interview and photos by Luke McKaye

What’s the story behind the nickname “Mark the Shark”? 
My friend I grew up skating with, Jon Perkins, his grandfather was always joking and rhyming everything. One day he named me that when I was a kid and people still call me that all these years later. Skateboarding loves a good nickname.  In 1996 when the Warped Tour came through Pittsburgh I won the local contest and got a trip to California to skate in the finals.  The first night there I got super wasted at this dinner event and ended up jumping on stage grabbing the mic and screaming out “Mark the Shark” and going off in a blackout state, super embarrassing,  right in front of Steve Van Doren. 

How did the whole Warped Tour experience work out for you?
It was super fun, that was my first time in California and I was young and starry eyed. After I won in Pittsburgh, I was entered into the finals in Ventura. The whole thing is a little blurry. I pretty much just got drunk the whole time with a bunch of Australians. Bastien Salabanzi ended up winning the whole thing at 12 years old.

What makes Pittsburgh stand out amongst other East Coast cities like Philly, DC, and Baltimore?
Pittsburgh has everything you would want in a big city but has a small town feel. There’s definitely a “everyone knows everyone” vibe. It’s always been like the underdog town, even though Pittsburgh’s seen its fair share of teams come through over the years. Spots here are usually crusty and not always easy to skate. It’s an older city with a pretty unique blend of new crisp developed areas and old neighborhoods that haven’t changed in many decades. There’s a blue collar culture for most of the people here and that carries over into how skateboarders act and approach things like DIYs and putting together video parts. Also don’t ever forget you’re in Steelers country, this place goes crazy during the games here, although the city can go from loving to hating the Steelers in 30 seconds. The scene is really sick right now. One thing that has been a little disappointing is anyone who ever went pro or really made it in skateboarding had to leave the city to get there.  

For anyone reading who hasn’t spent time in your region, tell us what’s up with the Yinz/Yinzer thing?
That’s something you’ll hear people say all over the place here.  Sometimes it’s meant to be a little kitschy or ironic, but it’s a real thing. It’s kind of like how they say y’all in the south. It’s sort of neutral, not necessarily derogatory or anything. My niece once said I was the biggest Yinzer in the family, and I took that as a compliment.  A derogatory term you’ll hear a lot is people calling someone a jagoff or jag, kind of like another way of calling someone an asshole.

You’ve been skating almost 40 years, what’s that experience been like seeing trends/fashion/etc. come and go, change and evolve over the years?
It’s been interesting. When we first started skating in the late 80’s it was huge boards and 66mm wheels, just building kickers in the neighborhood and trying to figure out how to skate. The early 90’s were wild, we’d all buy size 50 pants, strap on a tight belt, and cut them to length. The wheels and boards got tiny. Skating in Pumas or shelltop Adidas. I just found a video we put out in like 1991 while all that was happening. Then in the mid 90’s when all the Philly and DC stuff was popping off we all followed those trends. Bigger boards, bigger wheels, skating rough shit in the city. Eastern Exposure 3 really symbolizes that whole era. For the last ten years I’ve stayed pretty consistent with an eight inch board and 52mm wheels. 

Do you have any “This could only happen in Pittsburgh” stories you can share?
I have too many stories from my partying days. Honestly one of them happened with you and I a few days ago. Skating this guardrail at a busy gas station when a confused 80 year old Yinzer who was falling over hammered came and sat down directly in front of where you were shooting, talking about Vietnam, and how he needs to get home but doesn’t know how to get there.  You had all your lighting gear setup and I was skating through the busy gas station to hit the rail. The police roll right up on us and walk over to you, naturally I figured we were getting the boot. Instead they wanted to talk to the old man (allegedly he had just tried to walk into somebody’s house) and they wound up putting him in the car and taking him home. They looked at us, asked what we were doing, and I told them we were shooting something for a magazine. They just said “cool” or something like that, and left us be.  That’s Pittsburgh.  

