You may remember Zeb Weisman from Vicious Cycle and Know The Ledge Volume 1 & 2. If you're not familiar, Zeb's from Martha's Vineyard and grew up skating out there and in Boston with guys like Zered Bassett and Eli Reed. He rides for the Boston Trifecta - RAW, RAW Private Stock, and Positive Kit as well as True East skate shop and is currently attending Tufts and filming for Know The Ledge Volume 3 - the full length video. Jason Jenkins came through with a solid interview that gives a lot of insight into the progression of the Boston scene over the past decade. Give it a read below.

Jason: Let's get the essentials off the bat. Where are you from, where are you living, and what companies do you represent?

Zeb: I am from Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. I currently live in Somerville, Massachusetts. I am representing RAW, RAW Private Stock and The Positive Kit and True East.

Jason: What was your first setup?

Zeb: I got a mall set up first that had a Joker graphic on it from the first Batman, and then that thing got destroyed. I lived on the end of a dirt road on Martha's Vineyard so that wasn't happening. Then a real skate shop opened and I got a real set up. It was an Alien Workshop "Clone" deck with Venture Lows and some blank wheels.

Jason: Who did you look up to when you first started skating?

Zeb: I looked up to the older dudes around Martha's Vineyard. Then, whatever kind of media I had, I'd pick who I liked. I had Trilogy so I looked up to Ronnie Creager, Gino, Marcus McBride, and Kareem. 

Jason: Who are some of the guys you grew up skating with?

Zeb: On Martha's Vineyard, I grew up skating with kids my age and then they started to wither away.  I grew up with more core skaters on the Vineyard like Nick Briggs, Brad Tucker, Chris Pease (R.I.P.), some other little squirt named Marlin, Johnny Osmurs. These were the kids who lasted through middle school.

Jason: What was the Boston scene like when you first started skating the city?

Zeb: For me, the Boston scene was a bunch of grimlets and then older dudes who we looked up to. I guess older dudes that were around all the time were the typical Boston heads that you think of now. Jahmal, Robbie, Vanik, Steve Nardone, Joey Pepper was kind of around when I was first coming in, when I was young. For me, when I first arrived, the Boston scene was really the Maximus scene. You had dudes like Doug Moore, Rahm - just like trying to stay out of those older dudes ways because they would be flying around that park. So, I would just hang out with the grimlets. Our crew was Aaron Nessel, Phil and Jason Cappadonna, Gabe Bustamonte, Ariel Perl, and Eli Reed. Those were the dudes when I first started coming to Boston. Then as time went on, there was PJ, Ryan, Jereme, and all the Coliseum dudes.

Jason: What was the first company to hook you up and how did that happen?

Zeb: The first company to hook me up would be Vehicle. I was never on, but Robbie would throw me boards. Jamie and Gio were cool guys and they were always nice to me. So, Robbie Gangemi, yeah. Vehicle. When he had his warehouse and was making boards. Holler, Robbie! 

Jason: You are now infamous as "The Judge." Care to explain why and defend your position?

Zeb: Ha ha ha. Alright, this nickname came about when I was at Bay State Tom and Grandpa Chip's house and we were watching a video. I guess I hadn't really hung out with those dudes a lot and we were over there just chilling. I guess I tore through the video. You know, you just sit there and watch a video and you can be critical and judgmental and tear through people - you can do it to me, I don't care. It happens. Dana was just like, "You're The Judge!" I guess it stuck. It didn't stick instantly, but it's sticking now, for sure.

Jason: I've heard varied stories about your trip to Barcelona some years ago. Do you want to clear the air for us all?

Zeb: Well, I'll just say that I've been there a few times. Last time I went there, I was partying pretty heavily and got a little out of control. It got real scary. I got home safely and that's all I'm going to say.

Jason: The first time you moved to Boston was when you were done with school. What was the lifestyle change like from the Vineyard?

Zeb: The lifestyle change was tremendous. You have no parents nagging you unless it's on a cell phone, sleeping on a couch at Spungie's house (Thanks, Spungie) on Mission Hill, and just skating. You got to skate all the good spots in the city every day. You got hassled but it wasn't like you were going to hitch hike to go skate a basketball court with boxes and stuff. The skate spots just got 10 times better. Also, maybe like sneaking into some college parties or some older people would have a rager. Eli and I would go on tears. Louis and Zered would be around too. We'd just go around and tear up parties and just be little kids in there wild'n out. There were big lifestyle changes.

Jason: I remember watching Vicious Cycle for the first time and recognizing every name in the video but yours. How did you get a part in the video and what was it like filming with dudes like Zered and Eli?

Zeb: I got a part in that video because I grew up with Zered. He was putting out a video and everyone was having parts. I grew up with Zered and Louis on the Cape. Sometimes in the winter I would call Zered and he'd pick me up from the boat at Wood's Hole and we'd stay at Eddie's house for the weekend or whatever. When Zered moved to New York, we'd all just go to stay at the Zoo house and skate. Filming with Zered and Eli - that was nothing new for me. I'd grown up skating with them, so I wasn't intimidated or anything like that. It's just the norm.

Jason: What's been going on for post-Vicious Cycle Zeb Weisman? It's been 4 years since the video dropped now, so what have you been up to?

