Jaks
JAK'S TEAM:
S
INTERVIEWED BY CARLOS
What is Jaks?
Jak's team colors out in force at a recent "Skate
Shoes" benefit at the Tool & Die in San Francisco.
Photos: K. Thatcher.
JM: Skate team. It started in Petaluma with Dick
Wagon, Biff and Kevin. We were skating around
with the nostalgia issue of "SKATEBOARDER
Magazine with Jack's team in it. We were
skating around Luma acting all drunk and crazy
in the downtown streets with all these farmers
and dodging them and one of us yelled out,
"Wild in the streets," and another person yelled,
"Fully crazed," and somebody else yelled, "No
brakes," and somebody said, "Jak's team!" and
in the next hour we called ourselves Jak's team.
Then after awhile, Jonathan, who we knew for
awhile, and skated with, became a member.
J: I was the only S.F. member. Everybody else
was from Petaluma.
When did Jak's start skating S.F.?
J: Through myself. Like, well everything
happens in S.F., and we'd always come here to
party.
is 'Luma dry?
JM: "Luma's dry.
J: Ape farmers and sheep f--kers.
How did you join Jak's team, Paul?
I
P: I was in the "Wounds" (band) at the time, the
Wounds played with the "Toiling Midgets" a lot
and I was exposed to Jak's through that. They
were always climbing in through the back
window at the Sound of Music. We were always
getting ready to play and all these guys would be
popping through the window. I thought that this
was kinda cool. I hadn't skated much since the
park scene became polluted with elitism. I just
stopped skating on the scene. I saw these guys
having fun street skating and using their boards
not only as a vehicle for transportation, but as a
vehicle for expression. Eventually they voted
How many members of the new Jak's team
are there? How many are here?
JM: The next people to join were Joe and
Tommy Beer Thief from Seattle. Kevin and
myself were traveling up there on freight trains
and we met them up there. We felt they were
worthy of Jak's so we put them on. When we got
back to S.F. we decided to put on anybody that
had their skates with them all the time. That's
what it's all about. Skating and having fun.
Have any of you ever skated in skateparks?
Do you even like skateparks?
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EBB: I skated Fountain Valley a way long time
ago. Back then it was fun and thrills all the time
and now, it doesn't really matter what your skate
background is.
Theo: No, unless you count Hilltop as a
skatepark, but give me a chance and I'd skate
parks, but up 'til now, all I've skated is the
streets.
Sport: You have to skate around alot before you
skate vert. I can't do it yet. I don't think
skateparks matter. Not on Jak's team. Not if you
have fun.
J: I think vert rules. The quest for Jak's is vert.
Vert is better than sex.
A few years ago you guys used to carry
these 2' long flashlights. Why?
JM: We got those because, growing up in
Petaluma, you needed protection from the
cowboys.
J: The equalizer.
Do you find people (i.e., girls, parents,
others) having a hard time accepting your
lifestyles?
Joe: Not in S.F. In Seattle things are a little bit
tighter. Once you get out of the University
district, and up to Northern Seattle, you get beat
up. I've let my hair grow out and I get accepted
a bit more now.
Ebb: I don't think people in S.F. accept skating
as a lifestyle. A lot of people still think it's a
nuisance.
Theo: I do whatever I want. I live differently than
anyone in my school., (At this time Jak's starting
singing 1000 bottles of beer on the wall,' choas
ensues).
What is absolute music?
JM: I happen to have a Pig Ass' mag with me,
and it says, quote: "Instrumental music,
independent of objective suggestion to the text
or program and dependent on structure alone
for subjective comprehension."
J: Music was my lifestyle. At sixteen I started
going to gigs with Chris Warden. From there the
big thing was to be in bands. I started with
Negative Trend and from there, they turned into
the Toiling Midgets. The Midgets were Jak's
pet band. Jak's would always be ready
whenever the Midgets would play, Jak's would
be their roadies. Right now, I'm in Fifth Column.
The thing with Jak's and music is you can get as
rad playing music as you can skating.
Joe: Absolute music is to me just music
happening. It's fun, as long as you have fun! It's
absolute. It's the same as skating or playing
music.
I've noticed there are new skate teams
springing up on the West Coast. Any
comments?
P: I think a lot of these teams are brewed up
because of deception. They think that Jak's is
some elitist organization that you have to have
the best skateboard and be the best skater
around. The only thing true about that is that you
have to be rad in your lifestyle for people to
notice you and to have fun.
Ebb: I go to shows a lot. A lot of people see a lot
of comraderie between all the Jak's members
and they'd like to be as tight as the Jak's are.
They don't want to copy us but they see a certain
bond between us here, a unity. Everybody
wants to be like that.
JM: I think it's great! I don't want to be the only
bad skating skate team in the world.
