In today’s interview, we meet Steve.

Steve lives in St. George, Utah, and is the founder of Surfskate Love – the most comprehensive online resource for surfskating. In our interview, Steve tells us about his passion for building, testing, and reviewing what is likely the world’s largest surfskate collection. We learn why surfskating has completely changed his life. Steve also gives some insights into what to expect from running a skateboard business and how the art of customization can truly change your off-the-rack surfskate experience. Enjoy the interview!

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You’re currently prototyping a 50” plus surfskate longboard deck, have you cracked it yet?

Yes! I have dialed in all the specs. It will be 50” long, 10.5” wide, and have a 34.5” wheelbase. It will also have 1cm of concave. I’ll take it to a manufacturer soon. But there will be a process from there. So I’m hoping to be able to release this one by spring of 2025.

After that, I want to develop a 57” deck.

People who follow your content know that you absolutely love customization. Do you think most surfskaters miss out, not optimizing their gear, or is this love for the details a hobby of its own?

Anyone on any stock surfskate can have tons of fun, and you certainly don’t need to upgrade and customize to enjoy surfskating. However, I have found that upgrading wheels, bushings, and bearings in particular makes a significant improvement in the feel of your ride. Upgraded wheels and bearings are much faster, and upgrade bushings are much more lively.

If a person has the budget for upgrades, I highly recommend them, both for advanced riders and beginners alike. It might seem counterintuitive to recommend upgrades to beginners. But upgrades can make it easier to learn.

For example, suppose you weigh 150 pounds and you’ve just bought your first surfskate, a Carver CX. You’ll certainly be able to learn on that. But you’ll be shocked to feel the difference between Carver’s stock bushings at 89a durometer, versus RipTide bushings in 87.5a or 85a. They are much easier to pump, which makes it easier to learn.

Faster wheels and bearings are helpful for bowl riding in particular.

Once you start learning how to upgrade and customize, it opens up a whole new world of possibility, and a whole new avenue for fun. For me, customizing is a big part of the fun of surfskating. I geek out over how much you can change your ride with small changes. It’s also very empowering to be able to build any type of surfskate you want.

This summer you launched the second generation of your Surfskate Love wheels. In a nutshell what is unique about Surfskate Love Wheels compared to other brands?

The urethane formula and specifications. According to our manufacturer, this is one of their highest rebound formulas. This means they return to their original shape quickly after being deformed by pressure. This makes them extremely fast and grippy.

You can certainly find other aftermarket wheels with specifications that work for surfskating. But personally, I find our wheels to be ideal in terms of size, edge, and core placement for surfskating.

Also, our formula is extremely durable compared to other aftermarket wheels. Between our formula and our slightly radiused edges, they don’t chunk nearly as easily as other wheels. This means they last much longer.

What do you say when people ask you what you do for a living? Do your friends and family understand what you do?

For the past two decades I have been a freelance writer and educational content marketer. In short, this means I explain things for a living.

My primary focus has been ghostwriting books. I’ve authored, co-authored, ghostwritten, or substantially edited 40 books since starting my writing career in 2006.

Your daughter Liberty is shooting and editing some of your content. What’s it like to work with her?

It’s a dream come true. First of all, I never would have been able to build my channel without her. But more than that, it adds a whole new level of fulfillment for me in the process. Liberty and I work extremely well together, and I’m having the time of my life working with her.

Any advice for enthusiasts who want to build a business from scratch? Would you do it again, especially in the current climate of social media and economical challenges?

Ha! Don’t do it—especially not in skateboarding! 🙂

But seriously, I would call this more of a passion project than a business. My intention to monetize comes simply from a desire to figure out a way to go as deep into my passion as the economics will allow. I have never expected to get rich from Surfskate Love. All I’ve wanted was to support the mission to spread the love of surfskating far and wide.

When I started, I had no idea how I was going to make money. I just knew that I would be able to figure it out along the way. And that’s exactly what has happened.

So I’d say this: If you want to start a true business for the primary intention of making money, then don’t start with passion. Start with market analysis and what you know can make money.

But if you want to spend your life pursuing your passion, then throw your whole heart and soul into it, regardless of the economics. Figure out a way to make a living doing it so you can get paid to play.

If you go after money, you’ll probably get it—but it will come at the expense of more important things in life. If you go after passion, there’s no guarantee you’ll get rich doing it. But you’re guaranteed to love what you do.

And you certainly don’t have to choose between money or passion. But you definitely need to be clear on which is the pilot and which is the co-pilot, because that’s what determines your decisions.

I’ve made many decisions with Surfskate Love that are frankly stupid from a purely financial perspective. But that’s not how I make my decisions, because that’s not my focus.

So if it’s solid entrepreneurial advice you’re looking for, don’t listen to me or follow my example.

You started your skateboarding journey as a dad in his 40s - how do you feel about your age? Any motivational advice for adult learners?

I feel incredibly blessed to have discovered skating at my age. If not for the COVID pandemic, I never would have had a reason to.

Skating has given me more benefits than I can count or measure. It has given me joy and passion. A new lease on life. Mental health. Physical health, strength, balance, and flexibility. Nonstop fascination for my mind with endless avenues for learning. I’ll never run out of things to learn here for the rest of my life. Connection and community. Confidence.
I could go on and on.

I’ve been accused in the online forums of Surfskate Love being a “midlife crisis.”

My response to that is, obviously. And can you think of a better one? I guess I could have bought a motorcycle or sports car. But I much prefer surfskates. 🙂

And the truth is that it’s much more than a temporary hobby. I’ll be surfskating until the day I die—or at least until the wheels roll off, as Rodney Mullen says. It has completely changed my life for the better.

You mentioned in a recent video that there is no real local surfskate scene in your home town of St. George, Utah. What keeps you motivated skating by yourself?

The stoke! It just feels too good. And it helps that we don’t get snow and get 300 sunny days a year. Also, the fact that I can walk out my front door and skate to the college a block from my house means it’s just a part of my daily life.

Is there a Steve outside the world of surfskating? What’s he like?

I’d say I’m pretty much the same as what you see with Surfskate Love, just with different interests. Anyone who watches my channel knows what a big nerd I am. I’ve been a huge reader for my whole life, since a very young age. I have a liberal arts education in the classics. Any time I get into something, I get obsessed and drill down deep. I want to know everything there is to know about it.

I write to pay the bills so I can surfskate and create surfskate content as much as possible.

Where do you see surfskating go in the next couple of years? What is next for you and Surfskate Love?

I believe surfskating has just scratched the surface of its potential. I believe it will continue to rise in popularity as more people discover it. I think we’ll see more longboarders gravitate to surfskates.

My experience is that most people get into surfskating for the same reasons I do: It gives you tons of stoke with high safety. The biggest market is people like me who are too old to keep getting hurt but want to keep feeling the stoke.

So it will never attract the hardcore skateboarders. But as those hardcore skateboarders age, I think we’ll see more and more of them convert to surfskating.

I believe that out of all skate categories (e.g. skateboarding, surfskating, downhill racing, freestyle, dancing, long distance pumping, etc.), surfskating has the broadest appeal. The biggest hurdle is simply that not enough people have heard about it.

But the fact is this: No matter how you look on a surfskate, the stoke you feel on one is the best feeling in the world. In short, surfskating just feels too good to not grow!