Eric Koston: Epicly Later'd (Part 5/6)

ATIBA JEFFERSON: There's one other photo.
Let's see.
I can just bring it to you so you don't have to move.

This one's just hilarious.
So this is when I started doing basketball shit.

We're big basketball fans.
And at that time, I'd just started shooting for the NBA
and doing that stuff.
So we are always hanging out.
The third year, the Lakers won the finals.
I moved out here in 1995.
I remember meeting Eric at TransWorld.
And I was just a filmer then.
And I remember there was this line in the TransWorld video
where he does crook backside 180 on the table.
And he just wasn't happy with it.
And I look back at it now, and it's like, yeah.
It was fine.
But no.
It was like a little tack.
And that's why he was over it.
And I was like, dude, that was the gnarliest--
like one of the gnarliest tri-- even to this day if
people crook backside 180 the hard way on the table, it's
like insane.
He's just always held such a high level
since I first met him.
He's one of the first pros that I shot.
And it's funny because I'll get, oh, the big time
photographer.
So much pressure shooting with you.
And I'm like, I'm gonna blame that on Eric.
Because I'm not a big time photographer.
I'm not this stressed out dude.
But people put me in that light because I was shooting
the greatest skater.
I remember this.
This always kind of blew me away.
Like when he kickflip blackslide tailslid to this
rail for Menikmati, it was light speeds ahead of what
people were kickflip back tailing.
And he did it so easy.
I didn't get to skate with him that much during Mouse.
As soon as the Menikmati period started, that's when I
was skating with him a ton.
ERIC KOSTON: I was like, yeah, we're going to do a video.
And I kind of was like, oh.
All right.
Maybe I'll start filming.
And I kind of didn't take it too seriously.
Because it was always like the board brands.
You know what I mean?
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
ERIC KOSTON: That was kind of the first shoe on in the one
company that you really focused on making it a really
good part for.
And then I think I got to see some footage that
everyone was doing.
And I'm like, whoa, everyone's really filming.
Holy shit, I better get my shit together and start
filming that part.
I don't want to be the slacker who pulled it together.
[APPLAUSE]
ATIBA JEFFERSON: In Menikmati, he's just destroying it.
And being able to shoot Eric Koston in Koston-mania phase
was huge for my career.
If I'm there shooting Eric, nollie heelflip noseslide
Wilshire 10, I'm the dude that's there for that.
Noseslide Hollywood Bowl.
Eric gave me so many covers in my career.
MALE SPEAKER: What are your favorite
photos you shot of Koston?
ATIBA JEFFERSON: Back noseblunt bricktown.
That, to me, is still a gnarly trick.

[APPLAUSE]
ATIBA JEFFERSON: And that was a really magical time.
That dude at that point could not be stopped.
TY EVANS: We were going on Europe trips
filming for Yeah Right!
And we saw Eric out there with Fred filming for Menikmati.
I remember running into them in Barcelona and stuff.
I knew if I filmed anything Eric, I knew it was going
towards Menikmati.
Because once he was done with Menikmati, then all of his
focus was gonna be towards Yeah Right!
I remember Atiba telling me, oh, he
backside noseblunted bricktown.
I was like, oh, OK.
He's got his ender.
It's done.
All right.
Sick.
Finally.
We started filming for Yeah Right!
At the same time, Atiba and I, and Lee, and Ako, we're like,
let's make our own video.
We're going to make Chomp on This.
And that just spawned into this guy's coming on.
This guy wants to be part of it .
This guy.
And it just kind of sort of grew.
And then Eric, naturally, was just in the mix.
And it just turned into this one big, weird thing.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: It kind of became the main focus for like
six months.
Like let's see what we can do.
But at the same time, it works perfect because
Eric's warming up.
And his warm-ups are good enough for anything.
ERIC KOSTON: And it wasn't about me coming out this
gnarly part.
It was gonna be more fun.
And I'd never really filmed all the
stuff when I fuck around.
There'd be occasional things here and there.
I thought it would just be kind of fun to just have
everything.
[INAUDIBLE]
the wackiest shit that I can kind of do.
MALE SPEAKER: Mm-hmm.
ERIC KOSTON: All into the one part.
MIKE CARROLL: That's one of his fucking sickest parts
right there, is Chomp on This.
That's Eric.
And that's him fucking around.
And that's him.
That's most of his personality.
It's not just stale and just skateboarding.
SAM SMYTH: If he wants to make fun of some trick that
somebody did, maybe worked really hard at it and it was
just fucking gross, he could just do it first try.
Just to make fun of it.
He's just freestyling.
Like rap freestyling, but on board.
A lot of that stuff in Chomp where he's just dorking
around, that's just coming to him.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: His Chomp part on YouTube, it has like 1
million views.
That's a dork video part.
The manual line, to me, it's ridiculous.
That just shows the skill level of that dude is kind of
beyond most skaters.
MIKE CARROLL: He's just an insane skater.
So when he grew up, he learned every fucking trick.
He had those tricks.
He just never put them in a video part or anything.
It's insane how much he can just fuck around on
skateboard.
And just have fun.
It's pretty fun.
I get pretty jealous of that.

