interview with Austin DePiano by Hunter Brown
photos by Hunter Brown
video by Austin DePiano and Jon Schmoldt

It’s a blessing to have grown up in a time and place with such an abundance of shops. Illinois had so many cult status shops all within 15 miles of where I grew up. RQ, Yeah!, Motiv8, Uprise, First Gear, just to name a few. Yeah! was the first shop I gravitated towards when I was younger, as did many of my friends. I remember the feeling of despair I felt after it closed. It was like losing a spiritual home. 

FA filled that void. Jon Schmoldt was the sickest skateshop owner I’d met, holding down the shop full time then filming the best skaters in Illinois at night, filming the 9 Deep Dish videos with Mark Dunning in just 10 years. Not only was FA a welcoming shop, it made me feel like I wanted to be a part of it. Jon has always been one of the biggest supporters of the scene, so when it was time for the next generation to take up the reins and make the next shop vid we were all stoked. Unfortunately the economy had other plans. Illinois lost FA, Prosper, and First Gear all in the same year. Austin DePiano, the filmer of “Fast Action”, the final entry in FA Skates long video history, shared some thoughts on the video, suburban skate history, and the importance of videos in this new social media age. 
-Hunter Brown

FA went through quite a long video drought before this one. What kicked off this project?
I had just finished a video with my friends, and Jon had finished the last Deep Dish. Since we both had cameras and worked together at the shop, we started getting the itch to film again so it all kind of made sense at the time. Originally we thought it’d just be a fun montage where everyone got a few clips, but it slowly turned into a full video as people kept stacking footage. It also became a way to get different crews skating together, which was really cool and felt community based and organic. I feel honored that Jon trusted me enough to help make something for the shop.

The shop never really felt like it had a team, it always felt like if you were in with Jon you were on, did you have trouble wrangling the enormous roster of skaters?
Surprisingly, not really! It felt pretty natural all around. Whoever was out skating and was super motivated usually ended up getting priority. Honestly, sometimes the really motivated people had to wrangle us, which you can’t really complain about. 

After a year or so of working on it, I remember you saying you wanted to take it in the direction of the ultimate Illinois homie video, what brought that on? 
I say it half jokingly, but skating can be weirdly cliquey sometimes. At the end of the day, we’re all doing the same thing and trying to make something fun to look back on with all of our friends. I like filming whoever’s out, trying hard, and down to skate. I think it’s really cool when a big, diverse group of people come together for one major project. Jon and I always talked about how old friend sections were the best because you’d get a crazy mix of people with so many different styles and personalities all together.

With such a large roster of skaters, it seemed like a bit of scheduling nightmare. How were you able to work through getting all of the clips? 
It was the first time I ever worked on a project directly from the start with someone (Jon) which really helped wrangle people together. Jon and I would switch off filming days depending on work, and we naturally had our own groups of people we filmed with most. One of my favorite stretches was when we drove to Milwaukee every Friday for like, five weeks straight. Since we were filming HD, other homies could also help by sending footage. It became a real group effort, which made handling everyone’s schedules and distances way easier by just kind of vibing everything out.

After the shop closed, were there mixed feelings about finishing the video?
Eh, not really. Jon would agree with me that as sad as it was to see the shop close, if anything it lit a fire under us to make the video as sincere and good as possible. FA was around for 40 years, so we wanted to memorialize it in all the right ways. The only real pressure was making sure everyone involved felt proud and satisfied by it. 

Who was your favorite skater to work with during the video?
I honestly enjoyed filming with most of the people in the video because I’m close friends with a lot of them, and that always makes things feel natural. Sean (McCaffrey), Steffen (Watts), and Zack (Fisher) definitely stand out to me though. Sean always has great spot and trick selection, which is super fun to witness. Steffen is one of the most unique skaters in the city in my opinion. Steffen will almost always get something when we go out and if he doesn’t, he definitely tried his best to get it. Zack is one of my very best friends, and we’ve been filming together for almost a decade. He’s an amazing skater, but honestly an amazing friend too. He’ll almost always offer to film me or hype me up to try something myself, which I really appreciate. Overall, I just enjoy being out skating with my friends. That’s what it’s all about. 

For all the time I’ve known you, you were a hardcore VX guy-how did you handle the switch to digital?
I’ll always love the look of VX footage. The 4:3 aspect ratio makes everything feel so fast and clean, but my VX kept having issues, and eventually HD just became more practical and reliable. Jon was kind enough to actually sell me one of his HVXs, so it made sense for us to start filming together on the same setup. Later I bought an HPX, which is what most of my footage was filmed on. 

Growing up in the golden age of Illinois suburban videos, who inspired you the most?
That’s a tough one because there are so many talented filmers before me. The first two that come to mind are Scott Plotke and Tommy O’Mara. The first local video I ever saw was Wild Grapes around 2012. My friend Max (Williams) brought a copy to Wheaton Skatepark on a portable DVD player, and it completely opened the gates and changed my perspective on what all of us could do locally with just our passion and a camera. That was also the moment I realized I needed a VX1000, so I worked with my dad on houses and woodworking until I could save up enough to afford one. Tommy is one of the most talented VX filmers ever, his attention to detail is really inspiring and his talent pushes me constantly to do better. He’s also helped me quite a bit over the years, whether he realizes it or not. The first premiere I ever went to was for Tommy’s Handsome in 2013, which played behind FA. 

Why do you think it’s important to make local videos even in the iPhone age?
I think as long as someone has a camera, they can make a video! I originally started filming because my friends were just really good at skating, and I felt like someone should document it. iPhone filming can feel isolating since you can just set your phone down and record yourself, while making an actual video involves way more creativity both in front of and behind the camera. It also pushes you to explore new places with your friends and creates more opportunities. People usually push themselves harder for a real video part too.

You worked at FA almost up until close while filming the video. Was there any skate fatigue in that time? Did leaving kind of revitalize you?
Before and during my time at the shop, I definitely had some personal losses going on outside of skating that caused me fatigue in general. Working at the shop gave me amazing opportunities, introduced me to a lot of great people, and taught me a ton about skating and filming, especially from Jon. But skating has always been my outlet, so when your work, filming, and personal skating all overlap, it can blur the line between fun and work. I’m really grateful for everything Jon has done for me and the community as a whole. I went back to school and started a new career outside skateboarding, which honestly made skating feel really special again. I’m in a good place now, and I’m thankful to anyone who took the time to read this. I hope the video does everyone’s skating justice and FA’s legacy in its entirety.