{"id":94903,"date":"2022-01-07T17:28:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-08T01:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/?p=94903"},"modified":"2023-09-21T18:39:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T01:39:02","slug":"greyson-fletcher-in-conversation-with-dan-levy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/greyson-fletcher-in-conversation-with-dan-levy\/","title":{"rendered":"Greyson Fletcher in Conversation with Dan Levy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GREYSON FLETCHER INTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN LEVY AND CODY MOYLES<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Greyson Fletcher is a name synonymous with style, legacy, and rebellion, and the man behind the mystique is just as cool as you think. He lives and breathes a lifestyle filled with art, skate, surf and gaming and excels at all of them. His counterculture-honed artwork has been featured at the Gagosian in NYC and now adorns his new signature line of Arbor Skateboards. His skateboarding and surfing continues to defy boundaries, push limits and expand the imagination as well as reality. His birthright in \u201cSurfing\u2019s First Family\u2019 is absolute and his search for good waves is a daily endeavor. Greyson leaves blood and sacrifices skin everytime he self-inscribes a line in a pool or park and his all-time goals include one day having a nightclub with the biggest, gnarliest, skatepark built by Dreamland. Read on to learn more about what makes Greyson tick. <\/em>\u2013  INTRODUCTION BY DAN LEVY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

DAN LEVY:<\/strong> Let\u2019s jump right in. No long beard. No long hair. What\u2019s going on?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

GREYSON FLETCHER:<\/strong> I got lice a few years ago and that was the end of my long hair. I had a long beard for a while. I grew my hair back out again after that, but it got to be a hassle. When I was surfing, I was starting to stand up and then tripping with my hair under my hand on the board and I\u2019d go over the falls. My beard would get stuck in my hands while I was grabbing my rail and that sucked. When I was skating, I\u2019d get sweaty, which is annoying. It was so hot. I had a beard forever and then it became trendy. When I went out, people were coming up to me like, \u201cI like your beard. I like your hair.\u201d I was like \u201cI\u2019ve got to shave this shit off.\u201d Everyone around me started having beards, so I was out. It\u2019s going to come back though. Once I\u2019m 50, I\u2019m never going to cut my hair or beard again. I\u2019ll be riding motorcycles around and surfing and skating too, and I want my hair getting stuck in my bike chains riding motorcycles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hair goals. Nice. Does it ever affect your skating and surfing not to have the weight of your hair?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah. I feel like I skate and surf so much better now. Imagine paddling around with wet hair. It\u2019s always getting in the way. Plus, to have a beard on top of it, your beard is thicker than your hair, so it\u2019s just a full-blown nightmare. So I cut my hair and I\u2019m loving it. It\u2019s so nice. I\u2019m not hot and sweaty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, low maintenance is easier. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m in the ocean every day, so maybe that helps with the beard. The salt cleans it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So you\u2019ve been surfing every day?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Sometimes I surf twice a day. My goal is to be as physical as possible nowadays because I was getting blown out, partying for so many years and skating all hungover, out of my mind, and now I kinda cruise. I\u2019ll drink some beers, but I\u2019m not getting blown out anymore, taking a bunch of tequila shots. My goal nowadays is to surf twice a day and skate a few times a week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s sick. What got you to the breaking point when you were in rager mode? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just started to realize it became such a habit. I couldn\u2019t do anything without drinking. I wouldn\u2019t. I don\u2019t care who hears this. It\u2019s the truth. I wouldn\u2019t get out of bed without drinking. I had a mini fridge as my night stand. I would drink four beers before getting out of bed in the morning. If I planned on leaving my house to surf at 6:30AM, I would wake up at like 4:30AM to get drunk first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s heavy. You were just in the mode? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh yeah. I wanted to be a monster. It\u2019s crazy when you\u2019re around all these gnarly skaters and surfers going huge, skating gnarly. You wanna be gnarly. You\u2019ve got to be gnarly. For a lot of people, if you want to be gnarly good, you\u2019ve got to be getting fucked up. From age 16 to 28, I was in monster mode. Now I drink some beers, here and there, and go skate, and surf and mountain bike every day. I went mountain biking yesterday and it was insane. I rode for miles on trails, up and down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s rad. So you\u2019re a health guy now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m in that mode now and I\u2019m outside all day. At night, I go play pool at the bar or play video games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you eat pretty healthy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. I\u2019m just the extreme cardio guy now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aren\u2019t you super into video games? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I\u2019m having a lot of fun playing New World and Call of Duty: Warzone again <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know how to build computers too?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. The computer I have right now is sick. I\u2019m thinking about building computers and selling them and taking custom orders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are they expensive?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can build a computer for $800, $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 or $5,000. You can go up and up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
