There was a time in skateboarding when 20 years old was too old to be in the game. I remember turning 20 and saying to myself, “Ok, now what do I do?” I had turned pro for a company called H-Street at 16. It was the biggest company in the world at the time but skateboarding was about to shit the bed.

I had just completed a video part. It was just awful. Koston had his first part in the video. Somehow, I had last part. Sorry Eric. I didn’t understand it either. But at that point, I guess you could say I was their top-tier type pro. Or so I’m told. I would fly to Europe, do well in the contests (when that sort of thing still mattered a tad) then I would return home to a couch I rented for $150. For a few years that was the extent of pro skateboarding. At least for me. I think it was the summer of 1993.

Around this time I found out I was going to be a father. Being 20 (over the hill) and seeing that skateboarding was not a viable occupation (for me anyway) I decided to move to Los Angeles and try my hand at writing. I was offered a job at a local magazine that paid nothing. But it was a “real” job. I wasn’t playing with “toys” like I had in my youth. Which is what I told myself. It’s what society had always told me so it had to be true. Although the move to LA was supposed to be part of escaping the skateboarding world, I took a job helping to open a skateshop to be called HOT ROD. It is still there to this day.

Skateboarding started to clean up in the mid-90s. You were allowed to have a fun again! Smith grinds were allowed. Hell, even lipslides on ledges! By some stroke of luck or fate, I met a great group of friends. Skaters that skated for the right reasons. We would go downtown late at night, bomb hills, go into random bars looking for trouble…adventure. I fell back in love with skateboarding. It was mine again. It was the best feeling I had ever had. Having skateboarding as my own again. Like when I first started when I was 12. None of the stresses that come with being a troggy old pro trying to hold on. It was brilliant.

From then on, I realized I’d have skateboarding forever. It would always be there for me to enjoy. So I decided to try get myself one of those things…what do they call those? Ah, careers! Yes, I was going to try to find a career. I decided I would move back to San Diego, where I grew up, and go to school at Square Enix. I enjoyed video games and thought that might be something I could excel at.

In order to earn money to get through school, I’d need a job. My old friend from the H-Street days, Tony Magnusson told me to come in to Osiris Shoes, the company he founded after the demise of H-Street. I would be given a job editing the H-Street box set. Ironic, right? As it turns out, he offered me the position of team manager of Evol, the company that H-St had morphed into. I said call a meeting, I have a proposal.

“I will not be the Evol team manager but, I will do a new company through Osiris under the following conditions:

1) You can’t tell me what to do as far as marketing. I can go as crazy as I want.

2) I will pick the team.

To my surprise they agreed and Arcade Skateboards was born. My right hand man at the time was Cleon Peterson. He did all the art and he actually was the one who thought of the name “Arcade Skateboards.”

I went to an artshow of his in Hollywood the other day.

“Hey Cleon, I’m loving your stuff! I want to buy some! How much is this?” I asked, pointing to a 6″ x 6″ canvas behind him.

“Fifteen,” he said grinning.

“Fifteen bucks? You need to sell these things for more money! How can you afford this space?”

“Hehe…fifteen hundred,” he continued sheepishly. Needless to say, Cleon is doing it.

We did Arcade for a while through Alias (Osiris). Teamriders were added, videos were made. We were all young. Looking back on some of the stuff is embarassing, but we were flying by the seat of our pants and having a ball doing it. Then the roof caved in.

I was walking out to my car when I got a call from my mom.

“Where are you??” she cried. “The terrorists…”

“Mom, what the heck are you talking about? I’m on my way to work. I’m in San Diego…” I chalked it up to my mom overreacting about…you know, I don’t know what I chalked it up to. I went in to the Arcade office not thinking much of the call.

When I walked in people were crying. Everyone was looking me in the eye. It was serious. Terrorists had flown planes into the World Trade Center in New York City.

My television was the only one that had an antennae, so we turned it on. Everyone crowded into my office as we watched the horror of that day unfold. After the first building collapsed the office manager said, “no work today, everyone go home to be with loved ones.”

It was a fucking crazy day. And it was the start of the collapse of the American economy. We had been living high on the hog with Arcade. Everyone had great minimums. I had a fucking Audi. Hell, SAD was flying himself to Atlanta on a whim. All that ended that day. As the economy got worse, the model we had which was making money turned upside down.

We had recently started Autobahn Wheel Co. through Arcade. It was growing very fast, despite what was happening to the rest of the economy. It came down to the point where Arcade was hemorrhaging money monthly. All the black ink that Autobahn was gaining was turned to red ink by Arcade. It was unsustainable.

