Louie Lopez has been in the spotlight almost since the very moment he stepped on a skateboard. Nowadays, he’s one of the most esteemed in the business. We covered his career path from child prodigy to universal favorite and his many video parts along the way.
Louie Lopez by Matt Price
INTERVIEW BY FARRAN GOLDING
Photography by Anthony Acosta and Matt price
In a memorable ‘Quote Of The Week’ entry, Quartersnacks once reported an observant gentleman’s remark that, “My favorite skater is Louie Lopez and my second favorite skater is Louie Lopez when he gets older.”
At the time of said quote, Lopez was 19 years old. He’d just turned pro and started riding for Converse. From the impact-absorbent tyke introduced in Flip’s Extremely Sorry, across his sophomore years Lopez matured into an agile skater with expansive lines pairing a springy and creative approach to handrails and impact-heavy spots. Productivity became a trademark and by his early-20s, Lopez was a friendly face amongst the tier of professional skateboarders who can seemingly do it all.
A signature shoe with the Lopez family name came in 2019 alongside a long speculated move to Fucking Awesome. The shaved head was here to stay and he’d grown about a foot taller too. With a new board sponsor and an impressive output even by his own standard, 2020 signposted something of a new stage in Louie’s career.
Now, the older Louie Lopez remains thefavorite skater of many. Having been in the skateboarding’s spotlight for more than half his life, we got on a call to talk about navigating child stardom, video parts, and holding down one 21st century skateboarding’s most respectable careers.
“It’s a big family vibe, you know? If I get a little bored or want someone to talk to, I’ll go bug mom. It’s nice.”
— Louie Lopez on family neighbourhood dynamics
You started skating at five years old, the home movie years of childhood. Did your parents capture any of your skateboarding “firsts” on camera?
Actually, yeah. My mom and dad would always film me. They filmed me going to my first skatepark. I was super intimidated, skating outside the park, I didn’t want to go. Even though at this point I was probably six years old.
“Nah, I’m not doing that. I’m going to look like a kook out there.”
I just stayed outside, skating this kerb. I was flinging my board at it, thinking I was doing something. I kind of tapped the curb, stayed on my board, and I was like, “Mommy, I grinded, I grinded!”
It’s funny to watch that back, my first time kind of doing something. Not really but in my mind, I learned how to grind.
You’ve regularly talked about your parents being supportive of skating. How’d they meet and how far down the line did you come along?
My dad’s name is Louie Lopez Sr. He was born in Guatemala then he moved here when he got a little older. My mom’s name is Jessica and she grew up in Echo Park. They met when they were in high school and my mom had me when she was 18.
Are you still living close to your folks?
Yeah, I live across the street from the house we grew up in. We’ve got a little compound: me, my parents, then at the back of their house it’s my cousin and his family, and at the back of that house it’s my grandma.
We hold it down. It’s a big family vibe, you know? If I get a little bored or want someone to talk to, I’ll go bug mom [laughs]. It’s nice.
Louie Lopez, kickflip | Los Angeles, California | Anthony Acosta
“Compound” is an interesting way to put it, like you’ve got a Godfather situation going on with the family running the neighbourhood. How come you’ve stayed put in Hawthorne all these years?
At this point, I think I’m ready to switch it up. I’ve been in the same zone for quite a bit. For a time with traveling so much [before the pandemic] I’d be gone so often. Go on a trip, come back for a week, then go on another trip. It was nice to come home and have that bit of comfort with the family.
As something of a child star, when you got older did you ever worry that being in the spotlight from a young age might play against you? Some people never manage to shake that image of their younger self.
At a certain point when you’re making that transition, when you’re not necessarily that young anymore and you’re in that weird teen phase of trying to figure things out, it’s a little awkward.
That’s an interesting time but once you get past that, it’s a different thing. More opportunities open up and skating-wise you get more pop. It became new again. You can go to a spot and skate the bump-to-bar. Not sit and watch, thinking, “There’s no way I’m getting over that.”
” I’m still trying to see which bump-to-bar is too tall, I guess”
— Louie Lopez on growing up in skateboarding’s spotlight
For me, it’s been a blast. It’s funny, I’ll watch old footage and I know some of the tricks I did are because that’s all I could do at that spot, like if the ledge was too tall. There’s a clip in Extremely Sorry where I do a boardslide to nollie bigspin flip. That’s such a random trick and I know I only did that because I could only get into a boardslide.
Getting older, you’re trying to get better at switch, trying to get things popped proper… I mean, it’s been a couple of years that I have been a little bit “older” but it’s definitely refreshing. I’m still trying to see which bump-to-bar is too tall, I guess [laughs].
Louie Lopez, frontside 180 to switch crook | Los Angeles, California | Matt Price
Your productivity has always stood out but especially so over the last few years. To crank out video parts at the rate you have, does the format itself have a certain personal significance to you?
Honestly, I like to be focused when I go out skating. Obviously, you’re going skating for fun but it’s cool to have that thought of, “In a little bit of time, I’m going to put out a video part.” That’s what I work towards: an end goal.
