Contenders: Nolan Johnson
More and more often these days, you see skaters trying so hard to make it that they forget the original motive, the answer to why we all do this. Skateboarding is fun—plain and simple.
Nolan Johnson is out to enjoy himself at all times—skating for all the right reasons, or more specifically, the only reason that matters—and really doesn’t give a damn what anyone else thinks. The following is a look inside Nolan’s head, however strange it might be in there, and a quick glance at the fun he’s been up to lately. Good times.
Frontside bluntslide.
- What’s been going on with you lately? What’s new?
- I stopped wetting the bed. Finally! I’ve been skating around downtown Seattle by myself a little lately. I like it. I just mess around on odd objects. I want to start climbing buildings soon; there’s got to be some cool stuff up there somewhere. I’ve been watching the Consolidated videos a lot. It makes me want to skate a small vert ramp, but I don’t know where one is. If someone in Seattle wants to make one, hit me up. I’ll help. I’m stoked to be getting shoes from Converse now! I’m also
- enjoying my two hundred dollars a month in food stamps. I can get candy now for free; it’s kinda like being sponsored for food.
- You guys moved into a new place pretty recently. What’s the story there? Did your landlord really tell you to build a ramp in the living room?
- Yeah. Sorcery moved into a new place. It’s closer to downtown Seattle. Our landlord is our age and awesome! He heard from the neighbors that we were thinking about building a ramp. He told us we should and that he had some wood for
- us. Somehow we got all our wood for free and when we were building it our landlord came over drunk and was telling us that the ramp had to be bigger. He wanted it to just be vert walls. He said “I want you guys to do big airs on this thing." The ramp is two feet tall and has barely any flatbottom. When people come over to stay on the weekends, we make weird extensions and stuff with different objects we find outside. Our next-door neighbor is super cute and her boyfriend is Peter Starrs, who happens to be one of the sickest skaters in Seattle.
Sorcery is a group of skateboarders who want to have fun and do funny things to make each other laugh.
Frontside ollie.
- You guys are so hip with your blog. Who’s down with Sorcery and what’s it all about?
- Sorcery is a gang or a cult, it might be a religion, nobody knows. What we do know is that it isn’t hesh or gnarly. It’s a group of skateboarders who want to have fun and do funny things to make each other laugh. We make videos with our sorcery cameras, which are little Nikon Coolpix s550 models. People who contribute to Sorcery can be found in the videos on the blog. Feel free to subscribe and leave comments on our videos saying how bad we suck. The blog gets updated all the time.
- You guys have a pretty simple life, skating and going to punk shows. The only TV you seem to watch is skate videos. What videos or skaters are you hyped on right now?
- Lately I have been trying to watch any video from the year 1990. The tranny skating is gold at this time, even though it is just vert and mini ramp. The tricks are so awesome and you never see anybody doing them today. There are so many skaters I really like right now. My all-time favorite skater is Jason Jessee, though.
- Some skaters I have been liking a lot recently are Scott Smiley, Richard Paez, and Jordan Richter, but there are so many more I am not mentioning that are so sick. I have been watching the G&S video Footage, and A Reason For Living by Santa Cruz—Jeff Kendall is awesome in that. I have just been watching a ton of 1990 videos.
- Aside from Cons, you’ve had some more changes to your sponsors lately. What’s the complete list as of right now?
- Thanks for asking. I wanted to tell people about a new skateboard company. The name is Welcome! Welcome is a company that wants to do something new and different. It’s a fun company that wants to make lots of shaped boards and
- very curious graphics. It is a gentlemen’s club and a cult. Other friends that ride for Welcome are Shane Cox and Sam Cole. My friend Jason started the company and he is a very funny and creative guy who can come up with some super hilarious ideas, so keep your eyes out for them. You can find out more about Welcome on their web site, welcomeskateboards.com. I also get stuff from Bones Wheels and Socalskateshop.com and clothes from Remy at Volcom.
- Whenever you go down to San Diego you end up skating with Swift a lot. It seems like you guys are pretty tight. How did you end up knowing him?
- About three or four years ago I skated the Encinitas bowl a lot. Swift was there all the time, always saying goofy things and being funny. I never talked to Dave ’til he asked if I could do a trick called a bonedrecht, which is a backside boneless Andrecht handplant. He shot a sequence of one for The Mag’s Origins section. After that, every time I went to the park I would say what’s up, but I still never talked to him much. Then I ended up moving with my parents to Oceanside and I lived a block away from Swift. He took me to skate with him when he was doing a photo shoot or something and I would just skate wherever and maybe take a photo. Everything Swift does makes me chuckle.
Frontside boneless drop.
Backside boneless.
I can get candy now for free; it’s kinda like being sponsored for food.
2 months ago ggkkj said:
gotta have the mandatory backside boneless! sick interview
2 months ago B said:
FIRST!
2 months ago grant said:
this dude was my favorit skater along time ago when he was on prs. its cool to see him come up
2 months ago fuck you said:
nolan is a fag
quit trying so hard
2 months ago turdsauce said:
too bad nolan is a prick
2 months ago mrdreampop said:
that's a whole lot of vert on that there boneless qp
2 months ago Tig O' Bitties said:
I love to eat poop
2 months ago hjfdikhd said:
haha the last picture "NO BIKE" hah hell ya
2 months ago Seattle said:
A prick? I've met him before and hes like the nicest dude ever
2 months ago issaquah said:
nolan nice
2 months ago mark cole said:
keep killin it nolan! i want to watch you skate with salba. get us a show up there (powerflex5)
2 months ago kramer philbrick said:
have my babies
2 months ago biddy377 said:
Idc about bikers, really.
BIKERS GET IN THE FUCKIN WAY ALL THE TIME!
so that last picture is fuckin sweet hahaha
2 months ago jameson said:
one of the most unique and talented skaters around. its a shame how so few people know about him
2 months ago 20666 said:
Nolan is hella nice, super good at skateboarding too.
2 months ago nolan fan 206 said:
wow. you skate just like danny way
2 months ago Peter Whitley said:
Awesome, Dan! And killer MW pics too.
2 months ago megmyday said:
I love the names of some of those killer moves (Frontside Bluntslide!)
It's great to hear about the local haunts and see the photos.
I wish I had time to go down to the viaduct and just watch all the action!
Mad props to Dan, and though I don't know Nolan...best of luck!
(why don't any of you wear helmets or at least wrist guards???)
2 months ago garzarian said:
I skated this place for the first time and this dude was there killing it. I didnt make friends with the guy but Im sure he's not a dick. He was smiling away and enjoying like the article says. Good luck bud hope to skate there with you again soon. ZG
2 months ago rag said:
might be the nicest, weirdest, and most underrated skater out there today. and he kills marginal.
1 month ago lucky said:
nolan is a class a ripper ala neil blenderish
1 month ago bunz hun! said:
yeah barnett!
how do you get him to say so many words in a row? i've seen the kid over the course of many moons and never heard more than grunts and chirps. i bet the photos took about 5 minutes but the actual documented conversation took closer to a year. thats just a guess, could be longer.
the photos do a good job of representing what goes down every 5 minutes or so when this kid is on deck.
the kids are fucked these days and this here is proof positive.