When did you get sponsored?
Well, I pretty much grew up just getting stuff
through Vision, like I'd buy all my stuff wholesale.
They had a policy where if you broke a board, you
could bring it back, and all of us, when we were
little kids, we'd break our boards after like a week
and have someone else bring it back. I'd always.
swindle boards some way. And then I met Mark
Gonzales when I was thirteen or fourteen, he
used to skate in Newport a little bit, once in a
while. He rode for Alva before he got on Vision,
he got his first model, he's turning pro and I was
like, "Damn." He started giving me stuff and I was
stoked because that made me want to skate
because The Gonz was the shit
What kind of stuff were you skating then?
Boardslides on benches and
stuff, he was pretty much the only
one doing it, him and Jason Lee
were definitely rad back then.
Were your parents supportive?
Actually they weren't because)
got hurt a couple times and my
dad always downfalled on it, but
then I started getting a little pub-.
licity and he was more proud.
You turned pro at sixteen, did
you ever graduate?
Unfortunately I'm a bad exam-
ple of that, but I am going to
get my GED because that's one
thing I haven't done yet.
Describe a typical day in the life of Omar.
Well, lately I've been snowboarding a little, but
mainly I'd skate every day, whether it's street or
ramps. I've been skating with Mike Judd and
Chet at this little indoor mini, or Harbor High
School or Kelly's. I skate Chicken's on a regular
basis, because it's pretty much the only good
transition around. But besides that, we need vert
ramps out here. We need a park, a YMCA, or
something where everyone can skate every day.
Who do you really respect?
Definitely Chris Miller, Christian, Wade, Danny
Way, Frazier, Jeremy Wray and Mike Judd. I don't
really idolize anyone in general, it's rad because
everyone has respect for each other around this
area and every time I go out to Northern Cali-
fornia or even just anywhere, it's like the same.
Is style important to you?
Yeah, I guess so. Everyone has their own unique
style and that's rad. Look at Cardiel, no one could
do the crazy body positions he puts himself in.
Style makes your skateboarding. That's what it's
all about.
Who do you usually skate with?
A lot of people. I just hang out in the area and
people come into town and skate. Last week I
skated with Ron Chatman, Cab and Tim Brauch.
But mainly I skate with Christian, everyone that
skates over at Huntington High School, Jeremy,
Templeton, Jonas Wray and Jason Dill. Vert skat-
What about Kelly's?
Yeah, Kelly's is too, but I haven't been skating.
Kelly's as much. Kelly's is something that you have
to be prepared to ride, compared to Chicken's.
Where has skating taken you so far?
Hopefully we're going to Japan pretty soon, but
Pretty much everywhere in Europe and the US.
I've been to Mexico and Canada.
Who are your sponsors?
Iride for Vans, Indy, Quiksilver, Acme and
Square One Snowboards.
Do you ride loose trucks?
Kind of, not really. When I ride vert I always
tighten them up a little bit, then when I ride
street, it's a little bit looser. It's weird because
that's the hardest thing about skateboarding for
me is how I want my trucks. It has
always been like that, I don't know
why, I never know exactly how I
want them so I just use them tighter
when I'm on vert and then I loosen
them up a little bit more on street.
Anything other than vert just ride
them looser.
You ride a looser truck in the front?
I used to do that more, but now I
just go with both trucks the same. It's
seriously hard to know exactly how
you like your trucks, because you
always go through phases. If you ride
the bushings that come on the trucks,
it usually doesn't work, you've got to
get the bushings that you like.
What size wheel do you ride right now?
I always ride different things so when I ride say
something, then if I ride street, I'll ride 45s or 44s.
Chicken's or something, I'll put on 46s or 48s or
But I like to ride on 45s, that's pretty much all
around because then you don't have to change it
every time you ride something different.
How often do you set up a new board?
Probably about once every two weeks, because
nowadays, the flex of the board means a lot.
Do you think pros should be paid more for the
risks they take?
I think skateboarding should be taken as seri-
ously as football or any other sport. It will never
be like that though, so it doesn't matter, I'm just
satisfied to get what I get.
