Interview | Jesse Lindloff

You just got back from a trip to Hawaii; how did the islands treat you?

It's was pretty sick. I went out there with Liam Pace and his girlfriend's family. We weren't really filming or doing too much skating, but it was rad because I'd never been there before.

At least you brought your board for some of the time because those parks out there are super underrated.

I was pretty surprised with how much shit there is to skate out there. We skated Bonsai and then that indoor bowl that Willy Akers owns, but that's pretty much it. We didn't skate Sheep Side or anything, but I'm definitely trying to get out there again soon.

Don’t you also live with Liam down in Oceanside? 

Yeah, we’re roommates. 

Is that the spot with the vert ramp in the backyard? 

That's actually my parents house in Seattle. Back in 2015, my dad and I built a ten foot vert ramp in our yard. It's pretty much the ramp that I learned almost every single trick I know how to do vert-wise. That thing was a game changer.

Did you start skating ramps first or did you start skating street and graduate to transition?

I definitely grew up skating more street-oriented stuff, because the park that I grew up skating was a shitty little prefab that only had a couple of ledges, some manual pads and some rails. There wasn't a whole lot of transition that I grew up skating, that came later on in life. I got super fired up on skating bowls with all my homies because they were super into it so I slowly transitioned over to skating more vert and stuff. Once the vert ramp got built, that was when I pretty much decided that it's the funniest shit to skate, so I didn’t ever want to do anything else.

It seems like a lot of kids do it in reverse where they start as bowl groms and then find their way out to the streets.

I think it definitely helped because I feel like it’s easier to go from being a street skater to skating transition as opposed to vice versa. It's harder to learn street later on in life.

Agreed. Street skating prepares you more for all the unexpected elements that come with the spot. 

When would you say you started taking skateboarding more seriously? 

I would say ever since I moved to California. I definitely took it pretty serious in Seattle, there just wasn’t as much to skate, aside from the vert ramp. I just fucked around learning airs and inverts. As soon as I moved, that's when I really picked up on wanting to do more rails and street shit. 

Makes sense. All of a sudden you see all these new spots that unlock so many different doors.

Exactly. I am definitely still hyped on skating pools down here. I just always like seeing a video part from somebody when they skate a wide variety of everything. That's what I try to do - skate as much different shit as I can.

The ATVs are always the ones to admire most. 

In terms of boards, you were getting hooked up by Scram when you lived up in Seattle. How did that come to be?

I had met Nolan Johnson a couple of years before he started Scram through some mutual friends. I was getting boards flowed from Creature at the time. He was basically telling me ‘fuck Creature, you should ride for my shit.’ It took me a while to be fully convinced but then as soon as I saw the graphics he was making, I was in. Nolan’s obviously one of the sickest skaters so it made the most sense for me to rep the local brand.

His shapes have always been too wild to ignore. 

It's super unique and I felt like it resonated more with me than anything else at the time.

Was it after you moved down to SoCal that you got on Foundation?

Yeah, that’s still pretty new. I think I've been riding for them for almost two years now. Mike Sinclair hit me up out of the blue and gave me a sick offer that they’d be able to give me boards and I'd be able to design graphics for them and go on some Tum Yeto trips. 

Being on Scram was super cool, but there was a period where it peaked for me. Things were going super good, but then everybody went their separate ways. Nobody was skating that much anymore, so it became stagnant. 

I thrive off having a group of homies to meet up with and hit spots, so it made sense to switch over and do something else. I still have love for Nolan and I still heavily fuck with all the graphics and the whole vibe of Scram. It just started to get repetitive because I would try to plan trips and nobody seemed to be as motivated to make stuff happen.

I feel like the Foundation and Toy Machine dudes are all classically trained to be in the van nonstop and live on the road.

I was super skeptical at first that it was even the right move. I wasn’t sure if people would think it was goofy of me to leave something like Scram because Foundation is almost the complete opposite vibe. At the same time, I felt like it was time for a change of pace. I really wanted to go on trips and I was feeling super motivated to be skating as much as I possibly could. If I'm not skating, I get bummed and that’s what was going down when I was in Seattle.

Good thing you moved to a place with 365 days of sunlight!

Since you mentioned Sinclair, he told me that you’re one of the easiest team riders to deal with because you almost never need boards. How do you go through decks so infrequently?