I like that whilst taking it mellow, going out skating and trying to stack if you’re starting from nothing. Not stressing it straight away then waiting for that stress to come at the end where you realize you need this and this.
I get the “ender” stuff towards the end. Crunch time. That’s when I operate the best for that stuff. I have fun, skate, get lines and once you’re in the last couple of months, you’re really going out just trying to wreck yourself [laughs].
Who would say has had a perfect run of parts?
There’s a couple. Most importantly, I’d say Dylan Rieder. You watch all of the parts he put out and that’s as quality as it gets. You even get a bit emotional watching them because it’s such a beautiful thing. They’re amazing to watch, reflect on and it’s inspiring.
A.V.E. [Anthony Van Engelen] is one of those guys where everything he has put out is quality. Skating with him now, seeing how involved he is even as he’s gotten older, how he takes care of himself, how hard he works – he’s not sitting around, he’s out in the field.
That’s what I love to see: guys who, as they’re getting older, they’re surprising you. They’re not slowing down.
Anthony Van Engelen, switch ollie | Los Angeles, California | Anthony Acosta
“That’s what I really love to see: guys who, as they’re getting older, they’re surprising you. They’re not slowing down.”
— Louie Lopez on his boss, F.A. co-founder Anthony Van Engelen
Is the rate you’ve put out video parts during your mid-20s alone intimidating to think about in the long run? In the sense of feeling some expectation to keep up that pace?
Nah, there are times where I think, “Am I doing too much?” It’s a quality over quantity thing. At the same time, I’m like, “While you’re young and have the energy, just go for it. Get it all out of your system while you can.”
There’s going to be a time when I get older that it’s going to be a lot harder and I’ll slow down. People understand that, it’s how skating goes, but while I’m feeling good and young, I’m trying to keep it going.
Throughout your career, what do you think has changed about the responsibilities of a pro skater in regards to video parts?
I think it’s up to the person. You could be someone who puts out two video parts a year or you could be a person who puts out a part every two years. It depends. If you’re going to put out one part, every so often, it should be pretty good [laughs].
It’s different from when I was younger. I remember working on Extremely Sorry and that was filmed for five or six years. Seeing some of the footage in there, even just after it came out, was like, “Damn, this was filmed so long ago.”
What’s cool now that things come out so soon is that everything’s kind of current. You can do both but if you’re going to put out one thing, every once in a while, I feel you put more pressure on yourself and people will be waiting for a bigger kind of part.
Fucking Awesome, 2019
I feel like you getting on F.A. marked the beginning of the third era of Louie Lopez. Seeing your footage over the past couple of years and physically too, it’s like, “Alright, he’s all grown up.”
I knew that I needed to make a change and had been wanting to for quite some time but I wanted to part ways with Flip in a respectful manner. They asked if I could work out the rest of my contract, which was another two years, so they could get the boards out and get everything wrapped up as we had planned. It’s still on good terms and that’s how I wanted it to be. I didn’t want to end it in bad blood because I’d been there forever. I’m thankful to have had that chapter of my life.
Fast forward a little bit, I got a call from [Jason] Dill and it was done. Easy. I was hyped. I announced I was leaving Flip, got the call on that same day, and it was like, “Yup. Let’s do this.”
Your debut video for F.A., ‘The Louie Lopez’, came out in 2020, about a year after you got on. It was short and sweet, how’d that come together?
That was one of the first trips I went on with footage from Texas, Oklahoma – we just did a couple of states. It wasn’t like we were trying to film for anything.
That’s what I like, you never know what you’re going to get but you know Benny [Maglinao] is going to cook up something amazing. It gets you hyped to skate the best you can because something good will come out of it.
It’s a whole different vibe, I’d say a more “current vibe” and that’s how you want your skateboarding to be presented. Benny’s someone you can trust and you know it’s going to be done well.
Louie Lopez, 360 flip | Los Angeles, California | Anthony Acosta
Then less than six months later another part, ‘The Louie Lopez II’ pops up…
I try not to focus on one project. I’m going to skate every day, film, and get as much footage as I can. After that you figure out that, you’re going to have some stuff that doesn’t get used and there are places for that.
Filming for the Converse video, Seize The Seconds I had a lot of leftover footage so I wanted to find a home for it. It brought that idea to Benny and the guys, and they were down so we pretty much made a whole new video.
Was there ever a thought to combine those two into one and have it in Dancing On Thin Ice? It wouldn’t have looked out of place.
A lot of the stuff that F.A. puts out doesn’t have a masterplan. Whoever has footage will put something out, when they want, or if they’re working on a video. It’s a big team so this video will focus on a couple of people or this one will focus on a couple of other guys.
I think [Dancing On This Ice] was something completely different. They weren’t planning to make the one video. There still hasn’t been anything like that from F.A. and that’s what’s cool, everything we do is pretty spur of the moment. Just sprinkling it out there but there’s no-one saying, “We’ve got to film for this and you’ve got until this time.”
