Beach March 2018

y David Mendez
ouch.com)
Friends from youth,
Mason Silva and Chris Russell
shred together after carving
separate paths to
pro skateboarding careers
Yang of
Shredders
The differences between skateboarders Chris Russell and Mason Silva,
as they prepare to power across Manhattan Beach Skatepark and attempt
a tandem trick (Russell airing off a quarter-pipe and stalling
on a nearby fence, Silva simultaneously pulling off a grind under Russell)
are stark.
Russell, a Hermosa Beach native now living in San Diego, looks, well,
haggard. His hair is shaggy under a Red Bull beanie, his face wearing a
few days’ stubble, and his clothes give the distinct appearance of something
he may have recently woken up in.
Silva, a native of Manhattan Beach now living in Long Beach, is relatively
clean cut – his dark hair closely cropped, his black hoodie and jeans looking
fresh.
But as the two push off and start to hit the trick, you see what binds
them: talent and unshakable focus.
The two young men, both 21 and recently-minted professionals for their
respective sponsors (Element Skateboards for Silva, Creature Skateboards
for Russell), grew up as good friends seeking skate spots and riding to parks
as adolescents. As the two found their niches and developed their talents,
they grew apart. But occasionally, their paths would cross – in 2015, Silva
and Russell were named The Skateboard Mag’s Amateur of the Year and
first runner-up, respectively.
“They’re exact polar opposites, the yin and yang,” said Sonny McCollom,
of Hermosa’s ET Surf, who helped secure support for both as they grew
up. “Chris is your grime, hardcore guy, while Mason is your conservative,
technical guy. And it’s cool that they came out of here and it shows you
the diversity out there.”
Silva’s philosophies pop out at you from his video clips, and he’s quick
to admit them: Hit tricks fast, and hit them hard.
“It’s pretty apparent to see in footage, even for people who don’t skateboard:
it’s easy to tell if someone is going fast over anything,” Silva said.
“It’s like playing music loud or soft.”
That, he said, is something that’s been with him for as long as he could
remember. Everything he did was fast, and there was no way he could
turn that off.
“But power, that came way after speed. I got that from surfing, watching
some of my favorite surfers, like Dan Reynolds, put so much power in their
turns when they go fast,” Silva said.
Saltwater and shaped foam are in Silva’s blood. His brother Dayton went
to work in the surf industry after competing as a pro. His father Mark is
locally famed for surfing for more than 1,000 days straight.
“It’s pretty surreal — it’s like if a child told you he wanted to be a fireman…
you make sure he got all the right grades, did all the right things,
and it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Mark Silva said. “But when a kid tells you
at a young age he wants to be a pro skateboarder… all we provided him
with was the opportunity.”
That opportunity, Mark Silva said, was to allow Mason to pursue independent
study in high school, granting him time to skate and film without
being forced to stay on the Mira Costa campus.
“I gravitated toward this,” Mason Silva said. “That’s how I got around to
Chris, seeing him at other parks, and seeing that he had the drive to really
be something. He was in the same boat as me.”
As groms the two were close, riding together to skate parks around LA
and Orange County.
“It’s funny, he’s a transition guy, skating pools and ramps, and that got
me skating at first,” Silva said. “But when Vans Skatepark built a street
course, I started skating that and never looked back.”
“It’s so funny, he used to skate transition back in the day, but he started
seeing his niche in street skating,” Russell said. “It’s so rad he took that
route and made it his own…he’s so, so f—king good in the streets.”
Street skating – conquering stairs, handrails, ledges and other landmarks
of urban environments – is Silva’s bread and butter. His video clips show
him catching ridiculous air off banked asphalt and open-top culverts, catching
his board soon after making it dance below him.
“I think there are more options, more creativity for me,” Silva said. “I
like the culture of it, going into the street, finding something unique and
filming it, making an artwork from it.”
Though he cites fellow Element Skateboards pro team member Brandon
Westgate among his greatest influences, South Bay local and skateboard
March 8, 2018 • Easy Reader / Beach magazine 11