10/17/2014

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YOU HAVE NEVER GAMBLED IN YOUR LIFE. You think it’s dumb. One day a friend convinces you after lots of harassment to spend one quarter on a slot machine. You drop the coin into the slot with a clunk and yank down on the handle, sending the wheels into a blurry spin. Clonk, clonk, clonk—each dial stops in a row and each one is the same. Holy crap! Ten-million-dollar jackpot on your first pull. Jeremy Leabres is that good. The evidence is on these pages and on video. —Ed Templeton

Le-Ahh-Bres. Philipino, not Mexican, right?
Yes.

How many people think you are Mexican?
About 90 percent.

Chad Tim Tim noticed and called it out first, right?
Yeah, Filipinos can usually tell right away.

You’ve got so much drive compared to most of the guys I have worked with. Where does all of your drive to do so much on your own come from?
I’m just having fun. It comes easy when you are just having fun and skating with your bros.

What about the drive to be a chain smoker?
Oh, there is no drive there; that just happens.

Menthol or roll your own?
Roll my own menthol, I suppose.

When do you think your teeth will be completely fucked from all that smoking?
I heard you are good up till around 25.


Shaking off the dust with a classic BS NBS in Indiana. Photo: Hammeke

Have you heard that J-Lay claims skating is all downhill after you turn 22?
Yeah, I heard about that and I think it’s bullshit.

How old are you now?
Twenty.

Are you into health food like Blake is?
Nah, Blake takes that shit to new levels. It’s annoying.

So Blake’s health-food diet pisses you off ?
It doesn’t really piss me off. It’s just annoying when he can’t go with the flow and eat where everyone else it eating.

What’s your take on health-conscious smokers?
What do you mean?

You know—the kind of fools that have to eat real good, like Blake, but will smoke and drink all day. And then they’ll have a burger at 2am but refuse to eat one for lunch or dinner?
That’s just Blake not knowing what he wants. Like I said, it’s annoying.

If you could punch anyone in the face today, who would it be?
Nick Merlino.

Nick would kick your ass, though, don’t you think?
Yeah, but I would like to punch him in the face.


Spain conquered the Philippines, thus you get Asian-y looking dudes with Mexican names 5-0 grinding through kinks in America. Photo: Rhino

You are too nice. How could you punch Nick?
I wouldn’t do it just to do it. I’d wait till he did something really stupid. Just hang out with him for a day and he would ask for it.

You grew up with Forrest Edwards, right?
Yeah, pretty much. I’ve know him for days.

Has he taken you out with any of that Real Street money?
Fuck no. He needs it. He’s actually doing really good with it—better than I thought he would do with it.

What’s he doing with it?
Trying to get a car but he doesn’t have a license yet.

What’s something people don’t know about Forrest that they should?
He loves to suck women’s toes.

Toes before bros?
Nah, he’s down for the bros.

Would you let Ed paint you and Forrest nude together?
I’d be down but Forrest would not be down.

Are you still throwing trash out of car windows and leaving your shit everywhere for people to pick up after you?
Oh, nah. Just a little here and there. It’s not too bad anymore. I used to be bad about it. I used to clean out an entire car and leave it on the ground. It was pretty bad at one point. I used to not give a shit or even think about it.

Why did you change?
I don’t know. Just trying to not be a little shitty kid anymore, I guess.


Keeping pace with a heart-stopping kickflip front blunt. Love you, Mom. Sequence: Karpinski

Is your mom still in law enforcement?
Yeah, she just started working again.

Did she have a leave of absence?
She just had foot surgery and before that she had heart surgery where a little piece gets put into your chest to shock your heart if you miss a beat or something like that. She is going back to work now, so she’s chilling. She’s hyped to be going back to work, for sure.

Does your mom ever bust anyone for skating?
Nah, she gives skaters a break. She don’t hassle skaters at all.

Has she seen how bad you used to litter?
No. She would be bummed on me.

What do your parents think about your skateboarding? Were they always supportive?
They were super supportive. They are super hyped on where I am, but they worry about me a little.