What do you think about demos and commer-
cial endorsements?
More corporations should throw contests and
demos and actually put on tours, like the Swatch
tours. That stuff did good for skateboarding, it i
makes it more of a national sport instead of like
nowadays you see all this bullshit on Hard Copy
thing, and whenever you slip a liatle bit, they grill
The media is always looking to downfall some-
you as hard as they can and make a bigger deal
out of it, and then it sucks for the skateboardegs
because we get the bad rep.
ing has been weak out here so I only skate with Centerspread: Hassan and Kelly's share an intimate
Remy once in a while.
What's your favorite terrain?
It doesn't really matter. My favorite spot is pret
ty much out in front of my house I used to like
Upland a lot, but that was a long time ago. And
moment of ollie to fakie over the onion. This spread,
clockwise from left: The recently completed Costa Mesa
ditch has been the focus of majer skate activity. Hassan
slides a 180 nosegrind on the top of the bank. At Balboa
Island, the jumpers are more overgrown than ever, but
then Blockhead ramp was definitely one of my other flying over them a zillion times they could park a
favorite spots. But right now I'd say Chicken's
because I'm so used to it.
just
truck there and Omar would still clear it.
In what direction is skateboarding heading?
It's getting more positive because everyone is
starting to relate more with everyone else.
Skate harassment, does it happen a lot to you?
Yeah, schools and stuff mainly, Like in Hunting-
ton Beach, and everything in Newport Beach, if
you live by the beach area, there's so many tourists
and it's so controlled by cops on bicycles and just
serious cops everywhere that they've pretty much
outlawed it and we pretty much get hassled every
where: You can find certain places, but in general
everything's a bust.
You've had your tooth knocked out and also
been stabbed. Are you a magnet for trouble?
No. Actually the guy that punched me in the
face and knocked my tooth out I didn't even care. s
I was kind of bummed I got my tooth knocked out,
but I heard that he got killed or something and I
mean that's so bad, I'm bummed totally for the
guy, seriously. I'm not bummed that he hit me at
all, so that's no big deal, the tooth thing's no big
deal. The stabbing part though, that's a little dif
ferent because the guy that stabbed me, he tried
to kill my friend too, he stabbed my friend, he
punctured his lung, and if we weren't there, my
friend would've died, and that was over something
that was like a two minute argument. "Okay I'll
stab you, my friend could've died. He stabbed
like four other people, five people all together got
stabbed, and then the guy that got stabbed the
worse, he almost died.
What was it over?
Just an argument outside. My friend was throw-
ing snowballs and then the guy got kind of pissed
off and his girlfriend turned around, started yelling
at my friend because he hit her with a snowball,
the guy pulls out the knife, it was Christmas night,
the guy just got the knife for Christmas, and he
pulls out the knife and his friend gets all crazy
because they had the knife and they were in con
trol, So then his friend throws a bottle at us
because we threw this snowball and the bottle
almost hits us, so then I was the closest, we were
all like right up next to him, so I knew we were
going to have to fight. So he took a swing and hit
me on the side of the face, so then I just started
fighting him and it happened like, he probably hit
me once, I hit him, he probably hit me or whatev
er, just a little fight. We were hitting each other,
and my friend came in and starting hitting him too,
then we started getting into a fight with the guy,
and then all the sudden, the guy from the side
stabbed me and my friend. We didn't even know,
it happened so quick, it was like a five second inci-
dent and then all the sudden we were just bleed-
ing everywhere. But that guy, we're going to court
with it so I don't know what's going to happen. But
that was just something lame that happened.
So what's in store for Omar Hassan?
I've been thinking about going back to school a
lot more. I know I always have a place at Acme
with Jim doing some kind of work for him, but I
just want to take things how they come and just
keep skateboarding. And I know one day when it
comes down to having to do what I have to do, I
will, but right now I'm having fun. I'm thinking of
the future that's why I want to go back to school.
Anyone you want to thank?
I'd say Dave, Jim, Danny Kwok, everyone that
skates in Orange County and LA, Channel One,
Acme, TSA, Chicken, Kelly, The Squeegees Posse
and Christian.
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