Natas Kaupas Documentary, On Video Winter 2003 | TransWorld SKATEboarding

there's two things that happen you in Santa Monica you either got well known for something or you died that was it just opening up a magazine and seeing just a photo not us and him just completely standing out I remember being pretty fascinated with the guy just everything about him you know his name and the fact that he was 100% Street if I had to say what his skating style was I would just say it was like strictly brewed back then skateboarding was very different you didn't really strive to be a pro skateboarder you just did what you did and things kind of fell into place it started going on the streets and and doing reels I mean come on quit it it's a destroying property is hurting and but they were so enthusiastic and you couldn't stop how shall I say skateboarding just started and of course we bought the boards and not just with variety ever since he walked so to speak non-us grew up in South Santa Monica California in the area known as dog town during his early childhood in the 70s dog town became famous for its good waves and aggressive locals who are pushing the limits of what was possible in the water as well as on any paved terrain they could find surfing and skating were practically a given for anyone in the community and on us was no exception but by the time he was old enough to gain recognition in the neighborhood the downtown hype had died down and skateboarding within the law you know the dog don't think it passed over it was kind of over with so everybody's like doing drugs and surfing kind of a rough neighborhood the vaccine was huge and they have seen those kinds of things on dip here as you know so it was concerned but I wasn't overly worried one of the cooler things was that we kept an eye on the younger guys because we knew a lot of bad should they get a patrol so he got to focus on a skateboarder because we wouldn't let him do anything else surfing and skateboarding with what he did in 1983 not his place first in a local surf contest and received as a prize an SMA skateboard Santa Monica Airlines was operated out of the back of the surf shop as a part-time hobby of Dogtown pioneer skip Engblom non-us was so impressed with the board that he decided to pay skip a visit and one day this little kid comes skating up to the back door of the surfboard bathroom where I'm at and he goes I'm not us and I want to be on your skateboard team I started laughing because I don't really have a skateboard team I just make these things customs and so on well we see you skate so he just kind of pushed I did this one ollie and I want that's it man there come here I go you are the skateboard team although not us now officially had a sponsor he and skip remained largely under the radar of the skateboard industry but not us was making quite a name for himself in Santa Monica using a new approach that involved only his local street environment they didn't go to ramp that much there was a couple of little banks by the house but it's mostly like the curbs in front of my house benches you see with the beach every day trying and that's what skipper loved about it you know they were tearing it up like surfing kind of style on anything you know it wasn't just that they needed banks anymore or a pool or something I mean it was a whole different kind of skating I remember the day that not us actually decided that that he could ride walls everybody did this thing where they would run up the walls and throw their skate on and kind of ride on the wall that was kind of the state of things you know I mean and then one day he's not till he's skating right up to the wall and bang he's up on the wall and he hangs up there and he skates off not as soon caught the eye of Dogtown media wizard Craig Stasik who photographed him on a wall in Venice and sent the pictures to Thrasher Magazine now this had never even owned a Thrasher at the time let alone been published in it but they were so impressed with the photo that they decided to put him on the cover and their sidewalk and then there's wall and then there's this guy and we're going alright he's on the wall how did you draw him in there to me come on we know collage when we see it bad guys really do this and it was like no way he just looked at it I realized that his internal gyroscope was so different than anybody else's I think he made him more three-dimensional you know it's not as acquired more coverage in the magazines the more progressive skaters of the time also took notice the first time I seen him was in the magazine he had big bar striped shorts on he's all into pivot on the bumper of a car and that was your cycle y isolated in his own environment his skating was out of sync with the trends of the sport in the early to mid 80s mostly the magazines had vertical skating the guys we liked a lot were like Billy rough on vertical Billy rough was like completely smooth so when we escaped quarter pipes are any transition we're trying to be smooth like rough we went to the quarter pipe we saw an honest area and like when he came up he came up to the quarter pipe coming up to the top paint it like hit it right off the top of it thing and we're like whoa because you know his style is more from surfing when he's out skating like he's going down the line like as if he was surfing like one constant rather than going to a spot and doing tricks when we'd leave his house to go skating it was never like well we're just gonna roll down to the beach it was right into tricks it's like soon he's left the house put the board down I was like ruin the board was flipping boom that was up the curb down the street grinding up the curb up the curb cut off dodge around a couple cars ollie over another curb you know down to the beach slappy a curb up grind the bench you know I was like I should be falling I'm like nah this began skating regularly with Julian stranger who also lived in Santa Monica and would meet