46 YEARS AFTER HIS GRANDPA, HERBIE FLETCHER, FIRST SKATED MT. BALDY IN 1975, GREYSON PAYS TRIBUTE TO THE TRADITION IN 2021. PHOTO \u00a9 CODY MOYLES <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you get into all of the cooling and how you wrap your wires, it\u2019s an art form. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s pretty rad. It\u2019s funny because I\u2019m not a clean guy at all. My room is always messy and my truck always has stuff laying around in it, but not my computer setup. I\u2019m super into cable management. I\u2019m always hiding my wires as well as possible and tying them down to stuff, making sure it\u2019s a clean look. I have my computer in my closet right now and I have clothes all over the floor in my room. My closet is all nice, but everything else is absolutely a wreck. It\u2019s pretty funny. On the back of my computer, I don\u2019t have the glass, so there is just all of these cords all over in the back, but they\u2019re neatly managed. I just went to a wireless headset and wireless mouse, and I can\u2019t believe how good the wireless mouse is nowadays for computers. They are faster and better and more precise than the wired version of the mouse. It\u2019s crazy because I used to play on the computer, when I was a kid, and the mouse ball would always get tracked up with dust and hair. You had to take it out and roll it around on a mat to clean it. When the mouse came out without the ball, that sucked. They would always glitch in games and stuff. Now I\u2019m completely wireless. It\u2019s crazy how much tech is changing this world for the better and for the worse also. There\u2019s pros and cons to it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are those?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, it\u2019s ruining kids\u2019 lives because kids aren\u2019t going outside anymore. They sit inside on their mom\u2019s phone or their phones. They don\u2019t meet up as much in person because they can just meet up online. They\u2019re talking on Facetime all of the time, and just looking at weird stuff on the internet that they shouldn\u2019t be looking at. People post on their Instagrams and it\u2019s basically their highlight life, and that\u2019s not real. All these kids are looking at all of these Instagrams like, \u201cLook at how pretty this girl is. Look at how much money this guy has. Look at this person doing all of this stuff all the time.\u201d They don\u2019t get it. This person is getting paid to be looking pretty all the time. The people with the money, a lot of times it\u2019s not even their money. It\u2019s corrupt. People are trying to do so much stuff nowadays that we don\u2019t do anything. It\u2019s just a life highlight reel. I can see why those people post that stuff though. Being a professional skateboarder, I don\u2019t post clips that I think are whatever. It has to be a somewhat decent clip. I don\u2019t want to post a clip on the internet of something I feel is stupid so, of course, it\u2019s going to be a highlight reel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re a pro skateboarder, so what you\u2019re posting is gnarly skateboarding. It\u2019s not you standing in front of a Lamborghini. The stuff that you\u2019re doing is uniquely unattainable by a lot of people. It\u2019s like, \u201cLook at what Greyson just did. I wish I could do that. I\u2019m going to start skating to figure out if I can.\u201d It\u2019s different with skating clips. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess I am a part of the problem though because I post like all of the athletes that are posting their top notch stuff. Even if it\u2019s just whatever clips for them, they still tried it more than once. It\u2019s not just the first try. People don\u2019t understand that and that doesn\u2019t help either. You know how many times I\u2019ll go to the skatepark and get unmotivated to skate or I\u2019m just not in a good place that day? You know how many times I\u2019ll go skating and not even feel like I wanna try anything and I just kinda mope around and cruise, but people see stuff that\u2019s sick all the time on your Instagram, so they probably think that every session you\u2019re feeling good, and you\u2019re stoked to be there skating, which is not the case. You have to power through those days. Sometimes you go through a month where you don\u2019t really feel like skating is as enjoyable to you. You\u2019re having problems and easy tricks are difficult to do and you\u2019re just in a funk, but you gotta push through those days and remember that you have to work hard to stay at your level. If you can get through the times when you\u2019re feeling shitty on your board, there will be times that you feel good on your board soon enough and you gotta have your muscles strong for those opportunities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI helped design a shape and did the artwork, so I\u2019m psyched. I know my board, nose to tail. Arbor is super environmentally friendly and they farm trees as part of the Give Back Program, which is really cool too. They\u2019re not just chopping down trees and killing forests.