By K.R. Susienka
In the world of skateboarding today, there appears to be a struggle between what is pure and what is marketable. What is pure is left by the wayside in terms of its exposure to the masses. What is deemed marketable, although it may lack purity, is produced, packaged and widely distributed throughout the world. Very few people can walk the line between the two so succinctly as Joey Pepper. Joey has the trick selection and attitude that foster his popularity with the general public, yet he maintains the strong ties to his roots that consistently increase the level of respect he deserves with skateboarders who don’t necessarily buy into the new wave of popularity skateboarding is experiencing.
Joey Pepper was born in Lansing, Michigan. At two years old, a long trip in his mother’s Pontiac Firebird brought him to New England, an area in the Northeast region of the United States, upon which he would eventually leave an indelible mark. Pepper began skateboarding when he was 10 years old in the 5th grade. In a world where you can build a complete skateboard online and have it delivered to your door via UPS or FedEx, Joey’s came from a different source. “A friend of my mom’s was a garbage man”, states Pepper, “and he found a green banana board in someone’s trash.” That green skateboard, which Joey originally rode sitting down on a big hill near his house, was quickly retired after being repeatedly hit by cars, as well as the instance where Joey finally realized that standing up on a skateboard is the way to go. “The first time I got speed wobbles I was in the coffin position going 25 miles an hour and I got thrown into the woods. I have been standing up ever since.”
Joey started skating with three kids from his neighborhood named Justin, Mark and Darren. Within a short period of time, he ended up linking up with Toebee Parkhurst and other more experienced skateboarders from surrounding towns in Maine. “One thing I remember noticing was the guys who could ollie higher and skated with power. I saw one dude backside 180 a jersey barrier and then backside melon it at a little park in Waterville, Maine called Head of the Falls. I can remember that day so clearly. It was Rich Poirier. He was bad ass. He reminded me a lot of Sheffey. ” Rich Poirier and Ryan McGowan were big influences on Joey in his early days. Not only did they ollie high and skate faster than everyone else around him, but they were “the ones who would call (him) a pussy when he skated too slow or got in the way.”
“Being an asshole is a lost art in skating these days. Without the assholes in the skate world, everything would just be glossy and spoon fed with no edge”, says Joey. Pepper was young when pros were focusing boards or taking them for getting in the way. “Those were tough times, but they helped shape me as a skater and showed me how to respect skating.” In the here and now, it seems to Joey that skateboarding lends itself to catering to new skaters and, unfortunately, coddling them, rather than “weeding out the weak links that should probably quit anyways.”
Joey’s mother, Liz Pepper, played an extremely positive role in his skateboarding. She would drive over an hour every weekend in the dead of winter just so he could skate Ratz Skatepark in Biddeford, Maine. Pepper credits his mother for her “patience, open mindedness and trust. Without her, I wouldn’t be skating today. Not all parents would trust their kid out with dudes twice their age going to do something they know nothing about, and that was before any parent had a chance at grasping what skating is all about.” This statement raises an interesting point in regard to the role of the family in a skateboarder’s life. Today, it appears that a parent’s role in a child’s activity is based primarily upon funding and transportation, which are parameters set forth by a league or organization. With skateboarding, being that it overall lacks league-type organization, it is fueled mainly by the mainstream’s knack for advertising activities outside of their original intent. Joey Pepper counters this by saying that when he was young, “there was not talk of sponsorship, money, Rob and Big or Bam Margera. It was just “I’m going skateboarding because I feel like it. And with skating, a parent’s positive role (was not) money like with snowboarding or many other sports. It basically costs nothing to participate.” This is the purity of skateboarding at the forefront of a skateboarder’s mind. Joey Pepper’s intentions as a child were where they needed to be to bring him to where he is today, and his mother did what was necessary at the time to foster his relationship with skateboarding, knowingly or not.
In terms of influences, Pepper cites many skateboarders that have had an impact on him. Those who have a “combination of style mixed with power and control” are the skaters he lists. Early on, it was Colby Carter and Matt Hensley, followed by Kareem Campbell, Julien Stranger, Sean Sheffey, Gino Iannucci, Rick Ibaseta and Mike Carroll. In regards to Kareem Campbell specifically, Joey says that “that dude could make a trick look like no other. No half-assing anything. He doesn’t look like he trained at a park for days on end.” When skateboarders from the East Coast began to get more coverage, Joey looked up to Matt Reason, Jahmal Williams, Robbie Gangemi and Fred Gall. Today, it is Tommy Wisdom and Bobby Worrest who make skateboarding “look right” to Joey. By “right”, Pepper means that “someone not only looks good setting up in their stance, but, also, rolling away from the trick. Some have it and some don’t. You can’t fake it.” This is reflected in Joey’s choice of all time favorite skateboarding films, picking Underworld’s “Skypager” for the parts featuring Julien Stranger and Rick Ibaseta. “That shit gives me the chills. Both of them do the best frontside bluntslides ever caught on camera going Mach 10. Other than that, Subzero and Underacheivers because those videos put the East Coast on the map. I think when those videos came out it gave the Northeast a supercharge. Everyone likes to root for the home team. These were dudes from where we were from, skating spots that looked like our spots, dressing like us and acting like us. And it was so refreshing. Freddy (Gall) was doing things 10 years ago that we still rarely see today, and he did it all in a way that could never be imitated. I think that before that era, things were pretty focused on Southern California.”