What are they worried about?
Once I stopped going to school, they were worried.

What grade did you drop out?
Senior year.

How much time did you have left?
It was towards the beginning of 12th grade and I didn’t have enough credits to pass. I didn’t want to do 12th grade again, so I just left.


He may have dropped out of high school, but Leabres held this frontside crooked grind until the bitter end. Photo: Rhino

What was your best subject in school?
School sucks. School is the worst thing ever.

What was the first thing you remember about Toy Machine? When did you first see the brand?
Probably the Suffer the Joy video. That was my intro to Toy Machine.

What stood out to you in Suffer the Joy the most?
Billy, Nick Trapasso and the way the video was put together was super rad to me.

Name three riders, besides Ed, from the first Toy Machine video.
What was it, Jump Off A Building? Or was it Welcome To Hell? I don’t even know. Bam?

Nope.
I couldn’t tell you.

Who are three Toy Machine legends?
Nick Trapasso—just the way he skated. Billy for sure. He’s the gnarliest motherfucker. And Bennett since he’s one of a kind.

If you could put one ex-Toy rider back on the team, who would you pick?
Austin Stephens. He’s tight. I’ve been on a few RVCA trips with him and he’s really cool.


Hensley and Klein invented backside 360s, always with the front foot off. Jeremy’s in good company down an Inland Empire double set. Sequence: Karpinski

How did you get hooked up with Toy Machine?
Billy sent you my tape.

And then what?
Then I got declined and kept skating. Then Billy sent you my next tape and you were down.

Yeah, your second tape was insane!
Thanks!

You’ve got a lead foot; you break boards daily. What the fuck?
Yeah, sorry. I just got shit for asking for too many boards this month from Tum Yeto.

How many boards did you go through?
Probably around 15.

And you broke them all?
Pretty much.

Are you worried that you’re gonna get fat?
It definitely worries me.

What do you think is gonna make you fat?
I eat like shit and drink a lot of beer.


Well he wore a hat and he had a job and he kickflipped into frontside board slides so that… no one knew. Photo: Zaslavsky

Well, I guess you are just going to have to get used to Blake’s lame health-food diet.
I guess.

Your first time traveling with the Toy Machine team was on KOTR. What were your best and worst memories from that tour?
The worst part was the harsh hours. The best was meeting all the bros for the first time.

You took Billy’s spot on KOTR. Why couldn’t Billy go?
His kid was due any day so I got to go!

Did you travel much before you got sponsored?
Nah, not really. Only got to go to SF once before I got on the team.

You just got off an Emerica tour. How was that?
That was sick. Such a fun one. Nashville, Louisville and Cincinnati are all places I had never been. So fun!

What’s your favorite thing about being on the road?
Just seeing all the new spots and hanging out with bros. The whole time is pretty much the best part of any trip.

Who do you bunk with on Toy trips?
Mostly Blake.

What do you think about Tum Yeto bringing in Habitat?
I think it’s tight! Habitat has a sick team.

Who is your favorite skater right now?
James Hardy


This frontside half cab kickflip is so good, makes you want to punch Merlino in the face. Sequence: Rhino

How about your all time favorite?
Heath and Ed; it’s a tie.

What’s your favorite video?
Stay Gold, for sure.

Are you excited for the Made 2 video?
Oh, fuck yeah. I heard everyone is nailing it for that one.

Do you ever watch any old skate videos?
Once in a while we get some going: Sorry, WTF and Cataclysmic Abyss.

Do you keep up with all the daily Internet videos?
Yeah, it’s good to keep up.


Doesn’t get more dangerous than kinker combos. Boardslide feeble, playing with fire. Sequence: Hammeke

If you could have any non-skate sponsor in the world, what would you pick?
Coors Banquet, please.

What kind of music have you been listening to lately?
A lot of Sabbath and a lot of Slayer. Devo has been getting me sparked lately, too.

I fuckin’ hate Devo.
Why.

It annoys me like Nick Merlino annoys you.
Bummer.

