One Step Beyond: The Isaiya Allen Interview
bone-free since 2018
It’s a lot like touching track in the blocks.
Which, I know, is a pretty personal metaphor. But the set up, in contact and filled with kinetic potential — there’s something different about it; more primal about it. An ollie and its ilk involve tension, right?, pressure, but a boneless before liftoff is something much else. Glomming on to the rail means you’re close to the ground as it hisses at you and a counterintuitive idea — abandon your balanced stance, fully commit to a leap of faith into flight — is acted on with smooth violence and held aloft like a sword, an ancient rite from the riverbank to your fingers infused, if you’re Isaiya Allen, with all our modern things: wrist-flicked inward heels unfold like a Myrtle Beach bottom-case-at-the-beach-store balisong, a flash of graphic is flipped back to black, handrails and stair sets and what’s ‘true’ are stepped over like they’re Lue, uniting the old and the new all adorned à la Alexander McQueen with — ironically enough — some skulls.
Look, I feel I owe Isaiya an apology almost, because the below is just a lil bit of what he brings. The numbers, the fucking numbers: our convo clocked in at 13,464 words or 23 pages or — for the real editorial sluts — 68,980 characters. I love an Interview-style interview, to try and capture and present a person like a butterfly on a board, but dude’s just not able to be pinned down. It’s a cruel twist that the more organic the chat, the more tangled the transcript, so just know this in advance: if you’re homies and wondering if he shouted you out, he def did; if you’ve supported his skating with vibes or product or whatever and you’re wondering if he shouted you out, he def did; and if you want a ground-level guide to the North Carolina skate scene, he’s got it like a Map to the Stars Homes.
That’s because he’s been boots on the ground all over Raleigh, touching brick at NC State and DIY transition under a prison’s captive eyes. Look, how you skate says something, and the Triangle’s ‘least favorite’ is living proof there are languages out there not many skaters speak fluently, though they all say the same thing: that there’s only one true way to do it, and that’s the way you fucking want.
4ts: All right. First off, I guess, what's up dude? How's it going down there? Can you guys skate all year round in North Carolina pretty easily?
Isaiya: It is a yes and also a no, because we just got snow twice this year but it literally melted the next day. Mainly we do skate [all year] out here in North Carolina. It depends where you're at. Because I'm in the Piedmont area, so I'm between the mountains and I'm between the beach. So it's a yes, but also going to be no sometimes because I love skating in the cold, but in the summer I couldn't do it. I got to be night skating. But otherwise it's like, yeah, depends wherever area you at.
Yeah, I don't mind skating in the cold either, which is good in Chicago, right? As long as it's dry. If it's like 30 degrees, fuck it. I can do that.
The funniest story, I'm actually going to Chicago this summer because my friend, my homie Adam's girlfriend is out there and she also skates. So they've been telling me the summer out there is beautiful.
Yeah, it can get hot though. But I mean you're used to that shit.
It's horrible out here. A hundred degrees with 50% humidity. So it's death. It's death. I don't like it.
Speaking of NC, I'm curious if you've got some favorite dudes who come from down there. I remember when I was a kid it sort of seemed like there was this little movement for a second, right? Kenny Hughes was already out there. Dan Murphy is the one I was thinking of.
I met Kenny Hughes. I'm good friends with Bob Reynolds, he's the Nike rep. And then you got Chet Childress. There's so much. You got Justin Brock, he's from North Carolina. Craziest story and no one talks about this: Chris Cole was born in North Carolina.
That I did not know. People always think of him as like a Philly guy. [editor’s note: and accused of domestic violence]
Yeah, he claims Philly. But you know, same thing, Marc Johnson. They claim Cali, but Marc Johnson's from fucking North Carolina. And then you got, there's so many pros out here. It's not even a joke. There's so many skaters out here in North Carolina. I feel like we're not slept on — it's more like we got scenes. It depends where you at.
I always think of Rakestraw too, Pat Rakestraw.
I haven't seen him in a minute.
His style is crazy.
I love it. But he disappeared … he's from Chapel Hill.
One of the things I wanted to talk to you about was the NC State campus, right? Well-known spot. Super cool. What's that place mean to you guys and what makes it special?
So basically it's the equivalent of Love Park without homeless people beating your ass. That's the only thing I could say because NC State has got so many skate spots.
You got the 10, you got flat cause there's Brickyard Magic on that and then you've got a four stair and then you got three and then a little row and then four. There's so many handrails, so many marble obstacles. It's like it's Skate 3 in real life.
And then there's the 303 DIY right next to a prison. I shit you not, you see inmates waving at you and they're like, inmates — not nice. It's just like what the fuck? It's so funny. It's weird but it's funny. I love it.