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a really good point because a lot of people don\u2019t push through sessions. They show up and they\u2019re like, \u201cDamn! I can\u2019t do my go-to trick. I\u2019m out.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s frustrating. For as long as you\u2019re skating bad, for those days, weeks, and months, then you\u2019re going to have those days, weeks, months where you\u2019re on fire and you\u2019re ripping every session. You wanna be prepared for those days, so you go skate every day. Go surf, skate, mountain bike, run and do push ups and everything. As long as you stay ready, when you are having those days and weeks that you\u2019re on fire, you\u2019re ready for it and you are stoked. You\u2019re like, \u201cHere we go. This is what I\u2019ve been waiting for.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes, from how I feel on my first ollie, I kinda know how the rest of the day is going to go. Do you have that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Sometimes your board feels weird under your feet. It\u2019s hitting different parts of your feet. Your feet are never in the right spot and you gotta force them into the right spot. I can tell instantly, when I step on my board, how it feels. When it feels like I can\u2019t touch the middle of my board, I know I\u2019m going to have a weird day skating. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
STYLE, STYLE, STYLE. OLLIE IN THE SNAKE VENICE, CA. PHOTO \u00a9 DAN LEVY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Do you automatically go into the mode of not doing anything gnarly that day or do you just let the session tell you?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I just cruise and see what happens. If I\u2019m annoyed, I gotta give it an extra push those days. Then you\u2019re back to ripping and it\u2019s like, \u201cI\u2019m skating good right now. What was I tripping on early? I must have been in a weird mood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every skateboarder can relate to that, but no one really talks about it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Skating wasn\u2019t like that in my eyes before. Skating was about doing the gnarliest trick and not working out and just getting hammered before you skate. I\u2019d basically impair myself as much as I could and then try to rip. Now, because I\u2019m 30 years old, my brain works a little better. I go skating, surfing, running and cross training and it\u2019s all cool because my body is going to be able to push skating harder than ever. If you ride a bike and go running all of the time, you\u2019re going to be skating so much better than you ever dreamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s crazy. Ten years ago, people used to give Danny Way shit for working out and getting himself in shape to jump the Great Wall of China. Now more people seem to embrace that part of skating.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I want to be a big influence to go and do that type of shit, instead of being an idiot and skating and smashing beer bottles at walls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, your style of skating is very free form and you definitely have a big impact. You\u2019re not like the contest guy. You\u2019re the guy that shows up anywhere and does shit that no one else has ever done at that spot. Is that on purpose?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just the way I am. I never decided to do anything different. I\u2019m definitely not a contest guy because I\u2019m not consistent enough, but I like to push myself, so that helps. It\u2019s easier going on skate trips with my team than going to contests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contest game is a whole different game. It\u2019s like the Olympics. It\u2019s such a different mentality.  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are going to be a lot of people that are going to be skating and surfing, that never would\u2019ve done it if they didn\u2019t see it on the Olympics. Those kids that are gonna start skating, since they saw it on the Olympics, might have a hidden talent that they never would have found. They may end up bringing skateboarding to a new level and they wouldn\u2019t have touched a skateboard before if they didn\u2019t see it in the Olympics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My prediction is the next phenom is going to come from the most unexpected place. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think Japan. They already are killing it, but I think Japan is going to take it to an extra next level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s funny that you say that because you know Takuji Masuda and Ryji Masuda. Takuji has been saying forever that the Japanese kids are training to skate, but they are also all about the culture of  skateboarding. How do you feel about how the culture of skateboarding is going to pan out from all of this?