Meet the Charlotte Skate Scene

 In the rural town where I grew up, it was said you were always just a stone’s throw away from a creek. I lived in a mountain valley surrounded by forest, so the saying made sense, but did you know the same could be said about that rural town and its proximity to historic 90’s skate scenes? Well, more so if you owned a car, so I guess more accurately the saying would be – you were always just a short car ride and a stone’s throw away from a historic skate scene. There was Cincinnati, Richmond, Pittsburgh and D.C. to name several, or if you had a reliable car that could make the six-hour drive, there were the iconic skate scenes of NYC and Philly. From that collection though, north of state lines or south, small and large, one always stood out – Charlotte, North Carolina.

I had the fortune of visiting Charlotte a lot as a kid, eventually living there for two years. Charlotte back then had skate houses six skaters deep, marble spots, cutty spots, a skate shop, the Art Blocks, Transworld cred, a diner with a smoking section, back yard mini ramps and a skate photographer, not to mention its own wheel company, Carolina Urethane. Packed with talent and a vibe all to itself, Charlotte could’ve had its own section in Eastern Exposure 3. Charlotte wasn’t the only thriving scene either, there was Raleigh, Durham and Wilmington. Hell! Had Dan Wolfe wanted to make Eastern Exposure 4, he could have filmed the whole thing in North Carolina. That state was poppin’ in the 90s!

Curious as to what creates such a robust, decades-spanning skate scene that isn’t located in California, I tracked down some Charlotte locals, past to present, and gave them a call...

Crazy right? Chet Childress, Kenny Hughes, Elias Bingham, Will Harmon, Pat Rakestraw, Lenny Kirk, Pete Thompson, Bob Reynolds, Brian Dale, Marc Johnson, Mike Sinclair and that's probably not even half of the names I could name from 90's North Carolina who made a big impact on skateboarding somewhere, someway. I think a lot of that had to do with Eastern Distribution, Reggie Barnes, and Endless Grind being really the only skater owned skate shop in the state, as well as Pete Thompson and Transworld. Notice, none are from Charlotte. All I-40 kids. Charlotte was kind of slept on. Brandon, Kip, Chris, Ben, Josh, Mike and Jason Waters
could have all been at worst an am for a team, if not eventually pro. Ben, Kip and Brandon pro for sure. I tried with Brandon. I introduced him to Charlie Wilkins, Roger Bagley, Chet Childress and more, but it just didn’t pan out. I think it was a nice bubble we were in before the age of the internet. We didn't have anyone telling us what we should be doing or where we should be doing it. We were the only true urban city between Atlanta and Richmond, so we had spots. Charlotte was just the right size at the time - not too big and not too small. I think that created a good, tight energy that we all happily simmered in. That Charlotte vibe was a comfortable place. There was 7 Doors Down too, which was a cool spot, and at least had Ben managing with Mark and all the other guys working there, but it definitely was never on the level of national notoriety like Black Sheep, which wouldn't be what it is without Josh.

Not really. Just a bunch of weird parks and ramps – some ok, some not so much. There were a few very temporary DIY spots, mostly in abandoned buildings or disused parking lots and gas stations. There was this one pool on Independence Blvd, a closed skating rink on Morehead Ave, KinderCare and Crown Station. The Ramp Farm of course was huge, Kirkwood Ramp for a while, Swamp Ramp in Matthews and Toms Ramp too. Me and Billy Dunn built a ramp in his backyard where folks came by, which was where I met Josh Frazier for the first time. Back then there were a lot of disparate groups of people who just found a way to skate together in the era before cell phones and park culture. East Side, South Side, random West Side guys, Concord guys, Rock Hill guys. I still don’t know how that happened. You'd just drive or skate by to see who was out at any given skate spot.

I remember mailing slides and prints. It seems crazy, sending off the only version of an image in the mail, but that's what we did. I'm guessing it's much easier to make submissions and to collaborate on assignments now – texting, imaging, dropping pins, Dropbox, email – what did we do back then? I definitely experience easier collaboration with the work I do now. It's insane now how what would be a curtains trick that everyone looked forward to 20 years ago is now a throw away clip 1,000 times a day on Instagram. Honestly, it kind of bores me to keep up with all the content. It's fun that everyone can see what's happening all over the world, but we've lost those distinct collectives we lived in, especially cities like Charlotte, which brought us all closer and made it feel special to be a part of something truly unique with the ability to bring someone to your spots and it all be new to them. I'm old but it seems sad to constantly feel the need to document everything you're doing, but it also connects people – I don't know, it's a double-edged sword. 