Didn't Murphy go to NC State while he was skating NC State or some shit like that? I feel like that was in some story.
Fuck was it Dan? Because I remember reading about that because I remember he used to party at NC State
I wanted to ask you about Holy Mountain Printing [a screen printing company and sponsor of Isaiya]. How did that come around? Not your typical sponsor — I figured it'd be like a board company or something but it's not, right? How'd that happen?
Okay, so I'm filming with Seb. It was, oh my God, it was, oh wow. Wow. It was 2021. Damn. Okay. So it was 2021. I remember it was around Halloween, beginning of October or September.
We're skating at the spot at NC State. I hit the 10. Literally I boneless the 10 stair, I'm just shocked. And then we went to this one spot and I remember Joey was like, yo, if you do this trick right here, you get a free board. I was like, this guy's bullshitting. And then turns out Seb texted me one day while I was at work. He was like, yo, Holy Mountain wants to put you on. They want to put you in [an ad in] Thrasher. I was like, whatever. They won't do that shit [laughs]. Oh man. All right, let's go do this. They'll pay me.
I went to Raleigh — I stayed in Goldsboro at the time, an hour from here. And I shit you not, we got the video.
How was it skating in the skull mask and robe?
Honestly not that bad, the weather was nice that day.
I can’t believe you could see!
I can see a little bit, I had faith.
That’s like 80% of the game, right there.
I got the video, got the photo, got done, [they] pay me 200 bucks. I was like, oh y'all n***as ain't bullshit. Y'all won't bullshit.
I saw the issue [of Thrasher w/the ad]. I was like these n***as dead. They dead ass. It's real. Literally, Danny called me the one day — shout to Danny too. He's the owner of Holy Mountain. He was like, yo, come to Raleigh. I got your magazine. I was like, bull. All right. I'm happy. Called out work that day too; I didn't quit, I just called out for a personal day.
I fucking got the magazine. They gave it to me. I love it. Oh my fucking God, I'm in Thrasher. I did not post it until literally they said post it and tag. I was like, guys, I'm in Thrasher. I shit you not. To this day, there's some people they'll be like, yeah, this guy was trash. Dude, shut up. There was some motherfuckers low key kind of like hating. I stick to myself and I'm like, I thought we were cool, but no, you just hate me cause you've been trying to get in Thrasher for so long. I've been doing myself. It was weird. It was weird, I'm not going to lie. It is still weird to this day.
It's in the Bible.
Everybody was telling me, oh, is Jake Phelps alive? He wouldn’t approve this. I am like, bro, who pissed you off this morning? Who pissed you off? I was in Thrasher twice. Issue #499 with Fred Gall and issue #500.
I told my dad and my dad was so pissed. He kicked me out — he just kicked me out. He was like, son ... if you keep skateboarding, I gotta kick you out.
And then the funniest shit was my mom did not like me skating. Now she loves me skating. Shout out to my mom — my mom, my grandma. I went to Thanksgiving. They was like, yeah, there are pro skaters; fuck damn. And my aunt asked me how much I made.
That's not important.
She's like, you making shit? I was like, no.
Hell, no one is.
But Holy Mountain, they helped out a lot.
And there's a new company my homies and I started, it's called Lokèl … it's just a new thing. It's more about art and just local shit and helping my homies out. We’ll come out with boards pretty soon actually. Funny story. My homie Sean from Jersey [is going to do graphics], he's Space Bat Killer on Instagram. He did graphics for Creature, he did a graphic for a lot of these companies. Fucking sick.
I interviewed him for the magazine actually, a little bit ago. He was one of the first people to say yeah [laughs].
But I think I told him this — I told him I hate Jersey. I don't like New Jersey. Because I'm a Duke fan.
boneless to switch manny
I was going to ask if you had Duke thoughts; I figured you'd either love them or hate them. [editor’s note: this interview was conducted right as the Blue Devils were decimating the college basketball landscape; they ended up bowing out in the Final Four]
I love Duke. We're the number one seed. I'm telling you, if we take it all the way, I'll be proud. [editor’s note: still lots to be proud of my dude]
That is the most controversial statement in the whole interview, ‘I love Duke.’
We got to talk about them: I'm curious about the first time you sort of saw or were excited by someone throwing a boneless. I remember it might've been THPS when my friends and I first saw them and it was kind of funny; it was the ‘higher ollie,’ you know what I mean? They were sort of a magical kind of thing. But do you remember seeing that first one and being like, ‘that was fucking sick?’
October 15th, 2018. I just graduated high school not too long ago. I started skating August 20th, 2018. So I'm watching YouTube … and [a skate trick tip video] had the boneless. I was like, what the fuck? And I tried it. And then my adopted brother taught me how to do a boneless big spin.
