Gordon Eckler is one of the most driven guys I've met in skateboarding today, probably because his passion and commitment to the sport started at such a young age. Most of us spent a lot of our youth on the board, but nothing that could come close to the time Gordo was putting in, but I guess most of us didn't grow up with a skate park in our backyard, or have parents that were rad enough to basically turn their house into a skater co-op. Gordon's hard work has definitely been noticed on both the east and west coast, in the park and on the street this guy rips! Now with Creature backing him we will definitely look forward to seeing alot more of Mr. Eckler. - Jimmy Nelson

Jimmy: Where did you grow up & start skateboarding?

Eckler: I started skating in Guam when I was 9 years old. My dad used to fix stuff for the military, so we moved there in 88. I met all these kids from California and all of them skateboarded. Towards the end of 88 - 89 I started taking skateboarding seriously and for Christmas I got Ray Barbee's pro model Powell board with T-Bone's and Indy's. I have a picture perfect vision of my first board, its pretty epic!

Jimmy: What kept you skating and who first picked you up?

Eckler: It was the late 80's. my dad signed another contract so we left Guam and moved to Southern Maryland, right outside DC. All of the kids I started to meet were skateboarders so that's what kept me into it. When I was 15 years old a local skate shop called All-Skate started a board company called Coffee Skateboards, the owner came to me and wanted to know if I wanted to be the 5th of five riders. He was doing ten boards a month and ten sets of wheels, so each of us got two boards and two sets of wheels a month. It was Steve Ball who before that rode for Acme, Sean Copsey, Jake Rupp, Pat Smith, and myself. That when I started getting product and going up to Baltimore and meeting all the Pitcrew guys.

Jimmy: I heard your parents bought a place where there was no home owners insurance, so they could build you and your brother a ramp? I've also have heard alot of big and small names in skateboarding call that ramp home?

Eckler: Yeah! It was between a pool or a ramp, it actually took me 6-7 months to build it because I'd never built a ramp before. It finally came about when somebody had a ramp they wanted to get rid of. And after that the guy who started Coffee had to get rid of a ramp, so there's the second ramp that was in the yard. A year after that a guy called me and wanted to get rid of his ramp that was 16ft wide and 9ft tall, the guy didn't know enough about building ramps so he put a 2x4 every inch and 1/2, so when we took it apart we had enough to build a vert ramp. So we built a 10 x 9ft high vert ramp that was at a 90 degree hip with the mini ramp we already had. And then it just grew from there, all of these people started to bring their 1/4 pipes they had in their driveways over, then all of a sudden trucks started to show up to my house with ramps and boxes and plywood. People would even come over and write us checks, a good friend of mine came over and was like I'm always here I skate here, and he cut a check for $200 and said get new plywood. So every single day there would be in the ballpark of 15-20 kids skating at my house, EVERY DAY! My parents were in full support of it and my mom who is 66 now says she misses it.

Jimmy: Tell us about Consolidated? What were those years like and why did you leave?

Eckler: Riding for Consolidated was really sick! I'm still psyched on those dudes. I was still living on the East Coast and they were sending me boards and really taking care of me for about two years, but I think it came down to that they just didn't know who I was. I came out and stayed in Santa Cruz for a month and did a couple tours with them, we went up through Oregon which was suppose to be a two month long tour that last minute got cancelled to a two week trip. I was on the trip for about a week and then I dislocated my foot, I ended up going back to Maryland because I couldn't work, then they came out with a Miscellaneous Tour Video that I hear nothing about. Then I see it and my name was on the box, when I asked them why they never asked me for any of the footage I had been filming back on the East Coast, they said they didn't think to. I ended up with four minutes which was all filmed on the Oregon trip and everyone else had full parts. I called the team manager and told them "I'm over it, It was really time for me to move on, I would way rather be riding for a smaller East Coast company that is psyched on me than a bigger company that doesn't even know who I am."

Jimmy: When and why the move to San Francisco?