Mid Maine Skates, which was run out of a boat shop in Oakland, Maine, was Joey’s first hook up. When Joey moved to Boston, he skated for Channel One via Will Harmon and then Rhythm by the recommendation of Jerry Fowler. After this, Pepper made a move that made him a part of what many consider to be one of the most well conceived companies in skateboarding history, not in terms of being a big business juggernaut, but, rather, being an accurate representation of what skateboarding amongst friends looks like. “After one ad and a little 411 coverage (with Rhythm), I jumped ship to skate for Sal Barbier and Aesthetics. I was actually at a trade show party at the bar with Rob Welsh, Sal and Jeff Taylor when Rob said, “Hey, Sal. This is Joey. He’s gonna ride for Aesthetics now.” Sal basically said welcome aboard. With Aesthetics, we were all close, and I think in the minds of a lot of kids, it could have been them just as easily as us. We were the skaters’ skaters (laughs aloud).” While this was going on, Joey was also riding for Axion, heavily supported by Kareem Campbell. “Having Kareem backing me really helped me out whether he knows it or not. Thanks, Reem. Having the right shoes can make or break your skate day.” When the days of Aesthetics were numbered, Pepper parted ways and went to Zoo York, which “served the purpose of a few years of big paychecks to pay for surgery on a chronic ankle problem.” Currently, Joey Pepper skates for Expedition One, Independent, Autobahn, Ezekiel, Orchard and FTC.
Skateboarding has taken Joey Pepper all over the world at this point. His travels have landed him all over the continental U.S., as well as England, France, Italy, The Czech Republic, Germany, Holland, Poland, Thailand, Costa Rica, Colombia, Canada and Switzerland. “Any trip with Kevin Taylor, John Igei, Rob Welsh and Clyde Singleton is the best trip” according to Joey. “Italy was great. That place really stands out because Federico was showing us around and he just has a way of making a trip great. You the man, Feds! My first Aesthetics tour was great because that was my first tour and I love all those guys. The Aesthetics Euro trip really stands out because it was just jinxed from the start. I think Clyde split his head open three times on that trip. Rob and I had to buy plane tickets home with change from like four different currencies, and we just plain lost Kevin somewhere along the way.” In terms of permanent residence, Joey has lived in a handful of major cities, including Boston, San Francisco and New York. Pepper currently resides in Brooklyn. While living in these places, he has skated with some of skateboarding’s most influential personalities. As was previously mentioned, most of these skateboarders are the ones who have helped Joey to solidify the majority of his sponsorships over the years, and most importantly, provided inspiration for the way he rides a skateboard.
When asked about the current state of skateboarding, Joey Pepper had some great insight to offer. “I don’t really think anything is wrong with skateboarding. There are things that I don’t like seeing, but that just goes along with the cycles. Good and bad things come and go and, usually, those who suck in the skate world won’t last. I think skating is at a good point right now. It’s at a point where it’s not all about image or doing the new hot trick. Pretty much everything seems to be accepted as long as it looks good. People are skating more diverse terrain, as well. I think with all sick parks blowing up everywhere, the level of skating is only going to get gnarlier. I do wonder though, with this new generation of skaters who grew up at parks, if there will ever be a generation of dudes with that pure, grimy street style ever again. You know, instead of getting their training at Embarcadero, the Hills of SF, Love Park, Pulaski or anywhere in the streets on a daily basis, they are spoon fed perfect, dreamy parks. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, I just wonder how it will affect the style and dedication of future generations. Things are much more easily accessible these days.”
While “perfect, dreamy parks” continue to pop up everywhere, there are still those of us who more often choose the route of being in the streets. One factor that becomes more and more relevant with the construction of parks is the lack of access to or destruction of street spots, which includes even more constant harassment from the police, security guards and “good” citizens. “Skateboarding is loud, unorganized and destructive”, says Pepper. “It’s everything that the establishment hates. That’s why we love it. The more unaccepted it is, the more the real skater will love it.” Truth be told, decades after the humble beginnings of skateboarding and its evolution into a multi-billion dollar industry, this statement is one that might as well come from that first kid who was labeled a punk for being loud and destructive.
Joey Pepper, in what he does with his skateboard, as well as what he has to say about life on a skateboard, stands on common ground with many of us. It is evident in his words that his experiences over the past couple of decades have brought him to the point where skateboarding is not just something he does for a living, but who he is as a person. Although what he does is marketable to the masses, the reasons why Joey does it are pure, and all the while he maintains close ties with those who helped him make skateboarding his career. At the end of the day, in a world where waves of general media coverage have altered the perception of what it means to be a skateboarder, Joey Pepper still rides a skateboard for the right reasons.