Zeb: It's been four years? Wow. I guess just doing the same old thing. I went to community college for a little while and moved back to Boston. I traveled a bunch, like during Vicious Cycle. I go sailing with my dad, I'm lucky enough to do that. I'd go on trips with him that would sometimes last a month, sometimes four or five months. Filming and skating wise, I guess… RAW Know The Ledge, Volume 1 and 2 would be the productive skate thing in the last four years. Lately, just trying to bear through this winter, get through it, and get back to skating once it gets warm enough. Working on Know The Ledge Volume 3, the full length video. Watch out for it! Skating and school…

Jason: You went to community college and now you're attending Tufts. What made you choose the scholastic path? I mean, you could just be focusing on skateboarding...

Zeb: Yeah, I could be a 25-year-old guy just focusing on just skateboarding. Ha ha ha. That would work if I were getting paid for it, that sounds right. But no, I don't get a ton of money from skateboarding right now so I have to look to the future and you know, look further down the line. Do I want to be someone that has a 9-to-5 job where I'm getting paid 10 dollars an hour or do I want to use my brain, instead of my back, to make money? I'm going to go with the latter and say, "I'm going to school." I want to have a secure future when it's later down the line in my older years.

Jason: Classic Boston spots are disappearing quickly, the scene is fragmented and split up. What do you think about the state that Boston skateboarding is in right now? What needs to happen?

Zeb: The first thing is that the knobs at Landmark have to come off, pronto. It's the winter so we can do it. That's a classic new Boston spot that I'd like to bring back. Other spots like Downhill ledges, Bank Boston, Windowsills, and even Aquarium with the Samurai - the security guy that's there during the spring, summer, and fall all fucking day until it's dark - it's really a pain in the ass. I would say with those spots, it's almost a wrap. I guess there's a couple of ways you could hit those spots up. Copley - it's still there.  It's not going anywhere. They're never going to knob it because it's such a landmark here, but it's a bust, the ground's getting shitty. You gotta find alternative ways to skate the spots. If the Samurai is going to be there from 12 to dark, well you're going to have to not go out the night before and hit 'er up early at 10 in the morning. If there's a knob, you may not be able to grind as far as you want, or if there's a big metal dildo in front of the stairs, you're gonna have to go around it. We're constantly running from the cops, whether it's at Eggs or Aquarium or Copley - wherever you're skating. We’re just trying not to get tickets or get seen by the cops.

As far as the fragmented scene goes, it's basically split up between subdivisions of people who ride for shops. It was pretty good before when there were less people in the city and then more people moved here. It started to get clique'ee, so I guess just more people moving into the city made it more clique'ee. I'm usually downtown all the time, so if you're not at Eggs, I may not see you for weeks on end. But if you are there, I'll see you all the time because I skate ledges a lot and Eggs is a good spot. Period.

I guess people talk a lot of shit on each other, which is fine. It's healthy. People need to have rivalries… Fuck the Lakers. Fuck the Yankees. Ha ha. So if you look at it like that, rival groups are just going to be pushing their skating to another level. Oh, this guy did this at this spot, so I wanna do something else. Or you know, the Yankees win 5 games in a row, the Red Sox better win 6. (Or that game the other night with the Celts, like Pierce, you gotta make that free throw so we don't lose by 1.) It just pushes people to perform better.

Jason: Where do you see yourself 10 years down the line from today?

Zeb: Ten years down the line from today… Hopefully, with a house and miniramp in the backyard, hahaha.

Jason: Anyone you'd like to thank?

Zeb: I would like to thank Mom, Dad, the Weisman family, the Hutson family, the Reed family, Zered Bassett, Lou Sarowsky, Nick Briggs, Jason Jenkins, The Hall Family, RAW, RAW Private Stock and The Positive Kit, Steve Costello, Kevin Susienka, Ray Echevers, Matt O’Brien, True East, Evan, Chomo, Tim, Richie, PJ, Ryan, Dion, Brett Star, Beacon Hill Will, the Nessel Family, the Cappadona family, Concepts, Tarek, Spungie, Jon Roy, Bobby Riley, Deon, Ariel Perl, Joey Pepper, Welsh, Ben Colen, Sean Keenan, Vanik, Pete Gardini, Jerry Fowler, Ryan "Duckman" Damian, Jahmal Williams, Maximus, Doug Moore, Hell Gate, Matt Bagley, Demall, Brad Tucker, New Jack Pat, Big Jake, Andrew McGraw, the Brown Brothers, Apple Tom, Brian Carroll, Adam Russell, Abe, Gavin, Wisdom Brothers, Nate Keegan, Supreme, Charles Lamb, Ryan Hickey, Robbie Gangemi, Gio Estevez, Goya Moya, Jamie Story, RB, Ian Reid, Sam, Vinnie Ponte, Rival, Fly guys, New York City, Miami, Donny Barley, The BCN, Julio, Henrick, Lisbon, the Azores, Centrale Locs, The Allen farm and family, The Martha's Vineyard Skate Park Association, Elaine at the Green Room, Sailing, Skateboarding, The Celtics and the Red Sox for winning again, Bruins pick up the slack, the higher powers out there and anyone I forgot, my bad.