Steve BERRA

Whatever you think about him, it's impossible to deny Steve Berra's influence on skateboarding. Unlike a lot of other professional skateboarders Steve doesn't just let his skating do the talking, he also uses his mouth - usually in a slow, precise and instructional manner. Whilst it is clear that Steve has a lot of love for skateboarding, being in the spotlight has caused some negativity from lots of different avenues towards him and his business, The Berrics. Well revered sites like YouWillSoon seemed to write about Berra every other article and the Slap Forum community definitely has had some thoughts on Steve, The Berrics and Steve's career of late. 

On the other side of the fence, The Berrics continues to be one of the most powerful and influential skateboard sites, attracting some of the best skaters in the world to come and film there daily, so he must be doing something right. 

As Chopper said, 'Even Beethoven had his critics'.

---

Alright Steve, may as well get the old classic questions out the way first - how you got into skating?

Was Blockhead your first sponsor?

Then Birdhouse and Foundation and then back to Birdhouse if I recall?

You were ripping on vert during this period, that blunt kickie has always been impressive to me, as well some of those really fast disasters and shit. You ever get padded up these days?

I heard you were potentially going to be in the Klein/Kirchart section, but wouldn't shell out for a good suit, so got left behind?

You were briefly on 101 - regarded by many as the best company ever. What happened over there?

Who was on at that time? I never saw even a sticker with your name on it.

Did you get on with Rocco? Natas?

Now on to Alien, quite a big move after the success of The End - are you happy you chose to do that?

A lot of people have said that your head being chopped off in The End was a metaphor for something - (moving to another stage in your career aka leaving Birdhouse or simply losing your mind) what is your take on this?

Either way, great acting... but we'll get to that later.

And so now, and you are longer on the Alien team - any hostility there at all?

What boards do you ride these days? Any interest in turning the Berrics into a full board company?

The Berrics continues to be a contentious subject amongst skateboarders worldwide, why do you think this is?

There was backlash about the Canteen and the Unified Programme being at odds with one another, as in it's hard to 'support' someone when essentially you are taking business away from them, do you agree with this to any extent? Has there been a resolution?

With Daily Ops, Battle Commanders, Run and Guns, Games of Skate, Bangin's, First Try Fridays, Field Ops, United Nations - the list goes on and on, The Berrics puts out content daily. Clearly a huge and influential brand now, how many full time employees do you guys have?

Although it can't be cheap to keep updating the park etc, you must be making some serious cash now, is the Berrics your full time job these days?

I always wondered why Berrics clips don't appear on HellaClips and other sharing sites, is that just because you have you own media player that's hard to embed, or is there some sort of unofficial 'competition' between sites?

Seriously, how come Daewon never been in BATB? 

Have any pros refused to take part in a segment or to even visit The Berrics?

You’ve got a reputation for trying to shut down any negativity about brands or skaters you’re working with, through some fairly heavy handed media management. For instance asking for threads on Slap to be deleted and asking Skate Talk not to talk about certain things - don't you think that some degree of shit talking and gossip is part and parcel of skateboarding and all part of the fun or do you believe it's something that has no place in the industry nowadays?

That said, you and Koston have been pretty outspoken via social media - are there times when you wished everything wasn't so public/there were things you wished you'd just left alone?

With more and more ways to express yourself to the entire world without possibly thinking it through before hitting send - for example saying something like 'girls shouldn't skateboard' - do you think the next generation of skaters are going to need some kind of Powell type manual to deal with this? Have you considered making the a book, let's call it 'Berrinetics' to keep these bloody kids on the straight and narrow?

Now you have always surrounded yourself with the best skaters, had a sick career, had undeniably good sections, but are sometimes unpopular with the man on the streets (aka the skatenerds on the internet) for whatever reason - Do you think it is just matter of people being jealous of your success/position of power? Or another reason? 

Although not that active anymore, YouWillSoon immediately springs to mind when thinking about some of your more outspoken fans, have you ever met Dan Watson? Do you find his opinions funny at all? 

What about Slap? Do you read the forum at all these days? Again, people must care about you, as you are constantly mentioned on there.

That reminds me, the DGK sweatpants debacle is a current one that has been brought up. What was the story there? Surely what someone is wearing can't seriously affect what you put out on the Berrics... If so, then I will have to pull you up on some serious crimes against humanity that you have let slip through the net in the past. Come on man, give Dane his Trickipedia. 

Apart from wanting everyone to wear an outfit of tight brown cords and v-neck t shirts, as far as pros go, do you get on with most? 

Anyone disrespected you or the park causing you to have a run in with them?

On that note, can you fill us on the infamous beef with Jovontae from years ago? 

Ok, so it is well documented that you are associated with the church of Scientology, how on earth (or on Galactic Confederacy) did you get involved with all that? 

Jason Lee is big on Scientology too it seems, any other well known pros that are down with your man, Xenu?

Talking of actors, during the 90s you had a pretty solid acting career. Are you still involved in anything like that? Surely the money was pretty sick...

You were married to Juliette Lewis, do you you guys still keep in touch? She always chose pretty cool films and I liked that pic in Big Brother at a party with a load of skaters (before everyone was hanging with celebrities) where she I believe she had Corn Rows.

How's life these days? Family man etc? I hear you have just had a new baby, congratulations on that, mate! 

So do you still get much time to skate?

Do you have any recent footage for us? The last I saw was you in a game of Skate at the Berrics and you were handling things pretty well. 
How's the ol' body holding up?

I reckon you should film a new vert section - that would surprise some younger skaters.

Steve, thanks so much for agreeing to do this and congratulations on the new baby. 

P.s we'll be in LA in September - can we hit up the park?