What’s the closest you’ve ever come to dying?
One time when I was a kid, I almost drowned in a pool. I remember it perfectly; it was so scary. One of my friends was on a little pool float, but he didn’t know how to swim. He fell off and he jumped on me to stay up above the water. He kept pushing me down to keep himself up. It was so scary. I thought I was dying for sure. I saw black and white. I think death comes right after that.


Front blunt through the kink ‘cause gapping past it would be too easy. Sequence: Rhino

Are you scared to swim now?
Nah, not at all.

What if Merlino did that to you?
Oh my God. I don’t know. I would do the world a favor and drown him.

What age did you lose your virginity?
Sixteen.

Was it in the Tum Yeto van?
No.

Who lost theirs in the Yeto van?
Dakota, I think.

Remember a few years ago—Dakota was giving you pointers on how to respond to girls to make them want you more. How did that work out for you?
Nah, not too much. It was tight, though. I got a chick now, so no more fooling around on Instagram.

Does she skate?
Nah, nah, nah.

So what’s next for Jeremy Leabres?
Right now I’m working on a solo Toy Machine part that will be on the Thrasher site. After that, we’re working on a full-length Toy video, so that’s what I’ll be filming for. Hopefully that will be out in two years.

Any thanks or shout outs?
Thanks to my parents, Billy, Santana park, Don Luong, Brian Hunter, you, all my sponsors and America!

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.

12/09/2019

FOUR-BILLION YEARS AGO, errant meteorites slammed into the lifeless lump of stone that is planet Earth, sprinkling their cosmic crud like so much dandruff and sparking what would eventually become Orlando, Florida (and the rest of life as we know it), though all of that took a hell of a lot of time. It was there that a young Evan Smith picked up a skateboard toy, his instant mastery of which leads us to believe that he’d somehow absorbed a little more than his fair share of that original space gunk. Or maybe it was just concentrated in the Orlando city drinking water. Florida’s notoriously sloppy with issues of infrastructure like that. Either way, dude is out of this world. Or more specifically, he’s got a little extra-terrestrial-ity about him. He’s like us, but with a touch of something special—something weird and wonderful. Endlessly curious, freakishly good at whatever he tries, possessing relentless PMA—looks like a goddamned ET too, come to think of it. Star. Head. Body. Evan Smith, folks, live from outer space!

What are you doing right now?
I’m in Pittsburgh and I just got done unpacking and now I’m repacking.

Where’d you go? Where are you going next?
This year has been fucking mental. I’ve been all over the globe, which is such an awesome experience. We went to Barcelona for a month, we went to Australia, went to South America multiple times, just went to Brazil with DC. The reason why we’ve been traveling so much is because Element is making a video and I’m trying to put out a Thrasher part in January. With the combination of those two things, I’ve been going nonstop.

Dude, that’s crazy.
So I just unpacked and then I’m going to repack and I’m going to leave on the fourth to Minneapolis and Australia, then come back for the holidays and then I’m gonna go to Costa Rica and then in January I’m throwing a party in LA.

What kind of party? What’s the occasion?
I’m releasing a shoe, so I’m gonna try to throw a party for it for all my friends. Because it’s cool that I’m getting a shoe and all, but I wanna give something back to all my buddies so they can have a place and a time to enjoy it together and hopefully use it as an opportunity to bring people like you and Cole and Dave Hoang and all my closest friends in the industry together to celebrate our existence!

Is the party gonna have any special theme or twist to it?
No, I’m hoping there’ll be some rock ‘n’ roll bands so that people can mosh around. I’m hoping there will be an open bar of some sort so everyone can drink.

What goes through your head when thinking about your own shoe?
I’m just stoked that I have a shoe. Having the opportunity to sell something that you like with your name on it is humongous, you know what I mean? Obviously with DC’s technical support and my idea for sort of a classic hightop mixed with a boat shoe type of thing, we’ve combined some really cool technology with some really relaxed features. Those were the things that were going through my head, like, “How can I like make a comfy shoe that lasts a long time that skates great?” You know what I mean? It’s, like, I want kids to be stoked on skating, regardless. If I can add to that in any way this is an opportunity for me. I was all, “Yeah, let’s make a shoe!” I already had a hundred ideas ready to go. Let’s just say I had a couple ideas because my brain works way too quick when it comes to creating. So I’m lucky. That’s how I feel at this moment. That’s how I feel at this exact moment—I feel extremely lucky to be able to contribute to our skateboarding industry.

