By Alex Dyer for Muckmouth.com
JOSH KASPER
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I first met Josh Kasper in early 1996. I was a 19 year old English skateboarder over in California with some friends excited to skate and party. Josh was the same age as me, and into exactly the same things. We bonded instantly. Skating all day in San Diego, then terrorising it every night, as well as trips to Tijuana on Wednesday nights to semi-legally imbibe alongside college students, gangsters and prostitutes. Between us we didn't have a care in the world.
On top of his then penchant for booze and good times, Josh was a fucking lunatic on a skateboard. Soon we realised that skating with him was actually a bloody nightmare, and quickly we established that the standard call of, 'Dude, I saw this sick spot on the way over here' meant that he'd seen a set of 1000 stairs, a colossal handrail or some unfeasibly large drop that none of the rest of us would even walk to the top of for fear of vertigo. So most of the time I would end up skating flatground with the rest of the crew as Josh hurled himself off or over something massive. You can actually hear my whiney little squeal as he benihanas over that San Diego University wall in Trilogy. I saw some amazing skateboarding go down during that period that I will never forget. No warming up, just straight out the car and jumping down the biggest shit. 360 flips going down before we'd even got our boards out. Then he'd be straight home to have an ice bath before we headed out drinking. Shit, I even got to go to World Industries with him when he was picking up his first bLind package, and when Rodney was showing us around, I pocketed some 101 wheels. Sorry about that, everyone. |
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After being forcefully removed from America, I followed Josh's career from afar and saw him get a pro shoe, have a legion of loyal fans and jump off bigger and bigger things for another decade or so.
Twenty years later, Josh and I caught up for a cup of tea (Josh is sober and loving the clean life these days). The following video is a summary of what we talked about.
Twenty years later, Josh and I caught up for a cup of tea (Josh is sober and loving the clean life these days). The following video is a summary of what we talked about.
