PRETTY SKATEBOARDS - THE PRETTY BLOG: November 2013

Around this time last year we were all justifiably giddy over the approaching premiere of St. Losers, Gabe Kehoe's completely wonderful video about skateboarding in St. Louis. In my efforts to write about the video, I reached out to Randy for an interview that I thought would sort of permeate the thing I was writing, but that ended up largely cut due to I can't ever just fucking say something clearly and get on with it. So I went back and prettied up the text of our exchange and am happy to present it now. Thanks to Randy for taking the time to answer my questions, and thanks to the rest of you for making St. Louis rad. –Kyle Beachy

Kyle Beachy: I wonder if you can start generally with something about the video and St. Louis, and whether it's important to have this video. And if so...why? What is the point, really, if we can say there's a point, to the video?

Randy Ploesser: I don't know how important it is necessarily to anyone (skateboarders) outside of Saint Louis or the surrounding areas. It is exciting though. I think like with anything in skateboarding you essentially assign meaning to it however you see fit, saying there is any practical point to skateboarding other than transportation and to break shit is a stretch until you've done it for most of your life. Then comes the assigned meaning, so this must be the art of a group of loser skateboarders in Saint Louis. If "St. Losers" were a film playing in the Guggenheim in New York perhaps the description below would read "A film shot in Saint Louis, MO by Gabriel Kehoe which delineates traditionally accepted perceptions of criminality and derelictism (art also involves inventing words) exposing the underlying artistic endeavor of transforming use of three dimensional space in a setting of urban decay and strife exemplifying the strong bonds we create through art and the shear fucking joy of drinking beer in the streets with your loser friends in a city that only halfway exist anymore."

That's the bullshit anyway. That's more of a question for Gabe, I guess. The honest point for me is that Saint Louis hadn't had a solidly representative and well-rounded local video in a long time and Gabe was working with the people that I love to skate with when i'm at home and they all had a lot of really good footage. I had a little chunk of stuff filmed with him so after seeing the trailer I decided to try to film more stuff in Saint Louis for the video because I knew he was going to do a great job. And he did.

KB: How much of it is done in the interest of the city? Does a city need to have a good scene / indie / shop video today?

RP: I guess quite a bit. I mean I think Saint Louis is like a lot of other cities in the respect that everyone always wishes things could be "a little better." Have better parks, have better shops, have better people, spots, more recognition blah blah, etc. but essentially the fact that it isn't some world class skate destination has really brought out its character over the years. Its kind of hard after seeing what has been created on the streets in Saint Louis to say we'd be any better off having 20 skate plazas and a shop for each one of those plazas.

I don't think a city necessarily needs a good scene or shop video for skateboarders to exercise their ingenuity. But I think trying to be a proud representation of something is the only thing that makes you stay and work within the constructs of your "home". Lets just say if this we're Salina, Kansas I don't think a lot of people would be sticking around and Saint Louis surely has plenty to offer if you're willing to do the work to tap its potential. No offense to Salina being the example there.

At the end of the day, I'd be lying if I said didn't want the rest of the world to see this video and put a little gold star next to Saint Louis on their little skate map of the world and hopefully recognize the talents of the many fine young shredders here.

KB: I also wonder if you have any opinions to share about what a video like this means for you career, in particular. Does "career" mean something different today, for you and others? It seems like more and more pros are serious about representing their hometowns (I'm thinking Worrest and Gilbert Crockett and even like on Malto's level...)...I wonder if this means something to the state of the industry...?

RP: I think that was an issue in my head at first. I feel like "career"-wise its a risk to do something independent especially if you're established with your sponsors, because the more you give them the more they want to keep you around. Having something in a local video that may not be seen by a lot of people or isn't necessarily branded by your sponsor doesn't always amount to them really caring.

I think it was more a decision if I really give a fuck about that or not and I think at long last I've decided that I don't really. I'd rather film a local video with someone I trust and have it come out the way I'd like than end up with another "The Beginning" part (no offense to anyone but myself on that one).

Elaborating on that, I think that its more of a matter of identity than anything. Seeing that part, which I did not have any hand in editing, song choice, and had half-assedly filmed the first 6 months or so I lived in California, I didn't see a lot of "me" in that. Something just felt super off.

Going to California and making some missteps is just what happens though, its one of the unfortunate necessities of attempting to make a "career" in skateboarding. This is hindsight by the way. Who knows what the hell I was thinking at the time and I probably could have put in some better work on that one with said hindsight always being blindingly apparent.

I have a lot of respect for all the guys you mentioned, and all of them have probably gone through the same ups and down to get to the point of being able to live closer to home and represent that. I just feel like you get a stronger sense of who skateboarders are when you see them skating at home doing their thing, and the naturalism of that sort lends itself to why local and shop videos are always so fucking awesome. Something about digging for your own spots in a place that you've skated for years appeals to me way more than seeing guys being carted around on tour to the best and brightest skatespots the world has to offer. As fun as that is, and man that is fun, theres something more real about doing it the way everyone else in the world has to.

I know Malto fairly well and that's what makes him so rad to me is that he's done so much for Kansas City and prefers to live at home and travel from there. Otherwise he'd probably just be that little kid I always saw in Kansas City who was really amazing at skateboarding who moved to California and got really big because of course he did. The fact that he gives back what he's given really gives him a nobility that a lot of talented skateboarders lack who really don't seem to care about any bigger picture than their next power move they are going to make industry-wise. I'm sure Escapist skate shop did a lot for him as a youngster and seeing the mutual respect there is pretty inspiring. I wish that I can maybe do something like that someday for Saint Louis when/if checks from a new endorsement with an extreme shred juice start coming in.

I always felt a connection with Nesser when we were riding for Birdhouse for that same reason, he seemed like he was a guy that was doing it for the right reasons and doing it in a way that I understood. That's pretty much why I ended up riding for The High Five is that I identified with what he was trying to do for his local scene, and liked how he did a lot of traveling on his own terms and so on. Unfortunately "career" wise I don't know if much of this matters. As far as I know moving back home from an industry-heavy area like California is career poison. But if you're given the chance to do it by people who respect what you do and are willing to pay you to rig it to make it work, then I think its pretty cool.

KB: Well I've been watching your part on a super secret link from Gabe and it's clearly the best part you've put out, and I'm supremely hyped on it. There are so many tricks, so many tricks. The last ollie. That last ollie. I hope to have some beers sometime soon.

RP: Thanks, you can always want something better, but for the time I gave myself I think I did alright. Beer me.

Photo by Preston.