up with Mark Gonzales one of the few established Street skaters of the time I never was that clued in to like the whole skateboard culture like I'd do stuff and then meet with Mark and he'd actually tell me what it was called I think Nana's could do whatever he wanted to do like it's just what he chose to do my favorite chick to this day is a Wally I think hands entered that one for sure I would get together every couple of weeks and you'd see what the other guy was doing yeah never thought of that I was doing this Markie notices frequent sessions began serving as a drawing board for what was next in skateboarding as they pushed each other to new levels of skill and creativity [Music] one of the many important innovations to come out of their meetings was a transfer of rodney mullen sally kickflip from freestyle the street mark he was the one that shows me that and he couldn't do me there I could look go out you ollie and then you kick it in this is so funny spending the whole day landing with one foot on one foot off and then finally get it and we got together the next month or two later and we were both doing them out of driveways and catch him in the air and that sort of things after Nonna's got his own model on Santa Monica Airlines his growing reputation began translating in the board sales it became a problem around 1986 when the fledgling SMA couldn't keep up with demand at age 16 not as surprised everyone by taking matters into his own hands and arranging a manufacturing and distribution deal between skip and a much larger Santa Cruz skateboards you have to get the deal from you know the Santa Cruz wanted to have sell boards with his name on it they had to be SMA boards and that I was part of the equation and it was a snow going back does one of the great things about dealing with him is that at fifteen or sixteen he was way brighter than I ever would be now that SMA was part of Santa Cruz the opportunity arose to do some filming not as his breakthrough the first video part at Santa Cruz's wheels of fire finally gave everyone a chance to see him skate and even hear his voice down the street Oh [Music] his ability to ollie at that time that far surpassed anyone else and the part as a whole helped cement the new direction in which skateboarding was heading one side three sixty ollie seventeen years ago is ridiculous everything in wheels fire the ollie when he Ollie the can you just see something you'd be like not us get on with that not us can jump that you definitely jump that [Music] that impact affected everybody skateboarding at that time he was doing stuff that a lot of people wouldn't think of doing sliding dumpsters when you know back in the day that was huge it was like what not us did this Santa Cruz release wheels of fire in 1987 expecting it's vertebra stars Rob Roscoe and Christian Hosoi to create most of the hype but as Street skating began overtaking Burt not as this strong video part surprised everyone by generating the most response and people were complaining the guy's just a street skater and bored selling that many it's like the bizarro world compared to now but as non-us was becoming a household name Santa Cruz began getting calls from parents concerned over its spelling backwards not as helpless what what kind of name is that Nonna's his family and his name come from Lithuania non-us is simply the male version of Natalia a common Lithuanian name made me that without really thinking what it spelled backwards people think I forgot some big meaning behind it ignoring the logical explanation many schools and shops instituted a ban on any merchandise bearing the name not us even the whole city's joined in most notably Long Beach California it was only about five years ago that they lifted that back despite the band's kids couldn't get enough of non-us and his name was everywhere but fame often became a nuisance for the somewhat reserved skater as he was constantly hounded by fans he wasn't so much about the fame so when kids would approach him he kind of was like hey I'm just skating leave me alone make kids a trip someone wanted to talk to me yeah let's sit and talk but I wouldn't want to sign autographs eyes on the skateboard and that's what I like to do [Music] [Music] [Music] although he had growing responsibilities running SM a notice was able to fit in plenty of skateboarding he and Mark Gonzales continued to influence and push each other as they created the building blocks for modern skating the next big challenge for the two leaders was something most street skaters hadn't even dreamt of at the time I was a pro-am contest down in Oceanside and we see not as ride across the stage and trying board slides down this hand railing he didn't make it but we couldn't believe it we hadn't heard about this we had never seen this we had no idea that anyone even thought like this we all just stopped dead in our tracks when it's oh my god mark and I were like almost the only people who could talk that language you go skating with other people in there like they're kind of more showing everyone else what you're doing we were doing rail sights on higher and higher things like natural thing with tape and I would say the Federal Building was like the first legitimate camera that we both did he was a spur-of-the-moment type of individual who would just like there it is try it you know he was always sort of one step ahead of all [Music] soon after he and the gods did the first recorded boardslides not as stepped up again at the federal building rail they were the first guys that I ever saw do 50/50 on a rail it's like soft aluminum those rails are co-prime to breaking the handrail barrier would change skateboarding forever as other skaters endlessly repeated and built upon the work of noise and gods but not us also between though for certain tricks that no one has ever managed to duplicate I don't know I still think it was smoke and mirrors man I don't know what was going on but I've