Josh Kalis Interview – 30 Years of Professional Skateboarding : Slam City Skates Blog

To coincide with DGK celebrating Josh Kalis’s 30 years as a professional skateboarder we thought it was an opportune time to catch up with Josh in this interview which delves into the decades he has spent dedicated to his craft, and finds him philosophical about how the game has evolved…

Words and interview by Jacob Sawyer. Josh in MIchigan shot by Matthew Rosenstein

Josh Kalis is, and always has been, an absolute skate rat who has followed skateboarding wherever it was destined to take him for the unadulterated love of the game. There aren’t many pros out there who have shown and proved to the same level, earning their stripes, and fully immersing themselves in the culture of different cities while being welcomed with open arms. Not only has his skating helped to define what was going on in the cities he has inhabited, he has always been keen to use his position to help others, to further the legacy of the spots he frequents, and to build a platform for the generation following. He is someone we have been proud to collaborate with over the years, on products and events, and being able to welcome him and Mike Blabac to the shop for the replica kicker to can event we hosted at Southbank will forever be a Slam highlight. With his thirty years of professional skateboarding being celebrated, we knew we needed to speak to Josh to mark this moment, mine for some new stories, and explore his thoughts on the industry he has had such a profound effect on.

As much as this thirty-year milestone makes space to consider his career retrospectively, it is inspiring to recognise just how wholeheartedly it continues. With a treasure trove of video parts spanning decades, it would be easy for him to be resting on his laurels right now more than most, but he is actively and consistently putting in the work, as the new clips that regularly fire up our Instagram feed attest. He hasn’t slowed down, and he has created a community around him that remains dedicated to progression with his Love Park-infused training facility as a central hub. Seeing Josh still putting down some of the heaviest moves that have punctuated his career with the same finesse is inspiring, and proves that with the right amount of dedication, we can all keep things moving. 

As someone who has spoken about his career on record many times, we were mindful not to cover much of the same ground, so the conversation doesn’t follow a rigid chronological timeline. It does dip into key moments in key cities and delves into his relationship with those respective scenes. It looks into the DGK series that was just released to mark his thirty years, and the guest artists who contributed. It examines how being a pro when his first board arrived has changed, and the pros and cons of the landscape perpetuating our culture. There is talk about music, Embarcadero, Pier 7, Barcelona, Chicago, his heritage, his brand Silak, his current relationship with the act of skateboarding, his future projects, and the importance of certain moments in the rich tapestry of his story. Speaking to Josh was a pleasure as always, and we’re proud to bring you these insights from one of the most consummate professionals to ever have their name on a board…

Josh unveiling each of the boards in the DGK 30 Years series at his personal TF

Congratulations on this serious milestone. You’ve had launch parties at Uprise in Chicago and Premier in Grand Rapids – How have the celebrations been?

Thanks for that. The celebrations have been great, man, very cool, lots of people have been coming out. For me, it’s like Christmas watching people open the boards and the surprised reactions at what they get. That’s what it’s all about to me. 

Who has been the happiest so far?

You know what? It seems like anyone who opens up that Muska board is just beside themselves. But people have been hyped on the Thrasher one, the Blabac one, for some people, their favourite was the Templeton, which is super badass. My favourites are the variants. I really like the guest graphics, don’t get me wrong, but the variants are super special to me. 

Looking back at your career, can you pinpoint a specific year as being very important/remarkable in retrospect?

There have been quite a few, but if I had to absolutely pinpoint one, it would be the opportunity that Jamie Thomas gave me when he said, “If you can get to California, we can make something happen”, talking about Toy Machine. It was risky for me because I just went out there. I didn’t know what I was getting into but I said “fuck it” and got out there. There were a lot of things that led up to that though, and I know I’ve told the story about going to California to hang out with Jamie Thomas. But even before then, before the Dallas trip when he came down, I had met Jamie [Thomas] in Philadelphia at Love Park a few years before that just briefly. 

“If you can get to California, we can make something happen”

So there were all of these little things that happened, it was more than just meeting him in Dallas, filming for that weekend, him giving me that offer, and me making it out to California. It was a couple of years of all these very small interactions that led to me staying at Jamie’s house. I would say that relationship I had with Jamie was probably pinnacle for the beginning of everything.

Peep Game – Josh Kalis. Behind the scenes of the release

You have been pro for thirty years, a career that spans four different decades. Which peers from that span of time have helped define what it means to be a pro skateboarder for you?

That’s an interesting question because there are so many pieces of certain pro skateboarders that define what it means to be a pro to me. The work ethic of Jamie Thomas is one thing. This is all just my opinion obviously, but it didn’t seem like Jamie was very embedded in skate culture. He didn’t live his life as a skateboarder, he was someone who went out and handled the business. I want to do this trick here, I’m going to do it at this time of day, I’ve got my filmer. How does the footage look? Am I going to go and re-do it? He was very business like about how he handled things, and he knew how he wanted his skateboarding to look, and be presented. 

Then you had somebody like Jovontae Turner who was super influential on the cultural side. He was aware of how he was looking rolling to the spot, and how he was looking when he got to the skate shop. He was all about character, and his presentation wasn’t always about how gnarly the trick was; it was almost the opposite: it was about how cool he could make himself look doing the trick and how cool he would look hanging out at the spot. It was more lifestyle to him, that’s what he brought.

