“I have an iPhone, a van and a gym membership. That’s all I need.”
Swag.
After taking a chance on a move to California from his hometown Salem in 2008, Sebo Walker is skating for Los Angeles based skate company Stacks. Working with a growing company like Stacks is an ideal situation for Sebo. He is part of a small skate team that will, if all goes well, be able to grow alongside the company.
In 2010 Stacks founder, and former design director at Nike SB, Michael Leon teamed up with skateboarding legend Reese Forbes with a new focus and attention on skateboarding. They became interested in adding Sebo to their team after he made an appearance on Fuel TV.
“Reese is trying to put a really solid group of guys together. Sebo’s a really smart kid, he’s super talented and he’s a really great person. And those are all things that we are really looking for,” said Michael Leon. “We’re really looking, on the creative side, to push as hard as we can to do things that have a lot of personal meaning attached to them. We’re working on sharing the personality of the team as well, so they’re not just feet on the skateboard to the audience.”
The personal touches were a big part of Sebo’s Stacks video, which was one of two videos Sebo released earlier this week. The video includes clips of him skating in his home state and also a sequence of images that flash by that are all significant in Sebo’s life. Although the pictures may seem random individually, as a collective they help paint a picture of who he is as a person and where he comes from.
“I was stoked on how my part turned out. I have some photos flash in there of some of the board art that I’ve done, a picture of my family, and even a photo of my cat that passed away a year ago. I’ll remember that part of the video forever because of how personal it is.” He continued, “And the editing was really well done. They had some footage from back home and mixed it with some footage from down here.” He continued, “It’s really gratifying to see everything you’ve done come together collectively with music. When you’re working on it, you don’t necessarily see the whole piece put together.”
The other video he released this week was a shorter video for his sponsor Autobahn. Sebo is currently filming for multiple different projects including a team video that will come out next year for Exit.
“Sebo’s been killing it lately. So I think career wise he’s going to be showing up in a lot of places outside of Stacks. We want to try to give him time to do that.” Leon said.
Exit was Sebo’s first sponsor. The Salem based clothing company reached out to him when he was just 14 years old.
“I look at him as kind of a team leader in a way to the rest of the guys on our team,” said Eric Wall, who manages Exit’s Skate Team. “He’s motivational and always has skateboarding on his mind. He’s very focused on his goals and is someone that the community looks up to as well. Being a talented skateboarder is honestly just a portion of what we look for in a team rider. We want great skateboarders and great role models in the community.”
Making the leap to LA was a huge risk for Sebo. He could have stayed in Salem, and been known as the best in the area, but he instead made the giant leap of faith and began working the LA circuit without any sort of budget backing him.
“Basically someone was driving down (to California) and asked if I wanted a ride,” he said. “This is just where everything’s at. Pretty much every company is somewhere out here in Southern California. I just knew that it was something I had to do, so I pretty much just caught a ride and winged it.”
Without a lot of money coming in, Sebo relied on and is extremely grateful for all those who were able to help him out.
“I was couch surfing for two years and it was tough. Just having to feel like you are bothering people to ask if you can stay. I literally would skate all day until it was dark. And I knew I could still try to skate, but I had to figure out where I was going to stay. I needed to be able to charge my phone, and see if I was going to be able to take a shower. All these simple things that I use to take for granted when I was living at home.”
More specifically, living at home with his parents Ron and Delight.
“I think God directed our thinking to know that Sebo needed to go out and fulfill his own story. We understood and encouraged that,” said Delight .”I think that traditionally young men need to have their ‘outback experiences.’ I think that all cultures have that need to go out an face life, whether its kill the bear or the lion, or just survive . And he had his own version of the outback.”
Sebo is living a life that should be envied by all for its simplicity. It has taken an extreme amount of discipline for him to get where he is at today and avoid the temptation to put his passion aside for a part time job and more comfortable life.
“It’s cool to be at the point where I’m at because my parents are really psyched for me and all of these good things are starting to happen. I’ve just never stopped. Some of my friends don’t skate anymore, or don’t skate as much, but I’ve been seriously chasing the dream for over four years. That’s a long time, but its only because I love it so much. It’s my passion. Nothing else can really give me the same feeling. ”
Follow Sebo Walker on Twitter at @sebowalker.
Also visit and support Stacks at www.commonwealthstacks.com