tried that forever never be able to do it while filming for his next Santa Cruz video part not has found a new way to incorporate the fire hydrant in the skateboarding lava 12 fire that's the greatest contribution to skateboard I think really that's how he skated he utilized everything around him he had moves for everything notice his next video part in Santa Cruz's streets on fire had become a much anticipated event and once again define the level of Street skating at the time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when I really got into not us was watching those videos and it was everything you know not aside to be not us to everything trying to just emulate every single thing like you know trying to get the haircut like everyone's doing like the Tony Hawk haircut we're trying to do the not affair cut that was what was so amazing about it that someone could spark that notice his unique take on skateboarding as well as fashion and even music began getting him attention worldwide he got a call one day from a French shoe designer who had seen not as his interview and Thrasher and wanted to start a company he tracked me down through this whole thing at me and he's this crazy French guy but he was a great guy and I liked his ideas and so he started at me Nonna's his shoe the first pro model skateboard shoe was released in 1988 having a skate shoe tested and approved by top Pro was a totally new concept but it was set a precedent and become the standard in the industry for years to come [Music] [Music] not us already had a good idea of how we wanted it to feel but creating the look of the shoe as well as its advertising campaign was a completely new experience for him it planted a seed like someone's got to think of that someone's got to think of every last thing and think about what it does when you see all these things that's trying to figure it all out I guess not as broad as new skills and ideas to SMA where he began laying out ads designing graphics and even managing the team we went skating the same way skating had been going on for a year or so it made sense to kind of back that out with some artwork and just kind of get the whole attitude across the way I always thought it was not as we kind of ran Santa Monica Airlines you know and it was gnarly to go down on and he'd take care of you and you know kind of tell you here's what you're gonna get for your boards Hills at the time not us had more influence on SMA than almost any other pro did over there sponsor realizing they could basically do whatever they wanted not us and Jim FIBO decided to do a US tour by driving across country and a couple of years Cadillacs they bought enthusiastic to do things their own way they planned 30 demos in 40 days across America in their excitement they'd also overlooked many of the logistical problems and planning the tour the first Cadillac blew up in Vegas we bought a stolen Cadillac I couldn't get hotel room read out the fame and love to get it hotel room is over 20 hi the tour also included Julian stranger Mickey Rhea's and Alan Peterson while in New York they also discovered an amazing young powerhouse named Shaun Chevy if we joined the tour and would later ride for SMA [Music] a little bit disorganized the Cadillac Torah was a success and touched the lives of many up-and-coming skateboarders and at a demo rail fighting this box Tino a new cheese under the kid holding up that box despite all the excitement an honest and the team had generated on tour they returned home to find that the 80 skateboarding moon had begun to fade undeterred nas continued to push SMA and himself to new level [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] by the early 90s skateboarding had followed the US economy into a full-blown recession and the companies that managed to survive were cutting way back non-us began the field at the effort he was putting into SMA wasn't quite paying off at the same time his friend and fellow pro skater Steve Rocco it just started World Industries it was based on the ideal of keeping skateboarding creative and fun and was completely run by skaters now it's normal for skaters around the company but at the time it was from some guys seeing what not instead achieved with SMA Rocko offered him his own brand underworld industries with complete creative control some reason under one Dalmatians was a great idea the name of our company so serious at the time we went to go register the name like maybe it's not such a good idea like let's just call it a hundred and one there are 101 over the next few years 101 would become an incubator for nonces artistic direction as well as some of skateboarding's greatest talents [Music] in 1992 non-us was finally at the helm of his own company it was still skating strong it was poised to establish 101 as a major brand but a single injury would soon change all that definite turning point was breaking my ankle and I had to get an operation got a plate put in you know when we heard both event going how about it wasn't it was devastating it was just the way skating is - you know you cannot take a few minutes have a heart injury like that getting older it's hard to rebound though I was up for like a few months I'm skating at that time I learned about a computer I was a Mac 2fx top-of-the-line with a color monitor a scanner and a printer and the whole thing was like 20 grand I just sat around with a new creative outlet not as fun himself redirecting his energy from skateboarding to design work he sought opportunities to test his ideas that was soon invited to work on a new magazine being launched by world industries not worked on the very first big brothers first things we worked on together was this Adamek gnat piece and it was just this really sort of party photo essay and he laid the whole thing out it was really great he had these great sketchbooks you know we sometimes to scan those and for backgrounds I don't know he's just he's consul doing heart his