[SHOUTING]
MALE SPEAKER: Whoa.
SEAN MALTO: The first time I ever heard of Eric Koston?
You know what?
It was probably "Yeah Right." Like, that was
way later, I know.
Like, there's so much of Eric before that I never really
realize, but like, "Yeah Right" and that whole video
coming out was probably the first time I'd
ever heard of him.
And I saw the trailer, and it was him yelling at some kid.
And I knew he was the best, you know, Eric Koston having
last par, and just being that dude at the time was crazy.
He did an ollie backside noseblunt at Arco.
I learned an ollie backside noseblunt like two weeks ago.
And for him to do it at Arco, like, 2003.
That is crazy.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: It's always fun to watch Eric get a video
deadline, because that's when he starts like, fuck this, I'm
doing this, we're getting tricks.
You know, tray flip noseblunt slide in "Yeah Right."
It's an hour and a half away, Santa Barbara, and we just
drove up right to get that trick.
And that's what he did.
Drove up there at night, lit it up, got it, and came home.
And to me that, that's like a Michael Jordan moment.
Like, he literally took over the game and won it.
TY EVANS: He was just killing stuff.
I remember going to like that big hub ledge in Philly, and
he just destroyed that thing.
180 nose grind, black lip, like did all
that stuff over then.
And then, like when he went out to Japan and skated that
white hub, and just murdered that thing, and did a ton of
shit on that.
ATIBA JEFFERSON: He did so many tricks on this hub in
that one night.
And this whole trip, it was him, McCrank, and Rodrigo.
And Rodrigo got sick, and literally him and McCrank were
like, just two fucking wild dogs doing
demos and skating street.
They were very tight at that point.
GUY MARIANO: Eric and Rick McCrank.
That was a good combo.
Because Rick is like, just like Eric.
He's super good.
Tranny, rail, gap, whatever.
And I think McCrank, being like a bigger rail skater at
that time, he really pushed Eric to start doing some
bigger rails and bigger gaps.
And like, in that "Yeah Right" thing, you see them feeding
off each other.
I like the Rick McCrank and Eric Koston better than the
Guy Mariano Eric Koston.
My opinion.
MALE SPEAKER: You were dragging him down.
GUY MARIANO: I was dragging Eric down, and
Rick brought him up.
MALE SPEAKER: You were like, let's [INAUDIBLE].
GUY MARIANO: I'm trying to get Eric to bum walls, McCrank's
getting him to the double kinks.
TY EVANS: The early, early 2000 era of Eric, he was
unstoppable.
Dudes are in their prime in their certain time where all
that stuff works, and like, that was like his chunk right
there where he was just killing it.
Back then, all that stuff came, like, so quick that like
now, it's like, forget it.
Guys are like, checking the wind.
Fucking, every distraction in the world's like, crazy now.
ERIC KOSTON: 2001 Reader's Choice Award.
Best all around skater.
You know, now it's pretty high pressure, where when we
started, it was pretty fun.
Now it's like a virus, or some antibiotic.
You know?
It only works for so long, and then the virus gets stronger.
That's how I look at it.
Like guys, OK, that trick was gnarly.
Now it's not gnarly.
Now it's just like, another trick in the bag.
MIKE CARROLL: That's one thing I've felt sorry for him about,
is just like, seeing how much pressure I would assume he
puts on himself.
ERIC KOSTON: Aw, you son of a bitch.
MIKE CARROLL: And he feels that everyone's expecting,
like, I wouldn't even want to have that.
MALE SPEAKER: For filming "Fully Flared," did he have a
lot of the pressure that some of the other
dudes talk about, or?
KELLY BIRD: Yeah.
I feel like he did, because he was the guy that like, came in
and really was like, the final piece of the puzzle.
Where everybody was like, oh my God.
Look, OK.
This is going to be ridiculous.
Like, the guy thing was already in motion.
Everything else had been going for so long, and then it's
like, oh, here comes this dude to like ice the whole thing.
So I'm sure he felt the pressure to be like, well,
everybody's going to expect me to have like the last part,
caliber part.
And then having a year and a half, maybe fucking a little
bit longer than that at best to do it.
I'm sure it wasn't the most pleasurable thing for him.
MALE SPEAKER: A lot of people thought that you kind of came
in just to film the part, and that the plan
was to leave anyway.
That's what I heard.
ERIC KOSTON: That pretty absurd to think that I would
come in just to film a part and then leave.
Timewise, you just don't have that kind of luxury in life to
be just bouncing around.
