I have been skating with Lee Berman for about seven years now - he's a good shit, he cares about all the right stuff. There are always a few younger kids that can skate and sometimes more importantly hang out with the older guys; Lee was one of those kids. Always down for whatever, Lee will roll out of bed at a moments notice and jump into my car reeking of no shower and booze to go skate. While that might be a good and a bad thing, it's one of the reasons I enjoy skating with him. Lee's an old soul, today when I spoke to him he was watching the Infamous video with Static 1 on deck, enough said.
Intro & Interview by Jerry Fowler
Jerry: Where did you grow up?
Lee: Longmeadow, Massachusetts – west of Boston.
Jerry: What was that like, growing up in Western Mass?
Lee: I used to absolutely hate it. I pushed it away until it was finally gone. Now after traveling so much I’ve realized there is extremely worse places to live.
Jerry: How and when did you find skateboarding?
Lee: I always had boards around. One day I went to my friend Eric's house up the street. He had two twin brothers who were always into whatever was cool at the moment. I remember they were board sliding stacked up 2x4’s in the driveway. I think I was in third grade. I needed a skateboard immediately. I took all my birthday money and bought my first real board. I heard Nirvana and Dinosaur Jr. around the same time at his house as well.
Jerry: Has your family always been supportive of your skateboarding?
Lee: Mom has always been supportive of it. Her main concern was that I was getting good grades, staying out of trouble, and was becoming a respectable person. I owe her so much man; because of her I have memories of skating places like ZT Maximus, 8 Ball, and every other skatepark in New England. She even worked at Woodward when my brother was too young to go without an adult. My Dad was never really that stoked until I became older and he realized I wasn't going to become a bum. He likes to see photos and anything I’ve done.
Jerry: When did you first start coming into Boston?
Lee: The first time I skated Boston I was 12 years old. It was like a drug, I had to be there, I had to have it. The noise, the dirt, I even loved riding public transportation. Bank Boston and the Hospital were still in full effect. I remember just recognizing spots from videos right away. I board slid my first handrail that day too. It was heaven. Shortly after Bro Gumpright moved to Boston I would come in almost every weekend to skate with him. He lived right next to the Hospital. One night I went there alone, Jahmal was just in full solo attack mode. He was dropping in going full speed on the big volcano and riding straight over those little skate stopper things getting a spark off his truck. He was doing backside ollies and back tails. It was truly fucking amazing. Sometimes I would be in Bro's living room and hear skating outside, look out and Jahmal Williams and Robbie Gangemi would be pushing down the street. Now ask yourself, why would I want to be anywhere else?
Jerry: Who were some of your earlier influences?
Lee: I was so young dude. Kids are so impressionable. I got so lucky. I ended up with best of 411 Vol 2. The Philly Metrospective was something I could really relate to. They utilized curb cuts and sewer caps and that's really all I had to skate. I loved Ricks skating through city hall. Matt Reason’s profile. He skates on a brick sidewalk I also had a brick sidewalk in my town so I liked that I could make the same noise skating as Matt Reason. Your rookies section. You said you were skating in Boston so I was tripping that this level of skating was going on so close to me. Girl / Chocolate road trip, they looked like they were having fun. Slap was insanely huge to me. I learned how to read because I felt I needed to know what these words meant. Slap was the first magazine I had. They really featured the East Coast pretty well and SF was hot at the time. I have every issue at my parent’s house since August 1995. Ricky Oyola’s interview I believe it was May 1996, that was big time. It would be a total lie if I said Woodward didn't have a huge effect on me when I was younger. Not necessarily the skating as much as the life-long friends I made there, and many of the East Coast Pros would visit in the late 1990s. Barker Barrett was the best instructor Woodward had and ever will have. His foot placement was so perfect and he could do every pivot trick. He taught real valuable fundamentals of skating that kids just completely skip these days. Thanks to Dave Malinsky and Darin Hazel for holding Woodward down year after year.
Jerry: One thing that I have always admired about skaters like yourself is that you went to college full time and still managed to be out skating as much as the kids that didn’t go to school. Was going to college something that your parents were serious about and somewhere along the way you embraced it, or was it something that you always wanted to do on your own? And how did you manage to balance school and skating?
