While neighboring households cover their pools during winter,
Stevie jams some backside air high above the suburbs of San Jose
Ste
This second part of our talk with Stevie
took place at Ross McGowan's ramp
which is situated in the hills high above
the Santa Clara valley. Steve participated
in the planning and judging of a local
contest at the ramp in addition to taking
photos and gathering material for his own
magazine, Skatepunk.
KT: What do you think of the contest so
far, Steve?
SC: It's going along pretty good.
KT: Have you been judging the whole
thing?
SC: Yeah.
KT: What do you think? Is it cool to see a
lot of new skaters coming up or have
most of these guys already been there or
what?
SC: No, some of them are just starting
and, like, some of the older skaters are
coming back and blazing now. So the
contest scene is totally in there.
KT: Steve, you've got a ramp in your
backyard. What do you think about this
whole ramp thing? Do you think it's about
the best thing that has happened to
skateboarding so far?
SC: Yeah, well kind of. All the parks have
been closing and a lot of the older skaters
have been coming back and skating just
when they want to and stuff. I think that's
why a lot of ramps are being built.
KT: Would you like to see a lot more
skateparks still happening?
SC: Yeah.
KT: Because of contests?
SC: Yeah. I don't want all of the parks to
close.
KT: That's for sure. How about your last
win at Pamona? What did you think about
that? You won $1,000 bucks, huh?
SC: Yeah. I was pretty happy.
KT: Did you put that in the bank?
SC: All of the money I've won I've put in
the bank.
KT: Do you think you won the most
money last year?
SC: I don't know. They're going to have
another series.
KT: What do you think about Billy (Ruff)?
A year ago at this time did you think that
he was going to be a big threat?
SC: Yeah. He was a pretty good up and
coming amateur. Plus he had just won the
Gold Cup Series and all that.
KT: Had you ever skated against him in
competition before then?
SC: No, never. Just sessions.
KT: I noticed the name of your magazine
here, Skatepunk. What prompted you to
do the mag?
SC: Yeah. I wanted to make a little
magazine and stuff because it's pretty
fun...I like doing those kinds of things.
You know, just a tiny newspaper for the
kids and locals around here. Keep them
all together.
KT: Who are your favorite bands? Can
you reel off about five names of bands
that you really like?
SC: Exploited, Adolescents, Black Flag.
KT: Any major bands, or do you just listen
to the underground? CA punk?
SC: I guess those are the bands that I
listen to the most right now.
KT: What about your ramp? Are you
going to have a contest?
SC: I'm going to fix it up, make it four feet
wider and I'm probably going to fiberglass
it like this one here. It will also have metal
coping.
KT: Stevie, what else was I going to ask
you?
SC: I think we were going to talk about....
KT: How 'bout that little dog of yours,
what's his name?
SC: Oh, PeeWee?
KT: Yeah! Has he been shreddin' the
ramp?
SC: Yeah. He's getting pretty high, he's
doing some pretty hot acid drops.
KT: Does he have that Caballerial wired
yet?
Stevie performs a very delicate sweeper over the
death box. KT and Scott Foss look on while
discussing unrelated subject matter. MoFoto.
OpeR
SC: No, he keeps eatin' #it. He's got a
little interview in my next magazine,
'cause Pee Wee is our mascot.
KT: Back to the ramp. Do you plan on
keeping the ramp there at your house for
as long as possible?
SC: Yeah. Like if we moved or something
I'd probably move the ramp with it.
KT: How about your future? Do you plan
on traveling at all?
SC: I want to go back to Sweden. I might
be going back, I'm not sure.
KT: How about around the U.S.? Lot of
ramps out there.
SC: Well, we're thinking about something
going on out there.
KT: Do you have correspondants in Swe-
den?
SC: That guy, Puttis (Duane Puttis), he
calls me every now and then.
KT: Do you get fan mail?
SC: Yeah. But sometimes I don't write
back.
DEADLY