Lodge Guest, Dan Sparagna

Dan Sparagna, Photo: not sure, credits coming

Dan Sparagna, Photo credit Steve Revord screen grab from an iphone video

Name: Dan Sparagna

Current: Job / school: Marine Electrician (Installer)/ part time photographer

Where are you from? Northern California

Please name ( if posissible  ) please name a cool place from where you are from? Grew up in Saratoga, CA and lived in Santa Cruz, CA

Where do you currently live?  San Diego, CA for almost 30 years

What nationality do you feel the most? I’m from an Italian family

Family status: Married with a 22 yr old son and a two yr old daughter

Age: 54

Sponsors: None, Flow from Skeleton Key, Bones wheels, S1 Helmets, 187 pads, Burly Caps, Outlaw belt company

Years of skateboarding: 77-87 then 2010- present

Board size: Darren Navarette Creature model 15” wheelbase

Wheel size: 60mm Bones

Trucks:  159 Indy’s

I change set up every: Every 4 months

Current Board trend: I really like the Nav’s model

Please state your type of terrain on your board in hours, days and years or other 

Vert: once or twice a week

Bowl: twice a week

How are you doing at the moment?  I’m good, I have been skating more now that the rains have stopped. We had one of the wettest January’s on record.

How is your body at the moment, (injuries, knees, back, and so)?  

All good, except I have a torn ACL in my left knee but, I have been wearing a brace on it and been skating with it for almost two years and it hasn’t slowed me down.

When did you start to skate and why?  What tricked you into this?  

It looked like a fun thing to do and it was kind of the new thing when I was a kid. I started right before the urethane wheel was invented. I started on clay and metal wheels

Do you think you made the right choice  (instead of playing football FX?)? Absolutely. I was one of the handful of kids that skated from my high school. We were the outcasts but I didn’t care because I loved skateboarding. I’m sure I’m the only guy still skating and none of them are playing football

Any person’s that  influences you at the moment? 

I skate a lot with Darren Navarrette so I would have to say him right now. We have been skating together for about 4 or 5 years now and he always pushes me to bring back tricks I used to do when I was a lot better ( in the 80’s ). His love for skateboarding is something to be appreciated.

What gets you motivated ?   

Relearning old tricks that I used to do. Skate and photo sessions with my buddies.

Please comment your feelings, memories  (if you are that old)   & know how about Skateboarding in the 

80s 

It was an awesome time of progression. Skateboarding was advancing so fast trick wise. Each time a new issue of Thrasher came out and there was new stuff to check out. It was such a fun time in skateboarding, it was all backyard ramps and pools with a few skateparks that were left over from the original builds.

90s didn’t skate

2000+didn’t skate

2010+

I think it was 2009 or 2010 I went to the ASR show in San Diego and realized how much I missed skateboarding and decided I needed it back in my life somehow. At the time I was part owner of two businesses and had no life away from work. When the economy tanked we realized we had to shut down one of our businesses so I had a little more free time now. At that point I decided that it was time to give skateboarding another try. It had been 23 years since I had skated other than a handful of times I skated in 2003 before I hurt my right knee playing basketball. It really has changed my life and brought so many great people into my life. A lot of guys that were legends to me when I was a kid, I now call friends. It has afforded me to travel around the world covering events and getting to go to places I never imagined. Somehow, the skating just keeps progressing to unbelievable levels, the future is bright !

Do you feel skateboarding is in a good way? 

Yes, all you have to do is watch the Vans Pool party or Vert Attack one time and you will see how great skateboarding is. Not that is has to be a competition because free skating is just as fun, but when you see some of the best skating in the world up close like those venues allow, it is just amazing. Backyard events like The Rumble in Ramona, Mikapalooza, Supersession and, Bucky’s Bowl B Que plus many other events are just as fun to attend and there is no competition going just skateboarders getting together to have fun. The skateboarding family is amazing, the brotherhood is strong !

Where do you stand & please comment with skateboarding in the Olympics? 

It is something for the young kids to strive for. In the long run it will be good for skateboarding.