It was Premier Valet. They're still open but bigger and with a new name, Park Inc. That whole thing started with one dude, Wylie's friend Rob Chuprevich. He got me a job and then it snowballed through me in Charlotte all the way to San Francisco. I could be wrong about taking credit, but I'm pretty sure I was employee zero in Charlotte. Elias Bingham, Vic Blu, Wylie, Cairo – all those guys ended up with jobs with the same company in SF after I filtered in and out of San Francisco. You're in Austin, right? You should ask Elias about it. I think he started his own valet company at one point!?

Drew Adams
Originally: Salisbury, North Carolina
Currently: Kannapolis, North Carolina
Videos: BeastMode, Eyes like Static, Brodeo(Saturday Skateboards) BLKSHP 1, BLKSHP 2, BLKSHP 3

I’m not familiar with that Tucker photo, but I’ve always stayed on top of old Charlotte skate history, so I bet I’ve seen it before, but if you have it, I’d love to see it! As for what I think has kept Charlotte’s scene consistent; before I moved to Charlotte, I did a video called Eyes like Static, and Josh Frazier, the owner at Black Sheep, bought a 15-foot blowup projector screen and offered to premiere it in their parking lot when Black Sheep was at their original location. Josh was the biggest help, and I think that’s what feeds a scene and keeps it solid, not only having a
great skate shop but having a great shop owner. The local shop is one of your best assets, it’s like a creative hub, whether you’re wanting to skate, do graphic design, photography, marketing, or just be a creative person.

I don’t think Seven Doors Down was skater owned. Ben Smith and Derek Ingram worked there. Derek Ingram has one of the best styles in Charlotte, dude’s sick. But yeah, I remember my mom used to take me there when I was a kid. They had a mini ramp inside the shop, a huge board wall, and there was a headshop connected to it. I worked with Derek for a bit at this punk rock screen printing shop called Contagious Graphics – they always hired a bunch of skaters and fixed bike
riders, but me and Derek worked there for years together, and he would tell me stories about the old shop, so one reason I think it wasn’t skater owned is because Derek had a story about how the shop owner opened up a satellite TV account and other random shit in Derek’s name, without Derek knowing. I’m pretty sure Seven Doors wasn’t skater owned, haha.

I think the first BLKSHP video was in 2016. Before that, there was the Saturday Warehouse for a while. Saturday Skateboards was a local company with a park as well. I mean, that’s probably where you did see some type of drought in content, because you’re going to see that when you don’t have a person dedicated to putting the shit out there, you know? There wasn’t a person really filming the street shit in Charlotte at that time, but a lot of great skaters came out of that
park.

If you want to break it down, there are a lot of low-key people everywhere that are really good. If the scene is there, and maybe there’s not a camera or camera guy around, there’s still going to be good skaters who take skating seriously, but not many people are going to see them because there’s no camera around. Also, when you’re around skaters that are better than you, and you can stay organized, it’s going to push you to skate better. When we were filming those videos, we
we're getting together every Sunday, and one night session per week. Plus working together for projects always pushes you because there’s a deadline, so people are taking it a little more seriously, and usually there’s some sort of payoff, it may not be financial, which it's usually not in the skateboard world, but there’s usually some sort of payoff.

That’s true. At the end of the day, it’s all for the love of it.

Of course, those guys are killing it!

In our case, we had a well-oiled machine at the time of BLKSHP 2 and BLKSHP 3 partnering with the shop, Bob Reynolds, Tyler Tufty and NikeSB, so it was worth us to branch out and take Ty, Travis and all those heavy hitters to New York and see what we could do. I had just started a family, so working with Bob and them gave us an incentive and was really helpful. We ended up getting some great footage! A standout for me was Ty’s back nosegrind to fakie at the Trump
Plaza on that golden statue thing – in the rain! As for the all the places between, we were heavy into finding spots, because a lot of these spots in the south are going to go away at some point, and there’s a lot of spots that still haven’t been found.

Take Bar Hops for example. Earlier builders were free to use any slope on the ramp they wanted, and the best ramps that are steep enough to boost you over the rail were built prior to 1990. That’s the year the ADA created the guidelines and codes for the slope of wheelchair ramps, so many older properties are under code, and when they get restored or replaced, the new ramps will be up to code and not as steep.

That’s true, but one thing to consider is that if you don’t have some big architectural firm trying to contract it, you usually get some type of kit company that constructs the buildings, and they make it look like everything else that’s around that area. When we were making the BLKSHP videos, we made a big effort to find spots and log them in a spot book. The book helped a lot and was good for brainstorming where to go. There were probably 600 to 700 spots in it.