You’ve got to understand that this is just how I was looking at things, but then you had somebody like Mike Carroll. The way he presented himself, in my opinion, was about how far he could push each trick. How dope could he make each trick look? That could be by making it look like he wasn’t trying that hard, or it being a trick nobody had seen before. It was always presented in the city with buildings around. That was another piece of the culture vibe. For me, each one of those guys influenced me in different ways, and I was just trying to put it all together in my head. How can I present myself, incorporating all of the things I liked about different skaters? I never had a specific favourite over the years, but there were pieces from different skateboarders that I really liked.

DGK 30 Years Series – Artist Guest Boards: Jason Dill, Ed Templeton, Thrasher, Mike Blabac, Chad Muska

Jason Dill, Ed Templeton, and Chad Muska have all created graphics for you. Can you give us a favourite moment from each of them that is burned into your brain?

My favourite Ed Templeton clip is him skating the Huntington Beach high school, he comes out of an incline and noseblunt slides a long ledge next to a wall in an undercover hallway. It’s in the New Deal 1281 video. He kind of gaps out to this long bench, and I always loved that one. He also had a sequence in a magazine doing an impossible noseblunt slide on a kerb, which is a trick he does in that same part. Those are my favourite two Ed Templeton moments. There are so many good [Jason] Dill clips that are favourites. I really like his part in Mosaic; it was the part where he only wanted to film lines. So the whole part is lines, and it wasn’t anything hella extreme, but it was full of Dill pushing, and you know how he pushes, like he’s on a mission. It’s him pushing around all over the place, and I always thought that was really cool. He had some really cool stuff in Trilogy that I liked a lot, too.

With [Chad] Muska, my favourite stuff is maybe in that Transworld video [Feedback] where he 50-50s that double kink handrail up against the wall. I loved that whole era of Muska flare, with the boom box. He’s just such a special person, it’s hard to think of one specific thing from Chad that I thought was insane, it was just Chad himself. It’s super dope having their artwork on the new boards. I still don’t really understand what Dill’s art is, hahaha, every day I’m looking at it trying to figure it out. His graphic has some BMWs in there, one is on fire, there are some hyenas, and the DGK logo is made up of Marlboro lettering. There’s an old E34 BMW centre stage, maybe one day I’ll be like “Dill, what exactly am I looking at here?”  I think it’s badass, though, whatever was going through his head. I was a big BMW guy back in the day, but I don’t know what’s up with the hyenas. I’ll figure it out one day.

Josh repping the shop while holding his first Thrasher cover when it dropped in 2018

Thrasher also feature with your 2018 cover as a board. What is your favourite Thrasher cover of all time, and can you remember the first copy of the mag you ever saw?

That’s a tough one; there have been so many. I don’t remember what the cover was on the first copy of the mag was, but I do remember being super interested in the advertisements at the back of the mag where they used to sell boards. At the time, it was when the Rob Roskopp board was big, Steve Caballero, all the Bones Brigade guys, the Lance Mountain board. I didn’t really care about looking at the skate photos so much; I just really liked looking at the skateboards at the time. It was sick looking at them, and all the ads were just black and white, too. 

There is obviously a Mike Blabac board involved, too. Can you give us a favourite Blabac photo of someone else before we move on?

My favourite Blabac photos are whatever he shoots or has shot of Stevie [Williams], even the portraits, and stationary flat ground tricks. He and Stevie just seemed to make magic together, no matter what it was. One of my favourites is the switch front nose on the high ledge. It wasn’t even called the high ledge back then, it was just where everyone sat and smoked cigarettes all day.

Stevie Williams with a giant switch frontside noseslide at Love Park. PH: Mike Blabac

I love that your career, from the Love days to now, has always involved bringing people in, putting people on, and building a scene. Even your recent clip features the local crew. That being said… what do you think skateboarding is going to look like in another thirty years? Does your personal experience of the next generation make you think it’s in safe hands?

Man, I appreciate that, just recognising that. I’ve always tried to do that over the years. With those kids in my little Instagram post I just sent out, I felt like it would have been so easy to just throw in some of my peers who skate for the same companies for cross-promotion or whatever. But those kids are the kids I see out there every day. The kid who kickflipped the hydrant in that part, he couldn’t even kickflip a few months ago. As soon as he learned how to kickflip, all that he wanted to do was learn how to flip over that fire hydrant. He had been trying it for three weeks and then that day, he was like, “Yo Kalis, I’m landing that hydrant today!” So I said that if he does it, I’m going to film it. He tried it for two or three hours straight and ended up doing three of them. That was the first one he did, and I immediately thought that’s going in!

Then the other kid who ollied up the manny pad and varial kickflipped off, he’s nine years old, and he just loves skateboarding. He loves the culture, he doesn’t care about contests or first place or any of that stuff. He’s down at the DIY every single day just skating, and to me that’s the essence of what skateboarding really is. It’s all about just doing it, and that’s all he cares about. Over the years, I have kind of seen that go away; more kids want to have coaches, they want to figure out how they can get that Red Bull sponsor, how they can get first place, and what their contest run is going to look like. I actually can’t stand that shit, and I know it’s kind of a necessary evil at this stage, but I can’t ever look at skateboarding as being a sport. So the kids I put in my part are just real skateboarders who just love it.

