Jeremy Holmes

It’s a rarity in skateboarding to find skaters with such raw, unadulterated talent, and these special skaters are always easy to spot skating amongst the masses. Jeremy Holmes has always been “that” skater and continues to lay down only the dopest of skating. Holmes has been holding things down on HYPE! for a while now, and by the way things are going for them, we can believe in every bit of it.

It’s rare finding someone with such raw talent being able to develop and blossom over such a long time. How did it first begin for you and what influenced your desire to skate?
Thank you, I appreciate the compliment. Honestly, Gleaming the Cube. My older brother took me to the dollar movie to see Christian Slater skate under an 18 wheeler on the freeway to avenge the death of his step brother. After that, it was a wrap, I was hooked.

When did you really begin to develop as a skater and think that you could do something with your skating?
I started skating really young, Gleaming the Cube came out in like ’89 or something, I did no complys and bonelesses for a few years you know. By the time I was ten or eleven and started trying to skate “new school” like flip tricks and stuff, I had been skating for five years already. So naturally, skating came easy for me after having a solid foundation of learning how to just ride a skateboard, a huge Lance Mountain Powell Peralta at that (thanks cousin Dave). Then, fast forward to my freshmen year of high school, the first year I didn’t try out for the basketball team, or play any other sports, my friend Matt filmed a little part of me and entered it in Sixteen Skateboard’s annual video contest and I won. That summer I came out to cali and met a lot of cool people who have had my back every since.

What exactly was the atmosphere like growing up and skating in Texas?
I’m betting it was typical of any black kid trying to be a skater anywhere in America. In a word, frustrating.

What compels you to continue to skate? Is there a certain output or expression that makes it all worth it?
As tough as this question seems, I guess it’s pretty simple. Who out there is going to answer this question any different than the rest of us. Any True skateboarder out there knows why we continue to do what we do. I just saw the MIA video the other day for the first time, man! So sick! Thank you Josh Stewart. And that’s only but a fraction of what compels me to continue to skate.

You’re still living in Dallas, right? What sparked the move a while ago from Long Beach?

Wow, that was going on five years ago now. In a nutshell; family. As much as I loved the Strong Beach, it just wasn’t working out for the fam.

I heard you were doing something in the education system. What kind of education job?
I had been working with special needs and severely handicapped children, now I’m going to school.

Is there currently filming for another HYPE! video underway?

Yes, definitely.

Photo by “Aaron Baugh”

Style seems to be a key element in your skating. How important do you think it is for skater’s to hone their own style and creativity?
I really dig how some skaters don’t have to “hone” a style. They just skate, and we all drool over how good it looks. Gino, Rob G, Kenny A., Kalis, Busenitz, and the like. At the end of the day, just skate. If you look as dope as Gino in the process, more power to you. If not, so what. Just skate and enjoy what you’re doing. That’s my take on it. That goes for everything else too, gnarly rails and gaps or super tech mannys. Just do you.

How has skateboarding help shape, or influenced, other aspects of your life?
It has influenced the way approach life’s challenges and obstacles. You know how you think of a trick you want to do at a certain spot. Then you try the trick and don’t get it. Then you persistently come back until you get it. That’s life in nutshell. – H.Gladden