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no idea. Personally, I want to see something new done to the skateboard. It\u2019s been the same shape for a long time now and it\u2019s been the same material, which is just maplewood. Since              skateboarding is in the Olympics now, I\u2019m hoping there will be bigger factors than we have had in our lives in skateboarding. Maybe Elon Musk will get involved with helping design a new skateboard because he sees it in the Olympics. With the Olympics, there are lots of companies coming in that never would have been in skateboarding. It\u2019s more corporate. It\u2019s not so much like the crash test dummies. It\u2019s a lot different now. Elon Musk could end up making a new skateboard that\u2019s super high tech, light and more aerodynamic with wires in it that have technology to manipulate the air around it while it\u2019s moving. I\u2019m interested to see if stuff starts popping out like that. What\u2019s trippy is that the Olympic contests are making skateboarders wear helmets and skaters are so against helmets. If helmets are required to skate in the Olympics, maybe people will do gnarlier stuff because they\u2019re not afraid to hit their head. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedro Barros wore a helmet and kneepads at the Olympics. I was like, \u201cOh, Pedro is getting serious.\u201d You know how much higher he can blast with kneepads on. It\u2019s insane.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, before the Olympics, kneepads and helmets were so lame. Now I\u2019m like \u201cOkay, let\u2019s see.\u201d If Pedro wears kneepads in a contest and he is going a foot higher than he\u2019s already been going, I have nothing but huge respect for him. Even back in the day, Hosoi and Hawk and everybody else knew it was a given. Everyone wore kneepads and a helmet and no one said shit. It\u2019s weird. It\u2019s an interesting topic. The street skaters didn\u2019t have to wear helmets in the Olympics and the street course is more tech. Some of the guys are going 10 feet in the air and they\u2019re going faster than the speed limit on the regular street. They are probably going 30 MPH. If you crash your car at 25 MPH, you\u2019re probably not that stoked. Any crash skating that fast without helmets and pads, it\u2019s fucked. I\u2019m probably not going to wear a helmet, but who knows down the road? Guys might start going       bigger and, if they don\u2019t wear a helmet, it\u2019s not my problem, but I hope people are safe. I don\u2019t want to see my friends getting smoked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first concert I went to was a Motorhead concert in Australia, when I was nine years old. My dad ripped the filters out of cigarettes and stuck them in my ears as earplugs because Motorhead is loud. Lemmy was the king of metal and rock n\u2019 roll.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. It\u2019s heavy. Let\u2019s talk about your art. Did you get into doing art from spending time with your grandparents who are both artists or was it just your thing that you found?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve done art forever, on and off, in my life, just  randomly. My Grandpa and Grandma have always done art, since before I was born, and I\u2019m sure  before my dad was born too. I got hurt in April 2019 and couldn\u2019t skate for eight months because I tore all of the ligaments in my ankle, so I had all of this down time. I was on crutches after surgery for a few months at my Grandma\u2019s house, and my Grandpa was having this art show at this gallery in New York City called the Gagosian, so I was just doing some art while my Grandpa and Grandma were doing art. I wanted to make something like a sculpture that people could look at through my eyes to see how I see skateboarding. I wanted to recreate a backyard pool, so I had this idea to have a wooden box that you hang on the wall and have it look like a backyard pool. I cut a deathbox into it, then I put pool coping on top of it with tile on it. I called it \u201cThe Deathbox\u201d. To me when you skate in a backyard pool, you wanna hit the deathbox. That\u2019s always your number one goal. I thought the deathbox was very important, being a transition skater, so I was like, \u201cBackyard pool, deathbox, art piece, sick!\u201d I even put a light in it that works. I built a little ramp that can be screwed into it and I skated it a little bit too. I did a little rock and roll on it. It\u2019s very hard to skate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How big was it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was like nine feet tall. I had that in the Gagosian show with my Grandpa, so I was stoked that I got to be a part of that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazing. I didn\u2019t know you did sculpture. I just thought that you did paintings.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I do whatever. With Arbor Skateboards, I\u2019m doing graphics. I have my own boards with two graphics. One graphic comes in 8.25, 8.5 and an 8.75 and each one has a different color. I think that\u2019s pretty cool. The other graphic is a collector graphic. It\u2019s a 3-board piece, like a wall hanger. You can skate it too, if you just buy a single one of those. It\u2019s sick. I\u2019m going to hang the 3-piece one in my house, and then get some of my friends\u2019 boards around it too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sick. Let\u2019s rewind for a second. Before you started riding for Arbor, you were  riding for Element. What happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole team was quitting, so I quit. Everyone left, like Julian Davidson and Mason Silva and Nyjah and pretty much everybody, except for Tom Schaar and Brandon Westgate. My contract was up at the same time as everybody else\u2019s and everyone bailed and so did I. I was like, \u201cI\u2019m bailing too, I guess.