“I think there is always going to be some weird, corporate, sport angle to it now, but I think deep down it’s like art or music. It will always find its way back to the culture”

As far as, do I think it’s safe, and what’s it going to look like thirty years from now? Honestly, I think there is always going to be some weird, corporate, sport angle to it now, but I think deep down it’s like art or music. It will always find its way back to the culture, even if it gets overshadowed at times by contests. Deep down, there are always going to be some hardcore skateboarders who come up and live a life from it. I’m not too worried about it.

Is there anyone you’ve seen progress from skating the TF you built who you think has a future in skateboarding?

Yeah, definitely, the couple of kids I was just talking about, but then they have younger siblings who are also skating. The nine-year-old I mentioned has a five-year-old brother. He’s only five, but he’s rolling in down the ten-foot quarter pipe. He’s taking slams, and I just watched him land his first pop shuvit. I think as long as kids get to see and surround themselves with rad skateboarding, there’s a future. I also see young kids practising to win their first contest. I see both sides, but I think it will continue on for them. 

DGK 30 Years Series – The Blind Bags also include these limited Variants boards

Any new builds in there on the cards or maintaining what’s there?

Not right now, it was so expensive, and so much work to get it to where it’s at. I’m going to leave it there and let people get used to what it is. Take the flat rail that’s in there, for example. Most everyone has done the basics, maybe kickflip back lips, so they have stepped it up a bit, but they haven’t really scratched the surface. When people really get used to the park from skating in there every day, I’m excited to see how that will look after. It’s a pretty small spot, it’s kind of intimate in there, and it’s not spread out, so you can’t do the most insane lines. We are in the third year of having it now, and it’s getting better. The way we are skating it is getting better, and the longer we have it, the better it will look. We don’t have too much space to add stuff.

Did the bodega get built?

Nah, we didn’t build that out yet; we ran out of money. All of that stuff costs money. Right now it’s like our little skate shop. It’s our garage in there, it’s where we go to set up boards and store stuff. One day, though, it will be a bodega. It’s a lot of fun at that place.

What are the differences of being a pro from 95 to now? What do you see as being a negative and a positive of trying to make that happen today?

I think as an established pro in my position, social media makes it easier to stay relevant. You basically took all of your following, and they are tapped in. You can touch base with your fan base every day, and it makes things easier. It’s easier to show that you’re working, it’s easier to promote the brands you skate for, so you’re doing that direct now, not through a third-party magazine or something. The downfall of that is that it takes away some of what is special, some of the allure, because now everyone gets to see you every day. If you do it too much, you end up doing the same shit all the time. If you don’t do it enough, you fall off, and the algorithm messes up your feed. There is a lot of good and bad with it, and it’s hard not to get numb. 

The Amazing Josh Kalis. Josh’s first ad in a mag, a proper back tail for Invisible SKateboards in 1994

That’s easy to do because it’s just a swipe. You might spend weeks trying to film something, then if you post it on the wrong day, or somebody finds it after staring at their feed for two hours, it’s a swipe and it’s lost. It can be disappointing sometimes, too, if you don’t get the engagement you were hoping for. There are so many different emotions and feelings tied into it. Would I prefer it to go back to the old school ways of doing things? Yes, I would, because I truly miss opening up a magazine and seeing a proper back tail. I know that dudes are back tailing 150 yards these days, but there’s nothing like a photo of a back tail. For me, a back tail on something short and sweet, but a great photo of the in and out of that will always be special. You can’t really shoot a photo of a 150-yard back tail, that’s a viral moment right now. Everything is just viral. 

Also, that back tail appeared in the mag, you were stoked, not gauging how it was received, and straight to concentrating on the next photo.

Yep, and also if you saw a photo of something extraordinaire, you couldn’t wait to see the footage of it. But you may not see the footage of that trick until a year after the photo. Now I see people getting upset about the photo coming out before the footage, and I’m like, “what?”  It’s totally backwards. Another thing that’s bothering me these days, and this is just my opinion, but skate spots are becoming bigger than the skater, so you have a photo where the whole photo is a twenty-stair handrail, and the skater is tiny in the photo. I know that the tre flip that Chris Joslin just did is beyond bananas, but the whole photo is stairs, the whole photo. It’s cool, it is without a doubt an epic tre flip, but sometimes I feel like the spots are getting too big. That trick is a good example of when you spend a lot of time and effort doing something, a thing that’s never been done, and it’s half a day on the main page somewhere, then five or six other guys take your place. It’s just different, it’s pretty interesting.

For the City. Iconic Skin Phillips image on the pages of Transworld in 1996. This photo ran as the cover of TWS in November 1995

You forging your own path, on your own terms, and not bending to what the trend of the time seemed to be has always been inspiring. While people were exodusing to LA you got busy in SF. Your In Mono part was you proactively making shit happen in Europe and blew the door open for the solo video part, your time at LOVE wasn’t you taking your foot off the gas; it breathed a new lease of life into the city. What are you proudest of achieving thus far?

To be honest, I think I’m most proud that I was able to make an actual career from it. I’ve raised two kids, I have a wife, and a house. I’ve got to live where I have wanted, and for the most part, I’ve got to treat my days how I want to. That’s what I’m proudest of, that I haven’t had to work a regular nine-to-five. That’s important to me as someone who grew up with a dad who was very anti-skate, and just didn’t understand what it was I was doing. I mean, I didn’t really understand it either; it was just something that I liked doing. I wasn’t looking at it that I wanted to be a pro skater one day, I just lived that lifestyle, and it made no sense to anybody but me. So, I’m probably most proud to be the person who says you can do anything if it’s really what you end up wanting to do. There was a certain time in my life when I decided that’s what I had to do, and I remember that time specifically.

