Getting the Genius crew on Jenkem has been a long time coming. I, your humble editor Ben, watched filmmaker Carlo Campos grow up through the sweltering Florida heat at our local skatepark, and at some point during my college career, he started making videos.

Check out the video, and then scroll down for some drunken tales told from a Florida backyard they call the “Oasis.” Hangover cure sold separately.

What’s the most fucked sleeping arrangement you’ve dealt with while traveling?
We went island hopping in Greece, and we thought it was a great idea to not book a hotel and sleep on the beach. When we got to the island, it was hurricane weather, insane winds and rain. We went searching for a crib, and I found an abandoned place, but no one was down to sleep there. It was sketchy.

We ended up sleeping on an olive farm. We woke up with dirt in our noses and so many ant bites. It was still a good time though [laughs]. I remember we went to a hotel pool and got kicked out in moments.

Have you picked up any useful life tools in your travels?
Maybe some cool words. Here’s how to order a submarine in Sweden. You go, “Två ubåtar för mig och min fucking bror.” That translates to “Two submarines for me and my fucking brother.”

Yeah, well you said half of it in English.
[laughs]. It’s a little Swedish though.

What’s the origin of the name of the video?
We were in London and Griffin [Connor] set up too many Hinge dates one night. One of the ones he bailed on got pissed, and she sent him a crazy text like, “You’re a dead wasteman bruv.” He showed us and we’re all like, “What the fuck is a wasteman?” We looked it up and it’s British slang for a man who acts like a boy. Like a deadbeat. A waste of space. So that’s where the name comes from.

“We spent a whole week and a half in Paris off a Tinder date.”

I’ve heard an easy way to travel cheap is to match with a bunch of dates and crash with them. You tried this?
It’s pretty underrated, but it’s getting trendy now. A lot of people are figuring it out. It has saved us a lot of money. We took a three month Europe trip back in 2022 and we spent a whole week and a half in Paris off a Tinder date. She just gave us the keys. Here’s the easiest way to do it. If you’re going somewhere new, book a hostel for two days, and during those two days you get your dates set up. That’s how we would do it, and it all worked out.

So how much money are you willing to spend on a date to secure housing?
If you plan the date right, you don’t have to spend anything. Say you’re in a cool city, like Athens, you can just go look at Acropolis. Or, the classic is to ask the date to show you around the cool views, AKA free 99.

Are you always carrying the camera with you when out drinking?
It depends on where we’re at. That clip of Sebastian [Dianoff] jumping through a fence was in Lithuania, and I thought we were going to a spot, but we pushed straight to a bar. It was happy hour, so we ended up pretty drunk, and we filmed a bunch of b-roll. A couple fence dives for sure.

How important are good slams to a video?
It isn’t the most important, because you don’t want injured skaters, but it does look pretty badass [laughs].

Who are some of your skate video inspirations?
CMX, Crusty Mayo Crew, and the Bug Crew out of Hamburg. They both got me super inspired to start Genius and make videos. I loved EC Melodi videos when I was younger too. Last video the top comment was, “EC Melodi at home.” That was pretty sick. I was sixteen when they put out EC 1 and 2. I thought it was so good, with the piano music and b-roll.

“If no one wants to skate we just go to a bar, and as soon as they get a buzz on they’re like, ‘Let’s go skate.'”

Who in the crew has the toughest job to fund all the traveling y’all do?
We all work random ass jobs. Griffin works at Buffalo Exchange. Elijah [Allred] works at Rock the Guac, a burrito joint [laughs]. I think I have the hardest job though. I work valet parking big ass cars.

How many trucks have you dinged up?
I might have love tapped some, but no marks. When I started there was definitely a learning curve, parking big ass Florida trucks. Like why are you driving this monster truck?

As the filmer, what’s your go to motivational tool to get the guys out of bed?
Motivational tool. Hmmm. If no one wants to skate we just go to a bar, and as soon as they get a buzz on they’re like, “Let’s go skate.”

All you guys come from spread out areas of Florida. How’d the crew all meet?
I would say the biggest thing that helped me was Woodward. That’s how I know all my friends. The first year I meant Griffin and Elijah, and then when we came back from Florida we met up. It’s like that meme, “How’d y’all meet? Shit, we all went to Woodward together.”

“You do not want to see us in a Chili’s. That table is gonna be clacking.”

What’s up with your guy’s obsession with really shitty cameras?
We just love the look. Every video we make, the b-roll is filmed with a bunch of different cameras. The first video we used a GoPro, but now all the guys have digital cameras from different years, and they always film on the trips. Towards the end of the trip they send me all their footage and my job is to make it look all fucked up. Especially the nighttime clips, like in a nightclub or whatever, just put the exposure all the way up and bring that grain in [laughs].

Who’s the wettest fingerboarder in the crew?
It’s gotta be Griffin. He’s got that finger steeze. You do not want to see us in a Chili’s. That table is gonna be clacking.

Let’s finish out with a good crash out story?
Back in Paris on our first night, Griffin got black out drunk and started trying to fight me. We had a little tussle, and next thing you know he storms off. He took his board, bag, everything. He came back later saying he lost his phone, so Elijah goes and looks for it with him. They come back an hour later, no phone. Griffin’s still pretty hammered, and now he’s all pissed, so he storms off again.

Next thing you know we didn’t see him for the rest of the night. Long story short, he ended up waking up next to a bunch of hobos on a stoop with nothing but his board. We were looking for him for hours. He called us off a random Instagram account at like 9AM asking us to pick him up.

Interview by: Ben Komins
Photos courtesy of: Genius Inc
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