded, owner and operated by Micheal Lish. The mobile factory is built from 90% found and reclaimed material and can build a set of skis start to finish using only solar power. The manufacturing platform is unlike any other in the world.
Snowboarding the Coastline
We were in the mountains of Dalvik, Iceland staying at the Bergmenn lodge. It always has perfect touring access in April and May, but this day the weather turned too snowy and windy to go up. So we drove along the coastline and found this small chute from the road that went down to the Atlantic ocean. We rode it and walked around on the rocks and could see small fishing boats far out in the big waves, trying to pick up nets.
- Gosta Fries, Photographer
Old Faithful
Some friends from home joined me for a week during my one month stay in AK at SEABA. For years they’ve seen my photos of the skiing we’ve done and wanted to experience it. This day it was partly cloudy so we had low expectations of getting any skiing in at all. We headed over to Old Faithful, named because it always comes through with the good weather, today was one of those days.
Pre-Season Snow Patch
Each year all Montana snowboarders and skiers are treated to some pre-season man made snow and jibs, compliments of a little place known as Great Divide just outside of Helena. They always throw a big open entry contest and then just let kids get their fix sessioning the line of jibs. The morning after the event we went back up for a few more hours on snow. After finding the contest line to be pretty blown out, we retreated to this patch of snow just at the base. Their was something so unique about wathcing Tyrel and Phil session this dinky little box on a mini patch of snow in a sea of dry ground. It seemed an example of true dedication to ones passions. Knowing the amazing terain and snow these guys are privledged to ride each year, yet finding them still stoked to session this. I felt obligated to do my best to document it wholly.
- Jeff Hawe, Photographer
