Jafin Garvey : Surveillance Interview

Jafin Garvey is the definition of Bay Area skateboarding. Rails – he chomps em, backside airs – he tweaks em, gaps – he sails em and spots – he hunts em down. If Jafin rolls through your town be sure to say whats up because he’s one of the nicest guys out there and guaranteed to hype up any session. To Jafinity and beyond!

jafin-portrait

Nate Alton (REAL Team Manager) : A lot of people don’t know much about you so let’s start with some basics, full name, age, where you’re from, where do you live now?

Jafin Garvey : My name is Jafin Garvey, I’m from Berkeley, California, I’m now living in San Francisco and I’m 21 years old.

NA : You grew up in the Bay Area skateboarding community, specifically the East Bay, which is a pretty tight-knit family. Who are some of the older skaters you looked up to growing up, and would see around the park, stuff like that?

JG : I remember being at a young age and seeing all the older guys at Berkeley Park, like John Stallings, Errol Langdon, Dan Drehobl and Tony Trujillo. I just remember seeing a lot of those guys who skated Transition and being hyped when they’d skate the park.

NA : What do you think makes the East Bay skate scene so special and such a tight-knit community?

JG : I always remember it being super sick when everybody would be at the skate park feeding off of each others energy and pushing each other to try to push it farther. I think that always influenced me a lot when I skated. I’d always skate the hardest and best when I would have all my friends around me and everybody was hyped off each other. I think that’s what makes it the best, really.

NA : Would you ever live anywhere else other than the Bay Area?

JG : Not for now. Right now I’m cool, but I definitely want to travel around. I could see myself living somewhere else for a little while, like LA or somewhere, but I definitely want to end up coming back to Bay Area.

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Front Feeble BS 180 in the cutts of ATL. Photo : Morford

NA : You’re currently working at the Berkeley skate park, which is where you grew up skating. Is it fun working there where you learned how to skate?

JG : Yeah, it’s definitely crazy how its come around full circle. I’m super thankful that I’m able to work at a place I can call my second home and grew up skating. I can skate when I want there while I’m working too. I couldn’t ask for a better job, really.

NA : The Bay Area has a thing where it breeds all-terrain skaters. Is growing up skating the Berkeley Park and growing up in the Bay Area the reason why you’re such an ATV?

JG : I remember looking up to all the people who were older than me when I was growing up skating and they all skated and attacked everything. It wasn’t necessarily street or transition it was kind of both. I remember when I was super young, looking up to Tony Trujillo the way he skated everything like that and some of the older guys that I knew who definitely skated everything. It wasn’t necessarily considered ATV back then. I guess it could be, but to me they just ripped everything.

NA : You used to skate with your younger brother a lot. Was it cool growing up having someone else to skate with all the time? Were you guys super competitive?

JG : Oh man, yeah. Having a little brother to skate with was the biggest thing. We were competitive but he’s 4 years younger than me, so I started skating way before him. He was always pushing himself to try to compete with me, and it was cool to always to have somebody to skate with. Even just in front of our house, we had a little ramp we set up and launch off it into the driveway. I didn’t think about it at the time, but thinking back now, its definitely great to have a homie that’s your brother to skate with.

NA : Did that motivate you more to get better at skating?

JG : Yeah, definitely. I always wanted to learn and try as many new things to impress my little bro, and my friends too. He’d always be doing little stuff, and he learned how to ollie after I’d done an ollie for a while. He was always trying to catch up with me. I remember when I learned how to kickflip, he was so bummed. He wasn’t bummed, but he was like, “Oh man, I got to learn that too.” But he was younger so he didn’t have the strength to do it yet. Yeah, it definitely pushed me to want to get better. Little brother rips for sure.

NA : What’s your brother up to these days?

JG : He’s finishing up high school and he does music too. He’s a rapper. He’s killing it though and he still skates all the time. I hit him up and we go to Berkeley Park sometimes. He’s just finishing up school and doing him.

NA : There’s a lot of kids from the Bay Area skate scene that are rappers too, it’s cool to see all the homies doing both.

JG : Yeah, as long as somebody’s doing them, putting work into what they’re doing and staying out of trouble, I can’t hate on it. For me, I’m going to stick with skating.

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50-50 into MVP Status on his first REAL Trip. Photo : Morford

NA : Who’s your crew now? Who do you skate with on a normal day in the Bay?

JG : My roommate right now, Tafari, my homies Desmond and Kalin. All the homies at the skate park, Louie, Gabe Morford. There’s a lot of homies in that scene. Pretty much all the homies at SoMa, that’s where we all meet up.

NA : How do you like getting out and shooting photos with Gabe?

JG : It’s sick. I like it because usually when we go out, we get to it and it’s very productive. Gabe always has a bunch of sick spots to check out. He’s always down to go mission around and go check out something. It’s always a good vibe with him, so it’s always sick to go skate with all those guys.

NA : Yeah, Gabe’s got all the spots on lock. He’s definitely the Bay Area OG.

JG : And the best photographer too, the real OG.

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Backside Flip to break the 50-50 cycle. Photo : Morford

NA : So how did you start getting hooked up with REAL boards?