“I wasn’t looking at it that I wanted to be a pro skater one day, I just lived that lifestyle, and it made no sense to anybody but me”

I was in Europe on the DC Euro tour, and my girlfriend at the time, who is now my wife, hit me up to tell me she was pregnant. She was going to wait to tell me when I got home but decided to tell me sooner. It was right then when I knew I had to go all in on this skate shit. Saying that, I didn’t go in with a plan; I just knew that’s what I was doing, and that I had to make it work. I couldn’t tell you if it’s just hard work, if it’s luck, but I live in the present at all times. I don’t like to look too far into the future. I learn from things that have happened in the past, always thinking about how I can do better than that on the day. I’m not thinking about what’s gonna happen in ten years, which hopefully isn’t eventually a downfall of mine. The reality is that I truly don’t care what happens in ten years; I care about the day at hand. Maybe there are a few days blocked out where I know something is scheduled, and I need to care about it so it happens the way I hope it does. I’m not caring about that for me, but for the people I’m doing it for, or working with. That’s all I care about in that instance; I don’t want to disappoint whoever it is who has set up the event or whatever it is that I’m involved in. 

Keenan Milton, Keith Hufnagel, Peppe Martinez, and Harold Hunter remembered. Legends Never Die wall at Josh’s skatepark painted by Ozay Moore

Trick you would do at the start of your career that you would like to have back like that, and one you’re doing better now than you had it back then?

I wish I had frontside flips the way I used to. I quit doing them for a long time, and I don’t know if it’s my hips, but I just can’t do them like that anymore. I was good at frontside flips once upon a time, but they’re gone. Not completely gone, but my confidence in them has gone. For example, I could try to backside flip anything still because the bail, and how you turn backside, is just easier on me to jump out of it. But a frontside flip, if I have to jump forward and turn my body so I’m wide open going forward, it really hurts my knees and back to bail. I hurt my ankle real bad in Barcelona on a frontside flip once, and I wonder if that was when I quit doing them. Remember at the end of Macba? It used to have a ledge all the way across the back, not the stairs that are there now. I tried to frontside flip that, and I just mangled my ankle. It didn’t break, but it mangled it. 

Another one I wish I still had is kickflip back noseblunts. One trick that I do better now than I did back then is 360 flip noseslides. For some reason, I understand them now, I used to just try to do them back in the day, I don’t think I knew how to do them but I could just keep trying until I got one. Now I can actually do that trick; I understand how it works. I wish I had them back then, how I have them now, because I had better pop back then. There were a few that got away that I could have done if I had them like I do now.

Where was that? Did you try to do them at the Pier?

No, I never tried one at the Pier; those ledges were too high. One specific one was this spot in Philly, they called it the Pico rail. It was this round, six or seven stair rail. I tried to do it on that a bunch of times, and I got close, but I could never do it, so that was definitely one that got away. I could definitely do that nowadays, but that rail is gone. 

I think a lot of people will associate your skateboarding with hip hop, but I know you are a man of diverse tastes. This was touched on in your Beyond Boards interview, but can you give us a hip hop album recommendation off the top of your head and tell us about another record you love on a completely other end of the spectrum?

Man, I’m a big KRS-One fan, Mobb Def, early Nas. There are too many to name just one, but pretty much all of the ’90s hip hop stuff would be my go-to off the top of my head. On the other end of the spectrum, I have music on every spectrum that I’ll get into just as much. Classic rock, what they call yacht rock, stuff like The Doobie Brothers, punk, I love early punk, I like some of the emo stuff. I wouldn’t quite say techno, but I like some of the real clean house music that’s got good bass lines. I just really like listening to music.

What Fugazi song did you want to use in the DC video? What would that part have looked like if it were up to you?

I wanted to start the first section of that part using Promises or Suggestion, either one of those two, and go from there into a hip hop song. That’s all based on the old [Mike] Carroll footage in Questionable, where he had that rock song from the Beastie Boys [Time For Livin’], and it went into Del Tha Funky Homosapien [Burnt] at the end. I just envisioned that part looking something like that, a two-song part, but it didn’t come out that way. It took me a long time to understand, and I never spoke to Greg Hunt about it. I was just mad, internally mad and disappointed. Now that I look back, I can see that it probably wouldn’t have been the right thing to do. It might have been weird at the time, and if that’s what Greg chose to do, it’s cool with me nowadays. Now there’s a little bit of an anthem surrounding the part when it comes to that Gang Starr [Full Clip] song. It’s not like I thought the part or the song sucked because it fit right, but I was internally disappointed that some footage had been split up and used as extras. Looking back, it is what it is, and it’s cool. Maybe I look at things and tell my own story about how something could have looked, or how I wanted something to look, but the reality is that when you put it together, it just doesn’t fit. That kind of stuff can be difficult for me to see at the time.

Josh with Ian Mackaye outside the Minor Threat house in Virginia. PH: Jimmy Astleford

When you finally got to Embarcadero, what tricks did you do to get the feel for the place? Did it give you a further respect for what went down there before?

