Boardslide.
In the beginning of Markus Wyndham’s segment in H-Street’s Hokus Pokus, a narrator says, “This is Markus. You do not know him now, but you will someday.†At which point Markus proceeds to pop shove-it five-0 grind down a small rail. That was 1989.Today, in 2010, there’s not a lot to say about Kevin Terpening. Not due to lack of talent or personality, but simply because he’s at that point in his skateboarding career where people are just gonna have to see for themselves. He’s the sleeper. The quiet yet strangely quirky and mysterious fellow who, when all is said and done and he’s gone on his way, you think, “Damn, Kevin is fucking rad! People are gonna love this dude!†This is K-Terps. You do not know him now, but you will someday.
- I hear there‘s some life drama going on?
- Yea. I woke up and my old roommate called yelling at me. I didn’t pay the bills, and his power and water got shut off. We had to scrounge some money up so I’m kind of stressing.
- At least you don’t live there anymore.
- I feel bad for them because it’s my fault. I knew it was going to happen. I’m just an idiot.
- Have you ever checked your credit score?
- Fuck no! It would be fucked because I had a credit card once and a taxi driver stole it. He went and spent $2,000 on it.
- Do you have a checking account?
- Yeah, but there’s no money in it because it’s all going to the $1,200 DWP bill. I went in all sad like, “I only have half the money. How about I just pay you half?â€
- Trying to negotiate but they weren’t having it, so I told ’em I’d be back soon.
- Was this the same house where you had no toilet paper and you used the paper from your éS shoes?
- Yeah. There was always a bunch of empty shoeboxes lying around, you know? We ran out of toilet paper and started using that shit, but then our toilet got clogged a bunch of times.
- Is the good paper the piece that’s wrapped around the shoe or the part that’s crumpled inside the shoe?
- The better part is what’s inside the shoes.
- Oh. It’s softer?
- Yeah, it doesn’t hurt. You know the other shit is like, wax paper. It’s all fucked up. You don’t want to try to wipe your ass with it. It depends on the shoe, though.
- Sometimes they have actual paper and sometimes it’s like tissue paper.
- Like cheap toilet paper versus the expensive kind?
- Exactly. It’s like the toilet paper in the stall in the gas station or at your high school.
- You live in Scuba’s garage now?
- Yeah. It’s pretty tight. We put up drywall and insulated the walls, and I got a whole set-up in there now. It’s pretty legit. I mean, it’s still in a garage, but it’s pretty tight.
- Do you still owe him rent money?
- It sucks. I just owe him one month right now and then maybe like, some bills. But I don’t have any money right now.
- Have you tried to barter with him?
- Like, “I’ll just mow the yard or plant some fucking flowers, you know, be the pool boy and shit.†We were talking about that, but then it all just fell apart. Now I have to pay a bunch of rent money. It’s fucked up.
- Okay pool boy … are you still working at Huf?
- Yeah. I work there a few days a week. Just sit there and hang out with my friends.
- Who are you riding for?
- Alien Workshop flow. éS flow. Shit, I feel like I’m at Tampa Am right now. Val Surf skateshop in North Hollywood and Spitfire.
- How did you get hooked up with Alien? Obviously being from Ohio …
- When I was living there, my friend Scott got stuff from them, and we skated together all the time. We made a video and then somehow they started hooking me up. I was psyched because in Ohio that’s a really big deal. It’s pretty sick to get hooked up from a company like Alien that you actually like.
Frontside Wallride.
- Tell me about the music video you are in. I love it.
- Me and Greg Hunt did it. Jet Black Crayon had a new album come out, and he picked ten or so people all over the world to make a video for one of the songs. You could do whatever you wanted. I called off work for a few days, and Greg would pick me up super early and we’d just go around skating shit on that thing. It was super fun and turned out pretty cool.
- Except for the fact that there’s a 360 flip in it—you can’t tell it’s a new video at all.
- Yeah. It looks like it could’ve been an actual VHS from back in the day. We watched old videos and got ideas from them. Greg definitely knew what he was doing.
Feeble Grind.
