Dylan...what comes to mind...He is fairly quiet in person, style and class. An old soul and no mercy when it come to riding a skateboard.
To put it in a nut shell: He is one on my favorite skaters of all time. (Arto)

Dylan Rieder is one of the gifts given to skateboarding. Anyone can tell this by seeing him ride his skateboard. The things that you don't know about Dylan, the things that i have seen over the past 15 years shadow even that. His talent blows me away. He is one of these people that can do what ever he sets his mind too. skateboarding, music, design, surfing ... the list goes on for days.  (m o b l o w)


Hey Dylan, what are you up to?
Sitting at home & getting ready for a trip.

Where did you grow up, Where are you living now?
I grew up in Westminster, CA. I am currently residing in Los Angeles, CA.

How did you get into skateboarding? Who were your heroes back then? Which tricks got you hyped, when you learned them? First handrail?
My dad was a surfer and got me starting surf really young. In southern california surfing and skateboarding went hand in hand, so I started skating at a pretty young age. Two nextdoor neighbors at my age were into it as well, so I guess thats where it started for me. I was dicking around my garage and in the neighborhood. Eventually graduating to the Huntington Beach skatepark, where I spent most of my days. Back then was the time when Reynolds, Arto, Rowley, Penny and all those dudes were there. They were my faves back then and still are now. I remember as a kid heelflips were my trick and I could never do kickflips for the life of me. It's funny because now it's the opposite. Back then I liked skating transition, mini ramps, kicker ramps, I made one of them in my front yard. I eventually started skating street when i was 11 or 12. The frist rail i ever got onto was probably this little 6 stair at oceanview highschool. The Beverly nine stair in Los Angeles was the first rail I ever grinded. My dad drove me and a few friends up there and filmed it aswell, which was kinda funny. The good ol' days you know?

You were superyoung, when you went on tours with the Quiksilver and Osiris Teams. Any stories you'd like to share from these days?
I was 13 when I went on my first skate trip, which is crazy to think about. On a trip with dudes almost twice your age is pretty intimidating. We were in South Beach Miami. It was Stefan Janoski, Reese Forbes, Donny Barley, Tim O'Conner and 13 year old me. It was funny becuase those dudes smoked pot and Oblow, who was the team manager and still is my team manger/best friend/life manager, wouldnt let me ride in the van with those dudes, because of the bad influence on a youngster. I remember thinking they didn't like me, because i couldnt ride in their van. I eventually started smoking pot anyways, but I guess it saved me a couple years. Anyways, that trip was amazing. South Beach is pretty crazy when your 13. It was the first time I ever went to a topless beach. I loved it. I have never seen so many pairs of tits in my life. It was great, the skating was amazing aswell. Reese would give me shit for not popping my board high enough - I'd like to thank him for that advice!

I think people started to finally recognize you with TWS "A Time To Shine". How long did you film for that part ? 
I filmed for a couple years with Jason Hernandez. It was a good time and the first real part I had ever filmed for and really liked the way it turned out.

During the filming of the AWS Mind Field video you went through a pretty tough phase. Which kind of drugs got you into? 
Ha, everyone has the dark moments in life and in that time period I was going through one of those. It's your typical, I dont want to feel, selfish, stupidity kind of shit. but it was something i needed to go through at the time and fortunately I have really good friends, who helped me wake the fuck up and get out of my little mess I put myself in. which kinds of drugs you ask, i dont feel like this should be a tell all story so lets just say the kinds that are a bitch to kick.
 
How did you get out of it? I heard about the ultimatum of 6 days that was giving to you.. What did you do in these days?
I'll just say I got out of it in the nick of time.

Any diets to get you sparked up and energized? Raw eggs & superfood?
No, nothing crazy, I stay pretty healthy. On a normal day I have a cup of tea after waking up, a few cigarettes, breakfast. If that doesn't do it for me maybe a 5 hour if i'm skating. then skate then a few drinks, then bed. start it all again the next day. thats pretty much my diet. it works for me.

The videopart you did for the graviswebsite is GNARLY. How do you keep yourself focused to land tricks? Any routines (knock 3 times on wood?) or needed time to get familiar with the environment? 
Thanks man. I don't have any real crazy OCD's these days. When I'm trying a trick I will normally be pretty focused on what I'm trying. There's times you know when there's dumb pedestrians or fucking pigeons, maybe cars, well actually a lot of the spots I skated in that video there was traffic. That shit drives me crazy, but yeah sometimes I'll do some weird idiosyncrasies, that im not even aware of. 

What's next? Any spots / places you wanna skate really bad?
What's next for me? I'm heading out to OZ for a month on this skate trip, same ol' shit. traveling, skating, designing new shoes for gravis for kids to hate and love. 

What is inspiring you? Which kind of Music are you into?
What ever is around me. I'm a big fan of music and an avid follower of Mr. Richards and the Stones. I think Pandora is the greatest invention ever. You put it on a radio station of a band you like and all these bands you've never heard of come on and t turn you on to them. its great

Are you playing any instruments? Other sports / non-skate activities?
I just bought this application for my iPad that's a buit in amp with all sorts of funny effects pedals. It's my new obsession, good for traveling. I'm one of those assholes who travels with their guitar.

Of course there is an obvious fashion influence.. Which designers do you like?
What's funny is, that all these people think I'm into all these crazy designers and fashion because of the way I dress. I don't follow the fashion world that much. I just like wearing the shit I'm into. Sometimes I buy a piece from John Varvatos. I like nice materials.

You got a lot of controversity (hate& props) for your first Gravis shoe, which dressy design was a completely new direction.. How did the shoe come along?
I wanted to create a shoe that suited what I am into and also a shoe that wasn't going to be a rip off of a vans shoe like most of this industry does. Me and my friend Mark came up with the concept based off this other dress shoe we had. I've always been into casual shoes like loafers, boots, shoes you cant skate in. We through out this idea of creating the dress shoe you could also skate in. Some people say it's ridiculous, some people really like it. All I care about is that I like it and it's a great shoe to skate in for me. Plus I hope it'll give designing skate shoes a different approach for the future.

How much input did you have on the upcoming Dylan Collection? Which styles were important for you? 
Well, seeing that it was my collection all the input is mine with some details added from our designer Joey. I based everything off of my style and what i like. Pretty much what I have in my closest. I just wanted to make nice, comfortable, and good fitting clothing that people will enjoy. 

Where is skateboading leading to?
Into a damn good place.


itv jk
photos Mark Oblow, Ryan Allan, John Bradford

Dylan Rieder skates for Analog, Gravis, Alien Workshop, Thunder & Spitfire.
watch his amazing Gravis videopart!