I try to make them last as long as possible because it's super satisfying to see when a board becomes a piece of shit and to know that you got the most out of it that you possibly could. 

I also think I skate better on a board that's beat up because new boards feel super heavy and the grip is way too grippy. There's a lot of different little aspects to it. Shitty boards feel super light plus they’re nice and flat without a lot of concave. I just like them more I guess.

I’m with you. There's nothing worse in my book than skating a brand new setup.

That’s right. The less nose and less tail that I have, certain tricks almost become easier. It's really weird.

When it comes to tricks and techniques, I’m always shocked at how you’re able to carve the shallow end of backyard pools. How do you build up the speed to get up and over the stairs like that?

It's all about going at the right angle. It's the complete opposite of the way that you would traditionally skate transition or a bowl. It's almost like skating a jersey barrier or an actual wall ride spot. You have to go at it with a really different approach.

I can't remember who said it (might have been John Worthington), but it’s all about the angle you go. If you go almost completely sideways with the stairs, you're going to get over them every almost single time. I guess that’s the secret: be nearly parallel with the transition and then just wall ride up that shit.

Comparing it to a Jersey barrier makes total sense. You just gotta be prepared to go straight up.

It’s hard to explain, but there’s just a very specific angle that you have to approach a shallow end with. There's no other way around it. You can't go straight at it but you can't go too much to the side. You have to have this perfect angle in order to get up there. It's super hard to learn but then once you get used to it, it's the most satisfying thing ever.

I bet it makes sense once you can unlock it… but I’m not getting myself over the stairs like that anytime soon.

That's the thing - I was the same way before I moved to California. I feel like a lot of people, when they see pool footage, just assume “it’s like the bowl at my local skatepark; it must be the exact same thing.” But a lot of people don't realize that it’s something that you will just never understand until you actually skate that specific pool.

I saw you hitting a couple different pools in Ruby Lilley’s latest part for Monster. Do you skate with her a lot?

Yeah, I skate with Ruby a bunch. We both skate with Peacock [Josh Henderson] a bunch because he’s the one who usually gets the pin to most pools. We meet up with him and go skate wherever.

Do you ever go back to the same spots or do you try to find different ones each time?

I’ll go back to the same ones sometimes but I feel like the first session at a pool is always the best one because that’s when I’m the most fired up. That's when I usually get the most tricks. When I come back to the same one, it's hard for me to think of something new.

Makes sense to me.

It's weird. I feel like naturally, I'll start to feel out some cool shit right away but then the the second time around, I start trying to overanalyze it and outdo what I did last time. Overthinking it takes the fun out of it. 

Plus finding new spots is half the fun anyway. 

Honestly the most hyped I get when I'm skating is when we come across a new pool. I can have two rolled ankles and not able to skate but if we come across a new pool, through sheer tyranny of will, I'll get super fired up.

Let’s chat about getting banged up, because I wanted to ask you about the slam you took filming your ender in Foundation’s ‘Whippersnappers’ video last year. You basically ollied into a skinny ledge-to-drop spot and slipped out straight to your back. How did you eventually end up stomping that one? 

That was pretty much pure adrenaline. I was super fucked up for weeks after that. It's a bit hard to tell in the footage, but I landed directly onto my spine and scraped the entire length of it to where you could see little vertebrae marks on my back from where I hit the stairs. It was pretty crazy. 

Whenever I get hurt, I get pissed because I'm like, “fuck, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this now.” There's nothing worse than not getting the trick. The first thing in my head was that it felt like I got shot in the back with a shotgun or something. I figured I probably had a ten minute period where I could try it again and hopefully get it. That was pretty much the first thing on my mind, so I grabbed my board and ran back up. 

As I was pushing up, the pain was setting in and I could feel how bad my back actually was, so I gave it a couple more attempts. I think I bailed one or two and then on the third one, I luckily put it down. I was super hyped to not walk away from that empty handed. I ended up going to the hospital and I was coughing up a bunch of blood for a week. I guess I bruised my lungs or something like that.

Did you end up breaking anything? 

No, I think I just landed so hard on my back that somehow I did something to one of my lungs. It wasn't anything critical to where I had to get surgery or anything. It was minor but coughing blood like that was pretty gnarly.

From the way you immediately grabbed your back in the footage, you could tell that one rocked you to the core.

