Eric Koston: Epicly Later'd (Part 3/6)

[SKATEBOARD SOUNDS]
MALE SPEAKER 1: Tell me about leaving H-Street.
Did you have your eyes on World Companies?
ERIC KOSTON: No.
I think there was things about H-Street that were starting to
kind of be over, getting a little older
and having an opinion.
I was skating with Danny a little bit at the time, Danny
Way, myself and Alph, just skating with them.
And one night after we were skating, we were eating
somewhere venting about H-Street.
And he was like, I'll call Steve Rocco right now, get you
guys on World.
I was like, really?
And he pulls out-- he had a cell phone.
A little flip--
a big, thick flip Motorola, too.
I was like, oh, he's got a cell phone.
It's crazy.
So he calls Rocco.
Rocco told Danny, he was like we can't put him on World
because Natas is interested in Eric.
Natas wants him on 101.
I was like, really, Natas wants me on 101?
MALE SPEAKER 1: Was that trippy to know that Natas was
thinking about your skating?
ERIC KOSTON: Yeah.
Yeah.
It was pretty crazy.
I was like, oh my god.
Then I had to make a phone call to Natas.
Danny got me his number, and was like, yeah, Natas wants
you to call him.
So once the option was there, I was like, man,
this is kind of rad.
I want to do that.
I fought it for a while, but I got to man up and do what I
want to do.
Because in my heart, that's what I wanted to do.
I wanted to quit.

ALPHONZO RAWLS: Koston was always a really quiet kid.
He never really showed his emotions and stuff.
And I remember when he was quitting H-Street, and having
to talk to Mag about it.
Koston knew it was probably the best move to
make for his career.
I kind of felt for him.
I just sensed it was a really uncomfortable phone call for
him, being that he really wanted to give Mag all the
respect that he felt he owed him for taking care of him for
as long as he did.
It was definitely a strong movement that was a good move
for his future.
ERIC KOSTON: I was pretty into 101.
When it started, it was like, wow, this is sick.
It's Natas's company, and it's smaller.
It was just cool to me.
It was Natas.
Duh.
And it was just rad, and just, the team being different, and
it's smaller.
Just everything about it.
GUY MARIANO: Natas always kept 101 really separate.
Their videos were different.
Their art direction was different.
ERIC KOSTON: If I came up with an idea, Cliver and McKee
would draw it.
That was pretty rad.
I remember this hockey violent fight riot graphic.
I came up with it.
Let's just have a super violent-- like, having a
hockey stick, stab it through a guy's chest.
And there's a hockey puck flying through his chest,
because there's a guy behind him, that just hammered a puck
through his chest.
And then there's other guys slashing each other, and
there's just blood.
And they were doing all those graphics that were just so
super, just gore.
It was cool, though.
Any stupid idea I had would be created.
I don't know if you remember the board, it
was just a pot leaf.
And it's color blocked red, yellow, green.
I didn't smoke weed at all.
I don't.
I have.
It was just a joke.
It's like, any joke you can come up, you just make it.
It actually did really well.
GUY MARIANO: Eric being with Natas--
like, Natas is such a rad dude.
And to go from Eddie Elguera, like a positive role model, to
Natas Kaupas, who was a little bit edgier, but still such a
rad dude, so inspirational.
Having that rubbed off on Eric, too, only made Eric so
much better of a person.
ERIC KOSTON: He was the complete opposite of the
Tenasky type.
He's very laid-back and super mellow about things.
It was different .
Yeah, it was like, so yeah, hey, I think we're going to do
another video.

MALE SPEAKER 1: Was the Falling Down part-- would you
say that that was a breakthrough part?
ERIC KOSTON: Yeah, I think it was more of a
breakthrough part.
Because the first 101 video, the skating at that time was
still that technical but sloppy and goofy boy looking.
Bad late flips, and pressure flips, and stuff that was
really bouncy, and gross, and slow.
The bad outfits, rave pants.
And then Falling Down is when it started to polish itself up
a little bit.
You started popping flip tricks a little higher, and
everything got a little cleaner.
It started to speed up.
I think that's just what--
also, it evolved.
Skating did.
AARON MEZA: Falling Down is the one where he's super
killing it.
Yeah, by the time that 101 video came out, it was like a
done deal that he was the best.
GUY MARIANO: I remember when that 101 part came out with
that Gang Starr song.
And I seen Eric skating.
And I'm just like, whoa, this dude is unbelievable.
I remember that one clip.
He did a backside 180 5-0 half cab flip.
A lot of people around today that don't do that trick.
Around that time, I think Eric was definitely one of the
persons that was going switch and nollie-ing into things.
Like, way above what everybody else was doing at the time.
MIKE CARROLL: I think everything in that video part
was gnarly.
The frontside shove-it off that bump, and the kickflip
just popped super good.
At that time, a lot of people were just learning new tricks.
And at that time, no one was really doing anything as good
as the way he did it in that video part.
And it was just like, OK, that's how you skate.
GUY MARIANO: He was already doing lines with a lot of
harder tricks in them that might have been people's
single tricks.
I remember there was one, I don't know if it was Eden
Gardens or something, like some of those
lines in San Diego.
Really good.
MALE SPEAKER 1: It seemed like for me, the thing that blew my
mind was the switch 360 flip down the seven.
ERIC KOSTON: Not many people were flying it
down things, I guess.
ALPHONZO RAWLS: That was the trip that we took together up
in San Francisco.
I remember that happening.
And that was the most amazing thing at the time.
Not many people were even doing that trick, let alone
down the seven.
So that was some next level shit at that point.
That's kind of when you knew that oh, this guy, he's going
to be around for many years to come.
MIKE CARROLL: I was down in Embarcadero when he switch
tred the seven.
MALE SPEAKER 1: Oh, you saw it?
MIKE CARROLL: Yeah.
I mean doing it down that was sick, for sure.
But I remember tripping.
Like, damn, he's so much better than how he did that
switch tre.
ALPHONZO RAWLS: I remember it being pretty damn perfect.
But I mean I guess that said, me knowing Koston and knowing
what he's able to do, I think as dope as his video parts
are, it is just a small piece of what that
guy is able to do.
GUY MARIANO: I think when Eric came over from H-Street to
101, still, I didn't know Eric really well.
I think at that point, I was still really
intimidated by Eric.
MIKE CARROLL: We probably never came across each other
that often when he was on 101 and I was on Plan B. I knew
him, but we didn't talk to each other.
Talk to each other like, oh, yeah, what are
you going to do later?
No, I definitely wasn't kicking it with him.
ALPHONZO RAWLS: For a lack of better term, he was probably a
little bit nerdier back then.
So I think that some of those dudes picked up on it and
probably took it for weakness or whatever.
And I think Koston really wasn't focused on it, or just
oblivious to the fact these guys were hating on him.
But me being a little bit older, I just kind of sensed
that these guys don't fucking like my boy.
And so I just thought it was kind of interesting, years
later, that they became such a close group.
KELLY BIRD: People knew he was fucking good, but I think
people just wanted a reason to hate on him, I guess.
But I know there was definitely some years of
trying to deny the fact that he was as good as he was.
And as things progressed closer to Girl starting, they
finally realized, we can't hate on this dude anymore.
We've got to make him part of our package.
Because he's that fucking good.
It took people a while to really accept it.
MALE SPEAKER 2: Yeah, man!
MALE SPEAKER 3: Don't lose it.
[LAUGHTER]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
MALE SPEAKER 3: Damn.
Dude, that shit was like, [INAUDIBLE].
Are you ready [? to tune? ?]
MALE SPEAKER 4: Great.
All right.
Go ahead.
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]