Backside 180 nosegrind, 180 into bank. Photo: Broach

And you wrote and directed a commercial for this shoe? Tell me about that.
Actually, me and Cole Matthews wrote the commercial idea together and we conformed it to make it work with actual visual arts and stuff. We got to do some post-production on it which is—it gets really pricey when you get into post-production. But I actually had the opportunity to direct it firsthand. So usually Chris Ray and the light dudes are, like, “Alright, we need you to do this.” So me and this guy Devon directed it. But they were definitely giving me full creative control at that moment so it was a beautiful thing. They asked me, “So what should we do?” And I was, like, “Oh my God, everyone wants to listen to me. This is crazy!” So I was, like, “Alright, let’s do this,” and I nailed it out. We had an awesome weekend of shooting at Pacific Drive—that’s where the commercial was filmed, in San Diego. I’m really excited to see the finished product. It’s being edited at the moment and I haven’t seen even one little bit of it, but I know just from the pure fact of our storyboard that the commercial is pretty funny and it builds a little bit of character, kind of going for the vibe of the original DC video. You know how there’s a little bit of cameos in it of Big Black and AVE, there’s a little bit of personality building? I’d like to go into that in the future with marketing at DC. It was a really, really cool vibe and I really like the aspect of what these dudes are offering skateboarding at that moment. And it’s really cool to see cameos when you’re a little kid. I don’t know, when you’re a little kid you see skating all the time but getting some personality from these people is a really special thing and I don’t want that to be lost. So that was kind of my goal with the commercial aside from a really cool storyline. I don’t want to give up the story. I’d like for you to see it and be, like, “Oh, that’s cool,” or “I don’t like it.” That’s fine with me, too.

Kickflip back lip. Photo: Blabac

I understand that you had a little bit of a crisis of conscience thinking about all the leather that was going to be used for you shoe. What were you tripping on?
Yeah, this is a great fucking question. Actually, originally I declined using Super Suede completely on my shoe just due to the fact that animal hides are being used and because of the leather trade. They manufacture out of China, but the treated leather comes from Southeast Asia or India. So I was over it. I didn’t want the idea of hide on my shoe even though it’s the best and it lasts longest. It freaked me out completely. And then, through all the ups and downs as far as durability testing, I couldn’t find anything else that would work. And I’m still searching right now. So if I do revise the model at all in the future, I’m gonna continue to research with the goal of making it completely suede free. But I ended up, unfortunately, using bits of suede for the toe and we came up with this rubber-backed canvas, which is my secondary material, so any spot that doesn’t have to be suede for durability, we can use the canvas and it’s rubber backed so it’s not just gonna rip right away. It lasts at least four times as long as canvas normally lasts. You know canvas, how easy it is to rip. So with that trade off and all that stuff it’s, like, really, really hard. I don’t want to support the slaughtering of any animal for anything that has to do with anything like that. I’m not interested in being one to benefit off the slaughtering of animals. I think it’s complete bullshit and garbage. I mean, I’m pretty bummed on myself for even using suede in the first place. I am. I’m actually bummed on myself and everyone who’s reading this should be super bummed on me for using suede. And you should put that in the fuckin’ interview.



How would it feel to see Danny Way in a pair of your shoes?
Dude, I would be stoked. I would love to see him fuckin’ triple flip indy 900 over the mini gap and then into a double flip front blunt on a soccer goal to take out Bob Burnquist in the new Evan Smiths. I would be so stoked.