Are you doing anything special outside of skating to keep your body performing in your late 40s? 
I probably should stretch and do more physical things outside of skating to keep my body limber, but I really don’t. I’m a single dad to a 12 yr old boy (Christian), so that keeps me moving. I meditate and eat healthy. I’ve been clean and sober for over 10 years, so that definitely helps.   

I saw you at an event recently, skating these out ledges with a huge squad of mostly teens and 20-year-old skateboarders, and you were crushing it. Does it ever feel surreal to skate with people who you see and think, “I’ve been skateboarding way longer than you’ve been alive”?
I don’t think about it much when I’m skating. Sometimes kids ask, and it probably freaks them out. I try to be cool with pretty much everyone in the city, the younger kids, the core shop guys, the OGs, just everyone who’s skating. I feel so good on my board right now, I’m gonna keep going as long as I can. I competed in the old man bowl jam in Tampa this year, and got 4th. I’m finishing up a part for the next Fuck Yinz video. I’m having so much fun. I love skateboarding, and I’m truly blessed to be still skating at this level right now.

Tell me more about the part you’re working on right now. How has filming for this new part, in 2025, as a father with a career and adult responsibilities been different from other parts?
I’ve put out quite a few parts over the years, my peak part was probably in 2001. I’ve been filming with Rob Starr (who also does the Ex Filmer comics) for a while, and it’s coming together. He’s been putting out the Fuck Yinz videos for over ten years, and we’ve been homies for over 20 years, so we work super well together. Filming street in Pittsburgh can be challenging sometimes with the traffic and the general roughness of most of the spots, but we’ve been making it work. There have been all the typical hurdles right, like sometimes I’ll beat myself up for hours and not get the trick and other times we’ll go and get two solid lines, and a one-up trick in an hour. We’ve been filming at night a little bit too, it’s so much fun to skate through downtown after dark. I’m really putting everything into this part. I’m at a good place to really dedicate a lot of time for it. My son is old enough now that he can be left alone and I’m running a mobile burger and hot dog stand right now that gives me a ton of freedom. I’m sure I’ll keep skating and filming, but I’m definitely treating this like it’s going to be “THE” part. This is like a resurrection part, I fell off for a little while just drinking and partying way too much and wasn’t skating. My ten years of sobriety have opened up new possibilities and opportunities. This part is, in a way, a representation of a rebirth, or a new chance. 

Are you comfortable sharing a bit more about your struggles with addiction and your process of recovery?
Yeah that’s fine. I started drinking and partying in my early teens, and by the time I was in my early 20’s, it was definitely a nightly thing. That’s when I started getting blackout drunk more and more often. It was still mostly fun though. Your friends would call you the next day and tell you the stupid shit you said and did, everyone’s still laughing and having a good time. Late 20’s/Early 30’s was when the shakes really started to kick in, and it turned into more of an all day, every day type of thing. Once I figured out that a couple beers early in the day would take away the shakes, things went south pretty quick. For a while in this period, I functioned, held down a job and was still skating a bit, but it was sloppy. I started recognizing I needed help and went to some meetings here and there but didn’t really listen.  I wanted to stop but just couldn’t. I was super sick. I felt like I was probably going to die if I didn’t stop. I hit a point where my whole family had given up on me, I was estranged from my two year old son, everything was falling apart. When I was 37 I quit my job, left my apartment, and moved an hour away to Uniontown, PA, into this halfway house where I was fortunate to be around people who really wanted to help me in my recovery, and held my hand for a while as I got sober. Long story short, I got my shit together there and ended up staying in Uniontown for seven years helping other people get sober, and staying super active in AA. I started a restaurant there. After four and half years sober, I got full custody of my son and moved him there. Things really turned around for me, and I started to realize a life that had once seemed impossible. Around Covid I moved back to Pittsburgh, and my life here has really materialized in so many great ways. I own my own home now, and I have a building with rental units, I’m my own boss with the food cart, my relationship with my son is great, I have skateboarding back in my life in full force. Life is good and I truly owe it all to my sobriety.

Thank you for doing this Mark! You’re a true inspiration, and I am so grateful we’ve got to spend time together going on all these photo missions. I hope other people reading this get a chance to run into you some day brother. Cheers!