Mainly Charlotte. We’ve always been spot orientated. Actually, Nick at Strangelove, he’s also an advisor or a similar title for the Smithsonian skateboard exhibit, so he asked if they would want to include it, and they said yes, so our spot book is in the Smithsonian! Which is pretty crazy.

I could list a lot, but I’d say the main person who inspired and helped me was Josh Frazier. Josh helped me grow as a business owner in general, but when I worked with Black Sheep and Richie McCorkle doing some of the shop’s side projects, like product drops, Instagram and YouTube content, one thing Josh instilled in me was that if you apply a business mindset to any type of creative project and take it seriously, you’ll be successful – put in good input and get good output. Another thing I kind of realized while I was working on those projects was at this point in time in the skate industry, you can just ask for the shit you need, and if you’re operating in good faith and creating something of quality, there’s a good chance you’ll get it. An example with us was when Red Bull threw those mind the gap contests. The Charlotte 2020 contest was cancelled because of covid, but Red Bull’s Charlotte rep reached out to Ty and me and asked if we’d make a highlight reel of the previous year’s contest when Ty had gotten 2 nd place. We ended up quoting them $6000 for the edit. Which was a number that wasn’t entirely pulled out of our asses, because we were gauging the quote off who was asking. So, I think for future filmers dealing with big companies, remember your time is valid and valuable, don’t forget that you know? What may seem like a lot of money to ask for might be pocket change to them. The worst they can say is no. And emails! That Red Bull deal was negotiated over email, and if you were to ask me one general piece of advice for any new filmers – learn how to construct a well formatted, professional email. You can tip the scale on what you need or don’t need just by saying something a certain way in an email.

My wife and I are big fans of mid-century homes and mid-century architecture. We restored our home in Charlotte before moving to Kannapolis, and now we’re restoring our new home here as well. This house is going to be more of a full restoration and not a flip though. I’ve been really enjoying doing the work, so once we’re done with this house, I’d love to continue restoring mid-century houses in the future. Finish one and just move down the line to the next one. Taking more skate photos in the meantime would be awesome too, I just have to find the time!

Ty Brown
Originally: Fremont, California
Currently: Charleston, South Carolina
Videos: (parts) Metastasis Vol 2, BLKSHP 1, BLKSHP 2, BLKSHP 3 (filmed)SHORTS, COVID Files

I did!! I won the whole tournament. Won 360 bucks which isn’t too bad.

Moved here about two years ago. I was running Continuum Skate Shop for a little bit, now I’m working as a supervisor at a boutique hotel downtown. You ever been to Charleston?

Ah man you’re blowin’ it then!

Yeah, let’s do it.

We had Drew and the shop. When we were filming those BLKSHP videos Black Sheep was helping us with tapes, gas and shit, just really backing us, plus Drew was super motivated. Drew’s quiet and a little intimidating but the coolest dude ever. When I moved to Charlotte in 2015, I had a VX1000 with a Mark 1 at the time, and he and I would go out a bunch filming. Also around then, I filmed a video called SHORTS, which got Drew motivated to do BLKSHP 1, after that he bought a Panasonic with a Century lens plus a bunch of photography stuff. I have a
background in film photography. I used to shoot a lot of wedding stuff – been shooting photos for about 15 years, so I helped Drew some with photos, and we ended up filming and shooting photos as well. Drew shot that Strangelove ad with me kickflipping through a tire, plus a few more, but the other ads didn’t get approved. I ended up filming 4 parts with Drew! He’s an
amazing filmer and editor. Drew got married, has a kid now and moved to Kannapolis. Nate Stout took over filming a lot in Charlotte after Drew. Nate Stout, rest in peace, was one of my best friends, and one of the best dudes – he and I filmed those COVID Files for Black Sheep. We were supposed to have 3 episodes on Thrasher but only made 2 before his passing. The last time
I saw him was at that Atlanta demo with all the AVE bench stuff going on. Now Charlotte has Joey Dennis holding it down. Having a shop that backs the skaters and having filmers that are willing to put in the work – those two things have really kept Charlotte’s scene steady.

