What is there left to say about Eric Koston? He’s the platonic ideal of a skateboarder, a fundamental force both on the board and in the industry. He has been immortalised in video games, made cameo television appearances, and literally invented the game of S-K-A-T-E (well, at least according to IMDb). As long and as varied as his career has been, the guy who’s often referred to as the Michael Jordan of skateboarding still has love for the game. Koston recently partnered with Oakley to explore his obsession with the craft of skateboarding, as filtered through the lens of an iconic skate landmark—the Lockwood Elementary School.
Can you tell us a little bit about the history of Lockwood Elementary School?
It was a spot we all skated in Los Angeles. It was close to where we all lived and the school had a lot of good stuff to skate. Myself, Guy Mariano, Jeron Wilson, Gabriel Rodriguez, Fabian Alomar, Paulo Diaz, Joey Valdez – geez – the list goes on and on.
As a crew we all skated together and that was one of the spots we met at that really pushed skateboarding. Banks and benches. It was like our own playground. It was a perfect landscape for us.
When did you first start skating it?
It was in ‘93.
I remember it being a fixture of ‘90s skate videos, what’s the craziest thing you’ve seen landed on that bench above the bank?
Do we want to go back to the ‘90s or now? [Laughs] In the mid ‘90s, Guy did an alley-oop frontside half-cab flip crooked grind on the bench. That was mind-blowing. We had never seen anyone do that or get into a trick like that on any sort of ledge or bench. The fact that he created that in his mind and made it happen was pretty gnarly. Especially at that time. I think that was around 1996 or something.
And the craziest trick now, I would say it would probably still be Guy. He did a bunch of tricks for his part in Pretty Sweet. Everything he did there was pretty nuts.
How important are spots that serve as a fixture to the local skate community?
I mean, it’s huge to have a place like that because it became such a good place to hang out and skate. That’s important to a skate community. To have a place that you’re not going to be bothered; you can skate when you want, kick back with your friends, shoot the shit or talk shit, whatever you want to do. Just to have something…
Is it equally important to have a space that serves as a social area, as well as a skate spot?
Social aspect is a huge part of it. It’s not just about skating. I became friends with so many different people from spots like Lockwood.
You’ve spoken about skateboarding being as much a mental exercise as a physical one. Do you have any routines to get you into the right headspace?
I don’t necessarily know if it’s totally routine, but it’s getting into a good mental place. A lot of times you don’t want to make it too analytical, although I do that a lot. Sometimes that can be a big deterrent. A lot of it is to not think too much. If I’m trying a trick I might try the basics of that trick or something, or a combination of tricks until I feel like I’m comfortable with it. I think a lot of guys do it.
Is it particularly important when you’re filming? Do you ever wake up feeling like, “Not today”?
It’s super important when you’re filming. You really start to battle yourself a lot when you’re filming something. If you try a trick for too long, you start to doubt yourself. You start to think about other things. “Should I be trying this?” Or “Maybe I should just stop now and try another time.” You start having a discussion, sometimes even an argument with yourself about what you’re doing. And going through these emotions, it’s super tough. And if you get yourself into that position it can be challenging, almost impossible. Sometimes you can fight through it and sometimes you can’t.
You’ve been a professional skater for so many years now, how do you still find new experiences in skateboarding? What motivates you to keep striving for progression?
The thrill and agony of challenging yourself. I think that’s what it is. Just wanting to get that feeling of landing something you tried really hard for. It’s funny. I think that’s our addiction.
You challenge yourself even when it’s fun, like on little things. The little things can even be as satisfying as much as a gnarly trick or some flip to a rail. Or whatever it may be. Or if it’s like some new slappy trick or something; even with little things you still try and test yourself. But even then, on any level, you have to keep it fun. You have to enjoy it. If you start to get down and negative about things, skateboarding becomes not fun at all.
You’ve travelled to Australia more than a few times; do you have any favourite skate spots here?
Downtown Sydney is fun to cruise around. There are little spots everywhere. That’s definitely one of the cities I love in Australia.
There are a lot of fun parks too. Even back in the day I noticed that Australia had a lot of concrete parks. Whether or not they were even that great, I remember all these concrete parks everywhere. At the time we didn’t have any in the states. I remember Australia being way more progressive about public skate parks than here in the US. I was always down to go to Australia because of all the good concrete parks in some of the weirdest little towns.
There seems to be a huge resurgence in lo-fi street skating videos of late. Do you think skateboarding is making a return to its DIY roots?
If I look back to when I started skating, we were not pouring concrete; DIY to us was just building our own ramps in our back yards. That was our DIY. If we wanted a tranny to skate, we had to build a quarter pipe or a mini ramp. And now people are becoming more savvy with it. It’s not just kept to a backyard; you can splash some concrete at a bottom of a planter wall and turn it into a pretty fun spot. That’s rad, I love seeing these spots everywhere. Gives us a different way to look at our spots. Stuff that might not be skateable now is.
Is there anything in the industry that you would like to see change in the next few years?
I don’t necessarily know exactly what I would want to change in skateboarding, but I do always like when there is change in skateboarding because it keeps it exciting.