That's a classic Mike V-style move right there.
Literally. And then fucking how to do a boneless front side flip, boneless 360. I cannot boneless three. I can't do it frontside no more.
Those are harder than people think. Just jumping 360 degrees standing still isn't that easy.
Backside for me is easier — I can wind up my shoulders and turn that way. Frontside is just because I'm goofy, I can't really turn. It's weird. I have to do it [backside].
Do you do the boneless backside also? Step off on the heel side and grab with the front hand or do you do a normal boneless?
I'm doing indy.
Okay. So like a normal boneless but backside.
Literally reverse.
you ever see a boneless over-willy to back d? don’t lie to me
Nice! Sometimes people will do 'em with the backside boneless. It’s kind of weird they call it that because normally you would call it a bean plant. I'm a bean plant guy. I used to boneless a lot more, but after I messed up my rotator cuff, it hurt to do 'em. So I was like, oh, a bean plant. But a backside boneless is a lot more like that in my opinion. Or a Russian boneless.
Andy Anderson! I saw him do it and I just keep doing it — I still do it. People are like, what the fuck? I was like, yeah, it's a Russian boneless. Why you call it that? I don't fucking know, dude.
It's been called that shit since the eighties [editor’s note: maybe? I didn’t look]. No one knows. It's lost to time. Probably some Russian dude did it first.
Cause I saw Andy Anderson do it and it was in Braille video. I used to watch Braille when I got into skating and then the whole Scientology shit happened,
Do you like Kento Yoshioka (aka Japanese Super Rat)? He's throwing all kinds of that shit, right? No complies, Russians down stair sets, he does everything.
Well, him and Ben Koppl, they blow my mind. I'm like, dude, I'm going to do this. If you say it's whack, you’re just a hater at this damn point.
It's inspiring to see. I’ve been skating off and on for a long time, but I've never been great at it or have a deep bag of tricks and it was COVID and I was like, well rather than going A to B, maybe we can start to do some tricks again. And I saw this Japanese Super Rat part and I was like, oh yeah, there's a whole fucking world of skating out there. It's not like, do a tre flip, do a heel flip, and that got me excited to get out there. They're doing their own thing.
boneless bs flip to axel; the pivot’s a lil bonus
That’s a decent segue, because one of the things that I thought was super cool or sort of caught my attention was you throwing all these boneless variations on transition. Because that's not something you usually see other than just throwing a big one. Doing 'em into stalls and disasters and things like that; not something you see every day. So what got you looking to do that? Just trying to do something different?
Funniest story. It was COVID and luckily my adopted parents, they bought — okay, it's going to sound fucking weird because I grew up poor and I know my mom, I know my real mom, blah blah, blah; I ain't going to say they was actually adopted. They just took me in because I needed place to live and my mom was going through a lot of shit. They bought an OC ramp for four grand. I was like, bro, what the fuck? Me and my brother, we skated all the time together. It was one then the other and he was going at transition for a minute until he wore Cariumas and then he stopped skating. Funniest shit, funniest shit. He still skates, I [just] give him so much shit.
We learned from each other … he did front shove, I did back shove. He did kickflip, I did heelflip. And then next thing you know, I'm like, dude, because I can boneless 180 kind of shitty frontside [on the ramp], I'm like lemme do it to 50-50. I did frontside 50, I did front smith, and then I did back 50 and then I was like, wait a minute. And then I did the fucking blunt and then I did all this other shit. I was like, no fucking way.
The one that surprised the fuck out me — I worked my ass off, I'm sweating. I remember it was around June. I did switch bone, switch back tail. I was so happy. I was sweating and I was like, yes, I got it. That's all I want. And I'm trying to get my switch game back on transition because I played my homies from Durham. I played them in a game of SKATE on transition and … they beat me because they did a switch frontside rock.
switch boneless to switch back tail? no sweat
Oh, you don't even see pros do switch front rocks, like, ever. I don't know if I've ever seen one, actually. [editor’s note: I probably have, idk, but none come to mind]
They done it and I was like, fuck, next time we play I'm going to get y'all on that.
Do you have any advice for skaters who see you doing your own thing and want to follow their own paths too?
Be yourself. Imagine everyone skating the same, that shit would suck ass — there no rules in skateboarding, just have fun!
Shout outs and thank yous?
Shouts Holy Mountain Printing, Pocket Bolts, Cones Wheels, all of NC skateboarding, cib Raleigh, Delicious Skate Shop, Manifest Skateshop, n2flow Skateshop, Lokèl, Belligerent clothing, Allen and Neal Family.