No doubt that gives Charlotte an advantage. Another aspect of being close to those cities as well is that more teams travel through Charlotte now. Durham used to be the spot all the pros wanted to stop at, the Durham courthouse with those long marble ledges, and the nine stair with a wide square rail. Now though, teams have been coming through Charlotte, seeing the spots – Charlotte’s blowing up! On the West Coast, every block has already been scavenged, but there’s
places on the East Coast that haven’t even been inspected yet. Cities that aren’t even on people’s radar for skateboarding, like Charleston. Charleston is fucking dope, The spots here are cutty, there’s banks to walls, gaps, banks to ledges, just cutty cool looking shit, plus the city’s historic and visually appealing. It reminds me of a flat version of San Francisco. East Coast videos will have you wondering where the fuck a spot is, whereas in a California video you usually can tell if it’s SF, Long Beach, San Diego, Huntington or LA – I think that gives the East Coast an
advantage.

That book made it into the Smithsonian! It was an entire binder, like one of those giant high-school binders – with, and I’m not shitting you, chapters. There were chapters for handrails, ledges, banks and all kinds of shit, all filed and ordered – it was at least 300 pages. Drew put in some serious work making that book. Every team that came through we’d just hand them the binder. We’d use it too, just to remind ourselves of old spots.

Easily.

I’ve been getting Satori wheels from Karl for the past few years. Best dude, big fan of those guys. I’m also riding for a clothing company called Y’all Be Nice.

I want to film a street part here in Charleston. VX, cutty spots, I just want to film a dope part and showcase the city, but there aren’t any filmers here. I had another close friend who was an amazing South Carolina filmer, Allan Agudelo, who also recently passed, so Charleston’s struggling for filmers, and Charleston is one of the most photogenic and underrated cities! One of my biggest, non-skatey long-term goals is to open a gallery here. I develop film, and I’ve always wanted to open a gallery and find five or six of the best photographers, give them each one roll of film to shot, and when they’re done, they give me the roll back, I develop it, print it, scan them, enlarge them, frame them and put all 36 photos from all the photographers on the wall. They wouldn’t get a chance to see the photos until the opening reception, and I would print every frame, fuck ups and everything, it’d all be part of the show.

Parrish Moore
Originally: Charleston, South Carolina
Currently: Charlotte, North Carolina
Videos: (parts)FOON, BLKSHP 1, BLKSHP 2, BLKSHP 3, COVID Files, WEB PART

I worked for Black Sheep for almost 8 years. Love Josh, great shop – I used to hang out at the original location on Camden, after Seven Doors closed, so Josh watched me grow up. I love that shop; Josh is a great dude.

I don’t think skateboarding in Charlotte has ever really slowed down or stopped. I mean there was a moment after BLKSHP 3 where there was a little time between, but then Joey kind of stepped in, and he and the 5301 crew started killing it! Another big factor in the scene’s consistency has been the DIYs and people like Steve Huro and all the folks that have helped build spots like Eastland and Kilbourne. Shout out to Drew and Ty and all those dudes as well, because those guys fixed a lot of local spots that weren’t skateable, which contributed a lot to Charlotte’s scene. There was this one crazy fixed spot when we were filming for BLKSHP 3 – it was a brick 7 with a little hubba by the government building, it may have been there in the 90’s, but you couldn’t skate it because it was knobbed and had a rail blocking it – we ended up cutting the knobs and handrail off with a saw in the middle of the day. Like 4pm, everyone was drinking some beers, and we cut the knobs and rail out – just threw’em over the edge into the creek. Me and a couple other homies ended up getting some tricks on it, it was fucking crazy. That spot is in the COVID files videos we did as well.

Absolutely! The crowd at both those places has always been so diverse. There are older generations, up and coming generations, the homies riding for Black Sheep now, so yeah, you’ll hear someone drop a “when I was your age” every now and again, haha. Charlotte didn’t really have a skate park before Eastland and Kilbourne. There was Blue Methodist back in the day, but that got torn down, and there’s Grayson, but Grayson’s kind of beat. Shout out to all those dudes
who helped build Eastland and Kilbourne and shout out to the city for finally giving the kids a place to skate that’s not going to be torn down.

Dude, Chris has the best fucking style on a skateboard! Bittikofer and Brandon Christenbury have known me since I was a child. Christenbury is one of my favorite skateboarders ever! Those two are legends.

I lived in NYC for a while, and I’m a huge fan of the Lenox ledges. If I could bring any spot to Charlotte, it’d be the Lenox ledges for sure.

Nate Stout. Rest in Peace – Nate was an OG filmer in Charlotte and filmed a lot of alternative angles in the BLKSHP videos as well as the COVID Files with Ty. Nate had the best mentality towards skateboarding, always down to skate, always down to stay out as late as you needed to get your clip, one of the most dedicated dudes out there. An outstanding artist, outstanding human, would take the shirt off his back for anyone! Charlotte misses Nate a lot.