The thing is, when Lakai started, I'd been a long time
at S. My contract was up, and I wanted to feel like, sort of
secure at where I was going to end up at that point on.
I wanted to have, like, some sort of stake in a company.
At a brand that I, you know, back and believe in.
And that's what I thought.
And we had come out with like, a pretty fucking insane video
with "Fully Flared." Probably one of the best marketing
tools a brand could come up with.
You know what I mean?
I guess it didn't translate.
KELLY BIRD: His business manager unearthed some stuff
that was going on, that I think people either just
didn't take the time to realize, or were just too busy
that they didn't, you know what I mean?
They didn't have the time to deal with it previous to that.
But that really was a point where everybody was like OK,
some shit's going on here that's probably not that great
for the brand.
TIM GAVIN: That sucked.
He just came on at a shitty time.
And he quit.
It really affected me and him in our relationship.
And you always hear business and friends, and it sucked.
MALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
TIM GAVIN: You know, if I were to do it all over again, man,
I would never, I would've fucking never have done it.
You know, Rick and the Girl guys, those guys, like, were
so close, and they're family.
I mean, literally, like were just so close.
So I always wanted to do something with them.
And for it to not work out is really hard to deal with.
ERIC KOSTON: I didn't know what else to do.
I'd sort of had to take just the choice of making kind of a
life decision.
Of like, having to--
I've got to go and do what's best for me.
MALE SPEAKER: Did you know you were going to go to Nike?
ERIC KOSTON: No, when I left Lakai, no.
I left knowing I'm just going to go out and
like, free agent style.
I mean, if you asked me five years earlier, I'd have been
like, fuck no.
Fuck those dudes.
Fuck that place.
Fuck that.
No, I don't fucking trust them.
You remember the fucking first run they did?
It sucked.
But after time, seeing like, how they run things and what
they do, and how they get behind their team.
It's crazy how far it's come along in skateboarding.
It's like, skateboarding's this huge responsibility to
Nike, you know what I mean?
That we all have.
Now, looking back at all my shoes that I
designed I copied Nikes.
it's all these Jordans and Nikes.
MALE SPEAKER: And now you can make a shoe that, like,
someone else is going to copy.
ERIC KOSTON: Hopefully, that's like--
MALE SPEAKER: You're like, the starting point.
ERIC KOSTON: Yeah.
It's a great spot.
SEAN MALTO: When he does something, he kind of gets
involved in it to the fullest.
Like, Four Star, Girl, Nike, whatever sponsors he has, he
kind of like, fully gets into it.
You know, now that he's like, doing Oakley stuff, has a lot
of responsibilities.
But he's handling it well, and he's had like, a great career.
And if I've ever learned anything from
him, it's like, yeah.
You know what I mean?
You gotta work for it.
This shit doesn't just like, come to you.
You've got to like, work hard towards something, and just
try to do it right.
And I think that's what he's done.
He's done a great job at it.
GUY MARIANO: There's a lot of people that think that he was
just a great skateboarder, and everything just
fell into his lap.
But that's not true.
Like, Eric worked really hard.
He battled for his stuff, you know what I mean?
Like, he put together like, over 15 video parts like
"Bangers," you know what I mean?
Like, I don't need another Koston "Banger" video part to
know that he's amazing.
You know what I mean?
I have tons of that.
It makes me happy to see him with his family, like, doing
good, and being almost like the Michael
Jordan of our industry.
And I can say that, and a lot of people will back that.
ERIC KOSTON: This is Finn.
FEMALE SPEAKER: Finny.
ERIC KOSTON: Yeah?
You want me to help you on your skateboard?
FEMALE SPEAKER: Yeah.
ERIC KOSTON: OK.
I have to like, tighter her wheels up.
I tighten the wheels up, too.
But still, it's like, I've gotta crank them even more.
MALE SPEAKER: You know, us at Girl, and just skateboarding
in general, we've always looked to Eric to show us the
way, and that's why he is Eric Koston.
ERIC KOSTON: Take your paci out when you skate.
It's safer.
FEMALE SPEAKER: It goes back and forth.
ERIC KOSTON: It does.
It goes back and forth.
MALE SPEAKER: Have you ever seen your dad skate?
ERIC KOSTON: She saw me at a contest.
I think it was like a Maloof, or something.
But she was there.
And she was following me the whole way, I guess, and like,
laughing and like, tripping out.
I don't think she could even talk then.
That's so sick.
Sketchy.
Stay on your knees.
Whoa.
Stay on your knees, June.