​Just Having Fun with Pro-Skater Boo Johnson

Boo Johnson

Co-created with Supra.

Boo Johnson quite rightly thinks skateboarding should be all about fun. He’s been touring and skating around the world since he was 16, and now, at 23, has a plan to sneak into the industry with his own company, the aptly named Just Have Fun, but plans to continue shredding it as a professional rider for at least another ten years.

He was in Barcelona recently, so we had a chat with him as part of a series of skate interviews co-created with the folks at Supra.

VICE: You dropped out of high school to become a professional rider. Did you feel like you’d taken a big risk at the time?
Boo Johnson: I wasn’t really thinking about it back then. Now that I’m older I do think about it a lot more, because I know for a fact that skateboarding won’t last forever, and graduating from high school is something my mamma would like me to do. I don’t regret dropping out of high school to skate, because I can always go back and do it, but I feel I could have combined both things. But I just wanted to skate all the time and do my thing.

You’ve started a hat company – could you see yourself getting even more involved in clothing and design in the future?
I’m just starting with the hat company [Just Have Fun Co], and it’s going good. They can’t be found in any stores other than my local skate shop, Pharmacy. I’m building the hype slowly; with the Instagram profile we just hit 8,000 followers in two months and got messages from kids around the world asking for the hats. It’s a good start!

I definitely want to stay focused on my skateboard career, because I still have ten years to go. But on the side, that’s something I would look forward to. I’m really into photography, too. But fashion will always be around. I’m picking things up from here and there, looking up to people who are part of the game and doing my own thing, not trying to do anything big right now.

It’ll be a good time to get my diploma and slowly get into fashion. I definitely want to start my own company; that’s why I came up with JHF Co, to explore the entrepreneurial side after being a professional skateboarder. But I don’t want to leave the skateboard world – I always want to be part of the industry, because it’s so rad. It has its ups and downs, but the people who work in it are so good and open-minded. I wanna keep doing this! That’s why I started the hat company, to see if I could slowly creep into that side of the industry.

What’s the story behind the name of the company?
When I was younger I got introduced to skateboarding as a way of just having fun, and that’s how the crew became what it is today, by just having fun. And I think I’m at the point in my life where I’m able to push that positive movement into the world, and to make it into a company. JHF is a bunch of homies just enjoying it, going back to the roots of skateboarding and enjoying it.

Skateboarding is insane now. The contests they have nowadays, compared to the late 90s and 2000s, they’re crazy. When you pick up a skateboard, you pick it up because you want to do something outside your comfort zone. You don’t want to play football, basketball – you pick it up because you know it’s going to be fun but also different. But once you start getting paid, make a name by yourself, some people switch off and forget why they’re skateboarding in the first place. I want to bring back the idea of just having fun, which everyone seems to know already, but there’s really no other brands that are putting that message out there. When you’re skating and you’re stressed out, you take your hat off and look at it, and think, ‘Alright, I get it.’ And it applies to everything else: you could be fishing, hiking, riding a bike.

You cycle five miles every morning, right?
Five miles, yeah! It’s my way to get out of the house, get the day going and stay fit. Skateboarding is so hard on the body, people have no idea. It’s funny, because skateboarding hasn’t been around long enough for us to see the impact that it has on your body. We don’t know how we’ll feel in 30 years. Look at Tony Hawk – he’s not even that old, and you see the outcome of so many years skateboarding. Field players end up with concussions; skateboarders jump stairs, land tricks, fall… so who knows how I will feel when I’m 60. So that’s why I’m trying to stay fit by riding my fixie, doing some push-ups and going swimming.

What are you doing when you aren’t riding your skateboard or your bike?
The past year I got a dog, Yogi – he’s the cutest thing ever, and it feels like my child. That’s something I really cherish. If I’m at home, he’s with daddy all the time, you know? Yogi and BooBoo – that’s why I named him like that. It builds responsibility for me. But when I’m on tour, I leave him with my girlfriend or with some homies. He’s got more friends than I do! Other than that, I try to read some books and hang out.

What has being pro allowed you to do?
So much, it’s insane! I’ve learnt so much since I’ve been in the team. I’ve been the youngest for so long, until Dee [Ostrander] came along, and he’s six months younger than me. It allowed me to travel the world with the raddest dudes who’ve been doing this forever. Being able to do so much with these people is insane. I learnt from the good and the bad, because when you’re young, you’re like a sponge, and I’ve been with them since I was 16. They taught me so much. That’s why I am where I am today.

The first time we went to the Philippines was the best one. We met thousands of people there and it was wild. These kids pretty much had nothing, and for five dudes who came and gave away some T-shirts and some old skateboards, it energised us so much. We would come back to the van and look at each other, saying, “Man, that was insane!” When I was a kid I just wanted to go on tour and get love from other kids, and now it’s happening. To see the crowd as stoked as I am, it’s amazing.