Street Memo "Larry Blossom"

Larry Blossom is a New Orleans skateboard legend. Larry has a strong emphasis on style and power. This style and power was passed down to New Orleans skaters and that has kept the mantra of “Style F*cking Matters.” alive. An owner of the infamous Second Nature skatepark from 96 to 99 and one of the few to make the trek out to California. I feel obligated to let everyone know more about the living legend LB. So here's the Larry Blossom Street Memo:

What was your first real skateboard setup?

Rick Burgess took me to Louie's Hardware in Harahan. They sold boards, Louie was a freestyler and he got his parents to sell boards, there was a board on sale it was an Agent Orange and it was 30 bucks.

So I got it. It was the first model from a professional company that I got. I guess the setup could have been Indy’s and it was some budget wheels, you know, just anything that was on sale at that point, because I was making my own money. I was probably 15… 16. I was breakdancing and shit before. So, yeah, Agent Orange…

I didn't really know what the band was so much, I just kind of heard of it.

When was that?

That was gotta be eighty six, eighty seven, because eighty eight was the Natas demo. And I remember I'd been skating for at least a year or so.

So if I’m not mistaken you owned Second Nature?

Yeah, me and Chris Boye.

We had investors, Will and Tabitha, people that gave money and we just all made it work. But me and Chris, mostly there being the face and, you know, talking to the parents and whatever.

When was that?

That was nineteen ninety six.

Larry Blossom, Thrasher Magazine, 1996

And where was Second Nature?

Second Nature was by the airport. So we thought, all right, we're by the airport. People who fly in and can come and do demos, off the road, whatever.

That way they didn't get to 6-10, they would stop in New Orleans before they would go to Florida, the East Coast. Everyone was skipping New Orleans and taking the 6-10 back to I-10 and sometimes wouldn't dip into the city.

So yeah, opening a park in 96, it had been a while. Yeah, ‘96 to about right at the end of ‘99.

Do you have any stories from Second Nature?

So Tony Hawk hadn't been to the city. Birdhouse, I reached out, I got him for like five hundred bucks, came out and skated for like an hour and a half, rolls up with the Birdhouse bus. I walk out, I'm like, Tony, Larry Blossom. I shook his hand, He's like,

“dude, nice place.” He went and dropped in on the Challenge Wall and just backside 360’d mute grabbed the whole pyramid, which was like twelve feet. Boom. The first try, whatever. Just started it off.

Heath Kirchart was just crushing everything in the park and throwing up because it was so hot. Throwing up on the side of the ramp. Hawk did a McTwist outside on the mini ramp. It was sick. It was a great demo.

We had a bunch of great demos.

Ok, the Backtail at Energy Center, how did that happen?

I guess it was about ninety three or four, so that was probably before the park. I had back tailed it straight , other people had done stuff like Adam probably nosegrinded it and Michael Ledet that was doing stuff on it. Everybody was doing shit on it.

I don't know, I felt good about back tails. I just kind of saw it, I could throw back tails like wherever and I just tried it once and jumped off. Adam, 50-50 grinds.

So Adam (Adam Loudin) did gap to 50-50?

I think he jumped off. But he was going for it, he was going for it. I was like , “dude you’re psyching me out.” So, yeah, I just went for it a few more times. I probably got it like four or five tries. It wasn't many.

I didn't slide it as much as Dom (Dominic Crescioni) did. Dom slid that. That was tight. When he did it I was like, all right. That's the way it should have been done. It felt good when I did it, but you know...

So anyway, I just was stoked that day and I wanted to do something that was big for me and do something that hadn't been done in the city. It was a while before somebody else did it.

So the Land Pirates Video, that was 2002?

That was 2002? At that point, I'd already been doing things, I did my Citibank commercial, I did some other stuff I was going on castings and I was staying with Aaron Yeager. I don't know if you remember technical Aaron Yeager, he was real tech and he lived by Rita Nadhazi. We went to skate this little spot off of Hollywood Blvd, it was a DIY. These cats were out there, it was Chris Casey and a bunch of the dude’s from the Captain Casey show.

Basically they were filming it , and the dude walked up to me. He was like, “look, I'm doing a video, you could have a part, I'll take you out shooting.” I was like, “Oh, all right, cool.” I was in the Cajun Video and I was in a little bitty things. He had some people in it, Chris Roberts was in it, like a bunch of heads, you know?

So, yeah, that was it. I just basically got scouted at a DIY spot off a Hollywood Boulevard with Aaron Yeager in 2002 and I got a spot in Land Pirates. Yeah, and Pass The Dutchy by Musical Youth was my song.

Larry Blossom, 2002, Los Angeles

So you have a clip in Logic 9, it was that Frontside Boardslide, do you remember this?

Logic was one of the fresher things coming out at the time. Yeager was right there with me. That Front Board was around the corner from this other round curve thing with a bunch of thorny bushes did a 50/50 , and they were like, “Dude there's a rail around the corner that Markovich was gonna hit. Let's go check it out.” It was a double set. The little old lady in the house was watching the Young and the Restless or something and she wanted to kick me out. She told me no. I tried anyway.

I had actually locked up on my first try and flew on my back. So I locked up and it shot me like parallel dude, I rolled out and popped up onto my feet. I just ninja walked out of it. Then I pulled it after that , that bail (see video) was either in the end of the credits of that Logic video, which I don't even have a copy of, I would love to see. Because it was quite the stunt... The accidental stunt.

Do you have any stories of Warren Day?

So much from Warren. I mean, he basically can blunt anything. Blunt Fakie, land for wheels all the time. I just got to give the credit for always being the dude who can pull everything all the time.

He was like a contest skater all the time. He got flustered, but then he would come back. He always came back and did it. And when he was like, bright and shiny, he was like, super bright and you always wanted to hang out with him, you know? He was just a good dude. He was the best. Rest in peace, Warren.

Who’s your favorite “mainstream” skater?

The main dudes right now that are just worldwide that are doing it right now? It's really hard, but I will have to give it to Jordan Trahan.

Because he's representing Louisiana, you know, so effortlessly. And I believe he's kind of like the modern day Jason Lee.

You know, he is smooth like that. Three flips, big like that. He looks great. He has a positive view and he's driven. He's just a great example of what, a skateboarder would want to be like. That's the kind I think will prevail is that positive projecting skateboarder that can do both transition and street, rad. It finally got to being well rounded.

So although there are a lot and I could say a bunch of names I’m going to have to go with Jordan.

Jordan Trahan, Photo: Fred Simonson

All right. That's good. Thank you.

Larry Blossom - Street Memo

Interview by: Stephen Serrano @stephenserrano