Skateboarding
Oregon Coast Dream Backyard Skate Bowl
Kevin Kowalski gives us his take on going upside down at his own personal skate bowl.
2 min
Checkout: Kevin Kowalski
Kevin talks wild animals, backyard bowls and going upside down, to fakie.
Growing up on the Oregon Coast in the Pacific Northwest, Kevin Kowalski grew up skating what he had around him: concrete parks with big transitions. Had he lived his early years elsewhere, say, Barcelona, Kowalski might be all about kickflip crooks. Instead, it's loop heroics and scary frontside disaster variations.
Speaking of those loop heroics, Kowalski, 22, casually calls it “going upside down.” He's got a pro wheel coming out later this year for Bones and also skates for Lifeblood Skateboards, Independent Trucks, Bones Bearings and Dakine.
He describes his approach to upside down as “hold on, hope for the best.” Kowalski is of the vanguard of upside down skating.
Kevin Kowalski – Crail madonna
© Garric Ray
You’ve got a backyard bowl, is that in Seal Rock at your parents’ house?
Yeah, it’s at my parents’ house on the Oregon Coast.
The videos that I’ve seen of it, it looks like the middle of nowhere. You ever get like squirrels or weird animals trapped down in there?
Oh yeah, I’ve seen like frogs and snakes and stuff in my bowl. Sometimes there’s deer in the yard or the occasional bear that roams around at night.
That sounds rad, how did that whole thing come about?
It started with an idea and then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger. I don’t know, we had a small budget and I talked to Mark Scott from Dreamland Skateparks and he was down to help me out. I just built as much as I could until I ran out of money, then I built more when I got more money, to just keep it going. Now I have just a big piece of concrete in the backyard.
Kevin Kowalski – Pivot to fakie
© Garric Ray
That’s “Red” Scott, right, he’s on Lifeblood too, he’s a teammate?
He’s pro for Lifeblood and I’ve known him since I was a little kid. He built most of the parks that I grew up skating. It was really cool to have him help me out with my backyard.
Did you film much for that Lifeblood video part in your backyard bowl? Does it help having your own bowl when you’re filming a video part?
Yes it does, because one of the hardest things is just getting things from different spots and traveling around to piece it together. Having that in my backyard I can always go, “Let’s go to my house and get some clips,” so I can always guarantee there’s something to get there.
When did you first do something like the loop? Was that in a full pipe or was that in a cradle?
When I started trying to go upside down it was in cradles at skateparks. Lincoln City has a good cradle and there’s a park in Reedsport that has an actual funnel-type loop and that’s the first loop I actually did. But I learned how to go upside down in cradles.
Kevin Kowalski – Boneless
© Garric Ray
I like how you say that, “go upside down”. What about that loop to fakie, loop frontside revert thing? How did that come about?
That was just a crazy spur of the moment idea. My friend Peacock was at my house and he was on his way back to California. We were still filming for the Lifeblood video "Service for the Sick", and he was like, “Hey man, you could still use some clips for your part. Film with us, we’re gonna stop at Reedsport along the way.”
I was like, “I’m gonna try to loop revert,” and he was like, “What?!” I just wanted to do that because I’d already looped it, and I saw Screech do a loop revert attempt before, and come pretty close, so I thought it was possible to try.