Robert Brink - Writer

Gareth Stehr

July 13, 2005 | Skip To The Comments (0)

Gareth Stehr
By Rob Brink
TransWorld Skateboarding July 2004

Nearly two years ago, Gareth Stehr was invited by his sponsors (Tum Yeto) to leave Auckland, New Zealand and embark on a brief skateboarding holiday in the United States. Upon arriving on Tum Yeto's doorstep, he was greeted with “Oh damn, we forgot you were coming here, but you can stay at Josh Beagle's house.” A few weeks later, Gareth found himself with a new heap of friends, some major sponsors, and enough support to get him plenty of skate coverage and a work visa to reside in the US. Now that he's settled in San Diego, Gareth is enjoying himself and focusing on the important things in life: Thrift stores, skateboarding, and root beer.

All week long I've been hearing about is the Backside 180 El Toro attempt. Is it possible that it may stick with you for a while as your big move? Kind of like how Darrell Stanton had his Backside Nosebluntslide down the Clipper ledge—his breakout trick or whatever?
I never really thought of it that way. It'll come and go if you keep skating and busting out. I mean now Darrell is killing it on everything. It's still awesome that he did that—but it's not the main thing—he didn't just disappear.

On an average day, are you always doing huge stuff?
Recently, I have been skating with Ethan Fowler a lot and it's been like when you're a kid—skating around and finding new places. If we find something that's big and I feel like trying it, I will, but I don't like doing stuff that's planned a week in advance, I'm kind of over that. There is totally stuff you need to plan out sometimes, but I enjoy more spontaneous skating.

Have people come to expect gnarly stuff from you when you skate?
Maybe. But I'm not worried about it or stressing that I have to find a set of stairs that's one stair bigger than the last. I like skating different stuff. I don't just jump down stairs.

Could you ollie that set that Ali tried in the Flip's Really Sorry?
I don't know, that's huge. It's like he jumped off a mountain.

While you're about to bail a huge ollie, do you think about how the bottom of your feet are going to feel in about a second?
That sucks. It's like “Oh shit!” And something big like that, you actually have time in the air to be like “Oh fuck, I'm fucked.” Like I kicked out at El Toro a couple times and that wasn't fun at all.

Do you just land on your feet and try to roll over and absorb the shock?
Yea, try to. Pretty much just end up pile-driving yourself into a ball at the end of the stairs.

I saw you at Tampa Am this year and I noticed you smile a lot. What's the secret to that? Do Americans smile too much or too little?
I don't know, I'm skating, doing what I like to do. Most of my friends are smiling most of the time.

When you were skating Tampa Am did you think to yourself “I'm gonna win!”?
(Laughs) No! Not at all. I just go there and try to think of different shit to do.

What's one great thing about America and one bad thing?
I like root beer and In and Out burger. Traffic is what I don't like. All my favorite cities to skate have subways or trains. LA's metro—like, no one rides it. Me and Daniel started riding it, and for us it was like a day trip, like going to Disneyland. We were like on the train like “Yeah! Woo Hoo!” Jumping around and skating around.

Favorite skate spot?
The mini ramp at Skateboard.com. It's perfect and really fun. I usually go there every Friday night and drink beers and skate.

Favorite trick to do?
I just learned backside laybacks, so I am pretty psyched on those. And crailsides.

What trick do you wish you knew?
Backside crails or stalefishes. I can't get down there. I need to take some yoga classes or something.

What was your worst slam?
When I was a kid I tried sliding this rail with a kink on the end—I kooked it and landed on the kink on my nuts. That sucked. I went back to it recently when I was home for Christmas and I looked at the rail and I was like “What the fuck was I thinking?” I wouldn't even try that now. You know when you're a little kid, you're like Woo Hoo! It had like a stupid pebbled-ground run-up, so it is all shitty and like, chest high.

Rails or hubbas?
Hubbas, I don't skate rails that much. Hey, there's a truck driving next to us on the highway and the guy has a sticker that says “Show us your boobs.” That's pretty funny.

Yeah it is. Pressure flips or late shove its?
Late shove its. I started too late to get into the pressure flip phase. I can't even do them. I can do the straight one, but not the varial flip one that everyone does.

Are bigspins too trendy right now, like they got resurrected and then played out?
I think that happens with a lot of shit. There was a while where no one was doing backside smith grinds or frontside feebles. Now its like, “If you can't frontside feeble down 10 then don't talk to me.” But I think it's good. It's rad when you haven't seen something in a while and lots of people start doing them.

If you weren't a skateboarder, what would you most likely be doing with your life?
I was working at a hospital in New Zealand saving up to come here. I was a clerk in radiology, basically a librarian for x-rays. So I would probably still there and I'd probably be psyched on having a flashy car or something. Before that I delivered pizza at night and was a laborer, building houses during the day.

Were you working up on the roof?
Yea. It's scary. I'm not that good with that stuff, but you have to be. When you are building the house, its just 2x4s and you have to walk from one side of the house to another on 2x4s, it's scary. The thing about that shit though, is that if the 2x4 was sitting on the ground, you could run across it or walk across it with no worries, but because it's a little higher up, you shit your pants.

Well that's just like skating right?
Yea, well you skate a flat bar and you don't even sweat it. Like “There's no way I'm gonna fall out of a 50-50, then you go to a big rail and you're all scared.

How do you think things will change once you turn pro?
It would be cool, I don't know if I deserve it or not. I'll probably be able to afford and apartment—that would be nice. I want to buy a motorcycle. So maybe that'll happen. I prefer the old fashioned ones. I buy the Cycle Trader every month and look in there, and get all excited but then I have no money to buy anything. A lot of my friends have bikes.

