8/25/2019
Photo: Blabac
A LOT OF PEOPLE CAN DO TRICKS ON A SKATEBOARD, but there are a select few who really know how to ride one. Wes Kremer is one of those unique individuals who truly knows how to ride a skateboard. He doesn’t have an agent or a fancy car and half the time he doesn’t even have a cell phone. He skates for all the right reasons—not for the money, the social media following or anything of that sort. He’d be doing the exact same thing whether he was pro or not, just living with his parents and skating with his good friends every day. Although his life is much like every kid who subscribes to this magazine—he is a legend in the making. I can assure you he’ll be remembered decades from now. Wes Kremer is a true skateboarder. I know from 20 years of experience that I’m extremely lucky to be able to photograph him, so please enjoy this interview. —Mike Blabac
So you grew up in San Diego but you have roots in the Bay, right?
Yeah, my grandma has a house in Santa Rosa. Actually, the Bay was the first place I made it to in the States. SFO. Flew into the airport and drove straight up to Santa Rosa.
From Deutschland?
Nah, from fuckin’ Japan.
You weren’t born in Germany? I’m blowing it.
No, I was born in Tokyo and lived there for the first ten months of my life. Then we moved to San Diego. But actually the first month I was alive we flew to Santa Rosa to go to Grandma’s house for Christmas.
Nice. So you took your first hundred shits in Japan. You’re stoked.
Probably a thousand.
Wes’ first board said “Rad” and he took that shit to heart. Hat-liberating double-barrel ollie. Photo: Darwen
Gap out to switch crooks, making Nash proud. Photo: Blabac
What were your parents doing there?
My Dad got offered a job out there with the law firm he was working for. They had an exchange program where one of their employees from Japan would work in San Diego while my Dad basically switched places, you know. Working in Tokyo as a real estate lawyer.
How old were you when you started skating?
I was about six years old. My next-door neighbor had a Variflex board that said “Rad” on it. I remember cruising around on it for days—always wanting to borrow it and shit. Eventually he gave it to me. I ended up going to the YMCA skate camp and for the first half I was runnin’ the fish tail. Kids kept making fun of me for riding the oldschool board. They were like, “You don’t got the double tail?” I was like, “What do you mean? This is a skateboard.” And they were like, “Nah—this is a skateboard,” holding up their double tails.
“MY NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR HAD A VARIFLEX BOARD THAT SAID ‘RAD’ ON IT”
What was your first real setup?
After that I got a Nash complete. I think it might have been right when Nash caught onto the double tail. I think the board said “Switchstance” on it.
When you were a kid, who were some of the heavy hitters in SD? Who were the dudes you looked up to?
Definitely fuckin’ The Storm. That came out when I was growing up, so fuckin’ Smolik, Brandon Turner, Kanten Russell, of course. He was killing it. And just all the dudes that skated the YMCA, you know. Chany. Chany’s a G. Alphonzo Rawls, D-Way, Colin McKay, fuckin’ Tony Hawk. Just the dudes that would show up and get me hyped.
Wes avoids the typical route with a switch varial heel, over and out. Photo: Blabac
Kid’s B team to man’s A team. Switch backside 50-50. Photo: Burnett
If skating hadn’t worked out, what do you think you’d be doing right now work-wise?
I’d probably just be taking the typical route. I’d probably be in school. If not I’d probably be lurking nasty on the streets. Getting crusty. Getting crustier.
What is it about SD that makes people so crusty?
Honestly, just the weather. People get too spoiled with the weather. You get spoiled. You post up. You get lazy. They got really good weed here. The nightlife’s cool. You can go out. You can definitely find some ladies. You can go to the beach. You can definitely collect some crust there. Become an instant crustacean. Mandatory. Doing the fuckin’ crab walk with the rest of the crabs on the beach.
“BECOME AN INSTANT CRUSTACEAN. MANDATORY”
Being from SD, did you ever ride for Osiris?
Absolutely. I was on the kid’s B team when I was twelve. They gave me, like, a pair of shoes every two months. I ran the PLGs. They were fuckin’ proper. Some of the best Osiris shoes I ever had were the Jerry Hsu ones.
Did you ever run the D3s?
Oh, absolutely. For sure. Marius moved into the same housing complex as Tony Magnusson, one
of the main dudes at Osiris. Once he moved over there and started kicking it with T-Mag and shit, getting shoes—after that we were hyped on Osiris. And it was pretty much an SD company, so we’d always see the dudes around. I remember seeing T-Bone, Smolik, Kasper. Holy shit, dude, I skated with Kasper one time back in the day. It was insane. We roll up to this triple set, right. I had no idea he was going on the session. I’m looking at it and all of a sudden I see this convertible BMW pull up. I’m like, “Who’s that?” And he pulls right up to the spot, right next to the stairs—bumpin’ this Eminem track. I wish I could say it was that 8 Mile song, but it was some other inspirational one. He gets his board out and he’s like, “Hey, hey, nice to meet you. I’m Josh.” And then out of nowhere—he didn’t even fuckin’ ollie the thing—he starts hucking front threes. He sticks it, dude. Literally sticks a frontside 270 and slams. And after the Eminem song ended, one of the songs from The Storm came on. Like, the craziest, most-techno song in the video. It’s just blasting out of the convertible while Kasper is getting served up, like, literally every try. Unfortunately, at the end of the day he didn’t get it. But I came back with an amazing Kasper encounter.
The Skate World 