I want to ask a sensitive question. What does
Jak's team think of girls?
JM: A delicate subject.
Ebb: Girls are synonymous with skateboarding
because skateboarding is synonymous with an
immature attitude, and girls seem to like boys
with an immature attitude. I really hate to see
girls watching me skateboard because I get
paranoid.
Joe: Girls are great. They go hand in hand with
skateboarding because I love both of them. You
don't have to have your skateboard with you to
be with girls. Some men get along fine without
them (sneer). There are times when girls are
better than skateboarding, like winter. They are
a big part of my life.
J: Girls are kind of like fish. If you lose one, you
drop your line and pretty soon, one will be
nibbling at your bait.
I'd like to ask another delicate question,
drugs...?
Ebb: Well, seems like I might occasionally do
drugs or drink or something. It's nice I found a
sport that adheres to my lifestyle.
J: I think drugs are a hinderance. I think they are
kinda like a vocational science that one has to
take when living in the city, where you have all
these problems you can't work out.
JM: I don't like speed.
P: I feel that drugs are like anything else. It
affects people in different ways. Everybody
should draw different rules on drugs for
themselves. There's no universal rules for using
drugs except it's really stupid to abuse them.
(Chaos breaks out again. The Jak's start
singing Jak's theme song.) "In heaven there is
no beer, that's why we drink it here, and when
we go up there, all my friends will be drinking all
the beer down here."
What do you think of skate contests now?
Do you think they have any bearing on the
average skateboarder?
Joe: I'm from Seattle, and in the early days I did
really well in competition in the Northwest. I was,
sponsored and the whole bit. I think all the
competitive side of it did for me was make me
end up skating hurt. I ruined my knees because
of it. I had a coach, or a boss, whatever, that
said, "You gotta skate this, you gotta skate that,
you know, he gave me gas money, he gave me
pot, and it was cool then, but I'm sorry I did it now
because I'm a little bit older now and I realize I
was totally abused and he made money off me.
Boards were sold because I rode on his team
and I never saw a penny of it, and I got f---din
the whole situation.
Theo: In the first Gotown contest two years ago,
I tried some of the things in streetstyle and I won
second place. But usually competition really
leads to a lot of hassles personally, 'cause you
really start disliking your opponents. When you
start getting competitive with your life, you start
disliking everybody, including yourself.
What do you think of punk? Do you think it's
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dead?
Ebb: Garbage, Uh, no I don't think it's dead. I
think like maybe since I outgrew that pair of
pajamas, now that I've handed them down to
my little brother, they don't fit as cool as when I
had them on.
P: Well, basically my thought is along the same
line, except for everytime that someone comes
up in a new generation thinking that they're
punk, whether they realize it or not, they might
be trying to cop a fotal Sid idea. Yet, they're
coming up with something new. I don't think
punk will ever die in attitude. In the musical
sense it's like, will anybody ever be the Stones,
no, but they'll come up with something new even
more punk.
Joe: Punk is not dead. There are still punk
rockers. There are old punks like myself.
There's new punks that are coming out and
they're all rad and hardcore. But they'll
eventually learn that you don't have to be like
that to be accepted. Be tough, beat people up.
shave your head and f--k with people, it's
bullshit. It's an attitude and a lifestyle and when
you learn that you don't necessarily slow down
but grow up.
Sport: I'm still doing the same thing. When I first
started going out it was called 'punk' and as far
as I'm concerned it's still punk now.
J: I think punk is like corn, every year there's a
new crop.
Theo: But I would say that new people are great
but a lot of these new ones coming around being
Joe punk rock, spit on an old lady, yeah, I'm
cool, people like that are what f--k-up the scene.
P: I feel like people I meet everyday are more
punk than anybody with a bald head or a two
foot mohawk with Exploited or Discharge written
all over their backs. They have never heard
punk music or anything of that nature. They're
punks because they're surviving and they're not
putting up with anybody's shit, and they're living
by their own rules. Their heads aren't up in the
clouds. They're doing something that is out of
the usual because they're true rebels.
What is the worst thing that could happen to
Jak's?
Ebb: We all take our shoes off in the same room.
P: It wouldn't be torture on us, it would just be the
end of the world.
What is the future for Jak's?
Joe: The future is wide open and anybody who's
on the team will stick around and anyone who
wants to leave and go do what they want to do
will leave. The future's an individual thing.
Sport: I might have babies but it's because of my
attitude.
JM: I'm not going to be like Biff.
J: What was the question again?
P: Jak's is the ultimate.
Theo: I'm still a little kid.
J: I'm going to Hawaii to start another cult over
there.
Joe: I want to ask Jak a question. I hope it comes
out ok. I met Jak in Vancouver as Jak, and I
want to know why in Vancouver he is Jak and
why in S.F. he is John Marsh.