I remember at first I didn’t even skate for a little while because I just wanted to soak it all in. I started to skate around real slow, not skating slowly but slowly beginning to ollie up onto things, and checking things out because it was completely different being there to watching it in a video. The bricks are way rougher, the little three-stair that people would chill up on top of, the normal three-stair, not the three block. That thing was like a proper Michigan style three stair, not a regular LA or Cali three stair. That shit would be like a four or five-stair in the Midwest. Just looking at everything was crazy. To grind the C ledge, you had to be at an angle to grind; you couldn’t be on top because it was so rounded. I remember everything being a lot harder to skate than it looked on video. But the sound was just so good, and the ledges weren’t crazy waxed, so you really had to push through shit. It was really dope. 

I know the Mike Carroll tre flip down the seven was a big influence. Did you look at the seven and the Gonz?

Yeah, I skated the seven, I got to backside flip the seven. I tried to 360 flip the Gonz gap, but I didn’t know how to do the 360 flip going as fast as I had to go because I’m not a gap skater. I would go fast enough to go over the gap, but as soon as I tried to tre flip it, it was just chaos under my feet. I had no idea how to do that.

“I remember everything being a lot harder to skate than it looked on video. But the sound was just so good, and the ledges weren’t crazy waxed, so you really had to push through shit”

Tasteful three piece at Embarcadero from the Toy Machine Heavy Metal video from 1995

Tying into this time in San Francisco, did Jamie Thomas try to get you to skate anything you wouldn’t have thought of?

I don’t remember him trying to get me to do anything I didn’t want to; I just remember him trying to get me to skate. He would bring me to spots and ask me what I thought, but maybe the spots didn’t inspire me. My biggest problem was always that the spot had to look like something I wanted to skate. It could be a shitty spot, but if it looked dope, I would want to skate it. On the other hand, the spot could be perfect, but if the background is super bland, I don’t even want to skate it. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I have to be in the right environment to even want to skate. It’s kind of always been that way for me, even when I was growing up here in Michigan. If it were a boring ass spot out in the suburbs, I wouldn’t skate, I’d rather skate a little bit of a dry sidewalk square downtown. 

Can you recall skating a specific spot together with Jamie [Thomas] outside of filming?

If I remember right, and Jamie might disagree with me, but I don’t recall us actually skating something together. I think he would be on the camera when I was skating, or I would be at the spot chilling when he was skating a handrail, a big ass gap, or something. I just can’t recall us both skating together. I definitely remember being at spots while he was skating, but not being part of the session. 

Did you ever film him doing something?

Yeah, I got to film a few things of him. In the Toy Machine Heavy Metal video, at the beginning, when he backside 180 nosegrinds the handrail and smacks his head, I filmed that. I filmed him ollie from the second story at this apartment complex, over the stairs, and over the rail. I got to film a few things. It’s funny you’re asking about us skating together because I don’t remember it. We did skate together when he came to Dallas, though, and he had somebody else who was filming. So yeah, we had a couple of sessions together in downtown Dallas. 

“For the most part, though, we just went down there and skated, and if we saw someone with a camera, we’d ask if they were down to film something”

An EATO moment at Pier 7 in 1996. Josh backside noseblunt slides for Mike Blabac’s faithful lens

You have some of the most amazing Pier 7 footage. Who was pushing you by being part of the session? Or were those filming sessions solitary action?

No, it was pretty much everybody skating. Brad Johnson had a camera, and he was always there; he filmed a bunch of my Pier 7 stuff. He filmed the switch back tail down hubba too. For the most part, though, we just went down there and skated, and if we saw someone with a camera, we’d ask if they were down to film something. It was always very spontaneous; we never planned to film as far as I can remember. We would be freely skating, and someone would either offer to film something or we would ask them to. 

Your career has different chapters, full immersion in different cities, including BCN, which is something unique. Your parts aren’t just a random amalgamation of trips, which gives each one a cohesive longevity. Is there a city you found harder to skate at first than you maybe envisioned that really needed you to put in that time to make things work?

To be honest, most cities I have lived in have been like that. It was always hard for me to think of dipping in and dipping out. I like to move in, so to speak, and feel comfortable, not just with the spots but with the people, the news there. Barcelona is a good example. I had been there once or twice on a filming trip or a tour with DC That’s when I hurt my ankle at Macba. I had never felt good or comfortable there until I went back on my own time and really introduced myself to some guys, specifically Raül [Navarro] and his crew at Sants. I just talked with them, and hung out, and told them that I would love to film at a place like this, but with no intention to just dip in and dip out. 

“anybody can do that, anybody can just go to a spot and film something and leave, but there’s no give back from that. The only person benefiting from that is the skater and the filmer, and I’ve never liked that”

Josh was definitely feeling comfortable at Sants to be able to put down these three bangers from his “In Mono” video part

What can I do to show the locals certain respects? I don’t want to come in there and use and abuse their turf. So we would talk, have conversations, and laugh, go to the bar. Once I get comfortable with that situation, then I’m down to really start filming, skating, and feel comfortable doing it, rather than feeling like I’m taking advantage of the whole spot and situation. Because anybody can do that, anybody can just go to a spot and film something and leave, but there’s no give back from that. The only person benefiting from that is the skater and the filmer, and I’ve never liked that. Even in SF, it was the same way when we spoke about Embarcadero earlier. I went there, I hung out with Drake Jones, I got to meet some of the people, it wasn’t just jump in and film. Once I feel comfortable with the locals in an area, I’m always down to film. Obviously there have been times where I had to dip in and dip out, but it always sucks, and it’s never my favourite footage because there’s no story behind it. There’s no vibe to it; it’s just a trick at a spot. All of the In Mono footage came from actually living there and being part of the culture, giving out boards, and buying people beers and dinners. Just hanging out and being part of the scene, that’s what’s important. It’s always hard to skate when you’re dipping in and dipping out, but any city or spot can feel comfortable when you’re part of the culture there. Based on just a spot being hard to skate, I would say EMB was the toughest.

