A
month before Steve graduated from Boston University in computer
engineering I walked into his room, which was strewn about
with paints and canvases, and he was sitting on the floor,
legs apart, intently working on something. He looked up and
asked, "What do you do when you realize that what you
really wanted to do was go to art school?”
The two things you need to know about Steve Roche, are that
he gets things done and he does bizarre gnarly and difficult
tricks on a skateboard. You know how you waited until the
last moment to do your schoolwork? Maybe you didn’t do
it at all. Not Steve, he would walk in the door, put his bag
on the desk, open it up, and go to work. And wouldn't stop
until he was finished. He skates the same way. He gets to
the spot, opens up his bag of tricks and gets to work. He
doesn’t stop until he's completely wrecked himself.
P.S. I don't know why they need to use this art excuse to
run pictures of Roche in the magazine. Probably cause no one
knows all of the tricks he used to do back on his sketchy
vert ramp in Connecticut before he moved out west to hide
them. Well, his secret ain't safe with me:
East Meets West - Nose stall fakie grabbing the tail and nose
crushing his fingers.
Ugly Plant - Gymnast Eggplant except his board never makes
it above the lip.
Monkey Bars - An alley-oop mute, then he swings his arm into
an indy grab to get the extra rotation.
Chink Chink - frontside nose pivot to fakie but hanging up
and sliding blindside.
No Flip Indy - kickflip indy but his board just floats through
the air before he grabs it.
Believe me there's more but I blocked them out.
Steve sends thanks to: Paul and Sun Diego for the support,
Tyco for showing me how to carve, Hesh Crew for keeping skateboarding
raw, Bean for El Duce the dog rental, El Duce for the land
mines, Mikey for being fat, Pstone for letting me do all the
video intros, Texas Dan for the metal, Pear Camp (Fresno),
Ballard for first class seating in the red truck, Hitz and
Cholo for letting me help with the SCUM ads, Charlie for not
giving a fuck and doing it right.
Contact info: steve@rochelaboratory.com
A
month before Steve graduated from Boston University in computer
engineering I walked into his room, which was strewn about
with paints and canvases, and he was sitting on the floor,
legs apart, intently working on something. He looked up and
asked, "What do you do when you realize that what you
really wanted to do was go to art school?”
