From Pirita to the Mississippi

September 06, 2007 @ 10:35 AM

Growing up in Estonia in the early 80’s, I went to school, played ice hockey and hung out with my friends. I was content with this, until the day I saw a friend of mine ollie up a curb. "Holy shit!" I thought. A few days later, I got my first board and I started skating everyday. All that I could think about was skateboarding from then on; I quit playing hockey.

It was the time of the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of independent Estonia. It was rough times for everybody with not enough jobs or money to go around. There was just the five of us skateboarding in the whole country. It sounds crazy looking at how many people skateboard these days. Obviously, with such a small market, there weren't any skate shops or information about skateboarding in Tallinn. Any piece of our passion that we obtained was usually old, like a used copy of a skateboard magazine. I remember when the movies Thrashin' and Gleaming the Cube came to the theater. My friends and I paid at least eight times to watch each of the films. I couldn't wait to skip school to catch another showing.

We would take whatever we could get our hands on. We would make our own boards out of birch plywood and we would skate our shoes till there was nothing left of them but holes. I tell this to people today in the States and they stare at me with wide open eyes and ask me why we still skated. Then, one day my friend Maik told me that he knows this guy named Raoul who owns a small surf shop. We talked to Raoul to see if he had any interest in carrying some skateboards and shoes at his shop. So one day Raoul got a couple of decks, just to see what would happen and we bought them off him right away. So next time he ordered more boards and a couple of pairs of shoes and we snatched those up too. And so it started.

I look back and I think that everything we did from making our own boards, to eventually building a skate park was always a first in Estonia. We started the first skate team, filmed the first Estonian skate video, organized the first Estonian contest, and helped Raoul with the first skate shop. Maybe this was the answer to why we would still skate, despite our difficulties. Everything was always new, original and exciting for us, just as exciting as our first ollie or our first kick-flip. Growing up, my friends and I had always looked at America as a dreamland. All of the best skateboarders at the time were from America. As well as all the skate videos with the best skate spots. I imagined coming to my dreamland, to be apart of what I'd always admired.

Then, one day I had a chance to go to America as an exchange student for a summer work program. My mom helped me with the plane ticket. So, with fifty dollars in my pocket, I grabbed my backpack, my board and got on the plane heading towards my dreams. But my first months in the States were not so dreamy. My first job was at an amusement park. I had to work so much just to pay my rent and put some food in my mouth that I did not have any time to skate.

Eventually, I got a job at a Vans store with a goal of meeting new people in the local skate scene. While working at Vans, I started shopping at Fobia, the best local skate shop at the time. Later, I got a job as a Store Manager at one of the three locations of Fobia in the southern suburbs of Minneapolis. Fobia and I had a good run for about five years, but it is a hard business to be in. Some crucial mistakes were made and Fobia had to close their doors. I had been talking to my friend Tucker, who also managed one of Fobia's locations, about opening our own skate shop to fill the empty place that Fobia left in Twin Cities. A couple of months later, I got a phone call from Tucker saying that it is happening. Steve Nesser, Adam Bovee (local rep for Lakai, DVS, Matix, Girl and Chocolate) and Tucker have opened a shop and they want me to join them. I said "yes" without even thinking twice. We named our shop Familia and it does feels like a family to me. Adam, being a local rep, is always on the road for trade shows and when he is in town, he is on the phone talking to other shops or companies. Steve, being a pro, is on the road seven months of the year. When he returns home, he comes in the store and changes the music to Fugazi and then leaves five minutes later, saying that he "will be back". So, as busy as those dudes are, Tucker and I run the shop. We are here everyday.

It has been seven years since I left home. Time goes by so fast. And I am as excited as ever to see what tomorrow will bring!