‘These days a lot of Texas pride you see in skating has to do with how it’s become a thriving entity unto itself.’
Frank Gardner (RIP)
TEXICAN SKATEBOARDS
June 2026
This interview with Frank was finalised weeks before his sudden death on 8 September 2024.
He never saw the final piece appear in Texas Vol29.
Rest in Peace, Frank Gardner.
Can you tell us something about Texas that no one knows?
In the movie Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Pee Wee goes to the Alamo to find his bike in the basement. They tell him there is in fact, no basement at the Alamo. He’s ridiculed and mocked. I’m going to lose my Texas Residential papers for this but, there really is a basement at the Alamo.
Where does the pride for Texas come from?
In general, Texas pride stems from previously being its own country until annexation to the Union. However, in the skate world it’s thanks to Jeff Newton being such an active contributor to Thrasher. While all the industry and media were out in California, he brought attention to Texas and that people were getting rad in Texas. Plus, with Johnny placing high in the Gold Cup series way back then, it was kinda like he did it for the state to say we got a lot of rad skaters here, even without the industry and media. And the skate scene flourished with the spring series contests to the infamous SUAS series, big props to Brete Anderson there, the contests raged and weren’t riddled with regulations like NSA was. And now there’s tons of Texas companies, Texas boardmakers, there’s even Texas wheel companies like Cherries, which is the only female run slate wheel company I’m aware of. (Sorry if there are others, I’m unfamiliar with) But she puts out some killer wheels! These days a lot of Texas pride you see in skating has to do with how it’s become a thriving entity unto itself.
‘Really stokes me being able to give back to skating more each year.’
Proudest moment so far?
One of my proudest moments was at a contest in 1988 in Austin at the Lone Star Skatepark. Before my age group, Dennis Eppinette the owner of the SkatePark Of Houston, gave me a shirt and asked me to wear it. It was for the SPOH and he put me on the team that evening, along with Danny Carvajal, and Joe Lopez. Then it was when Dave Donalson asked me to skate for Cutter Trucks and flowed me OJ wheels. I believed then as I do now what Jeff Phillips had to say about getting sponsored, “just skate and if it happens it happens. It means more to have them ask you to represent them than to go begging every company out there”. So for them to ask me meant they took notice of my skating. The last few years I’m proud of how my little skateboard company, Texican and more recently TexiVan, have grown. I see skaters out there having fun in their lives, progressing their skating, upon boards I’ve glued, pressed, and shaped myself. And that these days I travel on my own dime and am able to give skaters I meet gear here and there. Really stokes me being able to give back to skating more each year.
What is TexiVan?
Texivan is what I’ve dubbed my splinter sect of Texican. My main focus is doing custom shaped boards for skaters. Every custom board I make gets the Texican Skateboards logo on its topside, keeping the C in TexiCan for “custom” TexiVan, I started as a way to denote boards I make for skaters to buy “off the rack” in my online store, or when they meet me as I travel. It’s boards I’ve noticed, whose shapes and dimensions, get a good response when I’ve posted a custom order. I chose TexiVan as I’ve been traveling in my 2011 Ford Transit Connect camper van for the last 3 and a half years. My slogan for TexiVan is “selling Skateboards from a van down by the river”. I enjoy a good play on pop culture references, so I used Chris Farley’s character, motivational speaker Matt Foley for inspiration.
‘This year, it felt like I was coming home in a way.’
Most embarrassing or funny that you can share?
Well, a funny one was Grant Britain’s reaction to me during the ’88 SUAS. I’d split my chin open that summer and it wasn’t healing well due to daily skate sweat and popping open every so often. So, it was mid-week, open practice sessions, I finish a run and pop onto deck, and he looks at me really worried and says, “you’re bleeding!” I look down, my shirt is covered in blood. I say, “fuck not again”. Sat down next to the roll-in, pulled a beer out of the cooler under the roll-in, chug it, duct tape my chin shut and rejoin the session. He’s just looking at me like I’m a freak and says I should go to the doctor. I said “nah, it happens all the time”. (laughing).
Can you tell us something about yourself?
I absolutely love sunrise solo sessions at an empty Evergreen skatepark surrounded by mountains. Skating with others is really fun too. But for me having the sun just beginning to crest, the morning cacophony of birds beginning to fill the air, I start walking the park and my blood begins to flow and warm up my muscles while I sweep it clean, then the only sounds are my wheels either rolling or farting from berts and other slides, and my trucks getting scratched, and the birds singing is what I’m living for these days. I’m now on my 4th summer up here. Last year it was like coming to see an old friend when I crossed the state line into Montana. This year, it felt like I was coming home in a way.
‘You rule crum!!!’
It looks like I'm wearing a Vision Street Wear shirt. It's actually a bootleg shirt that read Vision Street WIMP. I got it in Ohio at the 1988 state fair. The guy was selling those and Nash Team Pro shirts (laughing). Additionally, in the 80s the NSA National Skateboard Association had an amateur series. They broke the country into 3 sections - East, Central, and West. Then each section was broken into northern and southern sections- southeast and northeast, south central and north central, northwest and southwest. So, I qualified in the south-central contest in Texas for the central regional contest. The next month I travelled to Columbus Ohio where the contest was a part of the state fair. I wore that shirt during the contest. After my qualifying heat, my points placed me into the top 10 jam which would have had me going to the final national contest. However, when they called the names for the final jam, they called a couple of guys with lower scores than me. I got sent back and forth from judge to judge but they refused to acknowledge my higher scores and put me in the finals. Later that evening, I learned Mike Seigfried who was one of the judges, and a Vision Skateboards rep, was offended by my shirt and Vision was one of the main sponsors of the NSA. Who knows what may have happened had my friend not grabbed the last Nash Team Pro shirt, and I had got it instead.
