Ali Kermani Interview

In every sport theres always this one dude who always been around. Ali Kermani started out Shredding then quickly jumped to working for razor working as the team manager for that siick team we all wanted to be on as kids, he watched scooters roller coaster threw their popularity and stuck around for it all. When we started Trendkill  Ali was the first person that came to mind that I wanted to shoot the shit with and hear all these rad storys from the start of it all so Ali and I recently got to talking and got this on the go for all you shredders. The Man himself...Ali Kermani
So you were already barging concert on a skateboard before razor came to you with this foreign 2 wheeled object.. how did this come about n what were your first thoughts?

A few years before Razor started, I met a guy named Carlton Calvin at a local skatepark who was trying to make a skate video to help promote his company's new product called 'Finger Board' (predecessor to Tech Deck). His idea was to make a video that showed tricks on a skateboard and then the same tricks on one of his Finger Boards. After chatting a bit, he hired me to provide footage of the skateboard tricks. Then, a couple years after that Finger Board project had ended, Carlton hit me up one day out of the blue, asked me if I still skateboarded, and asked if I'd be willing to help him try to start a new sport using high quality folding aluminum scooters. Apparently he had read an article in the L.A. Times about how these scooters were a very popular mode of transportation for Japanese businessmen and thought that they might also be popular among American kids who were interested in action sports like skateboarding and BMX. So he hired me again, this time to provide footage of "whatever tricks I could come up with on a scooter". To be honest, my first thoughts were a mix of stoke and pride. I was stoked that this guy was going to pay me to fuck around with a cool looking toy. And my pride came in when I realized that making a dope looking video on a scooter with zero past experience was going to be a real challenge... and I love overcoming challenges.
 
hahaa how can you say no to that!! you had to see what he was talking about and take the dare. skateboarders always enjoy trying out my scooter and they all have that awkward way going about it, for you how was it stepping on er for the first time? since the biggest problem is compared to a skateboard it has that small deck and bars added in. how confident were you that you could over come the challenges that was brought to the table with knowing nothing about scooters, what did you first go for and barge?

To be honest, my initial plan was to handle the filming portion and get my friends that were way better skaters than me to do the tricks, but I quickly found that a lot of my homies were more concerned about their 'image' than about getting paid. At the time, I didn't understand them at all and didn't have time to waste, so I got someone else to film, and I got busy trying to learn tricks and stack clips. The main challenges I faced in transitioning from a skateboard to a scooter involved the handlebars. I didn't have a scooter growing up and my bikes always got stolen soon after I got them, so I didn't really have much handlebar experience. Since doing tricks on skateboards involves standing sideways and using your legs and upper body in a very specific coordinated manner, messing with that dynamic by tossing a handlebar in the mix was definitely a challenge at first, but it also opened a lot of new doors. Specifically, I remember one day early on when I was struggling to learn to tailwhip on flat and thought to myself... fuck this... I have handlebars... I'm going to just go fast and jump off some shit. There was a long and low 3 gap 3 at our local high school that I had broken myself off on countless times while trying to ollie it, so that was the first place I went. My record with that double set at that point was something like 3 landed ollies out of 420 attempts... so when I hopped down it with the scooter first try, it was game on! I spent the rest of that day and that summer hopping and 360ing down every street gap and stair set I could find. I always rode street spots, because that's basically all I had experience with and easy access to. This was like summer of 1999 I believe, and the only skatepark I knew of was an hour away in Huntington Beach (and it sucked), so I spent the summer learning how to shred a scooter in empty schools, parking lots, and local skate spots. Little did I know what was coming.

thats a pleasing thought knowing it mostly started in the streets. The first video i ever seen was a VHS called "scooterz" theres a section in it with bunch of dudes shreddin and you were actually one of the killers in it. i was soo stoked on it that i actually took your style from it n went with it. whats the story behind getting to hook up to film for that?

Todd Grossman, the guy that was making that video, was looking for some 'trick riders' and somehow got my number. I remember getting a call from some random guy that wanted to film me riding, and since the whole point of what I was doing for Razor at that point was to try to get a sport started, I said 'YES!' figuring any publicity was good publicity. Turned out that while that video was cheesy as hell, Todd was a super chill guy and we've actually become good friends over the past 13 years. There were actually a couple weird video/movie things that happened during that initial craze in 2000. I remember we went on a crazy trip to New York with Jarret Reid, John Wilkening, and Jason Fry where the director of that movie Demolition Man (with Sylvester Stallone) paid us to be chauffeured around downtown Manhattan from spot to spot in a stretched limo. LMAO - It was pretty ridiculous.

