Heroin Skateboards
Dead Dave, Craig Questions Scott, Zane Timpson, Lee Yankou, Tom Day, Chris Pulman, Corey Leso, Aaron Wilson, Anaiah Lei, Chet Childress and Chopper. Does that ring a bell? Exactly... All of them are Heroin team riders and represent Mark "Fos" Foster's company. Heroin Skateboards was started in 1998 from his hospital bed in New Cross, London. The name has nothing at all to do with Mark being a heroin addict or loving drugs. Quite the opposite. He hates drugs and simply found the name very appropriate for his company, as he is addicted to skateboarding. Besides, the name is very catchy, isn't it! Today, the brand is under the Baker Boys umbrella. In 2011, Fos decided to bring Heroin to America to make more of an impact on the US skateboarding scene. The image created for Heroin is instantly recognizable with graphics designed by Fos and has earned him a loyal following in both the UK and the US.
The history of eggs
I thought it was time for a little look back. We've been making Eggshapes since 2016, there was a bit of a break between fall 2016 and spring 2018, but since then we've stayed pretty consistent with the Eggs. The first Eggshape we made was suggested by Shimizu, she was loosely based on a Mike Carrol mold. I don't know if you remember the shapes from back then, but the wheelbases were super short, all under 14", so it was 8.5, but it felt a lot smaller because of the wheelbase.
The riders liked it, but they said they would like to see a bigger version. It took me a while to design a taller version, I updated the wheelbase and made it a 9.125 in the middle (about 8.625 over the trucks). To be honest, I tried it out almost reluctantly because I really like our Popsicle molds, but I found it so functional that I ended up running five in a row and had graphics put on that mold at the factory whenever I needed new boards. I rode it on Indy 149s for a long time and it worked great. I recently switched to 159s.
The Egg for summer 2019 was an updated version of the Shimizu, I made it a bit bigger and increased the wheelbase, which was far too short before. This was part of the Black Summer series. Vacation 2018 saw the first VERY large Egg shape, ten inches wide and 32.25 long. People loved this model and I was constantly asked about it over the next few years. In the fall of 2018, we did the Anatomy of an Egg deck, and I really enjoyed drawing that graphic. I had the idea, and it didn't take too many revisions until I had it to the point where I was happy with it. I ended up raffling off the original graphic for it.
Razor edge
2019 was the first year we started making "Razortop" decks. With an unfinished top edge for a more responsive ride. A lot of people ask me what it is and why we use it, it was Chet's suggestion, he had seen a Grosso board with it and really wanted to get some boards made, I tried it out and loved it, super responsive on flips, your feet really feel like they are "inside" the board when you do a feeble or something. If you haven't tried it yet, I highly recommend it. It's everything I want to ride these days. So it made sense to put my favorite shape on it, and that's how the Razoregg came out for Holiday 2019.
The Eggxorcist came to mind one day, and I laughed at the egg man as a silhouette looking up at the window. In hindsight, it could have been a different size or I should have gone for razorotop, because that and the anatomy were exactly the same shape and quite close to each other in the market.
It's been a while since we made the 9.125 egg from Summer 2020, so it was well received when it came back. I also released a slightly smaller version (the fried egg) by a contributing artist (@lucas_blackarms). Unfortunately, our factory was shut down for a while when Covid started, and any back orders we had for the boards for summer 2020 (including the French "Videodrome" series) were never made as we had moved on to fall when things were back to normal. So the fried egg and the golden egg are hard to come by.
In the fall of 2020, I reissued my favorite board, the Razoregg 9.125, as well as our most requested shape, the Very Big Egg. As I'm typing this, I was just thinking, "Damn, I should stock a box of these Razoreggs so I always have something to ride. The Space Egg (same shape as Anatomy and Eggxorcist, but with razortop construction) is in stock at Baker Boys, and the soft boiled egg board is apparently arriving tomorrow. People really liked the fried egg and asked me for a smaller one, so I made it 8.7 inches tall. I hope you enjoyed this little egg recap. The plush toy is now in stock at Baker too, I'm so excited that we were able to make it. I already have more fun stuff planned for 2021. (via Heroin Blog)
All old heroin videos
The first heroin video "Good Shit" was filmed with an old VHS C camera that a Mexican gentleman gave me while on vacation in SF in 1996. I think his cousin "liberated" it from a tourist at some point, and he ended up giving it to me because it was in PAL format. At the time, I was flat broke, sleeping on couches (thanks Josh and PJ) and scrounging for change in the back of the couch to buy red licorice or dollar tacos, so getting a video camera was a big deal. I had never really thought about filming the skating, I just skated. But I started taking the camera to spots and getting my friends to film me when I did something I thought was worth pointing a camera at (yeah, it's debatable, I know). I used two video players to cut together little video sequences. At some point I started a skateboard company and decided to call it Heroin Skateboards.
I had what could possibly resemble a video part scattered across about 20 VHS-C tapes, some footage of an unknown up-and-comer from Lancashire called Snowy and footage of a mysterious vagrant who skated in Stockwell known as Rough Mike, along with some very enthusiastic footage of friends. I rang a friend of a friend called Alan Glass who was an editor living in Brighton and asked him if we could make a video with all this footage. I went and met Alan and over the course of a few weekends we shot a skateboarding video called "Good Shit". That came out in 1999. A lot has happened since then, we have more team riders, we have new cameras, we have international distribution, but we're still the same as we were back then, scratching around trying to get something together and filming with cameras that are falling apart.
GOOD SHIT (1999)
The first Heroin Skateboards video from 1999, edited by Alan Glass and Fos. Parts by Rough Mike, Fos and Snowy and many other friends. Filmed mainly in London, a bit of Southsea, a bit of Lancaster and Manchester.
Everything’s going to be Alright (2002)
Our second VHS release from 2002, featuring Joey Pressey, Arthur Tubb, Chris Pulman and Chopper as a team, with full roles from all of them. Filmed and edited by Fos and Alan Glass.
Live From Antarctica (2005)
Our first DVD offering. LFA introduces Rogie, Hamaji, Howard Cooke, Nick Worthington and Louie Jones in the Heroin Squad. Chopper and the Osaka Daggers complete this DVD and there are contributions from Chris Pulman, Fos and Arthur Tubb. Filmed by Fos and Alan Glass and others, and masterfully edited by Alan Glass.
Magic Sticky Hand (2007)
Video Nasty (2013)
Bath Salts (2015)
The VHS edit of our 2015 video by Cody Thompson and James Craven. We used songs we wouldn't have gotten clearance for and released it on a limited edition VHS tape. Now you can see it here for the first time.
Magic Sticky Hand 2 (2017)
With Patrick Franklin, Anaiah Lei, Zach Riley, Craig Questions, Logan Devlin. Filmed and edited by Cody Thompson, Darien Brown, James Craven, Max Roton, Fos, Jake Menne.