Thanks man, I think after Nate’s passing we all kind of had to take a step back. I miss that guy every single day. It’s a very family-oriented scene here. The DIYs, shop and Josh have played a huge role too, Black Sheep has held it down in Charlotte for 20 years! Like I was saying before, I spent a lot of my childhood at that shop, which helped me get through my childhood, plus I’ve learned a lot of life lessons through the homies I’ve met. It’s close knit in Charlotte. We love this city.

I think in the social media era, a lot of kids get jaded, and I mean I think Insta clips can be rad and awesome, I totally post Insta clips, and it’s dope that kids can promote themselves on that platform, but I think one of the things that gets forgotten with Instagram is that it’s also about who you are as a person, and the kind of style you bring, it’s not solely about progression and showcasing how fast you’ve learned something new. Just skate because you love it – if skating fits you, it fits you, that’s kind of how it works. Don’t force it on people.

Charlotte is one of those cities where I think a lot of people would rather live here and travel rather than move, maybe not though, I’m not sure. I definitely don’t think Charlotte is losing any talent, there’s so many up-and-coming skaters here killing it. So, I don’t think the scene will fall apart or anything. And I think Joey is pretty content on staying here for the time being, but I feel someone would step up to the plate, carry the torch forward you know.

I’ve had two ACL tears and am just coming off my second knee surgery, so a long-term goal for me is to get healthy and be able to film a new part in my 30s. Big shout out to Jackson Davis, he was also in a lot of those earlier videos, he’s sober now and killing it, but he gave me a knee program, like a total knee workout program, so I’ve been doing that every morning, using the kettle ball, getting on the stairs, foam roller and riding my bike a lot. Getting healthy and getting back out there on my board, for sure.

True! I remember driving around in Drew’s CRV, going spot to spot and using it. Drew probably has photos of the book if you need. But yeah, it made it into the Smithsonian, 100%.

Joey Dennis
Originally: Charlotte, North Carolina
Currently: Charlotte, North Carolina
Videos: 5301, Central, Avenue, STK

For my group in particular, there was a video called FOON that inspired us a lot, as well as the first BLKSHP videos. FOON was pretty much why me and the homies got a camera and started going out to film street, because we knew all those dudes from seeing them at Saturday park, and to see them go out and film real spots was inspiring and different. And BLKSHP 1, which is a video I think still holds up well against current videos – both of those videos had epic premieres, came out around the same time and had a lot of the same skaters. Those vids got our group skipping the foundation or skate park and going out filming in the streets more. I was at the first BLKSHP premiere when I was 15, and it was crazy to see so many people in one room so hyped on skateboarding. Charlotte was really alive then.

It’s cool living in North Carolina, it feels like we’re in the middle a little bit, which makes everything kind of feel close by. Plus North Carolina is a lot cheaper, so if you want to live somewhere comfortable and still want to travel, North Carolina is a great place. I do think it’s an advantage. Traveling to New York, you can get there on a hundred bucks in gas, and we have a bunch of homies from here living in NYC now, so when we go, we have places to stay. If I go on a weeklong NYC trip, I’m probably only spending three hundred bucks. DC is just six hours from Charlotte, if you head out early, you can be at Pulaski by noon, skate all day, crash at a homies, wake up and head home, plus all those scenes in between are popping at the moment. We also have friends in Florida, Atlanta and Philly. Pretty much everywhere we go, we just stay with friends. It’s nice living over here, certainly an advantage. I love the east coast.

Ah man, that’s a tough one. Probably the courthouse ledges in Nashville, Tennessee. There’s this little plaza by the courthouse that has the best ledges I’ve been to. New York has so many good ledge spots, but I don’t know, those Nashville ledges just fit a Charlotte vibe more.

My biggest inspirations come from Dyshon Whidbee, Nate Stout, Jermaine Whitaker and Isaiah Stines. I probably wouldn’t be filming right now if it weren’t for those guys – they got the fire in them, pushing the bar and always keeping it going, trying to be productive and never staying stagnant. Those guys just see things differently. Nate Stout, rest in peace, was a filmer in North Carolina and South Carolina, who filmed for like 10 or 15 years. He was always the best at it and set the bar really high. Jermaine is obsessed with skateboarding, if he doesn’t get a clip a week, he goes insane. Isaiah Stines basically showed me how to make skate videos. We grew up together around Eastland. He recently moved to Philly, which is why we go up there all the time. Dyshon made 3 full lengths in the span of 2 years! His filming style has a lot of movement, which inspired a lot of my filming styles, plus he’s an amazing skater. He’s one of the main people I film – I’m actually about to meet up with him.