you should throw the idea of doing "scooterz 2" at him with this big up roar were having. you seen it blow up n first scooter craze begin you had to put together a team of shredders. how did you find and put together the first scooter dream team.. that was "Razor team USA"

In the very beginning, I tried recruiting my friends that could skate or bike and were open-minded. Like me, they mostly struggled and learned tricks based on sheer determination. Gotta give props to these guys because they paved the way for a lot of what's going on now, but they ate a lot more shit doing it! John Wilkening, for example, did the first legit boardslide down a handrail (9 stair at the Brooklyn Banks) I ever saw on a scooter... but he did it based on brute force. I don't think much of anything we did back then had great style... we were just trying to land tricks no matter what it took. Then, after the product hit shelves and were in thousands of kids' hands, we started seeing the real talent emerge. Jason Fry was the first person I remember being a natural talent. His whole family showed up at one of our team practice sessions with a VHS of him riding and a TV and VCR Jerry-rigged in their minivan. I remember thinking it was weird, but as soon as I saw him ride, it was obvious he was on a different comfort level. After Jason, we met Jarret Reid, who took things up another notch. Unlike Jason, who had only ever ridden scooters, Jarret was seasoned rollerblader/biker/skateboarder/acrobat/stuntman/nut ball who was gnarly on just about anything you handed him. Jarret was able to combine his skills and craziness to significantly raise the bar on what could be done on a scooter. In addition to the first backflip and backflip variations ever, Jarret also was the first person to hit and flip a mega ramp on a scooter. Although we had had a number of riders come and go in the past, I'd say the first legit team we had was Jarret, Jason, John, and your boy.


cheers to all the og og bro's toughing it out to get er done properly, you guys definitely knew what you were doing. Ive noticed you are bringin back all the hype with phase two?


Yeah bro, Phase Two is awesome. Basically, the riders and I convinced Razor to create a completely separate brand that is focused only creating top quality parts for serious scooter riders, and then let us run it however we see best. Razor backs us financially, but leaves all the product design and brand management in our hands... which is basically every rider's dream. The result has been great for everyone involved: The riders now have creative control over the design and development of the products they ride (and get paid for it); Razor gets a new core focused sub-brand that is run by the experts in the field: the riders; and the industry gets a company focused on raising the bar with respect to product quality and performance as evidenced by innovations like John Radtke’s Dirt Scoot and the new 110 Spotlight deck. Everyone wins.

hell yee! i was getting tired of that B model profile getting reused over and over again. that dirt scooter really blew up tho dude! really shows you guys are not messing around. whats the current team line up?

In the U.S. our crew includes John Radtke, Big Ron, Tanner Markley, Jason Beggs, Ricky Wernicke, Michael Pytel, Trevor Navarre, Dustin Nooner, Jeremy Malott, and Austin Kuentz, as well as Danny Rambert and Cameron Ward on our Phase Two Dirt Team. In Europe the crew is O.G. Martin Kimball, his brother Graham, Lewis Crampton, Scott Higgs, and Finn Murphy. And in Australia the crew consists of Royce King, Zac Everingham, and Reece Alderton, with Phil Lagettie as T.M. Basically a small Army.

Noiicce!! Thats pre sick you guys are doing a dirt scoot team also. Cant go wrong with phil lagettie managing the auss team. Whats up with videos? Full length or wha?

As you know, we used to put out full length DVDs back in the RVM days, but those only came out once every year or two and often the clips were pretty dated by the time people saw the DVDs. As Youtube got bigger and Razor started wanting content to post, I saw an opportunity to benefit Razor, the riders, and myself. I started a video production company called Acoustic Productions, hired talented riders to help me film and edit videos, and now make weekly videos for Razor's various YouTube Channels including www.youtube.com/teamrazorworldwide and www.youtube.com/phasetwoscooters. Team Razor O.G. Ricky Wernicke is the main editor and my partner in crime at Acoustic.


I was always stoked on those! People always wrap interviews up with asking bout last words n such but what i want from you are those inspiring words you told me when i was younger looking for a sponsorship n what needed to be done.

Not sure what I told you back then, but my advice today would be to focus on having fun instead of getting sponsored. Focus on the stoke of landing a new trick and on the laughs you share with your homies. Focus on being yourself and developing your own style; your own way of expressing the art of riding. If you do all that well, you can never go wrong... sponsorship or not.

Sounds bout right. Thanks for everything man, Interview n all. You will always kill er n have that impact on the sport that i enjoyed back in the day.


-Peasley