hands on experience with 101 and Big Brother was an education in itself but not as his life in art began much earlier growing up in an artistic and eclectic community his parents filled the house inside and out with sculpture photography and paintings he was also influenced by local Santa Monica artists Wes humston and Kevin and Sal you know he would want to draw so he wouldn't help him draw we'd show them stuff and he's allowed to come over to my garage where I used to live behind my folks house nice tattoos like stuff on boards for people put their hands on the great skulls and crosses and lightning bolts of a wing so that was great yeah the kid of fascinated by Wesley was the original dog town skateboarder dad and he kind of passed it on to me and then I kind of passed on to not us but not us his influences were confined to the borders of dog town with an early foundation in art and a keen interest in learning he began to investigate other aspects of design artists ask real questions and try to learn and can absorb things mofo is the first to tell me what our traction was he used to work on the act with him on Carolina and so I really got an understanding of as he was molding my image basically in the comfort got me really thinking this is how everyone sees us because of him like okay art direction as his workload increased at World Industries he slowly drifted away from 101 as Rocco's cofee became less fun and more corporate what started as more of a friendship thing and he was looking out for me became more business as number crunching kind of crunched it right up while he still worked within the confines of world industries not us felt the need to test himself in the real world outside of skateboarding his way out came in the form of a phone call from the offices of Larry Flynt publications they scouted him out they saw the layout someone they need an art director for a new porn mag they were doing what's called rage they had all these ideas about rage what it was gonna be sort of more like playboy and it wasn't gonna be so sleazy but right away Larry Flynt gave up on the idea of it being this um artfully done tasteful porn magazine so he just wanted to be all raw with like girls like gnarly hardcore porn I don't think he liked it too much I don't know I thought was funny after his experience art directing magazines in 1998 non-us returned to the skateboard industry and helped to establish the short-lived Vida shoes a company that was co-founded by a longtime friend Marc hablo he just basically created our images with with the logos and with the ads and I think our ads were at that time a lot different than anyone elses ads if they were just a sketchy handwriting and taped on type things and he basically put it all together and so that was all him soon after Vita not as was doing design work for Quicksilver an element companies had also tapped into his iconic status by putting him on their skateboard teams not us could draw it's not as good paint now this could take photos and I guess that's kind of when I saw him putting it all together and I mean he took over and he made a major influence on probably the biggest company in our industry he's really added something to the brand from the influence that he's had on the product and loosening things up and just his energy and the way he is I'm really excited just from here on out to see what comes in 2001 Quicksilver promoted notice at the position of creative director alongside graphics guru David Carson of Dartmouth full circle that will happen he laid out a cover of meaning and transform amazing town a really good teacher and now I get to work with him despite his many responsibilities not as still finds time to work on a project he helped found in the year 2000 since our very first issue he's been the hand behind on signature script and illustration style [Music] currently focusing on his art and design work notice is fully healed then still skates and surfs for the pure joy of it just not as it's like all of our best friends and it was just like the weirdest evolution of watching somebody who's at so much natural talent like in the water as an artist on a skateboard he was just so fluid and knew how to move despite the occasional Turin demo he manages to avoid the pressures associated with a pro career recognizing all his contributions to skateboarding in 1998 element released the nods cop as role model and etnies is also set to re-release as the original pro shoe in 2003 and I made it clear not you will have a Bourdon element as long as you exist you have to step on a skateboard ever again because that's not the point the point is that you stepped on one a long time ago and when you did it changed the sport the industry forever use the pioneers that you know Godfather's the streets if it started on it made it possible he didn't really follow what was the trend or what was cool he kind of just marched to the beat of his own drum he has a reason for doing the things he does you know and then people copy what he does he's just got the same thing like Dawn's he's just got it he doesn't have to really do anything but just roll on his board you're like he's got it [Music] in the end magazines and videos they don't be forgotten but it's the the true heroes and icons and legends like not us and gods are gonna endure those guys names will go on forever [Music]

Channel: Transworld Skateboarding

Views: 487,174

Keywords: Action Sports, Backside 360, Backside flip, Board, Boxes, Deck, Extreme Sports, Gap, Grind, Half cab flip, Half pipe, Kickflip, Manuel, Natas Kaupas, Nose Grind, Park, Quarter pipe, Rails, Switch, Switch stance, TWSKATE, Tail grab, Tour, Tricks, Trucks, flip tricks, ollie, skate, skateboard, skateboarding, skatepark, transworld skateboarding, wheels, natas kaupas, natas documentary, thrasher, berrics, nyjah, nikesb, nike, vans

Id: p4j1vKCmrXE

Length: 32min 25sec (1945 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 23 2018