Jason Jessee

Last updated

Jason Lee Jessee [1] (born December 27, 1969), [2] professionally known as Jason Jessee, is an American professional skateboarder and automotive designer best known for his stint with Santa Cruz Skateboards in the late 1980s. He was identified as the 24th most influential skateboarder of all time by TransWorld SKATEboarding magazine in 2011. [3] The feature documentary Pray for Me: The Jason Jessee Film was released in 2007.

Contents

Skateboarding

Jessee's first sponsor was Powell Peralta and later Vision Street Wear, [2] but made the move to a professional sponsorship deal with Santa Cruz Skateboards in December 1987. He notably featured in the company's 1988 highlight video Streets on Fire, in which he played a fictional version of himself who is arrested and jailed for illegal skateboarding. [4] After an extended period of absence from the skateboarding industry, Jessee was once again sponsored by Santa Cruz and he helped the company during its 40th-anniversary celebration in 2013. [5]

Jessee appeared in the 2018 film Converse PURPLE, [6] but was then "indefinitely suspended" by Converse in May 2018—during which he also made his first Thrasher magazine cover appearance—after details of his controversial past surfaced. [7] [6]

Alongside other professional skateboarders such as Tony Hawk and Kevin Staab, Jessee was interviewed for the 2002 feature documentary Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator , about the tragedy of former professional skateboarder Mark "Gator" Rogowski. [8] Jessee later described Rogowski in a June 2014 interview as a "creep". [9]

Other ventures

Jessee has additionally worked as a custom-car and motorcycle builder, and was briefly a member of Los Angeles–based lowrider car club Dukes. [2]

Controversy

Jessee came under controversy in May 2018 when a thread on an online forum hosted by Slap magazine alleged his past usage of racial slurs, hate speech, and Nazi imagery. [10] [7] [6] The thread was later deleted but Vice published an article that month about the allegations, including details of a brawl at a skateboarding contest in 1986 between Jessee and African-American skateboarder Ned "Peanut" Brown, during which Jessee had reportedly called Brown "nigger". [11] Jessee consequently lost all of his endorsements, including that with NHS, the parental company of Santa Cruz Skateboards. [10]

On January 4, 2006, Jessee was removed from a flight and arrested at San Jose International Airport after passengers aboard the flight reported him writing in a journal that had the words "suicide bomber" written on the cover, in addition to his "acting bizarrely" and "clutching his backpack". [2]

He was arrested in April 2019 in Watsonville, California, for possession of a stolen vehicle and an unregistered and illegally-configured assault rifle. [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Hawk</span> American professional skateboarder (born 1968)

Anthony Frank Hawk, nicknamed Birdman, is an American former professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documented "900" skateboarding trick in 1999. He also licensed a skateboarding video game series named after him, published by Activision that same year. Hawk retired from competing professionally in 2003 and is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential skateboarders of all time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ed Templeton</span> American skateboarder and artist

Ed Templeton is an American professional skateboarder, contemporary artist, and photographer. He is the founder of the skateboard company, Toy Machine, a company that he continues to own and manage. He is based in Huntington Beach, California.

Natas Kaupas is an American former professional skateboarder. He grew up in South Santa Monica, California, in the area known as Dogtown, and is of Lithuanian descent. He is often referred to as one of the first true professional street skateboarders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jason Lee</span> American actor, producer, writer, photographer and skateboarder

Jason Michael Lee is an American actor, filmmaker, photographer, and former professional skateboarder. He is known for playing Earl Hickey in the television comedy series My Name Is Earl, for which he was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy TV series in 2005 and 2006 by The Golden Globes. He is also known for his roles in Kevin Smith films such as Mallrats (1995), Chasing Amy (1997), Dogma (1999), Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001), Jersey Girl (2004), Clerks II (2006), Cop Out (2010), and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019). Lee won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his performance in Chasing Amy.

Mark Anthony "Gator" Rogowski is an American former professional skateboarder who was convicted of murder. He was mainly prominent in the 1980s and early 1990s. Rogowski's career ended when he pled guilty for assaulting, raping, and murdering Jessica Bergsten in 1991. His life was chronicled in a critically acclaimed 2003 documentary titled Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator by American filmmaker Helen Stickler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Way</span> American professional skateboarder (born 1974)

Danny Way is an American professional skateboarder. He was awarded Thrasher magazine's "Skater of the Year" award twice. He is known for extreme stunts, such as jumping into a skateboard ramp from a helicopter; that was featured on the cover of Transworld Skateboarding magazine. One of his more notable stunts was jumping the Great Wall of China on a skateboard via megaramp.

<i>Gleaming the Cube</i> 1989 film by Graeme Clifford

Gleaming the Cube is a 1989 American film directed by Graeme Clifford and starring Christian Slater as Brian Kelly, a 16-year-old skateboarder investigating the death of his adopted Vietnamese brother.

Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator is a 2003 feature documentary film by the American filmmaker Helen Stickler about 1980s professional skateboarding champion Mark "Gator" Rogowski, who is now serving life in prison for rape and murder. Rogowski had one of the most popular signature skateboards in the 1980s, and the most coverage in skateboarding magazines and videos for a period of time in that era.

Michael Shawn Carroll is a professional skateboarder from Daly City, California, United States. He is the co-founder and vice-president of Girl Skateboards and the co-founder of Lakai Limited Footwear. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Chocolate Skateboards subdivision of Girl. Furthermore, Carroll is known for being in the vanguard of innovative, technical, and stylish street skateboarding in the early 1990s and beyond. The success of skateboarding videos like Hokus Pokus, Ban This!, and Video Days firmly ensconced street as the premier variation of skating.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elissa Steamer</span> American professional skateboarder (born 1975)

Elissa Steamer is an American professional skateboarder.

Baker Skateboards is an American skateboarding company founded in 2000 by professional skateboarder Andrew Reynolds. The company's main products are skateboard decks, soft goods, accessories, and wheels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nyjah Huston</span> American skateboarder (born 1994)

Nyjah Imani Huston is an American professional skateboarder. With numerous sponsorships and competition prize winnings, Huston is one of the highest paid skateboarders in the world. Huston won gold medals at the SLS Super Crown World Championship in 2014, 2017 to 2019, and has won 15 gold medals at the X Games since 2011. Huston won his first Olympic medal, a bronze, in the 2024 Olympic men's street event at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Kevin 'Spanky' Long is an American professional skateboarder. Long's skateboarding stance is goofy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Koston</span> American professional skateboarder

Eric Koston is an American professional skateboarder and company owner. He has been featured in the Tony Hawk's video game series and the Electronic Arts (EA) video games Skate 2 and Skate 3.

Lucas Puig is a French professional skateboarder. Puig's skateboarding stance is regular and he is a member of the Palace Skateboards team.

John Joseph Cardiel is a former professional skateboarder and snowboarder who has been a core member of the AntiHero Skateboards company since it was founded in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lewis Marnell</span> Professional skateboarder

Lewis Kristian Marnell was a professional skateboarder from Melbourne, Australia who was Slam Magazine's 2008 "Skater of the Year". Marnell died in January 2013, following complications related to type 1 (juvenile) diabetes, a condition that was diagnosed when he was 10 years old. Numerous tributes were published following Marnell's death and his longtime skateboard deck sponsor, Almost Skateboards, continues to use the hashtag "#LewisMarnellForever"—on 15 and 29 July 2014, the company published the hashtag with 2006 video footage of Marnell skateboarding in Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyshawn Jones</span> American skateboarder (born 1998)

Tyshawn Jones is an American professional skateboarder, from New York. He is a two time Thrasher Skater of the Year winner.

Neil Blender is an American former professional skateboarder, skate company owner, and artist. His pro career began during his senior year of high school in 1981. He is regular-footed. By 1986, Blender invented at least two tricks, the Wooly Mammoth and the Gay Twist.

Milton Martinez is an Argentine professional skateboarder. In 2019, Martinez was named Thrasher's Skater of the Year.

References

  1. ↑ Jason Jessee | The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 135, March 4, 2019. Jessee states in the introduction that his full name is Jason Lee Jessee Martinez, joking. He then states that his name is Jason Lee Jessee.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Staff (April 20, 2006). "I've Had So Much Fun with Cops". OC Weekly . Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  3. ↑ Blair Alley (December 20, 2011). "The 30 Most Influential Skaters Of All Time". TransWorld SKATEboarding. TEN. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  4. ↑ Streets on Fire (Home video). Santa Cruz Skateboards. 1988.
  5. ↑ Powderkeg (October 5, 2013). "Jason Jessee celebrates 40 years of Santa Cruz Skateboards" (Video upload). BNQT. USA Today Sports. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "Why is Thrasher Magazine Trying to Rehabilitate Jason Jessee's Reputation?". Max Dubler. May 30, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Murrell, Andrew (May 24, 2018). "Skateboarding Icon Jason Jessee Is Under Fire for Use of Swastikas and Racist Remarks". Vice. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  8. ↑ Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator (Motion picture). Stoked Productions. 2002.
  9. ↑ "Jason Jessee Speaks Chinese on Free Lunch" (Video upload). RIDE Channel on YouTube. Google Inc. June 25, 2014. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved July 26, 2014.
  10. 1 2 "Jason Jessee Dropped by Sponsors Amid Racism Controversy". The Berrics. May 25, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  11. ↑ Kelly, Emma (January 15, 2019). "The inclusive future of skating". The Strand . Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Jason Jessee Arrested on Stolen Car & Illegal Gun Charges". SKATE NEWSWIRE (Press release). April 26, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
  13. ↑ "Watsonville man arrested for having a stolen car and illegal gun". KION . April 26, 2019. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.