There was only one left! Thanks to Christian Alexander’s help, I got ahold of Tanner Van Vark to close out the Three Seasonsinterviews!
I called him up to chat about his latest part, what went into some of these clips, and how he got so good at Wallies.
🌀: Yo what’s up Tanner! Thanks for being down to chat.
Yeah for sure, no worries!
🌀: The Three Seasons video dropped a few days ago, how does it feel for it to be all done and out there?
It feels good. Pat, Gage, and I had all accumulated footage so we decided to do this project. We were planning to release it around November, but Skater Of The Year time got pretty hectic. I’m pretty stoked on the timing and everything.
To kick off our coverage of Three Seasons we caught up with Patrick Praman. There’s only one way to follow that up; catch up with another star of the show, Gage Boyle! A few days following the release of the video we hopped on a call with Gage to chat through the different premieres, signing a waiver to skate a kinked rail, working with Tim Fulton and more!
🌀: What’s up Gage!
What’s up! Good morning. How are you?
🌀: I’m good dude! How about you, how does it feel to have this project out there finally?
It feels so good to have it out! Everything went well with the premieres. I’ve been sitting on that footage for a little while, so to have it out finally and hear a good response from everyone makes me the happiest, so I’m very stoked.
REAL Skateboards’ latest release Three Seasons premiered a few weeks ago here in LA, but in a unique fashion. With a projector, ziplock bags of popcorn, red vines, and even custom red cups as a souvenir, Griffith Parl was packed with skaters excited to see what Gage, Patrick, Tanner, and the whole REAL crew had been working on. Tim Fulton and Christian Alexander said a few words, pressed play, and it did not disappoint. There’s something so special about video premieres, they always give me a rush that I don’t seem to get any other time. The sounds of skateboarding are beautiful, and speakers turned to max volume at a video premiere is all you need to hear in order to attest to that.
A gift to take home is always nice!
I’ve patiently waited for Jan 23rd, as I knew that would be the next time I could watch this video. Well, it finally came. As I rewatched the video I was reminded of how many amazing tricks there were that needed to be looped, and my mind wandered, thinking about what went into some of these clips. I was able to call up one of the stars of the show and hear a bit about the process of this video, his personal favorite clips, and much more –
🌀: What’s up Pat!
What up! I’m just in my robot legs right now.
🌀: Ah it’s recovery time. Did you get out today?
I’ve been going out with T-Huff trying to film this video for Thrasher, just iPhone clips. Over the weekend I went out and tried to get a clip but I didn’t get it, I just got smoked, so I’ve been skating on smoked legs.
Following Jake’s “E30” part that just dropped, I gave him a call to hear about the process of working on this one, dive into some stand out tricks, and discuss the importance of personality being shown in skate videos. Go give the part a watch if you haven’t, it’s a real good one. Enjoy! –
Jake and his E30!
🌀: Yo what’s up Jake! How’s it going?
I’m good, just chilling.
🌀: Nice, well thanks for being down to do this, I thought it’d be cool to hear about your new part. How are you feeling now that the part is out, excited, relieved?
Yeah, it’s definitely a relief. It only took a little over a year to film, but it felt like it took so long. Super stoked on how it came out, I feel like it had a pretty good reaction. People liked it so I’m stoked.
In December 2016, I showed up to the West LA Courthouse with Daniel Policelli for a session. There were only two other people there that day, one person skating, and one filming. The skater was Tanner, I had recognized him from seeing him around at contests in the past, and come to find out, he recognized me as well. Since it was such a small crew that day, I figured I’d say what’s up. I chatted with Tanner, and the filmer, Bryan Betz, for a few minutes, and went on with my session. A few months later, Tanner posted that he was in San Diego skating, so I hit him up, and ended up showing his crew some spots.
Fast forward four and a half years, and here we are. Tanner and I have traveled together to places like San Francisco and Toronto, we skate as often as possible, and nerd out on just about every skate video that drops. Working on a project with such a close friend makes it even more special. We had a long conversation about why his part is titled “Welp”, how he finds spots on Google Maps, escaping from the cops, his obsession with Takis, and more. Enjoy, oh, and give “Welp” a rewatch while you’re at it.
🌀: How are you feeling now that your part has dropped? I know it’s been a process to film, edit, and get it released, but it’s finally out there!
It feels really good. Originally we were working on a different project, which didn’t end up working out, but obviously we still had the footage and wanted to put out a part. This seemed like the easiest way to put it out, with you. One thing that the footage was going to go towards was a Thunder part, but with Covid that got pushed back a little bit, so we were waiting trying to figure out what to do with the footage, and Nate (Thunder TM) said to just put this part out, then start working on the Thunder part, so we aren’t sitting on this footage for too long.
He’s known for his next-level ledge moves, but there’s a lot more to JP than just those tech skills. He’s always joking around, betting on every try, and just bringing good energy to every session. I love seeing people get the recognition they deserve, and this past week has been just that for JP. We touch on his pro surprise, new part, being offered $600 for an ollie, his wild bag of tricks and much more!
🌀: This past week seems to have been a memorable one for you, you were surprised with 2 pro boards, and dropped a Thrasher part, how are you feeling?
Dude, feeling crazy, feeling nice man. It was a trip, you know? Got the board surprise, I knew it was coming but I didn’t know when. It was a crazy feeling, it was how I always dreamed it would be, with all of my friends there. I had a BBQ at my house after and I couldn’t eat. I was just drinking, but drinking was hard too because I would get this weird feeling, like this thing I worked for for like 20 years or something finally happened. The part I’m most hyped about is that my friends and family were even more happy than me. That was the best feeling, everyone being proud and like “He got it, he made it”.
🌀: Let’s get into this pro surprise, it was at the Willmington Ledge, a spot you seem to love, what did you think the plan was that day?
Tyrone, he’s the brand manager at NB#, he hit me up to do a wear test of this shoe that he knows I love and asked if I had someone to come film. I was like “Oh yeah for sure, my friend Shane can do it”, Shane is the guy I filmed this part with, he’s been my friend for a long time. So I was like “Ok, let’s go to Willmington”, we go there, the ledge was knobbed, so we were just going to skate flat to show the shoe. Shane came to film and he said “Yo, Joey (Brezinski) is going to come film a second angle”. Joey is a pro for Visual, but he also likes to film, so I was like “Cool, sounds good”. Carlos (Ribeiro) pulled up too. I was playing a game of skate with Carlos, and he lost and broke my board. I had no more boards with me, only old boards in my car, so I got pissed off and went to grab his board and broke it too. I went to my car, picked up an old board, and as I was setting it up, that fool (Carlos) pushed me and broke it. I was so pissed, like “This fools a dick, he’s trying to be funny right now in front of you guys, he thinks he’s the shit”. I was like (to Carlos) “Now you’re going to go to the car, get a board for me, and set it up for me”. He picked up another old board from the car for me, as I’m setting it up he pushes me again, as soon as he pushed me I was thinking “Dude, there’s something wrong, what the fuck is this dude gonna do?!”. He broke the 3rd board and I saw Steve, the Visual owner, with some boards in his hands, and he looked at me weird. He said “Hey, I heard this guy was being a dick and breaking your boards, so I thought you’d need some more” and right there, boom, my pro board.
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