Where are you from?
Liverpool, England.
Home of the Beatles?
Home of the Beatles, yes.
Do you have a lot of pride for that?
Yes, actually.
What was the best thing about growing
up in England?
It's pretty close together as far as towns
and cities and where you live. It's all tight
and everything. It's a lot like San
Francisco; you take trains, and get buses
everywhere. It's not like Southern
how you want to portray yourself.
As far as when I shoot photos, being like,
"Don't shoot that"?
Yeah.
I've never said that to anyone. Obviously it's
come across that way or you wouldn't have
asked me that question, but that's my person-
ality. I've got some social problems where if I
don't want someone to shoot something, I
might just go, "Hey don't shoot that."
Often I've looked at photos in magazines
and thought, why would anyone shoot
that again? If somebody already lipslid it
whole time I've been in America it's been all
forward for me, and when I go back home it's
the same. I am gonna skate vert, and I'm
gonna rule vert as well. I'm gonna do 540's
before my pro thing is over.
You can't go home again, in a lot of
ways. You can go there, but it's not the
same. It's not like drinkin' beers with
your bros when you were a kid.
It's not.
You've gone on to different things;
you've seen things that very few people
get to experience.
"I SEE THINGS THAT ARE REALLY GNARLY AND I THINK
YOU CAN DO THAT, AND EVERYONE ELSE SAYS,
OH, THAT LOOKS SO BAD
I'M LIKE, NO-I CAN SEE IT IN MY HEAD"
California, where you can't go anywhere
without a car.
What about the social and economic
climate? It seems kind of different
from America.
Yeah, it's its own world.
Socialist, is that what it's called?
I have no idea about anything like that.
Do you get free medicine?
Oh my God, yeah. You get free medicine,
free dental, everything free. But you get in
serious shit sometimes, like if you get a dis-
ease. Sometimes you have to wait.
You have to wait forever.
Yeah, then it doesn't help you very much.
Did you move here to pursue your
skateboarding ideology?
Yes.
Was it a hard thing for you to do? Did you
miss home?
I did for a little bit, but once I got used to
being away I missed it just here and there. I
don't miss it now one bit. I don't go, oh fuck I
wish I were still in England. I love skating in
America; it's the best place.
What about the cops? They're a little bit
rougher here.
Yeah, aside from that. On a strictly skate-
boarding level, I love it. I like England, but
sometimes it's hard, especially where we lived.
You have a reputation for being pretty
difficult to work with. Why is that?
What do you mean difficult?
You're pretty set on making sure that the
stuff you shoot and do is documented
your way.
Right.
That's not being difficult, that's directing
and then you see somebody nosesliding
it, it's been done.
Yeah, that's seriously boring. I don't like
reshooting spots.
Overkill, right?
Yeah, it is overkill. I like to find new spots, I
like to skate different things, and I don't just
skate rails.
You skate for the essence of skating and
that's more important than anything.
Yeah.
Have you ever ollied Penny Lane?
No, I live about five minutes from Penny
Lane, but I've never ollied it.
Is it possible or not possible?
I don't think it'd be possible.
Do you skate vert?
No, not at all.
Can you drop in?
I can drop in, and I can do rock slides, 5-0s,
and grinds to fakie.
How old are you?
23.
That's nothin'; you have plenty of time.
After skating, what's in the deck of cards
for Geoff Rowley?
Ah, I haven't really thought about that.
There's never such a thing as after skating.
I don't really look that far ahead. I look two
or three years ahead. Occasionally I think
about what I'm gonna do, but right now I'm
skateboarding and that's it.
When you think about the friends you
grew up with and people who skated
often, does it ever trip you out that they're
sitting at the bar drinking and you're like,
"I just got back from South Africa!"
Yeah, it freaks me out all the time. The
I've been very lucky.
You've been called the hyena of skating
Is there a better animal that would
describe you as a skater?
I don't know. What animal eats shit, get
back up, and loves it?
I think that's a crab.
That's me.
Geoff, keeping in mind the photos tha
you shot for this interview, are you
taking skating to another level?
You know the answer to that question
right there.
Why is England so cold, but everythin
else there is so warm?
I don't know.
No ice?
'Cause it's cold there, bloody cold.
What kind of piss do you drin
over there?
Oh my God, fuckin' horse piss.
Newcastle?
No, I don't drink that.
Do you actually scout terrain? A lot
the things I've seen you do are at place
where very few people have been.
Yes, every day, everywhere I go, ever
thing that I see, I'm looking for somethin
to skate.
Do you think that's basically
skater ideology?
I would hope so. If I looked at things and ju
went, whatever, and kept driving, then wha
the fuckin' point in skating?
.What kind of car do you drive?
A pickup truck, a Dodge one.
Brand new?
Well, it's not new. I bought it two years
a
ght: Steppin' it up to
next level, Rowley lets
360° flip lipper rip.
88 THRASHER