Charlotte is a small, big city, if that makes sense. It seems like it’s a big city, but really everyone knows each other and its super easy to run into people, especially as a skateboarder, because there’s two or three main spots that everyone goes to everyday. Also, with our group in particular, the Eastland DIY really brought us together more. There weren’t many options at the time, so for a while everybody was at Eastland almost every day. Eastland was a perfect meet up. If a homie had a spot and trick in mind, we’d usually meet at Eastland, then roll like 10 or 15 people deep to the spot and film. We’re very tight knit.

I don’t worry, because when my friends move, they usually move somewhere on the east coast, so I still get to see them and film with them. Also, there’s always a new generation of skaters coming up in Charlotte, so I know there’s never really going to be a lack of people skating in Charlotte. Plus, Charlotte has been getting a lot more exposure than it has in the past, with visits from New Balance, Sci-Fi and a whole bunch of other teams, which has been awesome. I do worry though about a lack of filmers, because there will be a lot of the younger skaters asking me to film, but I always want to tell them to just do what me and my friends did – you and your homies get a camera and just start filming a bunch. I think that’s the best way to go about it, just keep it in your crew and make stuff, it doesn’t have to be top tier, but you’ll progress over time, and it’ll turn into something a lot bigger than you ever thought it would be. If I were to move out of Charlotte, I don’t know who would be the main filmer. I mean there’s people that are filming, but I don’t know if they’re as motivated as I am about putting together full-length videos. A lot of people will say they’re working on a full-length, but it never happens. It’s a little worrisome, but I’m sure there’s always going to be that next generation crew that’ll pop up.

Exactly. That is a great way to put it. Having a motivated filmer is necessary for a good scene. Drew held it down for years in Charlotte! With smaller scenes it’s great to see motivated filmers. Filmers willing to take years to collect all the best stuff and showcase what the city is really about. You can tell with smaller videos, or local videos, there’s more to prove – skaters are trying to get their names out there and trying to do the best they can wherever there at, which is rad to see.

I don’t really have any long-term goals skate wise. I will probably make another full-length video. I recently got an Extreme lens, so it’s going to be my first full HD video, which is pretty cool and a little different. Filming with the Extreme is kind of hard though, I’m not going to lie it kind of makes filming not as fun, that thing is fucking heavy – my left arm is jacked from it. But other than that, I’d say just filming with the same people I’ve been filming with. My long-term goals are pretty much the same as my friends, I just want to help them to succeed in their skate careers. I have some goals with my career away from filming that I’m probably going to try my best to accomplish within the next few years.

I help run an Amazon DSP company, and I’m trying to start my own company in the next three years. I’m hoping to get a contract with Amazon out of state, somewhere like Texas or somewhere new. Skating has taught me perseverance, and filming has definitely taught me that I can endure and handle a lot. Skating and filming play a large part in my work ethic.

Haha, that’d be amazing. Drew’s book was probably one of the best spot books to come out of Charlotte. We did try a skit for that Avenue video that never made it in. It was me, Dyshon and Mark at Eastland after it’d been torn down. Filmed it and put it together, but it just didn’t come out the way we’d wanted, but maybe in the future, I’d love to put a skit in a video.

That was at the World Trade Center, where you get kicked out immediately. We were talking about it, and someone suggested just having a homie distract the guard by running up the bank away from Becks. Totally worked out first try.

Isaiah Stines
Originally: Charlotte, North Carolina
Currently: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Videos: (parts)5301, Central, Avenue

Yeah, I’ve been living in Philly two years as of August. I work at Nocturnal, so I see Brian all the time. I actually grew up watching him in 411s and the old North Carolina videos and would see him skate the Durham courthouse with Mike Sinclair and Bob Reynolds, so to meet him in person was pretty sick.

Yes and no. Growing up in the scene I watched all the heads, like the FOON guys or the prior Black Sheep guys really pushing Charlotte’s scene, which was great for Charlotte, but I also watched some of those guys move to NYC or California throughout the years, which caused a complete pause in the progression of the scene whenever they moved. So, I wasn’t necessarily nervous moving to Philly, because I’m not the end all be all holding Charlotte’s scene down, but I did sort of worry of that happening when I moved, because at the same time I was moving other friends were talking about moving as well, so I wasn’t sure who was going to be left in the city, but I knew the heads back home would always hold it down regardless.

