Steve Olson Interview: Part 1

It's difficult to accurately describe the unique vibe of Melrose Ave. It's as if every conceivable sub-culture decided to set up shop on one street. Graffiti pieces adorn the walls of buildings that pulsate with music and life. Everywhere you look there's cutting edge hair salons, exotic eateries, art galleries and record stores (that actually carry good music) with the scent of Nag Champa drifting from their doors. Melrose almost makes me not hate driving to Hollywood. In the heart of this hub of art and culture lives Steve Olson. He lives and works out of a small studio next to a tattoo parlor filled with trendy hipsters smoking Sampoernas and Dunhills. His home is filled with pieces of his art as well as a bevy of skateboards and surfboards. He's polite and friendly. As we stroll to the store later in the evening to grab a pack of Parliaments, I notice that every person we encounter seems to know him. He greets them warmly with a smile and engages them in a brief chat. He's likable and charming. He loves to cook but doesn't believe in recipes. He has some of the coolest looking cowboy shirts I've ever seen. He uses speed rings in place of riser pads. He still skates and surfs as often as possible and he's very proud of his son, Alex. We sat down and chatted for a couple hours and discussed his life as a skateboarder, surfer, artist and father...just don't call him a journalist.

So how long have you been in Hollywood?

I’ve been coming out to Hollywood since ’78. I grew up in Rossmoore. Not too many people know where Rossmoore is, it’s very small and suburban.

Isn’t it like a part of Seal Beach?

Well it’s kind of like the inland part of Seal Beach. Back when I grew up there it was a middle class neighborhood.

Do you see yourself in Hollywood a lot longer?

I see myself wherever it happens to take me, wherever that is. To say that my 5-year plan, 10-year plan or 20-year plan don’t exist? That’s true. It’s more in the now.

Where have you been skating locally?

I don’t really have one spot. I’ve been to this place over here at the Supreme Shop.

That’s a wood bowl, right?

It’s a wood bowl with coping. It’s really convenient and easy to get to.

Was that from The Skateboard Mag cover with your son?

Yeah, exactly. It’s close and those cats at Supreme are really excellent. I like all the dudes that work there and the bowl is totally fun. It’s like a fishpond with coping and you can really lay into grinds.

The transitions look tight.

It’s tight but it’s totally amazingly fun. Then there’s Culver City that’s 15 minutes away and then there’s Glendale that’s 25 minutes away, you have Belvedere and you have Pedlow out in the Valley. You got Simi, Santa Monica, the East L.A. bowl, Highland Park so there are a lot of places within a half hour radius which is tight.

There’s some good backyarders out in LA still?

Oh there’s a ton. Tons.

Is it pretty easy to get a permission situation going out here?

Yeah, homeowners don’t trip as hard as they used to. Skateboarding is more readily accepted which is excellent. We’re gonna get a skatepark in this park down here hopefully. Pan Pacific.

Is that already in the design phase or any shit like that?

No, not at all it’s still with the city council.

I know Schroeder, Lance and Salba have helped in designing parks, have you ever given your input on park design?

No, I’d like to but I have not.

What would you do differently?

I would make a really amazingly fun place.

What kind of stuff would you put in the park? Lots of pool coping blocks I hope.

Well, there’d be a lot of pool coping but there’d also be oververt pockets snake runs. Fun areas, cool street shit because street is a huge part of skateboarding. A good long reservoir channel run…a lot of different types of things.

I did help make a pool back in the late 70’s at this place called the Concrete Wave. I think it was the first pool in the skatepark but they did it weird. They didn’t plaster it. They left it rough and a lot of it was shot. They didn’t do the final coat. They came in and dug it with maybe a bobcat or something but we were in there patting it down and making sure that the transitions were good and everything and it turned out to be a piece of shit. Not from our work on it, but due to the construction dudes.

Out of the public skatepark bowls, which ones do you dig the most?

I really like Glendale.

The kidney?

Not so much the pool, I like the other parts of the Glendale park. I like the oververt pockets, it’s really got a surfing kind of feel to it and I still kind of like to have that surfing feel.

You still surfing a lot?

Yeah, I’m going tomorrow morning at 6am.

So you’re getting in a few sessions a week?

I’ll surf whenever, yeah but I’m really focused on making a lot of art lately, I mean that’s kind of my livelihood so that’s what I do and skate for fun, race and ride the parks and whatever.

Was art something you slowly transitioned into?

No, I have an older brother, Bucky that was an an artist ever since I was a little kid and he’s an amazing person. We were doing films throughout early 70’s and my brother was way talented. Then he got into making surfboards and he was a shaper and he was probably one of the best airbrushers.

Didn’t he do Pocket Pistols Surfboards?

Yeah, but he also worked with a lot of different companies. He was in the production world of surfboards. Homeboy is so much more talented than most people and he’s just a dope ass brother.

How did he feel about Chicken coming out with Pocket Pistols?

Well, of course his reaction was, since we come from the same mold was: “What a kook!” Like the fucking guy can’t come up with an original idea? I feel the same way, that name existed before. I should probably shove my fist down your throat but I like you too much so that’s….boring. Yeah, whatever it’s chill. I’m not really interested in re-hashing the old shit and we live in a re-hash world, but whatever it’s what it is.

Was is just you two growing up?

Yeah, it was just Bucky and I…and we got cool parents. I’m one of the luckiest people I know.

Are your parents native Californians?

