Dorsey, Luke

Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

The Greatest Skaters, the Greatest Interviews

I love to skate. Not rollerskate, but really skate. I am as comfortable skating down a
sidewalk as I am walking. It is just one of the few things I love to do constantly, and I have
never gotten tired of it. I had an idea to write about the interviews that certain magazines have
had with famous skaters. So today I am writing about how skateboarding interviews can be
shown as the most interesting example of genre, with a unique purpose that only tries to attract a
certain audience we can see through the use of conventions such as praised language, slang, and
style, how this type of interview is much more appealing to younger audiences than interviews
from other more educated types of magazines.
Now, I am not a very good skater, but I like to read the skateboarding magazines every
now and then. Such as Thrasher, Skateboarder, or even Rolling Stone. Before I started this
essay, I thought who are these interviews trying to reach out too?. After about thirty seconds it
dawned on me. I am the intended audience! Young men and women like me, who love to skate.
These magazines want skateboarders all around the world to notice and read their articles.
These magazines might also target teenagers with their style and language and also kids who
want to be cool just like the skateboarders represented on the covers of these magazines. In
Kerry Dirks article Navigating Genre, she says, ...the fact that two texts that might fit into the
same genre...look extremely different.(Dirk,255) This pertains to my argument because even
though it is part of the interview genre, it is presented for a very different audience. These
magazines arent written for the older generation. These magazines want young people because
they want to be identified as new, fresh, and vibrant. That is why these interviews are the best
example, because the interviews are easily read and understood by people like me who these
magazines are trying to influence to read their publications.

Dorsey, Luke
Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

The purpose of these interviews is to characterize these young pro skaters, as gods among
the lesser known of the skating world. These articles want to praise them, and show what the
true skaters are like and how they live. They might also add a little flavor just to make them
seem cooler. The purpose of these interviews is to show what true skaters are like and how they
act, so they can reinforce the characterization of what a skater should be. Some interviews,
might also want to show the reality of some skaters lives. What they did as a kid and why. They
might show what problems they had as a kid, what problems they have now. For example, in
Thrasher one of the questions was, What was the shittiest thing you did as a kid to your
parents? (Thrasher) Then the skater they are interviewing, Anthony Van Engelen says a short
excerpt on him getting kicked out of the house and being a rebel in some ways. This is one way
that they kind of honor them now because everyone likes a rebel. They might also share the
personal stories of these skaters, their pet peeves, the personal drama. Another example in
Rolling Stones interview of Nyjah Huston was, But in 2006, his life took a dramatic turn when
his father abruptly moved the family to Puerto Rico...a 26-acre property purchased with Nyjah's
earnings.(Rolling Stone). Here again the magazine is trying to show the skaters life and tell the
audience the hardships he went through. That is why the purpose mainly is to show what a true
skater is like and what it is like to be them.
Although many of these interviews can be different in their own respect, they share many
conventions that make them all similar in their own genre such as slang, and attitude. First of all,
many of these interviews also focus on aspects other than skateboarding. They might ask them
about their past, what they do now for fun besides skateboarding, and also some opinions that
they have about their profession. Another thing that is apparent in all interviews is the use of
slang in most of them. For example, they use the term alien pools to indicate that it was an

Dorsey, Luke
Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

unknown pool in Tony Alvas interview. I think they use these words so they can give an
original feel to the piece. Another convention that is apparent among most of these interviews, is
that they all have a introduction before the interview happens. These introductions are usually
there to give a little background of the skater. Such as where they came from and they might
also list some of the accomplishments that they might have. An example from Rolling Stones
intro about Nyjah Huston they say, Nyjah Huston is arguably the most consistent and dominant
competitive street skater in the world. This is said so the audience knows that he is one of the
best. Once they have gotten past the introduction they get into the questions, which is apparent
among all interviews. The interviews are simply asking a question and answer. However, I
noticed that among these interviews, they usually try to keep the answers short. The longest
answer for one question is no more than a paragraph. These are the conventions that most of
skateboarder magazine interviews have in common.
The style and the tone of these interviews can vary from magazine to magazine. The
interviews could be really edgy using bad words or telling stories of the skaters and their wild
adventures such as Thrasher in which their main goal is to establish themselves as the skater
underground. The crazy side of skating. In this magazine, cars on fire and pictures of skaters
doing daredevil stunts is the norm on almost every page. In the interview with Thrasher, they
have a question that asks, Lets get a fuckin wild hair story that involves going through a plate
glass window naked...Drove a car into a fuckin Carls Jr This question already is focusing on
the crazy things this guy has done. He goes on to talk about getting cocaine and crashing his
brand new BMW into a tree. So these are the types of question some magazines like to ask.
However, some of the interviews can also be more formal, and focus on things other than the
crazy side of skating such as Skateboarder magazine or Rolling Stone. They can focus on more