I think just in general, being at a spot you don’t know, maybe not a random street spot, but a plaza situation, is never comfortable at first, and that doesn’t make for a good skate. Some people aren’t phased though.

We were speaking before the interview about the event we put on at Southbank with the bump to can. I wanted to skate the bump to can with everybody that day, but I couldn’t get myself to do it because I wasn’t there for long enough. I didn’t want to grab my board and just start skating. I’m sure it would have been fun, and some of the kids skating might have appreciated it. I’m sure the company I was there representing would have appreciated it too, but that is just hard for me to do. It’s not a demo; I’m in other people’s space and area, and I want them to be able to showcase their stuff. It’s a similar mentality; if I had been there for a few days, and skated with everybody, and gotten comfortable, maybe I would have. But it was a bump to can contest, I was there for y’all, I wanted to support you guys. I didn’t want for you to be having to support me, and cheer on my shit. I was there to cheer on their shit and make sure the people skating had a good time. That may have been the wrong way to look at it in that instance, and I probably should have jumped over the can, but it was a good event anyway.

Spreading the Love at Southbank in 2017. An exact replica kicker to can and John Shanahan cracking the first ollie over it. PH: Andrew Horsley

Which city you’ve spent time in do you think would be the best to live in, not just skate in?

Probably Chicago, I really like that city overall. It’s a great place to be, great people, it’s got all four seasons, and you’re kind of in the centre of everything. That’s why I live in Michigan right now, it’s an hour flight to New York, an hour to Philly, an hour and twenty minutes to DC, a twenty-minute flight to Chicago, and less than two hours to Dallas. The only place that’s far away is Cali, and I try to stay far away from there because it’s probably where I feel the least comfortable.

Did you see Magenta recently released a homage to Tom Penny’s blue Gap anorak from that mini ramp line? It made me think, can we expect any Silak jacket releases in the future?

I have not seen that, but dude, I hope so. Silak is something I’m doing on the side to see if I can build something kinda cool. I don’t have a real plan for it; it’s just about making personal pieces I have always wanted to do. If it ends up growing at some point, then yeah, I would love to make jackets, but that shit’s expensive.

There have been some good jacket appearances in your footage over the years; I thought one may see a revival.

What’s funny is that I have one design in my head already, but I probably have to get through maybe five or six product releases that sell through well in order to get it made. Silak is so small, it barely even exists, so it’s expensive to pay for the next thing, and tariffs are unstable right now, so profits are unpredictable. It’s an interesting thing with apparel, but I’m learning a lot and it’s super fun. Also, because it’s so small, I can make something when I want to, and play with it on my own time. 

Creating trousers that work must feel like an achievement.

Dude, I’m telling you, those mesh cargo pants I made, if I had those back in the Philly days! That’s all I wanted back then. The whole idea for that came from these mesh shirts I used to wear. Everybody’s footage always had sweated out shirts and sweated out pants. I wore the mesh because It kept me cool and dry, and none of my footage from back in the day has sweated out shirts. I always used to wear the runner pants, but they actually kind of sucked because they used to stick to your legs. My whole idea was to make pants where the air rolls right through, like with the shirts I used to wear. Dudes used to clown me for those mesh shirts, they were made by ORION, you remember that truck company? Looking back now, though, they clowned me, but all their footage has sweated out shit, and my shit is clean, haha. That was the idea with those mesh pants, and they work; it’s kind of bizarre. You go skating and it’s 90 degrees outside, your doors are sweaty, your shirt’s sweaty, but your legs and your pants are dry. They’re like basketball shorts but full pants.

What jacket do you have in mind?

The jacket I’m thinking of is an M65 jacket, you know what that is?

It’s the Taxi Driver jacket?

Exactly, that’s the M65, but I want to make it with a ghillie hood, a kind of mesh hood. Ghillie hoods are sniper shit with seams that cross over so you can jam leaves and bushes in there and be fully camouflaged. So I want to make an M65-inspired design that doesn’t hug your hips as much and build in a ghillie hood that’s toned down a little bit. The idea reminds me of the old DUB stuff, the snowboard gear from back in the day, but more athletic. I want to tone down the ghillie a bit so it’s not so snipery, and tone down the M65 so it’s not so military, and just combine it all. It’s hard to explain, but I have it envisioned. I’m down to make jackets, that’s the ultimate goal, but it’s an expensive game. I’m trying to sell through the camo mesh pants because, as much as I love camo, it’s not for everybody.

For me and my Polish friends, can you explain your Polish heritage? 