\u201d I didn\u2019t want to get stuck on a team by myself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How important is it to you to be on a team with a crew that you are down with?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, there hasn\u2019t been skate trips lately, so I don\u2019t know. Hopefully, we get a skate trip rolling here soon. I like to go skate with Josh Stafford. He\u2019s fun to skate with. This COVID stuff put a wrench in the skateboarding program for a little bit, but skating is coming back stronger than ever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems like everybody kept skating. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, that\u2019s the funniest part \u2013 not everyone kept skating. They were used to being gone so much and a lot of the guys in their early and mid-twenties are now starting to see the world outside of skating and they are seeing things that aren\u2019t just skating that you can do. I think a lot of people took some time off and just partied a bunch. I\u2019m stuck in San Clemente and I don\u2019t use my phone really, so I just meet up with friends around town and I skate and surf with them. I\u2019ll tell you what. Ryan Decenzo, he lives in San Clemente, and he\u2019s been skating more than ever. I think a lot of people just haven\u2019t been skating as much because they haven\u2019t had to. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen to the contests. I bet there are some people who are pretty rusty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I think it will all come back again bigger than ever. So we\u2019ve been looking at skateboarding across all generations and your age bracket is different than like your nephews, Lazer and Jetson, who are  dropping in and just killing it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I think Lazer and Jetson are going to be really gnarly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FRONTSIDE BLUNT ON THE DIY CRETE OF TURDSIDE (RIP). PHOTO \u00a9 DAN LEVY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Definitely. They are hilarious too and now they have their own show.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. They\u2019re so funny. Jetson is a lunatic. Their show is super rad. It\u2019s on Youtube and it\u2019s called the Lazer and Jetson Show. Check it out. Nathan is the coolest dad ever. He literally takes them              everywhere to skate and surf. He\u2019s out of his mind with his kids. He\u2019s constantly bringing them            everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s rad. The Fletcher family tradition of surf and skate carries on. You all come from hell of a skate and surf family. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They keep it real. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever skated the Mega Ramp?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No. I wanna hit that thing so bad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elliot has one at his house. With your style, you could easily skate that thing. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn\u2019t grow up skating vert. I\u2019ve skated vert less than ten times in my life. I could hit the gap, but there\u2019s no way I\u2019m going to hit that vert ramp. I\u2019d pop out and do a Jake Brown on accident, because I don\u2019t know how to bonk my air. I don\u2019t know how to do a backside air on a vert ramp. The ramp is like 20 feet tall and they go like 60 feet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s insane, right? I didn\u2019t realize that you don\u2019t really skate vert. Do you not like it?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I never liked it. I\u2019d always skate the mini-ramp, the flow park course, launch ramps and quarter pipes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You early ollie on everything. Wow. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I can\u2019t bonk airs. I don\u2019t know how.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For pools, it\u2019s perfect because you can ollie the top of the transition and you\u2019re still going to be way above coping, but your control is from the transition, not the top of the pool. It\u2019s an art form. You have way more control. It\u2019s such a hard thing to do and you\u2019re naturally doing it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s better for me under nine feet. Once it gets to nine feet, clicking your tail starts to get weird. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re pulling into the flat too much. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Exactly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You early ollie everything. That\u2019s so rad, but the Mega is going to be a nightmare. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

How weird is that? I don\u2019t know how to bonk.  Backside is the worst. Frontside I can do it, if I get lucky sometimes, but backside I really gotta ollie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s so much harder to ollie a backside air than it is to bonk one.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what everyone says, but not for me. I must ollie backside, otherwise there\u2019s no chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t ever change that. Backside airs are amazing, but there is not as much style to it as when you ollie them. The way your back foot has to bend when you ollie one to keep it, it\u2019s one of the best things ever.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ollies are pretty insane and definitely fun. When you click the tail backside, your board falls off your feet way easier. I don\u2019t know how to grab backside either. Usually, if it\u2019s a big wall that I\u2019m hitting, I\u2019m just going to backside ollie nose grab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your favorite terrain to skate?