Shaun Gregoire has become a real force to reckon with on the East Coast.  After dropping some serious video parts and riding the word of mouth wave he sealed the deal with his stand out part in the latest Birdhouse video.  Not to mention his contest clout and traveling escapades, Shaun has just begun to really grow into being a seasoned ripper.  Its no wonder he used to be known in the D.C. metro area as “Roboto." Now that he’s grown up a bit, his technical side has meshed with his tranny skills and he’s almost unstoppable on any terrain you put in front of him.  With his upcoming part in the highly anticipated Palace 5ive Mumbo Sauce video on the horizon it was time to sit down with Shaun and get the inside scoop on where he’s from, what he’s done, and what the future holds. - Keir Johnson

Keir: Shaun for a young man of 21 years old you clearly have some roots and natural talent for skating, how did this all begin for you?

Shaun: Man I’ve been skating from just about day one with my pops, he definitely had a large influence on me skating early on.  The addiction didn’t really start until 10 or 11.  I’m not really sure what my first board was cause I was stealing my dad's, but I do remember having a New Deal board for quite some time before my parents decided to buy me my own shred sled.

Keir: What was the first place you ever skated?

Shaun: My first spot was this curb outside of my buddies place.  The first trick I learned on it was probably the coffin grind, but then the sewer ate my board like so many others had before it.

Keir: Haha, I’d like to see a coffin grind today, so what kind of sports were you into early on besides skating? 

Shaun: Yeah I was definitely a gymnast for 7 years.  I wouldn’t say I was into it, it was more like it was something to do, but it was pretty fun at times though. I was pretty good but definitely not Olympic status.  I got a couple buddies I trained with who are in the running though. 

Keir: Wow, now I believe the first place I personally saw you skate was at the famed “Skate Night” church in Fairfax, Virginia.  How did you get involved in skating there?

Shaun: The first time I heard about Skate Night I was skating with some friends in downtown Fairfax and I ran into Zach Hollifield and Bradley Rosado and for some reason they asked if we wanted to go to this private session at Skate Night, it was love at first sight.

Keir: Who killed that place the most?

Shaun: All of my favorite sessions were with the Wolfpack crew, Mr. Jackson Curtin and B-Ropes aka Billy Roper.  All those guys killed it, Erich Bielefeldt killed it every time, kid is crazy good.

Keir: Yeah I just saw the latest Dominion Skate shop video “The Main Course” and Erich and those dudes had sick footage.  So tell me about the first time you ever skated in downtown Washington D.C.

Shaun: The first time I skated the city was crazy.  We didn’t even get downtown until 10 pm.  The first spot we went to was the famous Georgetown double set with the rails on the glass.  I started skating it and warming up, tried a backside 180 down it and looped out, then out of nowhere this dog runs up to me and decides to sink its teeth into my chest.  The dog’s owner for some reason thought it would be a good idea not to use a leash. I'm pretty hyped we were skating in subzero temperatures because I was wearing like two sweatshirts, but I definitely still have scars from that damn dirty dog.  Shortly afterwards I broke my board at the same spot.  There was nowhere to go but up from there.

Keir: Damn, that’s crazy, that spot always had some lurkers around huh?  Who was the first sponsor you ever had?

Shaun: First board hook up was East Coast Board Shop which is still around and been doing it since 1988.

Keir: What was the first memorable place you skated outside of the D.C. metro area?

Shaun: First time outside of D.C. I was in Hawaii.  It was pretty sick.  People there are really chill

Keir: Yeah, so I’ve heard.  So lets talk about how Birdhouse came about for you.  Can you talk about how that happened? 

Shaun: Well at the time I had a buddy interning up at Blitz Distribution and he heard they were rebuilding the birdhouse team so he handed Flo and Jeremy Klein my sponsor-me tape and I guess they were into it.  It was cool because I was only flow for about 2 months before they put me on the team officially.

Keir: That’s rad, what was it like going out there for the first time?

Shaun: It was pretty fun.  It was exciting meeting Per Welinder and meeting and skating with all the other AM riders

Keir: Have you met the man himself yet?

Shaun: I have yet to meet Tony!  I was only able to be on the last tour for about a week out there because I’m still in college and that ended up being the week he wasn’t on the tour.  So I haven’t had the honor yet, but I’ve met his son though.

Keir: Yeah Riley is a sick teammate to have huh?  Who are all of your current sponsors?

Shaun: The current sponsors would be Birdhouse Skateboards, Adio Footwear, Innes Clothing, Sk8nuts Hardware, Destructo Trucks, and Elite/Palace 5ive skate shops.

Keir: What videos have you dropped full parts in?

Shaun: Hmm… full parts would be in Liberal Arts, Time Will Tell, Autonomous, and The Beginning.

Keir: Of course all of the other footage you’ve popped up in and lots of random web coverage as well.  Who are the main people you film with?

Shaun: Brad, Allen, and Gnar Char, aka Charlie Church.  It’s pretty chill filming with those guys for the most part.  When you land tricks with Allen and Brad you’re not sure if what you did was any good cause they never show any emotion, ever.  It’s pretty hard to get Allen out of his dungeon.  Apparently he liked the cage I built him last year while filming for The Beginning.  Had to steal that kid to get that thing done.

Keir: Haha, well Allen has definitely been the guy to document you murdering these spots, especially places like the Gold Rail.  How many damn tricks would you say you’ve done down that thing?!

Shaun: Umm I’ve done a lot of tricks down Gold.  The ones that stand out to me are front tail big spin, kickflip backlip, nollie front feeble, and kickflip front feeble.  I’ve gotten pretty close to a few tricks that I got jacked up on.  One of them, which stands out to me, was a kickflip back smith.  Stomped it a few times.  It was doing pretty good until I decided to slide down half the rail on my shin.  I was over it after that.  That was also the second or third time I went back for that trick.

Keir: It’s too bad the middle rail is skate stopped now, I guess its still on for the outside ones huh?  What kind of things do you enjoy skating? 

Shaun: I like skating just about anything short of El Toro.

Keir: What would a dream day skating be like for you?

Shaun: Dream day of skating would be mid 70’s low humidity in D.C. with no cops in sight.  That’s about all it takes for me to be happy which goes to say I’m not a very happy person.

Keir: I hear you, from what I hear lately it hasn’t been too bad with the busts, but we all know how that goes in cycles in the city.  So besides skating what else is going on right now?

Shaun: I go to school just outside the city at George Mason University for graphic design.  Hopefully I won’t be doing a whole lot with my degree at first.  I’m trying to do a whole lot of skateboarding before I start trying to use that bad boy!

Keir: Its very admirable that you’re going to accomplish that degree while still skating, I know it takes a lot of sacrifice. What are your skating goals right now? 

Shaun: As of right now my skating goals are to survive the winter.  I just want to keep doing what I’m doing, filming as much as I can.  Wouldn’t mind going pro, but mostly I just want to skate as much possible in as many different places as possible. 

Keir: Seems like you’re on the right track, alright then Shaun lets wrap it up, have some folks you’d like to thank?

Shaun: I’d like to thank 48 Blocks for giving me this opportunity, hope you enjoy the footage, I’d like to thank all my sponsors - Birdhouse, Adio, Destructo, Sk8nuts, Innes, Elite/Palace 5ive, Allen Danze for filming just about all my Birdhouse part and Floris, Lance, and Travis for always helping me out and hooking me up.  Also everyone else who has helped me out in the past, you know who are!