DC Shoes Archives | BY THE LEVEL

Brazil has long been responsible for producing some of the most exciting names in world skateboarding, a region known for its carnival vibes and happy people, it has offered up unique styles from hugely passionate skateboarders. Thaynan Costa is a name that falls in to that category. His life has centred around his progression in skateboarding, moving to Portugal at an early age and eventually to the European skateboarding mecca of Barcelona, where his experience would see him go on to win various comps across the globe. Renowned for his positive outlook and super loose but precise style, which is highlighted in Enjoi’s ‘Oververt’ and DC’s ‘De La Calle/Da Rua’, it was a treat to witness him tear up our local park and a pleasure catching up with him in person. We managed to grab Thaynan at the end of DC’s Special Delivery II Tour demo at The Level for a quick chat on his views on social media, skating Macba and the 2020 Olympics…

I’ve read before that you and Wes aren’t too concerned with promoting yourself through social media when it comes to skating. What do you think of social media as a whole?

It’s a good thing for sure, people can learn things. But it’s a bad thing too, people get too far in to it, ending up just filming everything for Instagram, or Facebook you know?

I mean, I like social media for sure, I’m on it a lot. But I’m not gonna be that guy that’s like trying for 3 hours for a trick just to upload to Instagram to get some likes. I don’t care about that.

You’re in to your photography though right?

Yeah man!

What do you shoot on at the minute? Heard you like shooting film…

Yeah I like Polaroid for sure. I have an SX-70, its good, but I don’t shoot much on that because its so expensive. But when I have film, I shoot with that, or the Yashica Electro 35, I shoot with that quite a bit too.

You obviously travel a lot with skateboarding, what would you say is the most picturesque spot you’ve been to?

Ah I think, Patagonia. That was tight. There wasn’t soo much in terms of places to skate but it was a life experience for sure!

What would you says the best skate trip you’ve been on?

Maybe the first trip with Enjoi, we went to China and spent a month out there. I mean a month was probably a little bit too much but you skate a lot and not a lot else, we didn’t really party, we just skate go home and sleep. Pure skating, it was fun!

You’ve lived in Brazil, Portugal and now in Spain right?

Ah now I’m not tied to one place, I just keep moving.

I grew up in Brazil, I was born there and when I was 12/13 I moved to Portugal and lived there until I was 16 and then moved to Barcelona for a year and a half.

Where did you find the most beautiful women?

[Laughs] Ah I don’t know man. That questions a bit of a booby trap [laughs]

So you lived in Barca for a year, you skated Macba everyday, you must of seen some gnarly shit?

For sure, you see some very good skateboarding and crazy drunk guys just in general.

As someone who skates Macba everyday, off the top of your head whats the gnarliest bit of skateboarding you’ve seen happen?

Fuck. Just seeing fucking Jesús Fernández and Javier Sarmiento when they’re having a good session is just fucked up. They do the most fucked up things, and you just sit there and watch it. When I turn up and you know they’re having a good sesh, I just sit there and watch, it’s super gnarly.

Whats the craziest thing you’ve seen happen off the board?

One time I was skateboarding, I don’t know who the fuck this guy was, but theres like a plaza and fountain in the middle and this drunk guy just gets on top of the fountain and took his clothes off. The cops show up and he’s just like “Fuck You” to the cops. Eventually he jumps in the fountain from the top.

From the top?! Was he ok?

Yeah man, the next day he was back at Macba!

There are soo many Macba kids killing it right now. Out of all those killing it is there anyone you want to shout out?

For sure, fucking Pedro Attenborough he’s gnarly. Jose ‘Sixsas’ Diaz, he is so sick, for me he is the guy I’m most hyped about. A good friend and like a gnarly skater too, already. Both those guys are good kids too, look out for them.

What’s your favourite trend in skateboarding right now?

Thing is I like trends, until they get too trendy you know? I like just like bumping up bumps, I was in London and was looking for some spots, I found like two. I found a bump to an electric box, and we skated this bump over a street that Nick Jensen switch flipped, that thing is fucked! When I got there I was like no way, someone switch flipped this!

London’s hard to skate man…

It’s different for sure. When you skate Barcelona, its just like marble everywhere. I skate 48mm wheels and just had to push so hard. It’s always good times though.