Dorsey, Luke
Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

personal issues. For example, in Rolling Stones interview with Nyjah Huston they asked, So is
that when your family moved to Puerto Rico?(Rolling Stone) This exemplifies how they
focused on Nyjahs stardom as a young kid and the struggle of dealing with his over controlling
dad and trying to keep up with his sponsors in the skating world. So although some interviews
may have have many similar characteristics, they can also be somewhat different in what they
focus on. The tone that can be shown in these interviews can range from anger to arrogance, and
from emotional to thankful. So just like the style, the tone can vary from magazine to magazine.

After identifying some of the conventions that these interviews have, we can see that they
have many things in common. Such as, they types of questions, the introductions, and in what
style they are presented to the person being interviewed. However, there are many things
dissimilar among these interviews, even though they are all doing the same thing. Lets compare
Rolling Stone with Thrasher. Both magazines are interviewing a skateboarder. But, Thrasher is
characterized more of a die hard skater attitude. They make use of most of the cursing and the
slang in their interviews. For example, one of the questions asked, What was the influence for
that f@$#!%& haircut? They also focus more on the aspect of skating, and how it represents
itself in that persons life that they are interviewing. On the other hand though, Rolling Stone is a
professional magazine. They focus on many more things other than skating. If Rolling Stone
were to use the type of language that Thrasher used, Rolling Stone would probably lose
thousands of subscribers. They also focus more on the big picture things like Nyjah Hustons
childhood and his path to stardom. They dont focus on the skate stories that they have like
Thrasher does.

Dorsey, Luke
Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

While searching for examples of great skateboarding interviews I found the first
interview with Tony Alva, who was one of the founders of modern skateboarding. Tony Alva
was a teen in the seventies, and he was part of the whole second coming of skateboarding. He
was a world champ and he started his own skateboard company you might have heard of, its
called Alva skateboards. I was looking through his interview and I noticed that there were many
similarities between this interview and the new interviews from today. It was asking about his
life, where he started, and how he came to the top of the skateboarding world. One question
Skateboarder asked that was almost exactly the same from Thrasher and Rolling Stone was,
How long have you been skating? They also had the introduction, which listed his
accomplishments as a dominant skateboarder just like Rolling Stones interview, and also the
same format of question and answer that is characterized by the other magazines. It was also
mostly the same style and tone that Thrasher had, but with less curse words. In the article
Navigating Genres the author says that genres, ...when the situation happens, another person
uses the first response, as a basis for the second(Kirk,252) This is useful because the basis
for these interviews was already set with these first interviews, and the format hasnt really
changed since it first started.
I think it is important for people to learn more about genre. I mean, most people already
know a lot about genre, but they just dont understand the term in general. Learning about
different types of genres can be valuable for people. If a person can identify many of the genres
in todays world, then they can also identify the conventions that go with it. Another reward for
learning about these genres will also help people see the importance that they have in our present
day culture and world. I hope that my examples and explanations of skateboarding interviews
have helped someone get a better grip on what genre is, and also understand what conventions

Dorsey, Luke
Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

are and what they do. I also hope that some of you will feel so inspired that you have just have
the sudden urge to go skate, that would be cool. These are the conventions that make
skateboarder interviews so popular and read by people all over the world, and also why it is one
of the best examples of genre.

Dorsey, Luke
Writing 2- DePiero
12/3/15

Works Cited
1. Hendrikx, Eric. The Impossible Rise of Nyjah Huston. Rolling Stone
magazine. Published Oct.1,2015.Web. Oct 7,2015
2. Thrasher Magazine. Anthony Van Engelen Interview. Thrasher
Magazine. Published Feb.19,2015. Web. Oct.7,2015
3. Skateboarder Magazine. Tony Alva Interview. Skateboarder
Magazine. Published 1977. Web. Oct.7,2015
4. Dirk, Kerry. Navigating Genres. Oct 14,2015: 255