Lodge Guest, Steven Reeves

Where do you currently live and where are you from ?

I live in Portland, Oregon and I grew up in Medford, Oregon. Actually born in Los Angeles though.

Tell us a little bit about your past ?

Lived in the Los Angeles area until I was about 12, then moved up to Medford. Right after High School I moved up to Portland and have been here since!

Why skateboarding ? How did it start for you ?

No joke, just sitting around playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater with my friend Brian. We just decided to try the board he had in the garage. 1999 was the year I think.

What size set up, wheels & trucks do you currently ride ?

8.25 Dieta board, 54mm STF Bones wheels, 44 Ace Trucks, Jessup grip, and Bones Swiss bearings.

Any sponsors ?

Dieta skateboards, Bones wheels, Bones bearings, Ace trucks, Jessup griptape, and Jack’s Board House.

Who is your favorite skateboarders ?

John Cardiel, Ben Krahn, Dennis Busenitz, John Morgan, Goon, Mark Scott, Cody Lockwood

School, work, not working or other occupation ?

Actually just graduated from school! Other than that I work at a software company called Red Giant. We make video effects and motion graphics tools.

Frontside Nosegrind; Portland, Oregon. Photo: Garric Ray

How is a normal day looking for you ? ( start from morning til late night)

Go to work, skate Burnside, nerd out on NASA stuff.

Tell us how a good long weekend is looking for you

Good skate sessions, good food, good people, good locations, good music!

Summer is slowly ending, how was your summer ?

Summer was insane busy with launching my senior project and wrapping up school. In one word, it was BUSY.

How do you feel about the skateboarding loop ? is this something you wanna try ?

Actually, I’d be fully down. I love skating cradles, and it has to be kind of similar. I legit had a loop question on a Physics exam and thought to myself, “Wow, all the math works out.”.

Any new projects or missions 2018, you wanna talk about ?

RockSat-C 2018! I’m working with my school right now (as an alumni) to get a payload approved and launched with NASA. Super exciting stuff! Skating wise, I’m just excited to have time to go out and film again!

Who are you hanging out with at the moment ?

Let me check the most recent group text; Daniel Evans, Johnny Turgesen, George Phillips, Justin Shreeve, Nick Vollmer, Jesse Nelson, Andrew Pugh, Blake Bishop, Oudalay Philivahn, Goon, and Carlos Craig.

Who and what is your motivation at the moment ?

Learning! Learning stuff is my absolute favorite. That goes for skating as well as everything else.

Last country you visited ? and what happened there ?

England! Got to go visit my friend Sam Roberts and check out a ton of amazing stuff. That was the same trip as Sweden, Denmark, and Norway too. Can’t wait to come visit again!

What was the last gnarly thing you witnessed ?

I saw a kid lock up on a backside disaster yesterday and break his wrist. I hope he’s doing okay!

What was the last item you bought ?

2 pairs of shoes from an Etnies sale on their website… haha

What do you do besides skateboarding, do you have other hobbies, other interests ?

I’m a full on space nerd. It’s literally the reason I went to school for Engineering. I love reading about and helping with NASA stuff as much as I can.

What is your to go to restaurant, you wanna share ?

Que Pasa in Portland! They have amazing nachos and everyone there rules.

When you cook food, what do you cook ?

Tacos usually, I’ve been working on my Ramen/Soba game too though.

Whats your top 3 favorite drinks ?

Water, coffee, tasty beers.

How do you see the future of skateboarding ?

Growing. Whether or not you think that’s a good thing is up to you. Either way it’s going to be crazy to see where it is in the next 10 years.

Who do we need to interview on the lodge ?

Daniel Evans

Wanna share a spicy story ?

We were on a trip in Poland once driving around looking for spots. We took one corner and everyone went into an uproar as we found what seemed to be a mirage of a spot. After I wiped my eyes a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t dreaming I realized we were sitting in front of what looked like an upside down boat with a perfect 5 foot quarter pipe on the top. We all scrambled to grab boards and raced to the top. Mid session we heard a mess of Polish from the ground below. All I could make out of what seemed like angry jargon was, “Hey! — one million Zloty!” Zloty is the polish currency and without even thinking about exchange rates, we all went into a panic. Our tour guide was still in the van which was just out of earshot from us. We explained that we were all getting down and leaving, but the yelling from the carload of angry Polish men didn’t seem to get any better. As we were packing up gear, one of the guys grabbed Terry, our filmer as they all yelled, “Police are coming!”. Terry froze and we all went into fight or flight mode. Just as things went from bad to worse our tour guide, Piotr ran up and about 2 minutes of very angry Polish went down as we all crept back toward the van. Within the safety of the van we realized that during the scuffle Terry had formatted the card of footage, in hopes of minimizing evidence in case of a worst case scenario. After a while Piotr came back to the van and we felt a sense of relief. On the contrary, he explained that the cops were coming and because of the guard at the checkpoint earlier we were pretty much sitting ducks. It was at this point that we all started hiding evidence of us skating the spot. Cell phones went in between seat cushions and other SD cards with photos went into sticker packs. After a long while of Piotr talking to the cops and us sitting nervously in the van, we ended up having two options. One, clean the entire structure and hope it was good enough, or two, pay 1,000 Zloty (about $330 US) and just get on the road. So we all pitched in and paid it. A pretty expensive session to say the least, and the fact that we had no footage wasn’t really a plus either. Ironically, later on in the trip Piotr actually knew a guy who was able to recover said footage, for a price. Adding to the tab on the most expensive session I’ve ever had.