You have a signature wheel on Pig, doesn't that kind of make you pro already?
I don't know, Beagle just thinks it's funny to do that shit. I think I get royalties.

Can you make a living being an Am? Or are you broke?
I do fine, but if I had to pay for an apartment that would be hard. But I get to skate every day.

Some people seem to be ams forever. How do they survive financially?
Yea, like don't quit your day job? I don't know, it's a bummer. I've been skating for the fun of it, not going and training like “I gotta make the big bucks.” I am just happy to be over here and not deported yet.

Do too many skaters stop pushing it and slack off when they turn pro?
I guess there have been cases of that. It does get a little annoying when you see dudes rolling in nice cars and you hardly ever see any footage or anything. But maybe it's not their fault. But can you blame them? They deserved to go pro and they make all this money so they are like “Fuck it! I'm going to Disneyland!”

What's the worst thing about skateboarding or the industry today?
The way it's been exploited on TV and shit. It fucking sucks. I saw some TV show and Tony Hawk is doing a trick tip and he's teaching people how to ollie and telling them to practice in the grass and to wear full pads. I understand he has to say that for TV, but it sucks that he has to say that. How are you gonna learn to skate on grass?

What's the best thing about the industry?
There's quite a good variety of people in skating right now I think. There are also more opportunities for things to happen and companies to do different stuff. Dekline is making totally different shoes, they are so different but still selling a bunch and people are psyched on them.

What's bothers you the most while you are trying to skate?
Wind, or Lurkers man. Dudes just walk up and try to talk to you. “So how's that working out for you?” “Well I just ate shit so how do you think its fucking going?” The other day we were skating this nine stair, and this one dude came up like bouncing around everywhere—obviously on some kind of drugs, standing at the bottom of the stairs, lurking in the frame, he was crazy.

Literally lurking in the frame, like while you guys were trying to film?
Yea, standing right at the side of the stairs by the filmer. He was psyched on it. He told us he was on ecstasy, so he was like “Woo this is awesome!” and I landed a trick and he runs up and hugs me. And I'm like “Dude, I don't want to touch you.”

If you could change one thing about skateboarding, what would it be?
Make it not so hard to skate—skatestoppers and stuff. The fact that it's such a frowned upon thing, but it's so commercial at the same time. Like “Yeah we love skateboarding! But don't think about doing it here. It's ok on TV, but not here.” And every single time you get kicked out of a spot, they are always like “Oh yea I used to skate.” And it's like, why don't you be cool and let us skate then.?

Who inspired you most in skating when you were growing up?
Ethan Fowler, Heath Kirchart, Brian Anderson.

Did you ever try to emulate those skaters? I see a lot of kids now who try to look just like a certain pro. They even try to copy their skate style. It's kind of strange to see kids trying to perfect someone else's style.
I never really tried to do that. I was just looking up to them, maybe try the tricks they were trying, but not try to make mine look like theirs. I'm not ever going to manage to make anything look like Ethan's style. I probably wore all black because Ethan did. But I normally wore all black because it's easier, you don't have to think about matching. Not that I really think that anyway but it's just easier to throw on a black tee shirt. It's good in some ways I guess. It's helping the kids out. When your'e 15 or 16 you don't really know yourself, so when you grow up you can get your own style.

What video inspired you the most?
Tincan Folklore by Stereo—that's cool to watch now. When I was growing up, probably Welcome to Hell.

Who is inspiring you today in skateboarding?
I still look up to the same people but it's weird that I skate with Ethan every day. Daniel Shimizu has the best style in the world.

Anyone you've met that is so much better in real life than you thought they were from mags and videos?
Diego Buccieri was weird. Not that I thought he wasn't good, but he can do every single flip trick and he's really consistent. For the Thrasher road trip contest, one of the tricks was a switch laser flip. And he knocked it out in a few tries and then wanted to land another one because he thought the first one looked funny.

Well yea, you wouldn't expect that because that's not how the “skate media” portrays him.
Which is weird—that media can portray you so everyone thinks you are this certain person. Like everyone thinks I just jump down shit.

Well I haven't seen the new video, but I don't think I have ever seen you footage of you doing a flip trick in my life.
Yeah, that even weirds me out. Because I tell myself I don't do flip tricks. I am always like “Fuck it.” But watching my part now, I realize got a good mix of tricks. I am definitely psyched.

Where does your sense of fashion come from?
Definitely music. Mick Jagger and stuff. And just from being a kid, that's my point of view of life. I'm just a big kid that plays skateboards. I know I look like a fucking kook, but its fun. I think people need to laugh at themselves more, rather than making fun and laughing at other people. Life doesn't have to be all serious all the time.

What is your favorite item of flair?
I have a collection velvet jackets.Daniel started calling me “flairer.” It's my new nickname I guess.

People's tight pants seem to be the big topic of discussion lately.
Everyone always asks how I skate in them. Well they aren't halfway down my ass, I'm like “How do you skate with your pants below your butt and you have to pull them up every two seconds? If you go on the internet, it's like the kid's main thing, “Who wear the tightest pants in skateboarding?” When did skateboarding's main interest become what kind of pants you are wearing? It's like “Oh did you see him do that trick?” “No, but he was wearing some tight ass pants though!”

Do you think skaters party too much?
You're asking the wrong guy (laughter). It depends. As long as you're skating and trying, it's fine. As long as you don't turn into a pile and sleep until five pm every day then start drinking again. I think partying is part of it. Skaters are in their prime, its only going to last a little while, so might as well have fun doing it.