ERIC KOSTON: [YELLING]
TY EVANS: The dude's capable of doing so many cool things.
And even for the video we're working on now, Spike
said it, I said it.
We're all just like, dude, do dork tricks.
Don't even do the hardest, newest trick.
Just do like a cool, fun part.
MALE SPEAKER: Does that stuff come quick for him?
TY EVANS: Back then it did.
Back then all that stuff was quick.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: That was such a fun time.
And this point we were all skating a lot.
And I remember we were on a trip in Miami.
It was me, Eric, McCrank, Ty.
And I remember it was like, oh.
If you guys aren't going to get shit, we're
going to get shit.
And you're going to film us.
MALE SPEAKER: Say something to start off your section.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: I'm not going to have a section.
MALE SPEAKER: Oh, see.
That just started it right there.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: Eric filmed a good amount of my video part.
We're not good at skating.
So a line is ours.
And I remember Eric after I finally made mine.
He just lays on the ground like, I'm
gonna be so sore tomorrow.
Like just miserable.
[LAUGHTER]
ATIBA JEFFERSON: I remember being like, sorry, dude.
Fuck.
I fucked up Koston.
ERIC KOSTON: I filmed a lot of everybody else's parts.
Like Ako's, and Atiba's, and Ty's.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
ERIC KOSTON: But it was about those guys more.
But it was just kind of the bros and making it fun.
TY EVANS: We all had little handycams filming each other.
And it was just like, all right.
Just make a fucking stupid, fun video.
I think that's what's funny now is
about with social media.
Kids see every little thing of any skater they
want to know about.
Or any person for that matter.
Whereas back then, you didn't see as much of people.
So it's a video like Chomp kind of had some more of that
stuff that you normally wouldn't see.
We are all young, free-spirited, drinking.
No restrictions.
Having fun.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: Crips and Bloods party.
No one had wives, and kids, and serious responsibilities.
We were going out.
All the party footage.
The GG Allin footage.
That's one of the funniest Halloweens I've ever had.
Anything with costume, he killed it.
This is the infamous GG night.
Look at how young everyone looks.
He was GG Allin for that Halloween.
AARON MEZA: After that video came out, I got a message from
Jake Phelps.
I forget what he said, but he's like--
he just went on a rant about that video.
He had just saw it.
His shit's kinda weak.
Then Koston's gonna be fucking coming at GG like that.
[INTERPOSING VOICES]

ERIC KOSTON: I fell on my face.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: It was super fun because it started as like
kind of this joke thing.
And then it turned into, let's do this video.
And then it was like, let's get the stickers and t-shirts.
And those guys would put it on their boards and wear it.
It was kind of fun to sit back and watch people really be
like, what is this?
Is this a new company?
What is this gonna be?