Which city would you consider the skate capital of Texas?
That’s a hard one to pinpoint. Texas is such a big state, and the cities are so different. Plus comparing Houston to El Paso is like two cities in 2 different states. I’d probably have to go with Austin, even though I’m from Houston. They got so much different terrain, as well as being so central to the state. The location makes it easier to sample even more terrain. Plus, there’s lots and lots of skaters. Houston is great too, don’t get me wrong. But the two best parks are gated and monitored with security guards so no early bird skating before the day heats up in the summer. But there is Burgside and a big shout out to Chris Peña for all he does out there, and still ripping!!! San Antonio has some excellent itches. One in fact I even toyed with the idea of moving my shop nearby after skating it last January. They also got phenomenal food to enjoy after skating!!! I’ve never spent much time in the DFW area, but they got lots of stuff to skate, plus Tracy Weller and Ronnie Ripper are up there. And Mike Crum is doing some incredible work with his facility 4DWN. You rule Crum!!!
Which part of Texas are you representing and what is the local skatescene like?
You could say I rep Houston. I’m born and raised there. But there are so many more talented skaters from Houston that would be better suited for that than I. Especially since I’m only there a third to almost half the year nowadays. The skate scene has pretty much always been strong in Houston as far back as I can recall. There’s a lot of skate history in Houston and there’s several generations now rolling. Lee opened the Embassy facility. They got live bands playing there and stuff to skate outside, and a skateshop inside. And Southside just built a new vert ramp that lots of folks are stoked on. Houston is such a spread-out city there’s different parks and scenes all over. It’s not as affordable as it used to be, and some of my favorite taquerias are long gone, but it still has those killer downtown parking garages for late night barging, lots of ditches and banks, plus the parks, and some really cool folks like Marcus Ticer o.g. street shredder from Kingwood and Chris Struve who’s skating whenever his knee will cooperate and slings some terrific ink. And bands like Shred the Deck with my friends Tony Kaelin and Jimmy. You never know when they might pull up outside a restaurant or business, pile out of their van, and start jamming live.
‘A ramp, so gnarly, there were pros who looked over the lip and walked back down the stairs rather than drop in.’
What is the Texas skate community most proud of?
I know we all have great reverence for the guys who laid the groundwork from Phillips, Johnny, Craig, Wilkes, Newton, and the P-Men to all the pros who came after, John Comer in particular. My friends Chip Wright and Cary Jackson do a podcast called Won’t Shut Up And Skate which touches on this subject. They’re interviewing not just the BIG names the world saw in the mags but also the guys who were there alongside the big names like Tim Litzman (one of my skateboard heroes) to Danny Hollenebeck and Mark Wheeless. I know most Texas skaters in my age range are proud of what Dennis Eppinette created when he built the Kahuna and opened the SPOH.
Who do you consider the godfather of Texas skateboarding?
There are two names I have for this answer Jeff Newton and Dennis Eppinette. Newton because he was sending in articles to Thrasher in the beginning. Zorlac put Texas on everyone’s radar and pretty much set the tone for the mindset of Texas skating back then, skate tough or go home. Dennis Eppinette for having the vision to build the Kahuna. A ramp so gnarly there were pros who looked over the lip and walked back down the stairs rather than drop in. Todd Prince and Fillion can converse more on that for you. SPOH is where the SUAS contests said we don’t care if the major companies boycott the contest, we’re doing it anyway. And the pros from those companies still came because they knew it was gonna be fun and raging.
‘Some of the best people I’ve met skating weren’t the most talented skaters.’
If you could sign up any skater for Texican, who would it be?
I’ve never thought of that before. I feel too many skaters give other skaters a pass for being shabby humans, simply because they ride a skateboard. In my experience, some of the best people I’ve met skating weren’t the most talented skaters. I do what I can to hook up those who have supported me and what I do. At present I bring boards with me on the road. Thanks to the work Jeff Ament has done with Montana Pool Service, I’ve been visiting skateparks at many reservations and give away boards and shirts when in those towns. Closest I guess you could say was me giving a board each to my friends Will and Chris Peña and asking them to relay their thoughts on the boards feel and function.
Last Question. If you could interview any person in the world?
Brete Anderson and Mark “Gumby” Gosser. Brete is an encyclopedia of skateboard history and is still doing what he can for skaters in San Marcos, TX. He took TA to the Ammo pipe. He ran SUAS contests amd Texas spring series contests. Mark Gosser is one of my skateboard heroes. Skates smoother than Ray “Bones” Rodriguez. Super creative ditch skater. Not too long ago, he skated switch in a slalom race and still beat the crowd. The raddest dude, and mellowest except on a board. Underground Texas skateboard legend, ask any of the old guard. P.S.I’m joking about the Alamo.
‘Rest in peace, Frank Gardner’
8 Sep 1970 to 8 Sep 2024