My last name used to be Kalisz, from the city Kalisz in Poland. I have never been, but that’s where my great-grandparents were from. Then they came over to Detroit, Michigan, and that’s when they took the Z off the end. That was just pre-war time when they came over to the US. I need to get over there; there are some kids from Kalisz who hit me up from time to time. They straight-up asked me if my name had anything to do with their city, and it does. I don’t have a lot of information about it all because they didn’t keep records, but they came to Detroit, Michigan, to do farming and work with the natives at the time. They must have had a link with Detroit because they came straight there from Poland. I need to get out there one day.

Who is out there right now whose skating inspires you that ties into your vision? 

I don’t see a lot of skaters who I look at, where I think that’s how I was doing it. I really don’t see anyone doing it the way, and I think it’s mainly because everyone is so eager to get their likes on social media. I don’t really see community building. I do with some of the older heads, what’s inspiring right now is what Steve Rodriguez is doing with the Brooklyn Banks stuff, or what Gustav [Eden] and the Bryggeriet guys are doing with the Love Malmö project. What they’re doing out there is inspiring because they’re trying to create a spot to bring in the skaters and create that culture and environment. As far as a skater I’m looking at with the same mentality as me, I’m just not seeing it, I’m really not, it’s kind of a bummer.

“My last name used to be Kalisz, from the city Kalisz in Poland. I have never been, but that’s where my great-grandparents were from”

Actually, though, let me throw this out there, I think Brian Panebianco in Philly is someone who is trying to continue the legacy of Philly. He was doing it with Love, he was doing it with MUNI, and now The Pit. Once MUNI reopens, I’m sure he will be right there in the mix, being the glue that’s pulling people together. So I’m actually wrong about my answer, ha, and to be honest with you, I think [Bill] Strobeck is really doing that too. I think DGK with Don Cooley and Stevie [Williams] and what they’re doing at JKwon is a form of it, so I definitely jumped the gun on my answer because I’m seeing it, I’m just not seeing it from any up-and-coming skaters who are representing like that. They’re not so in your face with connecting themselves to certain spots and locations. Tyshawn [Jones] is someone who really connected himself with New York and was really pushing it. I was really about how he was doing it, and I have to tie that into Strobeck because he would have been the one casting the line.

Who is out there right now whose skating is nothing like yours that gets you stoked? 

Maybe the Dime guys, they aren’t pro skaters, but they have been on top of things. That Glory Challenge event they organise is inspiring, it’s the opposite of what I would be a part of, but it’s pretty dope. Showcasing skaters doing shit they typically wouldn’t do. You know what, I’ve got an answer for you, the GX1000 crew. In my opinion, those guys changed the landscape of street skateboarding immensely, and they’re probably the last crew of dudes to do that. With their hill bombing, the trick itself isn’t that gnarly, maybe a flip into a hill, but the trick is making it to the bottom. GX1000 really changed the landscape of street skateboarding, and that’s super inspiring. 

Classic shapes on this 360 flip in downtown Chicago captured by key collaborator Mike Blabac

What is happening right now that is helping push the culture, and what is taking from it and not giving back?

That’s a tough one. I think what’s pushing the culture right now is podcasts or doing interviews like this, where people who have been a part of the culture for so long can tell their stories. Young kids coming up can listen to or read those stories and catch inspiration from things we have done that could work for them in their own way.

“I think what’s pushing the culture right now is podcasts or doing interviews like this, where people who have been a part of the culture for so long can tell their stories”

What’s taking away from the culture is social media; everyone is putting their shit out there, and getting their likes, but everyone is getting swiped for the next one, and nothing is really sticking anymore. Do people go on YouTube and watch the same video again and again, like we did with VHS tapes or even DVDs? Probably not, everything comes out so fast, and there’s so much of it. What really is rewatchable now? I don’t know. Does that disrupt things as far as creating long-time favourite skateboarders for kids and fans? I am a huge fan of skateboarding, and a huge fan of skateboarders, but these days I don’t find myself rewatching parts, ever! Can kids put pictures on their wall? I don’t know.

My daughter, who doesn’t skate, just got her first pair of DCs. Is that something you have noticed your daughter’s generation embracing?

Yeah, you know what, my youngest daughter is all into DC right now, but it’s not because of me at all. It’s like a trend that’s come back somehow. I tell her, You like DC? You should start wearing my shoe, but she is on her own thing completely and isn’t interested. She tells me it’s not a skate thing, and I tell her it’s a skate thing to me! Haha. It’s funny, she gets DC shoes in the mail, the Court Graffik. 

I asked something similar last time we spoke, but from LOVE Park in the Sixth Sense days to now. Have you changed anything about your setup at all?

Yeah, I have changed it a little bit. I’ve gone slightly wider. Back in those Love days, I would have been riding a 7.4” or 7.5” board, and now I’m riding a board that’s just over 8”. I have kept it short, though, the board is 31.2” long but just a little wider. So my new shape, which is called the JK01 is 8.06” wide, but the dimensions are the same as the 7.8” I had before, and the wheelbase is still 14”. It’s good because usually when you go up a size, you end up with a 14.25” wheelbase, it’s a little stubby, it’s perfect. 

New Shape – Josh Kalis. Switching things up

How is skateboarding feeling for you right now?

It feels good, obviously, it depends on the day, some are better than others, but I can’t complain at all. I’m healthy, my knees are good, my ankles are good, and my back is good. I get a lot of massage, I spend time in the hot tub, the jacuzzi, which really helps. Those two together have really helped. I spend thirty minutes in the jacuzzi every day, and I get a massage once a week or every other week, and it really helps. I don’t drink either; I’m mainly just water these days.

