Beach March 2018

Mason Silva.
Photo by Jake Darwen
legend Rodney Mullen was among Silva’s first idols. Mullen is a technical
wizard, known for spinning, flipping and twirling his board with uncanny
precision. Watching Mason idly skating, you can see him taking those same
influences, popping two, three, four tricks in a line on flat ground.
But if Silva is technical, Russell is visceral. He has a raw power to his
lines, tinged with recklessness.
“The skill is there, and he just has the guts to do everything he wants to
do; he can think of anything, and nothing in his mind is going to tell him
‘no,’” Silva said.
“I’ve always been like that, with anything. I can’t do it any other way,
with anything I do in life,” Russell said. “It’s weird. I feel like I’m worse
when I’m trying to be relaxed, than when I’m pushing it into the ground.”
Russell described his style as embedded along the “hairline of chaos and
complete control,” on the brink of destruction.
“That’s what I liked to watch growing up, where you don’t do things that
are necessarily perfect, but were unique and completely off the wall,” Russell
said. “Where you can’t tell what’s rehearsed and practiced, or completely
in the moment and genuine.”
Russell came up in an older skating tradition, growing up among wellrespected
older heads, like Mike Smith and Lester Kasai.
“That’s where I was sculpted, and learned the boundaries of etiquette,”
Russell said. “Those were the main inspirations growing up, older dudes
who had deep roots in skating already.”
Russell’s discipline is in transition, carving the curves and rolls of bowls
and pools, grinding or stalling along the coping – the top edge, where flat
ground meets the lip of the bowl – or catching air before diving back in.
“There’s a texture to it, and the coping has so much to do with what transition
skaters like,” Russell said. “The street is amazing, but I never got that
same feeling of going fast.”
The people who have observed Russell’s growth have struggled finding
the words to describe his style – at least, words that are printable in a family
publication – but they say he’s always had the fearlessness he displayed
in parks and videos.
“He’s not afraid to take it to the next level, and I don’t think he has the
same fear that most people do,” McCollom said, recalling Russell as a kid
who would never be seen without a torn-up metal band shirt and hair cascading
down his back. “He’s the one guy you’d say who completely paves
his own way, and has his own style. He’s not a follower by any means.”
Russell’s career was nurtured by heavy family support as well. His parents
would often take both him and Silva to parks across Southern California,
and he was a regular on the contest scene even as a grom.
“We started helping Chris out because I knew his mom, Jessica,” said
Steve Harkenrider, of ET Surf, who helped connect Russell with NHS –
the parent company to eventual sponsor Creature Skateboards – and would
throw in free gear to help him. “He was a ripper who killed it in pool skating,
really any type of transition skating.”
But his family, Harkenrider said, was unlike typical helicoptering sports
parent who acts as a de facto agent for their child.
“We’ve seen throughout the years, parents always making the kids work,
trying to live their dreams vicariously through them,” Harkenrider said.
“[Chris’s parents] Jonas and Jessica were so mellow and thankful… he was
mellow, his family was grateful, and that speaks a lot.”
Russell’s apple didn’t fall far from his parents’ tree – as the shop helped
them, he and his family stayed loyal.
“Only ET,” Russell said when asked where he bought his gear growing
up. “I started riding for them when I was like, 10. Our fam’s never gone
anywhere else.”
About a mile up Pacific Coast Highway, Spyder Surfboards treated Mason
Silva with just as much love. Though they have a skate section in their
PCH store, the only pro decks they carry in their online shop are Silva’s
pro decks. Once upon a time, a young Mason Silva worked behind the
counters at Spyder, who he says “pretty much raised [him].”
“You’ve gotta represent him; he’s one of those guys who’s been so close
to us and been a part of the family and made it,” said Luke Jarvis, son of
Spyder founder Dennis Jarvis.
As he talked, Jarvis grabbed two DVDs from behind the counter: Disorganized
Fun, and Goosenectar, two locally-made skate videos featuring a
young Silva. “It’s crazy, I was just showing my buddy these two… they sold
out the old Hermosa Playhouse screening these.”
As conversations turned toward the future, the young pros turned introspective.
Silva, as from when he was a kid, hopes to stay deeply involved
in skating.
“I always want to be putting out video parts, photos, keeping everything
alive for as long as I can. I want to do this forever,” Silva said. “I’m not
going to be able to, because my body won’t let me, but I’m going to do
everything I possibly can do.”
Though Russell acknowledged he’d be in a very different place if he wasn’t
skating (“My mom raised me on a really good palate,” he said. “I’d fully
embrace food and go that direction.”), his plan is keep working to improve,
which might even lead to skating in the Olympics.
Skateboarding medal events are planned for the Tokyo 2020 Summer
Olympics, and upcoming contest series will soon start taking scores for
Olympic qualifying. But he’s not worrying about that.
“I’m not going to put myself through all this stress into something I love
so much,” Russell said, before pointing to his sponsors’ gear. “These dudes
and these dudes would really want me to do it, and I’m going to try my
hardest…but if it doesn’t happen, I’m not going to cry about it.”
As for seeing his old friend on the same track to success, Russell is
stoked.
“It’s pretty rad to see how we did this, and back in the middle again; it’s
funny, man, how it worked out like that,” Russell said. “It’s a trip. It worked
out in the best way, for sure.” B
12 Easy Reader / Beach magazine • March 8, 2018