I would personally say that Philadelphia has a lot more rich skate history and has had eyes on the scene since the dawn of time – from as early as the Sub Zero video, if not earlier, through now and Harry Bergenfield’s videos, there have always been eyes on Philadelphia. Philly has legendary spots that people have traveled across the country, or from other countries to skate. I think Charlotte just doesn’t’ have that draw yet, and that isn’t to say that Charlotte doesn’t have
companies, pros and teams coming through town, which has picked up a lot more in the last couple years. Plus, Charlotte now has its first pro raised in Charlotte with Georgia Martin, which is a big mile marker and contributes to the value of Charlotte’s skate scene as well. Another big difference I’ve seen is that Philly skaters are pretty spot spoiled with an abundance of spots and
resources at hand in order to have a flourishing skate scene. The layout in Philadelphia in general is so different from Charlotte. You don’t necessarily need a car to get from spot to spot, but back home you have to have some type of vehicle in order to get to all the spots because they’re so
spread out, whereas Philadelphia is so dense. There could be a ledge spot in Charlotte, but the next spot is a 30 min drive the opposite direction. There’s a lot more planning, driving and having to fix and create more spots in Charlotte. Philly has the luxury of being able to cruise a metropolitan area from spot to spot, alleyways as well as historic ones.

And it’s not just the major cities! There are a plethora of smaller cities surrounding Charlotte with a ton of spots as well. It’s certainly an advantage – being able to make trips, see new spots and meet new people, it’s great for making videos, which gets eyes on the scene in Charlotte and showcases what we have going on down there. Not to mention the whole vibe, landscape and architectural differences on the east coast, which makes for unique spots in every city as well. I think that’s another advantage to living on the East Coast, having more access to a variety of
cities and spots, versus if you’re on the West Coast, where 90% of it is California. A few years ago, I actually won a van when we were working on Joey’s second video, and we were able to make a trip from Charlotte to Nashville to Atlanta and back, just made a little triangle out of it – it was a great way to wrap the video up. One of my dream trips is to hit Cincinnati and Louisville then over to Lexington.

Haha, yeah. There was a best trick contest in Fayetteville and the prize was a van, and I ended up winning it.

I did a switch big spin down this double set. It was pretty convenient because we had been planning that trip a couple weeks prior, and the day we were looking at sprinter vans to rent we saw a flyer for a contest to win a van, so we went like 12 deep, thinking at least one of us could
win it.

I sold it to move to Philly

A replica of Charlotte’s Eastland DIY. If they just took out the Roxboro court and replaced it with Eastland, that’d be a good time. For me personally, I think Eastland kind of made Charlotte skating what it is today, because before Eastland the scene was divided more, and while Eastland was being built a lot of the street spots in Charlotte were being torn down, uptown was a giant
bust, and everyone was kind of getting tired of hitting the same couple of spots in the city, so no one had anywhere else to go but Eastland. I definitely think it helped build a community. And now Charlotte has Kilbourne, which is the first and only sanctioned DIY Charlotte has ever had! Having places like Eastland or Kilbourne and a shop like Black Sheep help scenes like Charlotte, but they also help change normal day to day people’s perceptions of skateboarding.

I ride for DC shoes, FTP, Bronze 56k, Pig wheels, Bones bearings, and Black Sheep skate shop.

Skate wise, I’ve always wanted to skate outside of the USA. Anywhere out of the country really haha! Really to answer both sides just have the freedom to travel, skate and see friends and family whenever.

Dyshon Whidbee
Originally: Lenoir, North Carolina
Currently: Charlotte, North Carolina
Videos: (parts)5301, Central, Avenue, STK (filmed&edited) R&B, Equality, The Art of the Hiatus

I think a big help has been having filmers in Charlotte. I’ve noticed when local filmers make videos, it inspires other local skaters to get better. And over time in Charlotte there have been several different filmers putting out well-known videos for Charlotte, each showcasing the city in its own way, sort of one after the other, almost like its being passed down, which I find interesting, because it always seems like there’s someone keeping the filming going and showcasing the scene. I feel that’s probably why the scene keeps going, which in this era of social media can attract people from around the world to actually travel to Charlotte and skate
the spots we have. When there have been lulls, they never last long. Usually when we lose a foundation spot, I feel like the skate scene dies a little bit, but other foundations pop up soon after. Charlotte’s skate scene is always alive and well. Even now with Kilbourne, whenever I go, I always see new kids.