It’ll be cool when that does happen, that’ll be an amazing video. Whenever that’s decided, we’re all ready for it.
Converse’s Seize The Seconds capped off that year for you. Talk me through your ender: the heelflip into backside wallride? That’s rarely seen on a bank-to-wall, let alone a bump-to-bar.
In ‘West End’ [2017] I did a kickflip wallride on that spot. I was doing the end-of-video-part-scramble, trying to think of what to skate, and the idea of heelflipping onto the wall came to me. We were pretty close to that spot. I flung some heelflips out, started getting towards the wall and I was feeling like it could work. Sure enough, a little over an hour later, I put one down.
It was a relief. At that point, that was the last clip I filmed for it and before that, my ender would have been the frontside feeble transfer which was a Thrasher cover. I like to have something afterwards so it’s a bit of a surprise. If you have a cover and your last trick is that cover, it’s a little expected. You know that trick is coming at least towards the end. If I have the option, I’m trying not to make my last trick something that’s been a cover
That ender almost signalled what was to come. I’ve enjoyed seeing you get so into wallride tricks since.
I just like doing wallrides. That stuff excites me so I try to think of new little manoeuvres that I haven’t seen too much of on walls or things like that.
Louie Lopez, backside smith. | Los Angeles, California | Jon Coulthard
‘Days Of Grace’ had a good range of them. Was the intention there to do a “proper” part for F.A. with that?
Yeah, I wanted it to be more full and have a song – some songs to it – more of a general video part formula.
I had a decent amount of footage we didn’t use [for Seize The Seconds] that I was still hyped on but sometimes things don’t fit in certain ways. I didn’t want it to go to waste so I thought it would be cool. I wanted to start filming to get the last bits, make it current and something I’m hyped on.
Most of it is stuff that I had leftover. Then there are a handful of things where I wanted to make the last part of the video really good and close it out right.
It must feel nice having an amount of footage to carry over as the foundation of a new part.
I think that’s always how it always goes. You’re not usually at zero clips. Some people probably are but, for the most part, there’s usually some that didn’t get used. Not everything always has to get used but sometimes you try tricks for hours and hate that it would never see the light of day. So you’re kind of like, “What can I do to get this out or make it make sense?”
Louie Lopez, 5050 | Los Angeles, California | Anthony Acosta
How hands-on are you with the editing?
I like to get pretty involved. Trick placements, what we decide to use, I wouldn’t say I’m over the top involved but I’m definitely not, like, “Alright, I’ll see it at the premiere. Do your thing.”
I want to make sure it’s shown how I envision it. I think it definitely helps to have two people working on it. Two sets of eyes.
When you’re in a little bit of a rhythm, you can see the way you’re skating and how this one can be different. At least that’s how I work. Once you get six months into a project, you’re like, “Alright, I need to focus on this thing or this thing” or “I have too much of this.” Making it a variety.
You went to New York in winter ’21 for the opening of the F.A. store. Had you skated A.V.E.’s Green Bench before it wound up at Tompkins Square Park?
No, that was the first time I skated it. It was crazy to see it get dropped off in a big truck. It was driven from California to New York and it was actually a couple of days late.
It’s funny, the whole thing for this bench but it’s so iconic. I couldn’t wait to see and skate it. My main thing was that I wanted to see it to see how gnarly the switch backside noseblunt was [A.V.E.’s ender from F.A.’s Dancing On Thin Ice – ed.].
When you see it, it’s fucking gnarly. Some things, you’re like, “This has to be perfect. It’ll make sense.”
Nope.
When that thing showed up, that’s all everyone was saying. It’s not low, it’s kinda long… Kudos to A.V.E., for sure [laughs].
Louie Lopez talks AVE’s Green Bench and Tomkins Square Park | Interview and edit by Farran Golding | Original videography by Benny Maglinao and Cody Green for F.A.’s ‘Tompkins’ video
You’re a mellow guy and who has held down a tasteful career for a long time. It’s almost cliché for someone who comes up young to go off the rails. What would you say has kept you shooting straight?
Luckily, being able to constantly be stoked on skating, you know? I assume if you get over it, or it starts not being as fun then you focus on other things, lose sight of what you’re trying to do or the hype for sponsors – whatever it may be.
To this day, after skating for all these years, I wake up and that’s all I want to do. I’m thankful I’m able to do that. I think it comes down to having that motivation to keep going, improve and progress. To try and still surprise people, in a sense. I don’t want to feel like I did what I could already do. That hype for skateboarding has a way of keeping me involved and not fizzling out.
I’m trying to get out every day and film with my man, Ryan Lee. He’s one of my best friends. We have a good rhythm going and there’s no pressure. He’s a spot master so he’ll send me ideas which really helps out.
I’m just trying to stay productive. If I don’t have anything I’m working towards, I feel like I’m slacking.
A version of this story originally appeared in Closer Issue #1, Spring 2022 with the headline ‘Days of Grace: Louie Lopez’.
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