JG : I remember buying REAL boards when I was super young. I don’t know, I always liked Deluxe stuff. I always rocked it but I remember knowing you back when I was super young and then meeting Jim too. I remember Jim gave a pair of wheels one time and I remember there’d always be contests at the skate park and you hooking up REAL boards. Then Jim saw me riding one. That was when I was super young so it’s hard to remember, but I just remember Jim always hooking it up. He would just give me a board here or there if I needed one. Then recently, I was at the skate park and I saw Jim and it had been a while since I’d seen him. He just told me slide through Deluxe if I ever needed boards. I think thats when it started again.

NA : Do you remember the first time you met Jim?

JG : I think so. I’d always see him around as a kid. People would be like, “Oh, that’s Jim.”  All my friends, would know who he was. I remember I was at Peace Wall Park in Berkeley and Jack, his son was there. I didn’t even know that it was his son at first. We were just skating. I think he was trying something and I was hyping him up like, “Yeah, get it.” After Jack was leaving, Jim just came up to me and was like, “Hey, heres a pair of wheels, keep skating man.” And I told him my name and I just remember thinking how sick that was that somebody would do that. I think since then I would see him around and I would say, “What’s up?” But yeah, he’s definitely a face that I’ve known about and seen. He’s a legend.

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Sweating it out at an abandoned spot. Photo : Morford

NA : You’ve been on a few trips before, but ATL was your first official trip. Were you nervous?

JG : Yeah I mean nervous in the way where you’re always apprehensive to see what spots you end up skating. But after being on a trip before with Jake and Robbie, I wasn’t as nervous to go on a trip. It was cool though, because those guys are sick. I’d skated with them a couple times back in the Bay Area before I went on that AZ trip too. It’s always good vibes, and I think we had a good ass time out there.

NA : Yeah, it was definitely a good time. Was there anyone on the trip that you hadn’t met yet?

JG : Yeah, James and Justin. Justin was so rad for letting us stay at his house, super sick dude. I’m definitely trying to get back to ATL soon. They’re killing it out there. Justin’s house is sick. Shout out to those bugs that were crawling around the little zapper thing. He hooked up the grill too. That was super hospitable, true southern hospitality.

NA : Did Jake Donnelly pick on you on this trip a lot?

JG : Yeah, I guess a little bit. I’m not taking it personal or nothing like that. Just a homie, so it was all in good fun. I feel like growing up in East Bay, I’ve had older homies I always talked shit to, just being a little homie. It’s not like you got to take it the wrong way, you just got to talk a little shit back but not too much. Shut up when you are being dumb. It’s all good.

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No wax, no problem… Jafin is down. Photo : Morford

NA : What’s the story with 50-50s on this trip, and who broke the cycle?

JG : I guess maybe it was the 50-50 on the hubba, the first spot we pulled up to. I guess I started the cycle with that. I got 50-50 on the hubba, and then I’m pretty sure Robbie at the next spot 50-50d that out rail. At that point, we were just calling it 50-50 trip. I don’t know. We pretty much kept it going for a couple more spots but then I can’t remember who broke the cycle. Was it Jake?

NA : Yeah, I think it was Jake with that frontside flip.

JG : Yeah, after that it was a wrap.

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Jafin went off on these rails. Front Crook to seal the deal. Photo : Morford

NA : So your hand was pretty jacked-up on this trip, you can see it in the edit. Did you handle all your push-ups?

JG : Yeah, I had to, even with that hand. Before we had left on the trip I was skating a pretty crusty spot and I hit a rock. Then out there we started off at that hubba and it was another crusty spot. My wrap that I had on fell off and got fucked up. My hand got re-opened. But it was all good, I still had to handle my push-ups, you know?

NA : Yeah. How many push-ups did you do?

JG : I don’t even know. Enough. At least like three hundred, two hundred, or something. My arms were sore. I couldn’t tell if it was from skating or from push-ups.

NA : Who did the most push-ups?

JG : Man, I don’t know, it might have to be Pete. Jake and Robbie were not playing, they was delegating them push-ups.

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Down but not out. Photo : Morford

NA : True, the push up police don’t play. You skated some pretty sketchy spots out there. I know I was scared a few times. Like that stucko hubba that you 50-50d, and you didn’t want to wax it. Which one was the scariest for you?

JG : That hubba, even though it was just a 50-50, that was gnarly. It was in the back of some abandoned church or something that we had to take a dirt pathway up to. On one side of it there was a cross and a bunch of candles that had been lit earlier. It was just a weird vibe. I don’t even know where we were at. I was feeling weird vibes at that one. But other than that, all the spots were super sick. One of them was kind of sketchy, even though it was right by the stadium. It was a bunch of abandoned houses. We went in there and there’s this crazy looking shit on the walls, completely burned down, and some dude sleeping in the corner. That was a trip but I tried not to focus on that.

NA : How does it feel to be MVP of the trip?

JG : Shit, I don’t know about that. I was just skating. It was good times out there so I was just trying to get in as much as I could. All the spots we went to were sick. I felt like I wanted to try to skate as much as possible.

NA : You killed it Jafin. Any plans for stuff coming up, Trips, video, parts or anything else?

JG : Yeah, I’m hyped to go on more trips. I’m working on a little part with some of the homies right now. Then just keep filming with Jeremy, keep shooting with Gabe, and try stacking it up.

NA : Right on. Anyone that you’d like to thank? Any last words?

JG : Shout out to all the homies, the family. Shout out to you Nate, Jim, everybody for keeping it lit. You guys all kill.

Follow @JafinGarvey on Instagram. Interview by @Nate_Alton. Photos by @MorfordMedia.