Yeah, we all get a chance to skate together, and even though there are separate crews in Charlotte, we all still get together sometimes, which is cool, because I feel when I first moved to Charlotte it wasn’t really like that. It felt a bit cliquey, I guess, but the scene has grown where everyone just kind of bumps into each other and talks to each other, sees how each other is doing and skates. Some people will meet and skate at Kilbourne and end up hanging out outside of
skateboarding. It’s a very warm and welcoming place. Sometimes it feels deeper than skateboarding, everybody respects each other as humans and comes together at Kilbourne – it’s more inclusive. Having a main spot like Kilbourne helps. Actually, a lot of it began at Eastland, because Eastland was where people first started coming together. There was also Saturday, but I feel with indoor skate parks it can be a little more difficult to connect with people rather than in an open space like at Eastland, plus indoor parks can be intimidating when everyone there is super good, and the park is compact. With an open-air space, new people can walk by, notice it
and then come back and skate, which is something else I feel has been helping grow the scene in Charlotte.

I guess if you put it like that, then we do kind of have an advantage in terms of being really close to all those main cities, which can be easy to get to if you’re driving, because you can split the driving between 4 or 5 people and split the cost of the trip, so it can be pretty easy to do. I also think it depends on your motivation too, because you could easily just stay in Charlotte, it really depends on how much you want to travel somewhere. Some of those cities have spots that have
been skated for over 20 years, so it can get hard getting tricks on something that’s been skated for that long, plus trying to get a trick that hasn’t already been done. For me, whenever I travel anywhere I really just want to find something no one else is skating that looks interesting or weird, so that I can do something that no one else is really thinking about doing. I feel I think more about that, or spots like that, rather than where the spot is located.

That’s a broad question. There’s been a lot of people that I’ve learned a lot from. I guess more specifically, I would say Jermaine Whitaker. Jermaine’s younger than me, by a lot, but when we’re all out together, he’s the one that keeps me going, helps me want to keep filming and learning new tricks. I feel like both of us, for each part we’re filming, we’re trying to film tricks that we’ve never done before. He keeps me young and has helped my skating grow a lot. I like seeing what I’m capable of doing. There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t know I could do until I tried it for a while. I’ve been a lot more creative since I moved to Charlotte from Lenoir. I just keep meeting people that have something that keeps them going, which helps me to do the same.

I still write, but I don’t know that I’d call it poetry. It’s more like journaling. I don’t have anything I’m trying to get out of myself in word form right now, so I haven’t had anything really to write about for poetry. I do have thoughts about things, and I’ll just write it down if I find it valuable or something. I think I just write differently than I used to.

I’ve never thought about it like that, and I think it makes sense, it’s like spirit coming into body in a way that you can actually see it.

I guess I can try and answer from a personal standpoint. I was trying for a while to get some sponsorships, but it wasn’t working out very well, and then I gave up on it for a bit. And I think the more focused I was on the skating, trying to get better and putting out video parts, I feel like that got more attention, rather than putting myself out there and bothering people I guess, haha, which can feel weird to do, but you kind of have to sometimes. I feel part of it can be just asking, you know? Just asking and seeing what happens can be a big step. Sometimes it works out,
sometimes it doesn’t. Riding for Black Sheep has helped as well. A shop is going to have more connections, which will help you get your foot in the door with companies, and then you can send them footage. Trying to stand out, being true to yourself and being a nice person – those are some things that have helped me. That and I think sometimes it’s luck as well.

I ride for Converse, Ace trucks, Black Sheep, and I started getting Baker boards after meeting and talking some with Andrew when New Balance came through town.

No not really, I think Charlotte is going to keep doing what it’s doing. Inspiring people to want to film and skate, and I feel the next kids in line will do the same thing. I sort of already see that with the kids that are watching our videos and are hopefully going to be trying to make videos of their own. Everyone inspiring each other.

I have a whiteboard, and I write what I want to do for the year on it. It’s sectioned off by months and weeks. There can be art projects on it, skating stuff, filming stuff, and I just try to cross off as much as I can. A main thing I’ve been focusing on has been maintaining my mental health a little better, which isn’t something I’ve struggled with super badly, but I still try to think of ways to make it better, mostly just focusing on being present and having something to look forward to, having goals to strive for, because if I didn’t have something to look forward to I’d probably wouldn’t do anything – I used to be the kind of person who just kind of let everything happen and would just see how it all turns out, which worked sometimes, but that can only last for so long, so I feel I have to put a little more effort towards things now, just so I’m not floating around. It feels good to have my feet down somewhere. I’d like to have a healthy balance of both though, floating and being grounded, and I feel having a sense of who you are comes with having goals and giving yourself things to look forward to, instead of letting life just happen.