Lee: That’s all pretty much dead on. I come from a family where I was raised as college not really being an option it was just something you did. It's what came after high school, just like high school came after junior high. I always wanted to go to college and I knew it was my ticket out of the town I grew up in. I was extremely fortunate that I had parents that were willing to foot the bill as long as I was willing to make an effort to stay in school. My friend Roger Camron who was a sponsored snow boarder in the early 1990’s said to me when I was younger something along the lines of "Lee, I promise you if you go to college you will be skating twice as much as if you were working full time trying to support yourself." For four years my only responsibility was to get good grades, so I stacked all five courses on two days a week and did all my homework in the mornings before any of my friends woke up. College is all about time management. I had it easy, I have so much respect for kids putting themselves through college and paying for all their living expenses.
Jerry: Who are some of your present influences?
Lee: Friends. Family. Food. Love. Hate. Music. The unknown. Timeless skateboarding
Jerry: What does Boston mean to you?
Lee: It is home base. It's great in every aspect. I have the best friends, we have the best spots, and rich history with buildings that are built to last. We are a bit slept on. I like it that way. I have an amazing apartment with my mills Kevin Coakley. Do you think AQ might be the oldest most heavily skated spot in America? I know that the Gardiner building, which is where the Chart House is was built in the 1760's. There was a time I was really uneasy about Boston. You and the rest of the dudes who lived on Mission Hill had moved on. My good friend TC Mulhern had quit skating, Zander Taketomo moved to Philly, John and Tommy Wisdom were living in SF. Pete Gardini randomly packed up and moved one day. Eli Reed jumped ship to Cali or something. Everyone I looked up to was gone and all my peers seemed to be moving on....
Jerry: Yeah I remember that. Someone on the West Coast said something to me like "Boston fell off" and I took it really personal. It didn't seem to me like a city could fall off. But I can't deny that there was an awkward feeling for a minute, almost like a buzz that was once there for years had vanished. What do you think got it going again?
Lee: I think it was just the Orchard skate shop finally coming together. Boston hadn’t had a shop that was actually owned by local skaters since Positive. When you see full-grown men freezing working Valet in the dead of winter fighting to keep something going, you gotta give it up. It’s the real deal, and I think that really brought people together. People in the community felt more connected and motivated to get involved because they were interacting on a day-to-day basis with the owners who were welcoming everyone’s input. Bro Gumpright has skated enough in his life for 5 men. Check the miles on that dude.
Jerry: What’s the deal with this mystery diner thing that you’ve been doing? Do these restaurants really feed you for free just so you can tell them if their food sucks or not?
Lee: That’s pretty much the case. I go sit down with a friend and just have a free for all. Honestly it’s great for the person I’m with, they get to eat whatever they want for free. For myself I have to read these restaurant briefing documents where they tell you to observe all kinds of different aspects of your meal and conversations with the wait staff. Of course you can’t sit there with a checklist so usually I am just sitting there trying not to forget anything. It’s extremely in-depth and you have to come home that night and write the report and email your receipt in. A person from the company usually calls me the next morning at the crack of dawn to ask me questions about my report as well. Sometimes I feel like I am almost better off just paying for the darn meal, but it almost always ends up being a really funny experience and I like the challenge of writing about it. I don’t want to let too much information out because Alex "Duane" Pelltier also was doing it but he couldn’t keep his mouth shut so he got cut by the company!
Jerry: Let's talk about coffee. Starbucks, McKennas, Dunkin Donuts, or Sugar Bowl?
Lee: Dunkin Donuts. Embrace your culture or go someplace else, this is New England!!
Jerry: I thought I skated loose trucks until I stepped on your board, what gives?
Lee: Loose trucks are something that I truly feel make skating more fun. I used to love to watch dudes like Quim Cardona he was / is loose and centered on his board. When things are loose you have to adapt and keep your body conscious and in tune with your board. Your board is very responsive to whatever your body is doing when it's loose. Nothing like going fast making some turns, maybe getting some wobbles. I love to get to that point where your going so fast you know you can’t step off or power slide. Make or slam. With that said big ups to Carlos Young I can’t touch that dudes kit. Way back I went to Grafton skatepark with Ryan Gallant and Jereme Rogers. We used to skate there when it was too hot to skate Devoe's park. Jereme was skating his trucks so tight that he had two extra king pins because he was breaking them so often. I thought that was the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
Jerry: Talk to me about real estate. Last summer was a trip, we would be out skating and you would vanish to go and show property. How did you get into that?
