PETE ‘THE OX’ COLPITTS
INTERVIEW AND INTRODUCTION BY RAY STEVENS II
PHOTOS BY BRYCE KANIGHTS
The Ox possesses the abstractness of Salvador Dali and Neil Blender mixed with the ballsy-ness of Evil Kneivel and Duane Peters. Pete will roll up to a spot and do seemingly impossible combinations of tricks and one-off lines, never repeating himself. Besides being a gnar-gnar skater he also is the drummer for San Francisco based garage/hardcore punk band The Loudmouths. He’s one of the friendliest people you will ever meet and humble as well for all his talents.
Where were you born?
Daly City, California.
When did you start rolling around?
Well, I had a skateboard from kindergarten, but . I didn’t consider myself a skateboarder until 1983. That’s when I got a bigger board and it became my life.
What was your first skateboard?
Doug Saladino – Pine Design. The Pineapple board with Indy trucks and Powell Cubics.
“MONGO FOOT AIN’T THAT BAD.”
Who did you start skating with?
My brother Than and this kid, Alan Bisgard, who I still skate with. People who skated ‘The Spillway’ in San Mateo.
I met you in ’91 and I remember your style being with your feet towards the middle of the board. Did you always skate like that?
I think it was because I grew up pushing ‘mongo foot’. I would just get lazy putting my foot back when I would be going down the street so I just started cruising around with my feet next to each other in the middle of the board. I thought, ‘Shit, I got good balance so I could do tricks too’. I tried it at Palo Alto (Greer Skatepark) and it worked. So ‘mongo foot’ ain’t that bad.
You are pro Mongo then?
I’m pro for Mongo. I guess I wouldn’t recommend it to kids, but it helped me.
There are a lot of different styles going on in your skating. What skaters did you look up to?
I grew up looking at magazines, I didn’t get to skate with all my heroes but, I always liked pictures of Neil Blender, Dave Hackett and Chris Cook. I always thought the pool pictures were really good, because those guys had a lot of style. Neil Blender was doing weird tricks and Christian Hosoi could just float and fly. It seemed like he could do anything he wanted. Mark Gonzales and Tommy Guererro were awesome, because that’s right when street was starting and those guys were doing things nobody was doing at that time. Duane Peters, you can’t deny Duane Peters. I like the guys who went really hard, but I like the guys who have really soft style too. I could never ever do that so I think it’s cool.
Who are the guys coming up and killin’ it?
I still think John Cardiel is one of the all time best, and Dan Drehobl. Tony Trujillo, he can do whatever he wants and he’s only like sixteen. There are so many great people like Chris Senn, Sloppy Sam, Tony Farmer, Jacob Tillman and Eric J who can hit anything. I just went to Oregon and all the skaters up there have a great attitude. That inspires me a lot.
What spots did you hit ?
We went to the whole Southern Oregon corridor, and then Burnside and Seattle. They’ve got the big bowl and the Butter Bowl. I think it’s amazing, probably the best pool I have ever skated built for skating. And they built a park downtown that has a bowl and hips. It’s wacky. We skated with ‘The Q’ there. He gave us some good philosophies. It’s always fun to skate with ‘The Q’.
“If you’ve ever had the opportunity to see him skate, you’re privileged, because no words can accurately describe his jaw-dropping skating talents.” – BRYCE KANIGHTS
He was giving some philosophy at the end of Fruit of the Vine.
‘Yeah, that ain’t no bullshit man’. That’s what he’s all about. Then I went down south and hit Lincoln City, which is incredible. And then Newberg, which is a new park they just built and is the best skatepark in the world. Red and Hubbard and those guys are building amazing parks, and the guys in Southern Oregon are building crazy parks down there.
Why do you think Oregon is getting all these radicalized parks? California has a lot of parks but they are not all that rad.
I think California is ‘sue happy’, they can’t legally get things that big. In Oregon, it seems like it’s a lot more lax. What I have seen in these little towns is one gets built and the next town is like ‘We’ve gotta get a skatepark bigger than this!’ Like a football team attitude, where it’s like, ‘Their team is not as good as ours.’ And they want a bigger park built. These guys up in Oregon are taking advantage of it, building the right kind of shit. They are being built by skateboarders, which makes a huge difference. It’s amazing!
You got to skate Marseille before. How come you haven’t gone to those contests?
Well, I didn’t really have the time or money to ‘barge it’. In fact, I went to Oregon during the contest time and was pretty stoked on that.
I would like to go again. I would like to see everyone fly around it. Shit, when we went there, me and Matt (Howe) drove six hours from Italy, no sleep and only had two hours to skate before we had to get to Spain to play a show. The bowl was packed with rollerbladers. We had to barge. ‘We have been in the car. You guys fuckin’ move!’ So, yeah, I would like to see it with all of the hot skaters going around, it would be cool.
Who would you like to see skate it?
Of course, Wade Speyer. Chris Senn would be rad. Drehobl, I’ve seen footage of that guy there. Pretty cool. I’d like to see Red skate it. Back to mentioning best skaters, I think Red is the best skater ever. There’s nobody like that.
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One Response
Im putting together a Ox Retrospect (June 2012) if anyone has some footage or stories to contribute, lease ht me up. Thanks Pete