When and where did Science start?
Quite a long time ago, it was something I had started thinking about around the mid 90’s during my art college days in Southampton. After a few years of procrastination it slightly grew to a hobby with no money behind it, then became a real life board brand in 2005. I was working for a music company in London for four years and it had gotten to the stage where I was feeling like I was churning out watered down work that I didn’t really believe in, it had been this way for a while. So I quit and went to SF for the first time for six weeks to recharge my batteries. With a plan that I had been working on for a while, I came back to London and decided to make the dream a reality and ordered the first run of boards. That was that.
When did the London era end and the SF era begin? What prompted the move?
After the inevitable rent increase that came with the gentrification of Hackney, I lost my home around mid 2017. I made the move to SF in August that year to finally get married to my now wife, Christina. We first met in London and got engaged in 2013 with a plan for me to be in SF a year later to be together and to get married.
What happened between 2013 and 2017 that held things up?
Before I could move to SF I also had to finish our first full video that we had been working on for too long already. It was the worst timing but my friend’s shop in London got broken into soon after I planned to move, which left them unable to pay for stock they’d sold and ultimately slowed down my plans. Then a few months later, at the start of summer I broke my leg which couldn’t have come at a worse time. The break caused some nerve damage in my lower leg and foot, and proved to be a major problem since I’m the one person running the company and it put a delay on finishing up filming for the video and shooting photos. Not much was really going on during this time and then my friend’s shop that I mentioned got broken into again, pretty much a year after the first time. Pretty depressing times to be honest. This skateboarding industry is difficult but with heart, we’re still here enjoying what we do. We have brought out new boards since the second break in, released the full length video and various web edits too, all under difficult conditions.
We all know there’s no money in independent skateboarding, so what do you do for work?
Right now I’m working full time restoring and decorating an old Victorian home exterior. It has been great, the perfect combination of artistry and painting work, without any of the stress that comes with working at a computer for hours on end. I hope to do more, it is good for the soul and it feels good to help keep traditional San Francisco alive through this kind of work.
Does anyone help you with Science or do you do it all yourself?
I create the look and feel of the company myself. All of the design work, the website design and coding, I film and make the edits, shoot photos, and I’m behind some of the board graphics too. Besides some contributions, it’s just me capturing and creating. I’m stoked to work with guests on board graphics because through combining styles, the overall flavor of each series is different. We’ve been around since about 2005 putting out more than 50 graphics to date. I also have made a series of mixtapes inspired by skateboarding videos of the past that introduced me to different kinds of music that you wouldn’t normally hear. You can stream them all on the new website.
Who’s on the team?
We’ve got Joe Sivell in London, one of the first to get involved back in 2009, and Josh Cox too. He’s been with us since 2014. There’s Pete Buckley over in Dublin. He’s been with us since around 2012. There’s SF newcomers Bobby Groves, Harry Hafner, and Josh Paz which I’m stoked on. I had met Harry and Bobby on previous visits to SF whilst out skating with mutual friends, the same way with Paz when I arrived here this time. They are all solid people with good vibes and all have things going on. I’m stoked to start a new chapter with them and the guys back home. Everyone has their own approach to skating and I hope that shows in their output. It’s cool to see how all of the different styles and locations combine.
Anything new coming up?
By the time this comes out we will have most likely released our SF promo. There’s a new Joe and Josh shared part which I filmed back in London with some help from Jake Martinelli. Bobby Groves will be premiering his full length video pretty soon. Bobby and Harry will have parts in Ryan Flores’ long awaited Merlot video. Paz released his crews full length video Benal Code not so long ago, find it on youtube. Josh Cox recently put out a 30th birthday part, watch it on the site.
We have a new website newly launched at http://www.scienceskateboards.com, if you want to holler at chris@scienceskateboards.co.uk that would be nice. Follow on instagram @scienceskateboards too.
