Beyond Boards

Episode 122 with Denia Kopita, skateboarder from Athens, Greece. Together we discussed her life and career, from growing up in Athens, Greece where she picked up her first board at the age of 18 in the mid-2010’s; since 2020 being involved among other things as a skate instructor and communications manager at Free Movement Skateboarding; working as the online manager for Skateism, a diversity skat...

Episode 121 with Harry Meadley, skateboarder and artist from Leeds, England. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Leeds where he picked up his first board in his early teen years; quickly becoming very embedded in the Leeds skate scene through starting his website “Don’t mess with Yorkshire”, and writing for Sidewalk magazine; going to art school as a young adult and for q...

Episode 120 with Leo Baker, professional skateboarder and musician from Covina, California. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Covina, California where he first stepped on a board at only 2 years old; since his early teens making a strong and lasting impression on the skateboarding industry and landscape thanks to his unique style and trick selection, as well as a very s...

Episode 119 with Gabriel Summers, professional skateboarder from Penguin, Tasmania. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Penguin where he started skating at the age of 12; moving to Melbourne, Australia at the age of 19 after graduating from culinary school; traveling and skating all around the world for the last 15 years and being celebrated in the skateboarding industry...

Episode 118 with Danny Garcia, former professional skateboarder turned musician from Anaheim, California. Together we discussed his life and career, from him growing up in Anaheim where he picked up his first board in the mid-90’s in his teen years; putting out multiple iconic video parts for Habitat Skateboards among others throughout the 2000’s and early 2010’s; slowly transitioning into another...

Episode 117 with Sophie Friedel, skateboarder and Gestalt therapist from Freiburg, Germany. Together we discussed her picking up skateboarding as a young adult in Cornwall, England; in the early 2010’s traveling to Kabul, Afghanistan three times to volunteer among other things as an English teacher, skateboard instructor and program coordinator at Skateistan; in 2015 publishing her first book “The...

Episode 116 with Tom Karangelov, professional skateboarder from Los Angeles, California. Together we discussed his life and career, from picking up his first board in his early teens in Fountain Valley and becoming a local at the Santa Ana skatepark, in his late teens winning Slap’s “One in a million” contest which put him on the map, since then leading a highly productive skate career, eventually...

Episode 115 with Lisa Whitaker, skateboarder, videographer and brand owner from Norwalk, California. Together we discussed her life and career, from picking up her first board at the age of 10 in 1985, in the following years starting to film her friends and make her own videos while also traveling all over North America to enter skate competitions, in the early 2000’s launching “The Side Project”...

Episode 114 with Barney Page, professional skateboarder from Exeter, England. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Exeter and picking up his first board around 11 years old, connecting with photographer Leo Sharp and starting to get coverage in the UK scene which led him to getting flowed Motive boards from Rob Selley, later getting flowed Enjoi boards until he landed on t...

Episode 113 with Jerry Hsu, professional skateboarder and photographer from San José, California. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in San José and picking up his first board in the early 90’s, connecting with local pros such as Marc Johnson who helped him get on Maple Skateboards and later on Enjoi, Osiris days, his iconic “Bag of suck” part, his thoughts on music in skat...

Episode 112 with Kelly Bird, former professional skateboarder and footwear brand manager from Houston, Texas. Together we discussed his life and career, from picking up his first board in the mid-80’s to turning pro for Real Skateboards in the early 90’s, transitioning into marketing and team management at DC Shoes, moving over to Lakai shortly after it started in 1999 where he spent the following...

Episode 111 with Joel Meinholz, professional skateboarder from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Together we discussed his life and career, from picking up his first board in the late 80’s, settling down in Miami and having a productive skateboarding career riding for Planet Earth, Stereo, Rasa Libre and eventually Hopps, and appearing among other things in Josh Stewart’s iconic Static video series, working i...

Episode 110 with Mike Carroll, professional skateboarder from Daly City, California. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up and starting skateboarding in San Francisco in the mid to late 80’s, coming up at Embarcadero in the early 90’s and filming for the Plan B videos, starting Girl Skateboards alongside Rick Howard, Megan Baltimore and Spike Jonze in 1993 which throughout the...

