Brian Petrie is the man behind Earthwing Skateboards out of NYC, which has brought the world the best tech sliding gear there is as well as some unique boards that can rip anything using complex building techniques and materials. Earthwing also hosts the Friday Night Rips which should be an inspiration to all to set up and or attend weekly sessions.

Anthony – So how long have you been skating and what got you into it?

Brian – I have been skating since about 1982, but I have had a skateboard for as long as I can remember.   The skateboard itself was always interesting to me, but I remember specifically the day that it was tattooed on my heart for good.  I lived on a pretty gnarly hill, and I was about 6-7 years old screwing around in my driveway when a group of punks showed up with these new fat street decks.  Keep in mind it’s the early 80’s.  When I say punks, I mean punks.  These were not cleverly dressed emo rockers in their sisters jeans, these where the real deal.  They were in a crew called “Snake”.  Back then you had crews.  Their logo took over our town, and for a bunch of punks, they really had a knack for marketing.  Everyone knew of them, or at least that is the way I perceived it.  Anyway, they start bombing the hill – something I would never attempt to do – doing full blown slides, colemans, toesides, and stand-ups at top “I don’t give a shit” speed.
Amazing.
I never had any idea any of this was possible.  They had ollies down, early grabs… this was all new to me.  I was totally fascinated with the whole thing.  These guys didn’t answer to anyone. They had complete freedom, and owned their shit for sure.  I started inching my way closer to the action, sort of hiding in the shadows with my plastic yellow banana board, and one dude calls me out and says “what the fuck are you looking at bighead?”  And for some reason, that was it.  I wanted to be that guy, not because he was a dick, but because he owned his shit.  He knew who he was, and could care less what anyone else thought about it.
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Dean Keller, is one of the coolest guys in our scene. He’s the guy behind the Pennsyltucky Derby races and Phat Deanz slide pucks. He’s got a long history in the skateworld and I thought it would be cool to do a little interview with him so everyone can get to know him and hear some insight on what skating is really all about.

Anthony – Dean, you’re a really respected member of the beast coast community, you’ve hosted two races and attended a crap load of others as well as Anton’s slide jams and now you’re making slide pucks. How did you get into all this?

Dean – After a many year layoff from skateboarding (due to personal stuff we won’t get into) I decided it was time to get the wheels under my feet again. Ray (of Rayzor Tattoos fame) was selling equipment so I got a board (shortboard) and started playing again. Joe got me out to shoot some small hills and I loved it. All of the credit for the longboard and downhill focus has to go to Ray. He did his research and got up to date on the new equipment and such and it just blew up for us after that. We started surfing the fish, finding races, finding hills, doing lots of riding, and meeting all of you guys and I fell in love with skateboarding again.

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It’s the beginning of a new year and the skating just isn’t slowing down. We’re at 200 members as of now and the community just keeps getting stronger. There’s no better example of this than the event that went down in south Jersey yesterday. Keep it up and continue to spread the stoke! – Beast Coast Longboarding

The high for the day was 32 degrees but the skating was HOT, HOT, HOT! The third New Jersey slide jam, held by our friend Anton, went off this past Saturday. This was the biggest Jersey slide event yet even though it’s the dead of winter: cold as hell, sand covering the roads and the remnants of that huge snow storm still making a presence. There were around 40 skaters and everyone was throwing down huge. People traveled from all over to attend coming from as far as North Carolina.

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