No, my mom’s a hillbilly from Tennessee and my dad’s a Viking from Minnesota. They’re just dope people. I have a great family structure, I feel beyond fortunate and everyday I’m grateful.

What’s your setup for pools/transition?

I ride the same board basically in everything.

What board width?

Like the 9 ¼ to 9 ½.

Like a 16 inch wheelbase?

I think so, maybe it’s a little less maybe 15 ¾ maybe even 15 ½ .

You seem to always be riding a board with sidecuts and a punk point.

Yeah, I dunno I always liked the point and I always tried to push the point. A lot of times the point got denied. Like back in the early 80’s I’d say “Let’s put a point on my board” and they’d be like ‘Hm…I don’t know.” I’m like “Fuck you man, fucking put the point on!”.

Independent 169’s?

I think they’re 149’s. I’m totally into the Bones Bushings setup too. I’m totally into the mediums and really that comes from racing. Giant slalom, tight slalom, park slalom. I like good, fast bearings. There’s a lot of good bearings out there.

For fast, I dig the Bones Swiss or the RocknRon’s.

I’m rocking RocknRons right now and I dunno they don’t seem to be rockin’ as fast as I thought they would be. Oh, plus you also got Oust and Bones….

So you’re riding Indy’s in parks and shit, but what are you using for slalom?

Radikals or G.O.G.’s. They’re far advanced trucks as far as racing is concerned.

Radikals aren’t cheap.

They shouldn’t be either.

They make an amazing slalom truck.

At the same time, it’s sad to say but Independent came from slalom racing and had nothing to do with bowl riding. They still don’t get it, they never will get it because all they care about is moving units, and that’s fine and understandable, but they came from racing and had nothing to do with pools, banks, reservoirs, ditches whatever. It had to do with racing. They had Independent suspension trucks. They say Blackhart and I were the dudes…it was slalom racing. That was their deal. They didn’t realize that pools and parks were going to be the thing back in that period of skateboarding. I dig em’ though. They’re good guys.

So NHS is doing a re-issue of your Santa Cruz board?

I think so.

On a modern concave?

I hope not. They should do it with a cool concave. Not such a modern, steep concave but they should definitely upturn the nose.

Why did it take them so long to re-issue your board?

For a long time I had no interest in re-issuing the board. I didn’t want to do it. Whatever. I hope they use the correct graphic.

Do you have a collection of them still?

Me? I have a couple. I need the red dot one. I couldn’t care less about the last one. It was a drag because all these kids push out graphics every three months. I wish it would’ve been like that back then because we could have done some fucking dope ass graphics. I’m not into pictures on a board. I don’t give a fuck about a skull on the board even though I did one which turned out wack.

Was the skull with S.O.S. (Steve Olson Skates) or Skull Skates?

No, but Skull does a cool looking skull. My brother did all my graphics when I was on Santa Cruz.

No shit?

Jim Phillips fucking puts it in a book, in print that he’s the guy who did it. Fuck you hippie, you fucking lying piece of shit. You have enough of your own work to go off of. Why do you have to bullshit? He’s a fucking knob. That shows what type of character he has. He has to sit there and has to come up with a back-story of how the graphic came about. He had nothing to do with the graphic. To have someone write this is how the situation happened? It’s fucking pathetic. It makes me sick to my stomach. It’s such a joke. Enough of the fucking lies. How does it make me feel? I’d like to fucking choke the fucking faggot out.

How does Bucky feel about it?

Oh Bucky is angrier about it than I am but at the same time he doesn’t give a fuck. He thinks the surf and skate industry is a joke and he’s absolutely right. It’s run by lame goons, period. It’s always going to be like that and that’s just the way it is because the people that can do something about it obviously don’t care that much. They also have the audacity to ask me to come to a signing so I can come and sign this lie? His art is so fucked. There’s a lot of bad art out there and he’s one of the worst, lamest lowbrow artists I’ve ever seen.

There was a period of time that it was easy to go to a lot of skateshops and buy a wider board with a bigger wheelbase because you had a model out on Emergency.

Yeah, and you have John Lucero who says that that part of skateboarding is not that important, there’s no market for it. That’s what it’s become. He’s another wack graphic artist that just steals, blatantly steals. When he did my graphics I was like, “Wow that is so wack!”. There were a couple that were really horrible. I said “All you have to do is just call me and I’ll come down and we can get it done in an hour!” I was so not against collaborating but I’m not into someone just doing them. My brother did all my graphics for S.O.S. and we did it together.

Was it an amicable parting with Label?

No, I was just over it. I was into it in the beginning. I’m almost 50 years old. I’m not worried about skateboarding being my livelihood. I was cool with riding with Duane though. I was more like “Let’s do a limited edition, one off deal.”

Do you see yourself riding for a new board sponsor again?

Not unless they pay me millions of dollars. (chuckles) No, that’s definitely not going to happen. I have no sponsors. I get shit free from a lot of different people and I do a lot of different boards with a lot of different companies.

I was stoked to see you had a wheel with Spitfire earlier this year.

Yeah, but they couldn’t pull off the wheel I wanted to do so they just stuck it in the “Lifer Series”. It’s so mundane.

Did you like the way they rode?

I never rode them once. I couldn’t be more honest. I never tried them. I don’t know how they work. I don’t even have a set.

They didn’t send you any?

I don’t think they sent me any.

So you’re riding the Bones wheels?

I like Spitfires a lot too, I ride whatever, I have no commitment to anyone. Spitfire made me a wheel but I really didn’t have much to do with it. I wasn’t really interested in having vato writing on my wheel.