I think to this day that’s probably one of the most painful injuries I’ve ever had. I couldn’t even walk for months after that. I could barely move my legs. I thought there was something severely wrong with me but luckily I'm doing good now. 

That’s heavy. 

Another trick that stands out was from your OJ Wheels part earlier this year. It was a similar sort of spot where you ollie down onto this electrical box and then ride off. How do you size up a spot like that?

I don't know, I'm not the most technical dude in the world so that's the shit that I try to look for; anything that involves an ollie where I don't have to flip my board or do anything super technical. That's the kind of shit where I'm like, “this is definitely worth filming and all I have to do is ollie this thing and not die.”

You just gotta power through it.

Exactly. I think part of the motivation is just to focus on landing the ollie and then being able to take the extra impact afterwards. If I were to film anything on a rail, ledge or some stairs, it would take me so fucking long. I thought it would be worth doing because I felt like I could probably do it pretty quick.

A lot of times, I think the more impressive tricks are the ones where people keep it simple and go big, rather than trying to get overly technical with it.

My dream is to do a switch back tail on anything. That’s my goal in skateboarding at this point, but I'm not sure if I'll ever get there. Maybe one day…

Just switch back tail something at Poods park and call it a day.

Exactly!

Since you live in that zone now, you also spend some time working at Status Skateshop in Carlsbad, right?

Yeah, I work there three days a week with my homie who hooked me up with the job, so it's pretty sick.

They are good people down there - shout out to Bryan Tracey!

It’s one of the sickest shops around because it's more geared towards younger kids and parents that are trying to find them their first board. It gets me stoked out to see little kids coming in there fired up on skating and to hook them up with their first board. In the back of my mind, I’m always wondering “this might be the next Braden Hoban or some prodigy that's just going to come out of nowhere.”

It’s an unmatched feeling to help open the door for someone like that. Plus the board wall is massive down there, so it must be fun to have that many different options to offer.

I always tell people that it’s almost too much. It’s so overwhelming when you walk in there but it’s pretty sick.

I have an unrelated question about your instagram handle: @beanwater1. I thought it must have been because you’re a coffee addict or something, but it sounds like it actually came from a restaurant you used to work at. What’s the story there? 

It’s super random but it started when I was working at this Mexican restaurant in Seattle. I used to get super stoned before I would go into work. I came in there one day and  they would make you drain the water from the beans. Usually you dump all the water down in the sink so that you just have the beans afterwards. 

I don't know who, but somebody decided to dump all the bean water into this gigantic bucket. It was filled to the brim with this nasty water and they labeled it. It said bean water one on the side and I was just like, “oh fuck yeah that's genius; that’s me” (Laughs) Ever since that day, that’s what it’s been.

Is that what everyone calls when you when they see you now?

It’s insane. People don't even call me my actual name anymore. When I go out with Rhino and Paco [Jacob Nuñez] and Jesse [Silva], they all just call me bean. I like how stoked people are on it. I think it's hilarious so it's gonna stick around.

As long as you have the username secured, you’re set!

Oh yeah, I got it trademarked.

Final question is about another Jesse Lindloff trademark: the shorts. Do you go out of your way to avoid wearing pants or are shorts just more comfortable to you?

I think it's mostly a comfort thing. The other thing too is that it's so hard for me to find a pair of pants that genuinely fits me. I think the length of my leg is fucked up or something. Anytime I buy pants, they never fit me right or there's always some part of them that’s wrong. I start to cut the bottoms of them and then they look stupid after that. 

You can never go wrong with shorts. Especially when you’re doing grab tricks and skating transition, they're the most comfortable and give you the most freedom. That's the most important part.

Sinclair mentioned that Dakota Servold or someone else on the team said your go-to outfit looks like the SOTY trophy.

I do remember somebody saying something that! That's pretty odd. Isn’t it Danny Way on there?

I think so, which makes it even funnier!

Any closing words an what you working on for the remainder of this year?

There’s nothing coming up in terms of trips, it's been slow when it comes to all that stuff. I have been working on a part for a little while though. I've got a good amount of footage that I've been sitting on, but I'm not exactly sure what it's going towards yet. It'll probably be in the next Foundation video. That's pretty much all I got going. I’m just going to allocate this footage to the next project and keep on skating and stacking clips.

Photos: Taylor Ballard

Originally published in Issue 4 - September 2024