Lee: My friend Brett Star hooked me up with it. It’s a good skate job and it’s all commission based so no one is waiting for me to show up in the morning or telling me when I can leave. If I want I can take a few days off for a trip then make it up by working the entire next week. During the summer the hours are really intense and you have to put up with more bullshit then you ever could imagine from landlords doing illegal things to tenants just driving you up a tree. If you go some time without renting a place you kinda freak out and it ends up consuming you. I’ll be at home posting ads up on Craigslist after work and waking up having dreams about showing places. If you’re working 50 hours a week not making a dime you start to go mental. All of the sudden you'll make 4 g's in three days and the whole month is accounted for, and all that stressing was for nothing. It can really trip you out, so you have to do your best to stay grounded. It was amazing having Brett there to talk to and to skate with everyday after work, that made it much easier. It’s also seasonal so I only have to work the spring and summer which is fantastic.
Jerry: Boston is known for being a big sports town. Do you follow any of the local teams or are you one of those people that’s strictly into skateboarding?
Lee: Yeah I like the Celtics. Basketball players have style, they move with grace. I love to watch them move the ball around with each other. I also have so much respect for how many minutes some of those guys play.
Jerry: I know you love to go on extensive spot searching missions, when and why did that start?
Lee: I guess it was growing up with nothing. My driveway was so rough. I just couldn't skate there. There was no local park that I could get dropped off at, I had what I found. Every opportunity to go anywhere that was beyond skating distance I jumped at. I have to give it up to my homies Ethen Mansur and Matt Benejan for carting me around. They were both like five years older than I was but they always included me. Things really got crazy once I got my drivers license. There is this old mill town called Holyoke, Mass. I’ll leave the rest up to anyone who wants to venture out there and find some serious stuff.
Jerry: Do you think that you will always live on the East Coast?
Lee: I’d like to say yes, but who knows. I’m already probably the youngest Snow Bird in existence.
Jerry: Who have you been skating with lately?
Lee: Lately it's been weird since it's winter and I've been traveling nonstop for the past few months.I just got back from spending 6 weeks with Alexis Sablone driving around the country playing S.K.A.T.E with her. I like to watch people skate flatground. It's interesting which tricks come easier than others; which ways peoples bodies feel comfortable turning or flicking. I always felt you can't learn flat ground tricks but rather discover that you’re able to do them. I'm not really into people who train their flatground. I like when shit looks wild with some character. Alexis is the best at flatground. When I'm in Boston the list is long man, I like to mix it up.
Jerry: Yeah I noticed that you can't really be grouped into a particular crew of skaters, you make the rounds. What's your favorite type of terrain to skate?
Lee: My favorite type of terrain is something new. Getting a trick on something virgin is just priceless. I love anything awkward. Difficult surfaces to grind. Taking somebody's architectural design and just using it in an entirely different way then its original intention. Something that has been broken and giving it some new life. Good flat ground....
Jerry: You're quite the traveler, where has skateboarding taken you, and what are some of your favorite cities for skating?
Lee: I love to travel. I can’t get enough. Experiencing something new whether it be good or bad is what gets me out of bed in the morning. I love being new places and feeling out of the loop. My favorite cities for skating are Boston, Miami, Tel-Aviv, SF, and Barcelona. I’d actually like to take this opportunity to give a big thanks to all my friends world wide that that have let me sleep on their couches. I love you all. I’m in insane debt, I hope all these dudes don’t try to come to Boston all at once!!!
Jerry: Times up.
Lee: I always hate this part because I don’t want to forget anyone so I'll try to keep it basic. Thanks to Jerry Fowler for this interview and his friendship. Thanks to all my friends in Boston and the Orchard Skateshop Devoe, Bro Gumps, Matt Bagley, and Armin Bachman for being the back bone of the whole situation. My cousin Samantha, and her brownies. Vern and Craig at Highgrade/Satori investing and progressing the wheel, Roger and Sarah at magical gogo, Mike Sinclair at Dekline, Anyone whose ever shot photos or filmed me, let me sleep on their couch, showed me around their home towns, and introduced me to their friends and family. Rick Oyola and Jahmal Williams for running real shit that the east coast can be proud of. All my family and friends worldwide, I love you guys and have more than I could ever ask for. Skate forever, see you in the streets!