The choice was clear. Dead Arcade to save Autobahn. Or, turn Arcade into a logo board company and kick off the whole team. At this point some of the Arcade riders were really starting to shine. Adelmo Jr. and Joey Brezinski could find other sponsors right away. They stayed with Arcade out of loyalty to me. (Thanks fellas) In the end, I knew being a logo board brand was something I didn’t want to do. So we just shut it down. Joey got a call from me while on his first trip to Europe.

“It’s done dude. You’re free!” I thought he’d be happy, but he has since told me he started drinking after he hung up the phone. He ended the night by running from a taxi in Barcelona at 7am because he had no money. Truthfully, I had known before he went to Europe that Arcade was going down. But I wanted to get him there. At least the one time. It’s nice to see him do so well now. He deserves every bit of it.

Arcade ended in early 2002. Autobahn has flourished. I still work for Autobahn now.

I don’t know what it is about San Diego, but it’s not for me. The “bro” element is a little too crazy for me so I moved back up to Los Angeles. I prefer the west side of LA to just about anywhere. The majority of the original Arcade team are still close friends and we all do things as if nothing ever changed. From 2002 until now we still stay tight. Going to Vegas? Half the Arcade team will be with you! It’s nice. It’s not like any team I skated for when I was a kid. We are a little family.

There are a lot of little companies around LA, all over actually. Your “Brainsmasher Skates” and so forth. Finding a decent deck to skate has become harder and harder, as skateboarding gets weirder and weirder. Talk started of making some boards. “Hey so, somehow I came out of all that owning the name Arcade…we could make some good boards to just skate. If we sold 10 or something, we would have 10 free boards to skate!”

It sounded like a great idea. About a year ago I started fiddling with art for Arcade II in my free time. I started doing retro-type, videogamey art…stuff that for years people told me I should have done during the original Arcade. “That’s too obvious!” I would always say. Hardheaded as they come. But doing it for Arcade II, it just made sense. They were right, I was wrong. And it was fun! Before I knew it I had pages and pages of ideas.

So, we’d make some boards, have fun doing some artwork, and have good decks to ride! Awesome. From those first talks at happy hour in Venice a year ago, to what you see here, a lot has changed. A lot of friends chipped in their time; from filmers and photographers, to my partner Doug Johnson at Autobahn who is helping me understand the hells of bookkeeping, to the guy that drew Skate Coach in Thrasher, Chris Fairbanks who is a local homie (he did the SAD board), to the woodshop Bareback, who we had a hand in the development of 10 years ago (to a small extent. I helped on the concaves and shapes)  They gave us a great deal and are making it feasible for us to run such good wood. The best in the biz in fact.

Over the last year it has gained some steam from just 20 boards getting paid for by selling 30…to a full team and a nice line-up of quality boards. Kenny Hughes is on Arcade for chrissakes! Jon Newport I had hung out with in NYC. I was always a fan and felt he never got his chance to shine. Very down to earth guy too which is first and foremost. SAD is ripping and has already filmed more stuff this year than he has in the last five. Justin Guillen was too cool for us at first, to some extent I agree. But somehow I convinced him. Casey Rigney juuust joined the team about 2 weeks ago. How the industry has slept on that guy I’ll never know. Thank god they did though, Riggs on Arcade is a homecoming. Sean McNulty is a local kid here in LA. He pretty much crushes everything. Can’t wait to see what he’ll bring to the table when we complete the first video of the second Arcade, [sv]Arcade.Gumbo.II.DVDRip.mpg

If you’ve made it this far, wow. I salute you.

Arcade Skateboards is back up and running. I don’t think any corpo-smash skates have anything to worry about. We are making boards because we love skateboarding. We are lifers. Skateboarding defines us. Not by our job, but by our souls. It has always been there for us, and we will always be there for skateboarding. Hopefully Arcade provides an avenue for the teamriders to put their energy into. Something for future skateboarders to get inspired by. Something true. Something wacky. Something not borne from the desire to make money or sell off to a corporation which has become so fashionable as of late. Hopefully something unique and lasting. At the very least you will know the board you are riding will have the best quality wood you can get at a good price.

The story above, about my past…it relates to the fact that at some point in life you realize this is my life. You have one life to live and you have a choice to live it fighting fires, wrastling gators in a sideshow, testing new smartbombs, etc. I chose skateboarding. It chose me?

My life is committed to doing the right thing by skateboarding. It’s what my life has become and it’s what it is now. Providing the team with an opportunity and providing skateboarders with the best quality shit at the least possible price.

I gave my life to skateboarding. I am aware of that fact. And I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Jason Rogers

Thanks for reading this diatribe. I am the darkest of darkmen, I prefer it that way usually. But, I felt like I should talk about what we represent and why we are doing this. I didn’t feel like I could get it across without all the backstory.

Appreciate your time on the board. It doesn’t last forever. Keep skating and have fun doing it! Cheers!