Kickflip frontside wallride. Photo: Broach

Okay, so you directed this commercial which we can’t wait to see. I understand you’re also working on a movie?
Yeah, it’s kind of on the back burner. I have an idea. I’m really interested in photography and I’m really into making anything, pretty much. I worked on a project with my buddy Chris Blake, which is like a cross-country doc/mockumentary type of thing of just visual art, in a way. And that got me super sparked on the idea to have something filmed someday. So I started writing a storyline and stuff and maybe in the next five-to-ten years maybe I can accomplish a movie or something. I might need to hit up Ty Evans or Spike Jonze so I can get some C4.

What’s that?
C4, like the explosive.

Okay, wow. But you’ve got this Thrasher part coming out and then don’t you have a cross-country road trip video that you made with your buddies this year, too?
Yeah, but that’s not a movie. I’m talking about a real movie. I want to make, like, a legit movie someday because I think it’s fun. I want to see people acting and I want to produce them and I want to light them and film them and write the story. That sounds great—right up my alley.

What are your favorite movies right now? Do you have a favorite movie of all time?
Pulp Fiction is fucking awesome and Dazed and Confused. Those two movies are two of my all-time favorites.

Yeah, those are good. I love Linklater, too. So let me ask you this, has your relationship with Nyjah changed a little bit over the years? I heard maybe you’ve gone soft with him.
Ah, dude, I haven’t gone soft with him. Who fuckin’ told you that?

That’s just some shit I heard.
No. Okay, I like him.

Do you still give him guff like an older brother?
Oh, fuck yeah, dude, I love giving him shit. It’s been the best thing ever getting in Street League because now I have the opportunity to actually fuck with him multiple times a year, which is so fuckin’ sick! And with him switching to Nike I lost a couple trips with him, you know? So now that I’ve got him in the League I’m gonna cut his little Achilles tendon and take his money! No, I’m just kidding.

Evan will find the air. Photo: Blabac

You don’t seem like a very competitive person. How are you doing in the League?
It’s a really interesting dynamic being involved in Street League. It’s a little bit outside of where I ever saw myself going with skateboarding. But I feel like, with that being said, maybe I could give those 2,000 people that go to each event—not the people that are watching on TV, not all that TV stuff, I’m just talking about the actual 2,000 people that show up in that arena and are watching skateboarding from the stands—maybe giving them inspiration outside of just, like, dumbing down your tricks to land them in the contest. My goal is to fly as high and as far as possible and slam as hard as possible just to show them that that is part of skateboarding. If I have to get taken out by a fucking ambulance in an event in an arena then so be it. That’s why I do this. I’m personally interested in showing that skateboarding can be big and you can grind really far. Not to discredit any of the tricks that are being done, it’s just it’s a different style of skateboarding; more like rails and flip tricks down stairs and hitting the ledges. It looks small from the top of the stadium, is all that I’m getting at. Slowly but surely they’ve been building more large quarter pipes so people like Ryan Sheckler are fucking launching off of them and people are getting so happy and hyped because of all that shit.



They lifted the ban on air time over there?
Exactly. They’re expanding their skateboarding to involve more air time, which is amazing. And that’s exactly what I like about watching skateboarding. When I watch videos of Neil Blender he’d go longer and farther and it’s shit where you’re thinking, “Wow, I knew he could do that trick, but, dude, he did it 20 feet longer than I could have ever imagined somebody doing it!” Uh, there’s a shooting in San Bernardino, California, up to 20 victims reported according to fire department. The world is crazy and we’re just thinking about skating. What’s going on?

It’s nuts. So do you think that you’ve ever gotten in Nyjah’s head at the contest?
No, those dudes know that when the time comes, even if I get into the finals or something, I haven’t really put anything together ever in my life. So I would doubt that those dudes could be scared of me doing well. Like, I’m not interested. I’m just interested in skating as hard as possible. Like, whatever comes, that’s sick. If I have a good day of skating, that’s rad, I’ll take your fuckin’ money, Nyjah. But at the same time, that’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in hanging out with a bunch of rad people behind the scenes. What most people don’t know about Street League is that there’s a bunch of sick-ass cunts working all over that place. You know, there are a bunch of cool people that are our friends—your friends and my friends, you know?