Heritage Art Show
Featuring Work by Lance Mountain, Mark Gonzales, Neil Blender
Cuban Club, Ybor City

Opening Reception
Friday March 21, 2008
8:00

Interview with Nick Halkias of Nike Southeast Skateboarding
Words: Aubrey Bramble

From 1993 until roughly 1998, Nick Halkias was just another Tampa Bay skateboarder working and playing at the Skatepark of Tampa. He now works for Nike Skateboarding and is one of the many hands lending both talent and content to the Skatepark of Tampa's 2008 Pro, taking place this March 21-23rd here in Tampa. This marks the Fifteenth Anniversary of the SPOT and to celebrate, staff members and sponsors are pulling out all the stops: Band of Horses, Kimya Dawson, and a monumental art show featuring skate veterans Lance Mountain, Mark Gonzales, and Neil Blender.

The Heritage Art Show will host an opening reception from 8:00PM until Midnight on Friday March 21st, at the Historic Cuban Club in Ybor City. It will also be open to the public on Saturday March 22nd from Noon until 6:00PM. Organizing this show was no small feat; Mountain, Gonzales and Blender, all friends, have previously never shown together as a group. Whereas one might assume this event would occur in a larger city like L.A. or New York, Tampa gets the bragging rights thanks to Nick.

REAX:  Tell me a little bit about Lance Mountain, Neil Blender, and Mark Gonzales.
Nick Halkias: Well, Lance Mountain, Neil Blender, and Mark Gonzales all had a huge impact on skateboarding. They all became pro in the early-to-mid 80s, which was probably the second wave of skateboarding's popularity, the first being the 70s. At a time when people were very competitive and really into image, these three portrayed a fun, laidback style. As a kid, like many other kids who skated in the 80s, I got into skating because I wasn't very good at team sports. When Lance opened up skate movies it was kind of comical. It was really Lance just goofing off. Lance was a really great skater, but the emphasis was always on keeping a smile on your face and having fun. Neil and Mark are also great examples of that. Mark is a very innovative skater; Neil and Lance created a lot of tricks. The emphasis is always on fun. The image that they portrayed at the time was really similar to what we saw and what we shared when we went out with our friends to skate.

Mark Gonzales had a lot of spreads in national skate magazines and the emphasis was always on original style and being creative. And what came from that was just that these three really pushed the sport. Mark himself was one of the first people to do some tricks that are now a mainstay, a basic part of skating.

REAX:  Can you tell me a little bit about their art work?
NH: These three were always known to do their own skateboard graphics. Their art was almost an extension of their skating. They may not be the finest artists, they may not be something you would normally see, but from their creativity comes some really prolific and fun stuff. Lance is pretty well-known for his graphics; Mark Gonzales has done a lot of different projects with people like Spike Jonze.

REAX:  What can we expect to see at this show?
NH: The emphasis of the show is to kind of show where they've been, where they're at, and where they're going. The show's going to consist of photographs from people like Spike Jonze from the early days until now, as well as example of their art work and some video pieces. It's definitely a retrospective, but it's also work they've created. There will be almost two dozen works from each artist.

REAX:  Why these three artists, and why now for this show?
NH: I thought of those three together because there's just this wave of nostalgia right now with old school skateboarding. There's so many different types of skateboarding right now where you have what you see on ESPN, you have talk of skateboarding in the Olympics, and I really feel like these three skaters are really the example of why you should skate and what got a lot of us into skateboarding in the beginning. I chose these three just  to be able to work with these amazing skaters because I had their pictures on my walls as a kid. I looked up to these guys. Like many people my age, these were our heroes. To be able to bring them together and to do a show is amazing.

Since Nike is involved with the Skatepark of Tampa and I myself have a personal involvement where I worked at the Skatepark for a number of years in the early days, having a band like Dinosaur, Jr. play last year and De La Soul is a really big part of our past. Growing up with these guys around the park, personally I've been waiting for a reason to get involved.

REAX:  What were their reactions like when you asked them to participate in this show?
NH: They were really excited. The three of them have been friends for a really long time and to be able to get together and do this has been really exciting for them.

REAX:  Any remarks on the Fifteenth Anniversary as a whole, and getting these guys to take part in that?
NH: I can't tell you how honored we are to have these guys in Tampa. This is a show that would be amazing in any major city in the world and the fact that we're having it here in Tampa is a big accomplishment. When I first told people that i was going to put this show together, not many people believed that we could pull it off, but we did. And it's going to be awesome.

It's amazing what could be accomplished from people listening to their inner rhythm.These skaters all have very strong personalities and they're all very creative people. From that they've influenced many generations of skaters and creative people. The Skatepark of Tampa came about in the same way. It was really a group of people that felt the need and a strong sense of camaraderie, and created this place. They had a love and a passion for skating, specifically for vert skating at a time where it was a very unpopular aspect of the sport. Because of the passion, fifteen years later, the SPOT is a really important destination in the skate industry. It's become important on a global level.

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