Any trends in skateboarding you’re not hyped on right now?

Hmm, I don’t know. I like no comply’s, sex changes and all that. I just don’t like when people do that too much. People can do whatever they want to, but yeah sometimes its too much.

Most underrated trick?

Erm, pressure nose-slide.

Damn I’ve never seen anyone do that! Snappy or Pressure?

Pressure

That sounds mad! How about most overrated ?

Ah, right now, I think backside 360. Everyone is doing them, I like them, but everyones doing them.

Who would you say influences your style the most in skateboarding?

I always liked the older skaters, like Ray Barbee, I like Jason Dill, Jake Johnson for sure, Alex Olson, Mark Gonzalez, Van Wastell, all those guys are sick.

I know you’ve probably been asked this question loads. What’s your views on skateboarding in the Olympics?

For me, its there already it’s happening. I mean I’m not in to it, but I’m not a hater. If you want to go do it go do it. I see skateboarding as two sides, there are skateboarders who film parts and have fun, and then there are the competition guys who are athletes you know? They skate skateparks every day trying to focus on landing every trick perfectley like one after the other, boom boom boom. To me that’s just something else, that’s not really skateboarding.

Would you participate yourself?

No, I don’t think so man I’m not that into it.

Fair enough man. So what’s your plan for the rest of the trip?

So next we are heading to Bath then Bristol, and then the boys are going home and I’m heading to Budapest with the Enjoi guys and gonna stay there for a bit.

Sick, enjoy that!

Interview: James P Lees

Portrait: Lily Brown

Introduction: Kieran Sills

At the start of September we had some familiar faces from the DC squad roll through to share some summer vibes and put on a biblical display of skateboarding. One of the highlights was without a doubt getting a chance to have a chat with former SOTY, Wes Kremer. Our friends over at Glazed were kind enough to close the doors and provide donuts and trees to christen the interview, that by the end of which we were all truly glazed & confused. With a positive attitude, hilarious sense of humour and the best Madars Apse impression we’ve ever heard, Wes is one of the funniest people we’ve ever had the pleasure of talking to. This is the Wes Kremer interview…

DC and your other sponsors seem to hook it up pretty good with all the places you’ve been to on trips. Where do you reckon the true Mecca of skateboarding is after everything you’ve seen?

There’s multiple man for sure. I guess people would say the Mecca of Europe would of course be Macba, Barcelona. People from all over the world go there.

Barca’s always a good trip!

Every time definitely! Spain’s one of my favourite places to go for sure. Barca’s one of the world Meccas. Of course there’s LA, New York, San Francisco; California in general for sure.

And where’s your favourite spot?

San Diego for sure! It’s a good time you should come out and visit. I’ll definitely greet you with a donut and a spliff to return the favour! [Laughs]

On a deeper note what do you think about skateboarding and the mainstream with the corporate giants dipping their fingers in skateboarding today?

I guess it’s just the way the world turns. Skating’s escalated to this point so it’s inevitable. I’m not a big fan of it because you’ve got the major corporations taking a lot of money from skating and that’s just pushing out the smaller brands. I guess we need to get more skaters against the corporations. It’s fucked because they have the money to get their shit out there and people who already recognise them from whatever previous sports just assume it’s the best shit you know? It’s gotta go back to the millennium era when people were like “Aw D3s they’re the best”. Somehow those went insanely mainstream you know what I mean? Es, Etnies, Osiris, Circa; they were all skate companies ruling the mainstream market for a while.

They used to drop some insane colourways back in the day.

Yeah the Muska’s dude! The Muska’s were goin’ off for sure!

Didn’t G-shock fly you and a pretty strong squad to Tokyo a few years back?

Yeah it was an epic experience; most insane contest I’ve ever been to. Skateboarding, BMX, BMX freestyle and breakdancing. There was pretty much this giant arena, all this crazy music; it was so fun.

Did you get a load of free G-shock shit?

Yeah I got 2 watches because they flew me out two years in a row!

Serious question though… Does wearing a G-shock make you better at skateboarding?

[Laughs] 100 percent man you’re never late! That was the one downside about the contest cause you had to wear a watch. You had to wear this fat G-shock while you skated. I definitely slammed on it a couple times n’ scratched it up.