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like skating weird stuff. My favorite thing to skate is wooden mini-ramps with crazy extensions and weird stuff on them. I also like skating big concrete skateparks like Lincoln City or Newberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those parks are gnarly and humongous and they\u2019re laid out with mini hits and big hits on the same hit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. There\u2019s a whole bunch of shit that you can do, deep or small, going fast. Red is a genius. It\u2019s funny because they only got to build one skatepark for the Vans Park Series because they weren\u2019t\u00a0 supposed to build a wall bigger than nine feet in Europe. Dreamland built the park in Malmo, Sweden, and one of the walls was probably 15-feet tall with a box on top of it. They build the best shit ever. One day I hope to have a skatepark built by Dreamland. That\u2019s an all-time goal of mine. My big goal is to have a nightclub with a skatepark and have a house in the back. I want to have it built so gnarly where they\u2019re going to have to come to skate my skatepark because it\u2019s so gnarly. I want the biggest, gnarliest skatepark possible. I want people to come get broke off at my park. I want a nightclub and a skatepark and I want part of the skatepark to go under the nightclub, so that you can see it from the second story. I want there to be 15-foot walls with huge launch ramps too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That would be sick! Okay, so you\u2019re riding for Arbor, RVCA,  Independent and OJ\u2019s?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep. I also ride for 805 and I-SEA Sunglasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What shoes are you on right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m on Vans flow right now, cruising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nice. Right after Element, you started your own thing for a minute.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I quit Element and started painting my own skateboards. I was doing that for a year and then Arbor hit me up and said, \u201cDo you wanna ride for Arbor?\u201d They were down to let me do my own graphics for my boards and I was like, \u201cOkay, that\u2019s pretty sick.\u201d Arbor is super environmentally friendly and they farm trees as part of the Give Back Program, which is really cool too. They\u2019re not just chopping down trees and killing forests. Arbor is known to be good with wood and craftsmanship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SO CAL FULL PIPE, NOT BALDY… PHOTO BY CODY MOYLES<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Their snowboards are insane too and they wanted someone rad who skates and snowboards and you\u2019re perfect.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m stoked. I also want to work on improving the skateboard with them and trying some carbon fiber, which is something that works well. I have some really good ideas and I talked to Bob from Arbor about it and, hopefully, it works out. There have been companies that have messed around with carbon fiber, but the boards feel waterlogged. I\u2019m pretty sure that mine are not going to feel like that. Skateboarding hasn\u2019t really worked with that stuff much, whereas people have been working with carbon fiber forever with surfboards. I\u2019m always paying attention to surfboards that have different tech in them and taking notes and ideas for how I can help improve the skateboard. If I can, I\u2019m so stoked. If not, at least I tried and gave it my best effort. I want to do it for myself so I have better boards to ride and for everyone else too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What goes into making a graphic for you? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s funny because I had paintings that I did already and the guys at Arbor put them on boards for me. Those things are so sick! It came about easy and the art team helped out too. I did the art and then they added background colors for me, so it was a little mini-collab. It\u2019s rare that people get to work on their graphics and design them themselves. I\u2019m stoked when I have a good-looking board under my feet. I\u2019m like \u201cOkay, let\u2019s go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What size board do you ride?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.25. I helped design a shape and did the artwork, so I\u2019m psyched. I know my board nose to tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s cool. With the precision skating that you do, it\u2019s got to be right.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep. You gotta feel good if you want to skate good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m stoked for you. Let me ask you some quick-fire questions. Best surf movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first and second Wave Warriors movies are two of my favorites. I used to get weirded out to claim something that was made by my family as my personal favorite or what I think is the best, but I highly believe Wave Warriors is the all-time best surfing movie ever made. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI like anything that P-Stone filmed back in the day, like Beer Helmet and Keg Killer is the best.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yes! How about best skate movie?