We hate to say it, but most interviews with pro skateboarders tend to produce some pretty stale content these days, and who can blame them?
With big sponsors to keep happy, multiple video deadlines to juggle and various modeling gigs to book, routines and opinions have gone bland. In pursuit of finding compelling stories we decided to take a page out of OG Jenkem’s playbook: turning the camera back on you.
Our series “Locals” focuses on the often overlooked characters that surround skateboarding – the eccentrics, weirdos and local legends who are staples in the community for reasons outside of having a great back tail. It’s the people with no sponsors to answer to and no paychecks to lose. The people who skate for the love and have a routine unique to themselves.
For our first episode, we bring you Frank, a Venice Beach skater and dedicated maintainer of the sandy, trash-accumulating skatepark. He is also a practicing magician with a sleight-of-hand show on the Santa Monica Pier. Follow Frank as he shows you a day in Venice, and if you have a local worthy of tracking down hit us in the comments. The weirder the better.





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May 1, 2024 4:40 pm
That guy has an interesting back story for sure. The car alone begs so many questions. Nicely done, Jenkem! Looking forward to seeing more of this series.
May 1, 2024 7:28 pm
Cool idea for a series. Kevin Marks of lookbacklibrary would be a rad dude to interview for this. https://www.instagram.com/lookbacklibrary/
May 1, 2024 7:31 pm
Yeah we did one a while ago on him but prob worth doing another and better: https://www.jenkemmag.com/home/2019/07/09/catching-up-with-kevin-marks-of-the-look-back-library/
May 1, 2024 8:07 pm
Oh yea! I saw that. So much for retaining information in this modern age…
A follow up would be nice. Dude’s keeping the punk DIY ethos alive in the best way. It’d be cool to hear Kevin discuss how he funds his summer road trips/library builds, mag trades and maybe y’all can give him some audio tips for his Cover Discussions. Thanks Jenkem!
May 1, 2024 7:56 pm
So many “tough-guy” kooks in Venice. Sucks to see that lame jock surfer mentality bleed into the skate world. Lived there for about 7 years, and all of the supposed “gate-keepers” of the area are just a bunch of fucking expired retards. Still desperately clinging on to the only relevance they ever had in the world. Kooks.
May 2, 2024 4:03 pm
Dude kinda rips for an old guy