Paul: I feel the reason that John used the name
Jak on his road travels just as I have used it
is...when I'm on the streets and someone
comes up to me and they go, "Wow, you're
-skating, wow that's great! What's your name?
You don't feel like telling the person your name
to the full extent. You'll tell them you're Jak
because you're telling about an entire experi-
ence and an entire movement.
Will Jak's ever allow a girl on 'Jak's'?
P: Of course. If she can skate rad and she's one
of us (crash, bang, Carlos broke the chair)...
The closest to come to it is Rosetta.
JM: She's gotta have a sex change to be on
Jak's team.
P: Don't do it Rosetta. You're too cute to be
a guy.
6 Top C.A.S.L. Amateurs
WHO: Steve Steadham, 20, Born: Mexico, grew
up in Las Vegas and then Whittier, now lives in
San Diego
WHAT: My favorite terrain is Upland Pipeline and
good ramps like Lance's. Del Mar Skateranch,
because it's by my house and it's easy to learn
tricks. There's a lot of good skaters down there.
I skate the streets, not as much as I used to.
FAVORITE CASL CONTEST: The last Upland,
Chris Miller won, he just barely beat me, but we
were pushing each other pretty good.
FAVORITE SKATER: Stevie (Caballero), him and McGill have always been
my favorite skaters.
WHY: Because I have fun. My sponsors give me free equipment.
WHEN: In Las Vegas I started riding banks and reservoirs about five years
ago on an old Logan board.
HOW: Television should be covering big pro contests and more money
definitely. It used to be like a $1,000 for first and now it's like $350; and
skating is like 60% better, at least. They're ripping, Steve and Mike. It
doesn't bother me at all 'cause it will get better next summer. A lot of little
kids are getting into it, they're young and their parents buy them whatever
they want. People are starting to skate again. I've been seeing a lot of
skating in the park and the street.
WHERE: I'm going to turn Pro at Upland (Turkey Shoot) skate with the good
guys and see where I'm at. The skating is better and you get to go places
and it's more serious 'cause you're skating for money. You win a trophy and
it's like big deal. I guess that's a bad attitude; if you win a trophy you're
happy, but I think you get better if you win money, you try harder.
WHO: Eric Nash, 15, Born: Alhambra, lives in
Arcadia, California.
FAVORITE TERRAIN: Skate City's keyhole, I
mostly skate ramps now. I got a ramp, Lance's
Ramp, Spidey's ramp.
FAVORITE SKATER: Stevie Caballero.
WHY: 'Cause it's fun, it's rad. Other people at
school have no purpose in life really, they just go
to school and that's it. This is a lot more fun, you
have something to do all the time.
WHEN: I started skating when I was in 5th grade
my neighbor had a skateboard and he sold it to
me for 6 bucks. Then I saw an ad for Skatopia
and I went there and it was cool.
GIMS
WHERE: I'll turn Pro after I've won a lot of amateur contests and I've done
real good. When I think to myself that I'm ready for it. That would be in about
a year and a half or two.
WHAT: Skating's rad. Not too many people can go out and do six foot airs,
and stuff, and get so contorted. At school we tell 'em we skateboard and they
think you're just doing kickturns and hitting tiles or doing handstands and
stuff. They don't understand at all. A couple of girls at school are cool and
came to see us skate-they can relate to it-all the other ones are lame. All
I can say is, Build Ramps!!
WHO: Keith Phillip Stevenson, 21, Born: Palm
dale, California, now lives in Huntington Beach.
FAVORITE TERRAIN: Ramps and pools and
streets and banks, no freestyle, no surfing. The
street is what I skate the most unfortunately; if I
had a choice I'd go back to Palmdale and skate
our ramp, but I don't live there so I don't skate
there much. I did skate there the other day, did
a frontside air.
WHY: Skating, it's a matter of survival. I wouldn't
be able to survive if I didn't skate. I won't say
anything else about it.
WHEN: I saw Russ Howell on TV. riding a GT
and I knew I had to have one.
HOW: More money. Skaters need to make more money. I need to be better
so I can make more money. We need to have more groupies, girls, women
in skating. We don't really need people to like us as long as they give us
money. I think pedestrians understand that they don't like us 'cause they
can't understand skateboarding, but, I don't care as long as a couple of girls
like it. When you slam, the girls kinda want to do the motherly thing. You
know, love you and heal your wounds. I like that.
WHERE: I'm going to Europe next year. Of course I'm bringing a skate.
Maybe Pro in slalom, my bones are settling from pools now so I don't think
I can handle that. I'll always be skating. Who know, we could all die
tomorrow. We could all go to Grenada.
COMMENTS: Skate hard and don't listen to what your parents tell you, if
they tell you to quit skating don't listen to em. Mine told me to quit skating
and look where I am today, getting interviewed by KT.
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