Charles Lamb has been around for a long time and always kept it fairly underground. Born and raised in New York, Charles has been a fixture in the city’s skate seen since he was young and has a lot of insight on how things are now and used to be. He’s currently holding it down at Supreme New York, so stop through and give him a shout the next time you’re in the area.

Interview By Eli Reed

Eli: So Charles, how old were you when you first started skating and what was your first board if you can remember?  

Charles: I first started skating when I was ten. The first board I ever had was a little blue plastic board that looked similar to a zip zinger.  Until I saw other older skaters around the neighborhood, I had that one.  Eventually, it wasn't really cutting it anymore and I got a normal one.

Eli: What was it like growing up in Staten Island? Were there any skate spots there? And about how many times would you ride the Ferry into the city a week?

Charles: Staten Island was cool growing up. Of the five boroughs in NYC, it's the forgotten one.  Basically Wu Tang was the only thing Staten had going for itself for awhile. There were a grip of skate spots right near my house within skating distance, but when that wasn't enough and I was a bit older, we rode the ferry to downtown Manhattan. Straight from the bottom of Water street to the banks, we would hit at least six spots on the way, and post up there for the rest of the day.

Eli: What was it like skating the Brooklyn Banks back then? Who did you see around and did you have a crew?  

Charles: The banks was such a good era of skating. Everyone's flat ground tricks were really on point after skating the banks for a year or two because they were kinda harsh bricks. I saw so many tricks go down over the wall before the fence went up. I would always roll with my brother Sasha, my friend Sam, and a bunch of other dudes from Staten, but I'd link up with kids from all over the place.  There was the whole queens crew, Javier would come from Hoboken, Mike came from uptown, there were just kids from everywhere. When there was a contest or demo, it was really off the chain at the banks.  Really good times back then.

Eli: Who did you look up to in skating back then?

Charles: It was always the World videos that got me really hyped.  20 Shot Sequence, Trilogy, Questionable - all of those were sick.  I remember skating with Maurice Key a lot, he showed me how to do nollie flips one summer day while he was shirtless wearing green cross colors pants. Jeff Simmons had a really good stee, Joey Alvarez, and also there was this dude known as Ducky. He was like weird Gonz-esque sort of character. There was another duo that always showed up to the banks later on in the day - Shane and Jimmy, and the both did tre flip pivot on the bank and made it look really smooth. I always got psyched on Mike Cardona and Quim when they rolled up. Mike's style was pretty futuristic! He always had pop on deck!

Eli: I heard Rodney Mullen saw you at a demo and was really psyched on you, did he hook you up? What happened with that?

Charles: Oh man that was at a demo at this spot on Staten Island called McDonald Park. He just started playing skate with me but we weren't really keeping score. It was a really sick demo, that dude was killing it. He kind of put the idea of being sponsored in my head - told me to send in a tape to World, but  I’m a realist. I knew that it would be lost in a sea of tapes at the World office or whatever and I wasn't thirsty like that. I was flowed by a shop in the city, so I had product on deck when I needed it.

Eli: Who was your first sponsor?

Charles: Benji's skateshop was the first sponsor. We had a good crew. It kind of fizzled off when I got into high school because I had to stay on Staten Island everyday, and at that point Jeff Pang started flowing me Zoo boards for awhile.

Eli: Who are your current sponsors? And what does CURRENT mean?

Charles: I've done some stuff with Acapulco Gold and I skate in Converse sneakers and DC's whenever they come, but I'm really not on any team. I'm on the ear team! CURRENT is the stee of kids that are skating right now. For example, I was just in Paris and every little kid has this exact trickabulary - 360 pop shoves, switch bigspins, and every transition trick that you can do on street obstacles. So current...

Eli: So when you first started going out in the city, where did you go? What were the spots then? And were you under age? Cheetahs?

Charles: Going out and hanging out after skating started with just chillin’ at Union Square or Astor Place and just finding out about a house party nearby or something with the crew. I did Cheetahs only once I think!  There was The Tunnel with the ramp in it, that was a chill place. I remember Spa always had chicks on deck. Fast forward ten years, I’m not really into huge loud places anymore -  just into the mellow spots.

Eli: I know you been around the world, what's one of your favorite places? And how were the ladies there compared to the ones in NY?

Charles: I gotta say, Europe is definitely my favorite spot. You can visit other countries as quickly as visiting another state, the people are really chill, and Europeans are not very big on working, so everyone's really relaxed. Coffee, beer all day, great spots to skate, banks everywhere, good food, scenic avenues, all of that.  I been going to Paris the last few summers, and usually peter off to somewhere else after about a week there. I went to Bordeaux this summer, that place is so sick!  It's also the wine capital no less!! Ladies are great everywhere, can't single out a region where they're better.
Eli: Is New York really the greatest city in the world?

Charles: NY is the greatest place during the week. Weekends however are the worst here. I advise staying indoors and renting a movie at night, cause you’re bound to bump into a band of jerks from god knows where having too much fun. 

Eli: What do you like to do when you are not working at Supreme or skating around?

Charles: I've been playing piano for six or seven years now, that' s been keeping me sane during the winters here. But you know what else, we stay in the Russian bath house on tenth street fam!!  Gotta sweat out those hangovers and when you walk outta there you're feelin like a million bucks.  And I'm not mad at the days when I walk in and there's a row of 8 topless ladies in there, nahmean? 

Eli: What's your favorite thing to drink?

Charles: Balthazar ice coffee and Stella. 

Eli: Jane Hotel or Beatrice?

Charles: Jane hotel is the new beatrice...