Killed the wrist?

Oh wrist, Gone! [laughs]

You’ve made it clear in plenty of other interviews that you’re not huge on promoting yourself and your skating through social media. Beyond skateboarding what do you think about social media as a whole? Do you think it’s a good thing for people?

I guess with everything you’ve got to look at both sides. It’s good for certain things like if you wanna share a photo or something funny you’re stoked on with your friends; but now it’s past personal and onto popularity dude. It’s a popularity contest more or less. People are looking for followers, looking for likes. What turned me off of it was seeing all my friends fully engaged in their phone. Now as the years go by you see everyone in more or less most first world societies just on their phone. I was in South America last year cruisin’ around and I didn’t see anyone on their phone. They were just out in the streets kickin’ it, more down to talk n’ shit. Now you just see people walking into poles you know what I mean? [Laughs].

On a more chilled note. Most profound mushroom experience?

Oh Fuck. Pretty much any time with a good crew, some good music and a skateboard.

Just keeping it simple right?

For sure just getting some fresh air n’ cruisin’ around. Everytime I think of mushrooms my mind just gets all spacey [laughs].

Best Madars moment?

[Laughs] There’s too many man! Anytime you hang out with Madars it’s a new story.

Give us one?

Let’s see… Ok I’ve got a good one. So you guys know about Copenhagen?

For sure

Christiania’s like this hippy commune where you’re not allowed to take photos or film. We were there right when Madars first started filming for Mad World so he was just trying to get footage of everything [laughs]. We walk into Christiania [Laughs], fuckin’ Madars just boom pulls out his go pro, sticks out his arm just straight filming into the pushers street where all the weed and hash dens are. He went in full go pro like, “Hello!” [laughs]. This dude ran up on him telling him to stop, grabbed his camera saying he’d smash it. The homies were just trying to tell him to just take the memory card and luckily he just swooped the card n’ was out. It was one of those you know? Right when he pulled out the camera I was like, “Dude what’re you doing? Put that away”. Madarse was just like, “Nah come on man that shit’s ok!” [laughs]

How’d you take the news about Billy Chusta leaving DC for Nike?

Oh Billy Chust dude! Billy Chust gone! Billy Gone! [laughs]. It was inevitable for sure.

You got a good Billy Chust moment you can share with us?

We made a good rap about him [laughs]. I don’t know it’s kinda good to have him on trips because you know at night sometimes they’re trying to light stuff up to film when we weren’t skating; so he’d just go skate and we’d just smoke joints n’ talk shit more or less. It was sick [laughs]. But a good moment? Fuck I don’t know he’s a bum [laughs]. Probably just the fact that we made a rap about him and showed him.

Was he hating on it?

Yeah for sure. It was a good time [laughs].

Who in the mafia squad rolls the biggest warhead?

Let’s see… P kid rolls a proper banger, Surrey definitely manages many a banger, JP the stee holds it down. Xavier holds it down with the hash.

You’ve got all sides pretty covered then.

Yeah for sure.

Who’s the biggest Casanova you’ve ever been on a trip with?

Billy! Casanova like thinks they’re sick, ego blasts? Wait what’s a Casanova really? [laughs]

Like who’s the player on trips? In a good way!

Oh fuck! In a good way?! Miller’s a player, Kev’s a player. We’re all players! [laughs]

Who’s the mastermind behind the ‘Wes we can’ campaign?

Pretty much the art directors over at DC wanted to do a commercial for when I was coming out with the shoe so they wanted to go with the presidential campaign candidate shit.

Were you hyped on it?

Yeah for sure! They kind of did something similar with the last shoe with the ‘yes on Wes’. Was that it or? I can’t remember [laughs].

How do you find it skating over here?

Oh its’ fuckin’ good man. There’re some rugged spots but you guys hold it down tough as fuck. You’ve got a sick park here too, the Brighton park’s dope.

You’re a fan?

Hell yeah it’s super fun man! It’s big, spacious, everyone’s hangin’ out smokin’ tree! [laughs]

For more from the DC Special Delivery Tour II, head over to www.dcshoes-uk.co.uk

Interview: James P.Lees

Imagery: Lily Brown

Video: Sirus F Gahan

A huge thanks to the good guys at Glazed for hooking us up!