Where do you stand in terms of politics?  I don’t get involved

When I chill,

I chill with, my family or my skate buddies Darren Navarette, Packy Fancher, Josh Nelson, Steve Revord, Bucky Lasek, Caveman, Chris Conway, Mike McGill, Stevie Cab, Peter Hewitt, Andrew Milhalko plus a few more depending on where I go to skate.

I’m have been on a mission lately in

(with) Mike McGill out to the El Gato Classic and we even trekked out to the famous Nude Bowl in Palm Springs and took a few runs just to say we did.

Dream session would be, 

I am fortunate to skate with some best skaters in the world on a weekly basis, so every session is that way. I usually am the oldest guy at the session and one of the few guys who is not riding a board with my name on it. One pretty good session I remember was in Bondi, Australia a few years ago and I was skating with Steve Caballero, Mike McGill, Tony Hawk, Kevin Staab, Pat Ngoho, Sergie Ventura, and Lester Kasai. It was like a who’s who in 80’s skateboarding and me, I’m sure the people who were watching were wondering who I was…

Lately I have been working on, 

Backside airs, Lien airs and inverts. Tricks are taking much longer to come back then I had hoped. I have noticed that if I can skate at least three days a week I have a better chance of bringing some of my old tricks back. I just got sweepers and Indy airs back this past week so the future is looking bright for 2017. I have landed a few backside airs but not enough to consider them back yet. It has been over 30 years for the inverts and lien airs but I’m hopeful this is the year.

When I was little I would like to,

Skate on the driveway with my friends and shoot photos which led to more skating. Kinda crazy to believe that a fun little thing you did with friends as kids has led to a life long passion.

When I’m home I like to, 

Play with my daughter, get on on my computer and learn more stuff about photography

I normally call my homies for, 

Sessions and skateboard stuff. A lot us eat, breathe, and sleep skateboarding

Your homies are,  listed above

I enjoy going to,  Bucky’s, Ramona, Vans Combi bowl, Clairemont skatepark, Vans HB

FAVORITS 

Beer: Imperial from Costa Rica

Liquor: Captain Morgan Rum

Food: Anything Italian or Mexican

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: Turkey sandwiches and fruit

Dinner: Whatever great meal my wife is cooking (she is a good cook)

Late-night snack: chocolate ice cream

Resturant: Italian or Mexican

Skateboarders: Navs, Cab, Lasek, Hewitt, Grosso, Miller, McGill, Pedro,

Skatepark: Clairemont YMCA

Skate spot: Clairemont bowl, Buckys, Combi,

Skate film / clip: Bones Brigade videos, Creature videos

You fave Tricks: Frontside air

Film: – action movies or documentaries

Music: – mostly metal and 70’s and 80’s hard rock

Book: – Clive Cussler novels

City’s: – San Francisco

When was the last time you really won big time? I don’t compete

When I travel, I always bring, my camera equipment and my computer

Best travel advice I can give is, be prepared for anything haha

Best life advice I can give is,

Enjoy it because it is a lot shorter than you realize, the years start to go by faster and faster…

Best travel memory you want to share?  Staying with the Creature team in Australia. Fun times but nothing I can talk about…

When I do not skateboard I, shoot skating or on my computer

My fitness program is, Skateboarding and some yoga

Do you care about your health? Very much. My wife and I try to eat all organic if we can

Anything that concerns you at the moment?

Without getting political, the divide in the US and the racial tension and the instability in the Middle East. It is amazing how such a small part of the world can affect the rest of it.

When I get old I want to,

skate as long as I am able and continue to be involved in the sport through photography

I would like to see more of,

vert and pool in skating magazines…looking through one you would barely even know it existed

That one time where I was in jail because of, never been to jail…

I should do more of, I need to travel more

My future looks like,

I feel 2017 is going to be a good year, I am looking forward to skating more than last year maybe even film some stuff.

I dream of some day that I would,

be able to support my family solely through photography whether it be skateboarding or a combination of landscape, skating and yachts.

The hobby I have, no one knows about is, I play the bass

I will never get rid of, my old photos and slides

Who should we follow on social media at the moment ? You can follow my instagram to see a daily dose of skate photos @sparagram

Thanks to

my mom for letting us build ramps at the house when I was growing up and understanding that skateboarding wasn’t just a fad and it was good for us to skate. Once we had our 1/2 pipe in the backyard, she always knew where to find us

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