Over those thirty years, was there ever a moment for whatever reason that you thought you may have to step away from skateboarding professionally?

Not really, because I’ve never considered myself a pro skater; I’ve always considered myself someone trying to make it. So, even though I became a pro skateboarder thirty years ago, it’s only been getting better and better. Financially, I’m doing better now than I ever have in my whole career. There have been some downs and some ups, which weren’t necessarily because of what I was or wasn’t doing. Sometimes the companies I ride for have had their own internal issues, and you just have to ride those waves and continue to support. I’ve honestly never had to think about retiring. I always say that you can’t retire from culture, that’s like telling a musician to retire. They can’t do it; you still have to show all of the people who support you, who want to continue to support you, that there’s a reason for it. We all do this together, so I’ve never had that thought before.

You are now what would be considered a legacy pro, but you still treat that responsibility seriously when it comes to putting in the work, and your mentality of fulfilling that role hasn’t changed. How do you feel about people out there who are being used to market brands but aren’t really skating to any level nowadays?

You’re talking about milking it? I look at it like this…if the brand is benefitting from using your name, then you’re not milking it. You’ve put in all that work, time, and longevity, or even hoodwink. Whatever you have done has worked, so if the brand is benefiting, and people are continuing to make a living off your name and what you have done in the past or present, then, in my opinion, you’re not milking it. If you came up, and you were a badass skateboarder, but in the last ten years, you haven’t even picked up a skateboard, and the company is still making products with your name on, and it’s selling and doing well for them. That means the salespeople are eating, their kids are eating, and the skate shop selling your stuff is eating. If people are actually eating off it, then that’s good. I can’t hate on that, to be honest, that’s a dream. 

I also hear people saying that you need to make room for up-and-comers, and that you’re taking marketing budget away from these newcomers, but I don’t believe that because it’s those sales that are creating space for those up-and-comers. I can’t hate on anyone continuing their career path with the companies that they’re on.

Mike Blabac’s open shutter captures Josh pushing through New York City in 2019

What projects are next for you? Is there something new to film for? Are there any DC plans afoot for a new model? 

My current shoe that’s out right now is my favourite shoe that I’ve ever had. It’s called the DC Ascend, and I credit the shoes I skate in with me still being able to skate how I do at my age. My ankles and knees are good, and it’s got to be down to the shoes. But you are right, there’s a whole other new shoe in the works that’s going to be coming out in 2027, I think it is. I can’t wait to have that in my hand and check it out. That shoe, with the one I have currently out right now, is just more dreams coming true for me. We’re always doing stuff at DGK, too. I say this all the time, but DGK really is the most authentic thing out there, especially in the skateboard world. How it was created, the label, the name, it was literally making something from nothing, which is one of the slogans. I’m super proud to be a part of that, and I’m super proud of Stevie [Williams] and everything he has had to go through to where he is at now. It’s just an amazing story. 

Looking back at the last thirty years, what clip from your career is the most special?

I think the one that is the most special would be the tre flip over the can at LOVE. I was in the shop the other day at the event, and there were a bunch of kids in there, and somebody won the Chad Muska graphic that he did for me for DGK. That’s the silhouette of me doing the tre flip over the can, and I heard someone in the background say ’the million dollar tre flip”. I turned around, and I was trying to see who said it, but it made me think about that afterwards for a while. It’s pretty crazy, it’s been on posters, and shoe boxes, and even twenty-seven years later, or however long it’s been now, it’s still a recognisable silhouette. I’m super stoked for that and grateful to [Mike] Blabac and DC for recognising it at the time, and pushing it around the way they did.

Mike flew out there pretty much the next day to shoot that, right?

He did, I had already done it, and they said I needed to do it again, and I was pissed off to tell you the truth. I was annoyed I had to do it again, but it worked out. 

Then you even did it again, again.

Haha, yeah, I did, twenty years later, yup. Maybe I’ll do it again when it’s thirty years.

The Million Dollar Tre Flip, a shot heard around the world. PH: Mike Blabac

Looking back at your thirty years as a pro, if you could time-travel back to any place and time for twenty-four hours, where would it be?

I would probably time-travel back to San Francisco to look at EMB again, but I wouldn’t change anything. Even knowing what I know now, I could go back and change some stuff, but I don’t think I would change anything. I would like to go back in time to EMB and just watch.

Any last words?

I just want to say that it’s good talking to you again, and thanks to Slam for the opportunity to tell more of my story.

DGKalis: 30 Year Project Retrospective

We want to thank Josh for speaking to us and are stoked on his continued support of what we are doing over here. Follow Josh Kalis and DGK on Instagram for regular inspiration, and be sure to check out Josh’s brand Silak.

Thanks, as always to Neil Macdonald [Science Vs. Life] for the mag scans. Special thanks to Mike Blabac for the photos he sent over that have played an integral part in Josh’s career. You can own prints of some of the incredible images Mike has shot by visiting Mike Blabac’s Shop.

Related Reading: Josh Kalis Interview, 5000 Words: Mike Blabac – Part one, part two, part three. Josh Kalis & Mike Blabac Interview

Some other great Josh Kalis reading and listening: The Nine Club , The Bunt , Beyond Boards , Chromeball , Bobshirt.