Eckler: I always wanted to move to SF because I skated in the early 90's and of course I was a nerdy skateboard kid who was obsessed with magazines and videos that always had San Francisco in them. I shortly became obsessed with skating those spots. I drove across country twice, both times I ended up in the bay area and stayed there till I ran out of money, so by the end of the second trip I didn't want to live anywhere else. It was starting to feel more like home than home felt, It just took me from 2001-2004 to figure out how to do it.

Jimmy: We can usually find you lurking with the Lowcard posse? How did you get so close with those group pf guys?

Eckler: That's a really random story. I met Bryce Kanights by writing him an email asking him if he wanted to go shoot some photos.We ended up going out a few times and became friends, then out of the blue I get a call from Laban who got my number form Bryce. He told me he was working with FuelTV and was looking for people to take him to spots and film. Laban grew up with Collinson(Magnethead) in Main and we ended up meeting at Rob's House that 1st day. It was me Danny Gotimer, Laban, Jeff King, Rob Collinson, and Toad. From that day on we all have been cool.

Jimmy: Who are the usual suspect in the Lowcard Van?

Eckler: Magnethead, Toad, Strubing, Ramondetta, Mandreas, and regretfilly the Body is also a Lowcard loser, he also has the cover right now.

Jimmy: So what's your connection to Jeremy Fish?

Eckler: Fish was part owner of the Unbelievers with Scott Bourne. I rode for the Unbelievers for about nine months to a year, when I first moved out here and met him through riding for him. Jeremy has been skating longer than I have and has helped me out alot. The more I got to know him the more he helped me out in anyway I needed it.

Jimmy: What is SPB?

Eckler: Jeremy started a gang when he was young in NY State called the Silly Pink Bunnies, its a gang of skaters and artists and to this day he holds an SPB convention over Easter weekend every year from city to city. Its rad to see that many people from all over the country come together to drink and skate as much as possible.

Jimmy: What made you go with Creature?

Eckler: Whats funny is I was getting boards from Creature before they pulled the plug on it back in the late 90's, I was Psyched on Creature then.When I first heard Navarette was doing meetings at NHS and was going to start doing it again, Unbelievers had just broken up so I hit up Lee, but he didn't want to steal team riders from Jeremy so it wasn't till Thrasher did the Who The Fuck? article on me that I got an email from Lee literally saying one line,"lets do this." Just recently I have had the chance to hang out with more of the core of the team and have been invited on a couple of the trips. We are actually waiting for Neal Heddings to get off probation and it's going to be Me, Heddings, Cody Boat, and a few others dudes taking off.

Jimmy: Who else is taking care of you?

Eckler: Spitfire Wheels, VOX Shoes, Ace Trucks, Goodtimes Online, Superfishal Clothing, DAF, CRUZSF

Jimmy: You just places second in the Chili Bowl down in Texas, tell us how the heat was down in Austin?

Eckler: The Austin hell ride was, for people who were acclimated to the heat it probably wasn't that hot, but it was FUCKING HOT! The finals were 15 minute free for alls in 100 plus heat. I was stoked all the judges were from TX and everyone was killing it at the finals so I was really flattered to do as well as I did.

Jimmy: It's not an overstatement to say that skateboarding has shaped your life, you've been practically breathing it since you were 12. Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

Eckler: I have decided to live off less money and travel and skate more. I actually just talked to Lee at Creature and told him I want to be on the road as much as possible. So my goal is to do a trip every three weeks and be gone for at least a week and then just different destinations and be on the road skating for the next 4 or 5 years.

Jimmy: Tell us about Cruz Skate shop?

Eckler: It was originally started by Sandy Cruz, so that local roller derby girls could get the stuff they need, she is now the only store of its kind in California with an online and retail store. It started prodominetly roller derby with some skateboarding and is now about 50/50. Sandy has been with the Bay Area Derby Girls and the SF Shevil Dead from just about the beginning and I've been skateboarding for 20 years. So we can definitely answer any questions roller derby or skate related you may have.

Jimmy: Gordon, you are truly an inspiration to us all, skateboarding could definitely use a few more people like yourself. Any shout outs?

Eckler: My parents without them I would never be where I'm at right now.