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like anything that P-Stone filmed back in the day, like Beer Helmet and Keg Killer, is the best. I watched all of them when I was a kid. Those are the only skate videos I like to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shoutout to P-Stone. R.I.P. Okay, best skate stickers of all time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m going to go with all of the stickers that I put on my board because they back me, so I back them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the first punk show you went to?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first concert I ever went to was a Motorhead concert in Australia, when I was nine years old. My dad was smoking cigarettes and he ripped the filters out of the cigarettes and stuck them in my ears as earplugs because Motorhead is loud. Lemmy was the king of metal and rock n\u2019 roll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely. What\u2019s your favorite band?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Motorhead, if it\u2019s an all-time choice. It used to be Bolt Thrower. All of their albums are really good. You can\u2019t really not want Motorhead albums though. I\u2019m sorry to all of the other bands because Motorhead just ripped those bands apart. Lemmy was the most badass guy on the mic ever. His voice was insane and his band absolutely destroyed it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about a band that you didn\u2019t get to see that you wish you\u2019d seen?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a lot of those. I never really go to concerts because all of the bands that I wanted to see are broken up or dead. I went on a concert mission one year and I saw Slayer and Ted Nugent. I\u2019d like to see Iron Maiden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. Favorite skate photo of all time?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a photo of my uncle doing a big ollie fakie on a mini-ramp over where my great-grandma\u2019s house is. I used to stay at my grandma\u2019s house when I was a little kid growing up and I would always see that photo. I was obsessed with it because I was like, \u201cHe looks so high in the air and to come back in switch.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat the fuck?\u201d It\u2019s funny because I used to see him do that big ollie fakie and, when I was nine years old, I used to do big ollie melon fakies. I\u2019d always be psyched on that photo, but I was always scared to come in switch too big without grabbing, so I would do melons. I want to start doing melon fakies again. That trick is sick.You can get so high doing that trick and slob fakies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the coolest looking skate trick?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s gotta be the old trick, the ollie north over a hip or something. I think that\u2019s my favorite trick. I did it in the video game, Tony Hawk\u2019s Pro Skater 4, and I was like \u201cI\u2019m going to learn how to do that.\u201d Then I learned it and I was obsessed with that trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You do them super late. It\u2019s the sickest. You wait until your board levels and then you kick it, which is way harder and a better way to do it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rad. Thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s the best thing about being a skateboarder?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s always having a good crew around you, and nothing but love and fun times ahead. You also got the other side of it where, if shit is going down in the world, I\u2019d want all my friends around and everyone around Camp Pendleton too. Those guys are badass too. I think everyone should have respect for their country\u2019s heroes. When I was growing up, a lot of people in my town were like, \u201cFuck the guys in the Navy.\u201d Those guys are gnarly though. Those guys make it so that I can go out and skateboard and feel safe. If those guys didn\u2019t exist, I probably wouldn\u2019t be skating all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s your favorite DIY spot?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burnside is so good. It was built back in the day, so it\u2019s the forefront and evolutionary. It was meant to be super gnarly back then, but nowadays it\u2019s not super gnarly. It\u2019s not like Washington Street that has gnarly, huge walls. For me, Burnside is more fun. The big walls they have aren\u2019t too steep and they don\u2019t have crazy chunky coping on the bank wall. I think Burnside was the first real DIY. It was revolutionary and it paved the way for every skatepark that Grindline and Dreamland built. I\u2019m just glad Burnside is there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FRONTSIDE POP SHOVE IT UP AND OVER. PHOTO \u00a9 DAN LEVY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Yes. What are your thoughts on wave pools versus regular surfing?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wave pools are fun, I think it\u2019s definitely going to take surfing to the next level because you can try and air sections a million times in a row. Rent out a wave pool for a day. It\u2019s expensive, but you\u2019re going to gain a lot of skill and knowledge out of it. It\u2019s already progressing surfing because look at the girls going in the wave pool. They\u2019re ripping and doing huge airs now. It\u2019s crazy. Even the little girls are boosting big airs now. It\u2019s sick. Sierra Kerr and Bella Kenworthy are two girls in surfing that are getting really gnarly airs. I went to the wave pool and saw Sierra Kerr while she was there. I went with some friends, Zeke and Alex Sorgente, and we met with Josh Kerr, his daughter and his wife. They were all super cool. His daughter, Sierra, was absolutely ripping, doing big tweaked airs and now she\u2019s been doing them in the ocean too. Everytime I see her on Instagram, I\u2019m always really psyched for her. I\u2019m a big fan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s awesome! There are so many girls ripping in skateboarding as well. Is there anyone that stands out to you? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lizzie Armanto has always been super gnarly and Mami Tezuka that rides for Blood Wizard is gnarly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you ever compete in surfing contests?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I did, when I was a kid. My grandpa made me and it was full-on embarrassment. I wouldn\u2019t paddle out past the whitewash because I didn\u2019t know how to surf. It\u2019s so funny, I\u2019d have to be surfing heats against Zeke Lau, who looks like a Spartan version of Hawaii. He\u2019s just a gnarly surfer. I used to have to surf heats against Zeke Lau and Koa Rothman and Eli Olson and John John Florence and Ford Archbold. My grandma would be yelling at me from the beach like, \u201cPaddle out!\u201d I\u2019d be in the white water on the inside. I didn\u2019t even know how to duck dive, my board was too big to duck dive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You spent a lot of time with John John and all of those cats too, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was born in San Clemente, but I grew up inland with my mom skating a lot. I moved back to the beach when I was 20. I pretty much quit surfing at nine years old and started surfing again when I was 22, but I\u2019ve been doing it every day since then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI highly believe Wave Warriors is the all-time best surfing movie ever made.\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Do you think it helps your skating?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Completely. My legs are so much stronger from it. I don\u2019t know if my legs are stronger from surfing or skating, but I think skating does make your legs stronger. You use different muscles and my legs don\u2019t get tired skating because I\u2019m so used to it. When I\u2019m surfing, my legs get tired just walking in the sand at the beach and kicking in the water. Standing up and pumping on a surfboard uses way more muscle then it takes skating because you\u2019re fighting the water. It\u2019s all moving around, so there\u2019s bumps and your legs are jolting while you\u2019re trying to pump around and turn. It\u2019s a gnarly workout for your legs. I just don\u2019t have the lifetime experience on a surfboard and that\u2019s why it makes my legs more sore than skating maybe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You probably also go hard at it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I try. I surf a lot of shore break, so I\u2019ll go to Wedge and surf a lot. I don\u2019t wear a leash and my board washes up on the sand and then I have to swim in, get my board and walk back up the beach to paddle out for every wave, so it\u2019s an extreme workout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SEATBELT TAILGRAB SMITH AT CHINO. PHOTO \u00a9 DAN LEVY<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ve been with RVCA for a long time. Do they ever let you design clothes?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah. I designed my pants that were sick and they were the top selling pants for RVCA. They had camo on them. Hopefully, I get another line of clothes with them. I\u2019ve got some ideas for some pants and shirts. I want to see if RVCA would be down to make a little bit heavier version of their regular jeans, for the heavier duty guys, like the guys who work construction and skate. I love jeans, but I wouldn\u2019t mind them being a little thicker. I wear function over fashion. I pretty much only wear the RVCA shirts that are thicker. I like to wear heavy duty jeans and shirts. I wear it for safety, not to look good. I wear it so my jeans and shirts don\u2019t rip when I fall skating. I want protection. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You were doing announcing on Twitch at the Vans Park Series? Do you enjoy that?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was cool. I was stoked to get to interview my friends, and I\u2019m a skateboarder so, if I\u2019m on the microphone explaining shit, you can best believe it\u2019s coming from a real skater. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, ORDER ISSUE #78 AT THE JUICE SHOP\u2026<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREYSON FLETCHER INTERVIEW BY DAN LEVY PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAN LEVY AND CODY MOYLES Greyson Fletcher is a name synonymous with style, legacy, and rebellion, and the man behind the mystique is just as cool as you think. He lives and breathes a lifestyle filled with art, skate, surf and gaming and excels at all of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4027,4028,4041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","category-skate-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/grey-vertical-copy-CODY-MOYLES-copy.jpg","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94903"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94911,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94903\/revisions\/94911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juicemagazine.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}