Episode 109 with Rose Archie, skateboarder and community activist from Tsq’escen’ (Canim Lake) of the Secwepemc (Shuswap) Nation. Together we discussed her life and career, from picking up her first board in the early 90’s to launching Nations Skate Youth in 2020, a non-profit which aims to connect Indigenous youth with their culture and heritage through skateboarding, and everything in between th...

Episode 108 with Jeremy Elkin, skateboarder and filmmaker from Montréal, Québec. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Montréal where he started skating as a young teen in the late 90’s, putting his name to a number of skate films throughout the 00’s including “Lo-Def” (2008), “Elephant Direct” (2010), “Poisonous Products” (2011) and “The Brodies” (2013), embarking on a doc...

Episode 107 with Josh Kalis, professional skateboarder from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Together we discussed his life and career, from picking up his first board in the late 80’s, crossing paths in the early 90’s with a young Jamie Thomas in Dallas, Texas who invited him to California and offered him a spot on the Toy Machine team, getting on Alien Workshop and DC Shoes and settling down in Philadelp...

Episode 106 with Javier Mendizabal, skateboarder and artist from Algorta, Spain. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Algorta and picking up his first board in 1989, moving to Barcelona at 19 years old right before it became a global skate Mecca, getting on Cliché Skateboards in 1999 and spending the following 15 years traveling all around the world shooting photos and fil...

Episode 105 with Natalie Porter, skateboarder and librarian from Owen Sound, Ontario, now living on Canada's west coast. Together we discussed her life and career, from picking up her first board in 1995, connecting with the local skate scenes first in Vancouver then in Montreal where she studied for a few years in the early 2000’s, working as a librarian since 2009, launching “Womxn Skate History...

Episode 104 with Joe Castrucci, skateboarder and visual artist from Cincinnati, Ohio. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up and picking up his first board in the early 90’s, applying for a job at Alien Workshop in 1998 which led to launching its sister brand Habitat Skateboards in 1999 and releasing the cult classic “Photosynthesis” video in 2000, running Habitat throughout th...

Episode 103 with Sam Korman — skater, writer, and editor originally from Buffalo, NY. We talked about his path from picking up a board in the late ’90s to discovering art in his teens, studying it in Portland in the 2000s, and eventually moving to NYC in 2015. Sam has worked as a freelance writer, curator, copywriter, and strategist since 2010. He started the blog Waxing the Curb during the pandem...

Episode 102 with Mike O'Meally, skateboarder and photographer from Sydney, Australia. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Sydney and picking up his first board in the late 80’s, starting to shoot skate photos in the early 90’s and getting them published in local skate magazine Slam, moving to NYC in 1998 to become a staff photographer for Slap, in the following years trav...

Episode 101 with Brian Glenney, skater, skate professor and skate dad from Burlington, VT. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Seattle and picking up his first board in the late 80’s, developing a strong interest for hardcore/punk and graffiti culture alongside skateboarding, getting his PhD at USC and eventually teaching philosophy in Massachusetts and Vermont, having th...

To celebrate 100 episodes of Beyond Boards, I had the privilege to switch seats for once and sit down for a nice conversation with my friend and mentor John Dahlquist, Vice-Principal of Bryggeriets Gymnasium in Malmö, Sweden. We talked about how skateboarding entered my life, addiction and sobriety, doing Beyond Boards over the last 4 years, some of the most memorable moments along the way and muc...

Episode 100 with Anthony Van Engelen, professional skateboarder from San Diego, CA. Together we discussed his life and career, from growing up in Southern California and picking up his first board in the late 80’s, spending a few months in Russia in the mid 90’s, riding for Alien Workshop for 15 years until Jason Dill offered to join him on an adventure to transform his clothing brand Fucking Awes...

Episode 99 with Sarah Anderson, English as a new language teacher in New York City, founder and president of Deckaid. Together we discussed her life and career, from growing up in Long Island, hanging out with Erik Rosetti in her late teens, meeting with Tim Anderson aka Bobshirt in her early 20’s, advocating for a skatepark build in Nyack, New York in the mid 2010’s, to starting Deckaid, a volunt...