Work in Skateboarding, Mackenzie Eisenhour Interview

Mackenzie Eisenhour is a staff writer for Transworld Skateboarding magazine where he interviews professional and amateur skateboarders as well as holding his own monthly columns.

Originally from the south of France Mackenzie’s obsession of skate culture brought him to America where he has opened up the world of Skateboarding to a global audience in various print titles for the past 15 years. Through his abilities as a skateboarding journalist he has successfully tackled previously taboo subjects such as drug use in skateboarding all whilst maintaining a professional respect and admiration between himself and his subjects.

Did you study and gain a degree in Journalism?

I got a degree in graphic design at UCLA, but I took a bunch of writing workshops through the four years there. After a couple years of jobs outside skating doing graphics for television and print I got hired as an Art Director at a start up .com called Antix. Antix was this site that the skateboard industry heads at the time—Steve Rocco, Todd Swank, Bob Denike, Chris Carter, Per Welinder, Steve Douglas along with CCS attempted to put together right at the start of the web boom (’00-’01). My roommate from UCLA, Pat Canale, who wrote for Big Brother got hired as their main Editor and helped me get the interview. Once I got hired, I was doing all the site design/graphics and just started writing articles when I had free time. I guess Aaron Meza (Then Editor of Skateboarder) read one of them and mentioned to Pat that he thought I was a good writer. The startup ended up going out of business in perfect .com boom-and-bust style so when we all found out it was done I called Meza up and began writing for Skateboarder Magazine.

How did you become one of the senior writers at Transworld?

From ’01-’04 I was the Associate Editor at Skateboarder. After that ended (thanks to some drunken idiocy) I had decided to move back to Europe where I grew up but right before I left I ran into Eric Stricker (Then Editor of Transworld RIP) at a party and he mentioned that if I ever wanted to write for TWS the door was open. I moved to Paris and worked for this dress shoe company doing graphics again but after a few months I missed skating too much. I quit that job, even though I had just gotten married, moved back in to my parents house near Nice, and started writing for Skateboarder and Transworld again. After a few months I settled on a pretty good freelance deal with Stricker and became the Staff Writer for TWS in ‘06.

What are the positive and negative aspects of your job?

The positive is that if you love skateboarding as much as I do, you really get to explore every facet, and meet every person, and skate every spot you ever dreamed of going to. If I explained what I do now to the fourteen year old me,

his mind would be blown. The other huge positive for me in terms of being a writer vs. a photographer is that you can really do it from anywhere and on your own schedule. I lived in France, Spain, and now in LA and all I needed was a telephone, my recorder, and my laptop. I get to make my own hours and I more or less get to choose what to write about. The only negative I could really mention is that of course, with all that freedom, sometimes there is less security than if you were nine-to-fiving it at the office every day.

How long did it take you to get to the point where you could work full time as a writer?

I have been able to work full time as a writer since 2010. Before that, I worked at Stereo as a marketing manager, and at Hurley in Barcelona as a marketing consultant. Many times I would make more money from writing than from the day-to-day gig. But the office jobs gave a feeling of security that I guess I felt I needed back then. Sometimes it almost helps my writing as well if I know that I don’t need it come rain or shine. I think the worst writing comes from people trying to play it safe. And when you depend on your writing to eat, you are usually going to try and not rock the boat.

How did you feel first seeing your work in print? Does that feeling still carry over to this day?

I remember getting a list published in Skateboarder. It wasn’t even really anything written, as it was just a list of names or videos on their famous “The List” page. But I remember Aaron (Meza) telling me he had added me to the masthead of the magazine as a contributor. The feeling of seeing your name on a magazine masthead is something I can’t even describe. It was everything that I ever wanted. I read a quote by Hunter s. Thompson to the effect that he still got a kick out of seeing his byline even after decades of being published. I still get that, even if it’s probably ego based. But seeing your name next to the likes of Dan Sturt, Gabe Morford, Bryce Kanights, or people like that at the time was mindblowing. And having something in print vs. web to me was always—and still is the ultimate rush.

Which of your works do you consider to be your greatest achievements to date?

I suppose the best things I have been able to put together were some of the longer feature articles we have done at TWS and at Skateboarder. Funnily enough—minus Meza, our entire Skateboarder staff from ’01-’04 is basically now at TWS (Barton, O’Meally, Owens, Shigeo, myself). Meza and I did a full Animal Chin feature (’01)—which was just so fun to make. I got to do the Steve Rocco interview (’02) that sort of became the documentary of the same title (The Man Who Sold The World [side note: Meza came up with the title!]). I got

hear people saying all the time that text in a skateboard magazine doesn’t matter—nobody reads that anyways. I’ve heard that a million times but I was actually one of the people that did read it. I read every word. I read it growing up and it changed my life.”

OWENS

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to do the Skaters and Drugs feature in 2003 that still gets the most views on my site. Then also in ’03 I got to organize “The Riviera Tour” where I got to bring a crew of pros back to my old hometown spots in the south of France. More recently with TWS, I was really proud of the 30th Anniversary Issue (’12), our History of the Skate Video feature (’13), and also super stoked on the NHS/Santa Cruz 40th Anniversary feature (’13). I think the key ingredient for all of the best articles we have been able to produce is a genuine love for the subject matter. These are people, places, and things that I still get goose bumps over when I see their photo or quotes on the page. It’s almost religious. I was also able to do some articles at Skateboarder and lately at TWS merging my graphic design background with writing. I love infographics, and being able to create some of those for print is always super rewarding.

In your opinion, what makes a good written article?

I think that in general a good written article is something concise, accurate, and with an intent to make a difference. You’ll hear people saying all the time that text in a skateboard magazine doesn’t matter—nobody reads that anyways. I’ve heard that a million times but I was actually one of the people that did read it. I read every word. I read it growing up and it changed my life. But I think good writing at the same time is something you can never really

even set parameters around. Bukowski famously said, “Don’t try.” To him, and I believe the same thing— writing was something that came when it came.

You can never force it. It is the raw non-cerebral connection between you and humanity—in it’s most literate and descriptive form. It is the truth. And that is always what it should be. Outside of that, it is nothing.

How did you build up your portfolio of work before you became a published skate journalist?

Like I said, I was lucky enough to be able to dabble in it while my main job was in art direction. I flirted with it for a long time and intellectually I truly had told myself that I would never work in skating. But by dabbling from the sidelines, I was able to build up a body of work. All it really takes is for someone to read one good sentence, and I suppose I was lucky enough to write one.

Can you compare the differences if things worked differently at that point in time?

I have wondered for years what life would be like if I had stayed on the path that I went to school for. I tried multiple times to switch gears back into that route and every time I missed skateboarding too much. I missed being a part of this thing we have.

Trust me, the money outside skating is tenfold times better than within it. But doing something you love really has no cost, so I’m grateful to be where I am.

How would you recommend someone to get experience in becoming a writer and to get his or her work published?

I would say the only thing to do is to do it. As cheesy as it might be, I’ve heard (Jim) Greco and (Andrew) Reynolds talking about what they look for in amateur skateboarders and they use the NAS quote like, “Would he be doing this with or without a record deal.” I think to a certain degree you have to have that same mentality. If you love writing you won’t be able to not write. And if you love skateboarding, you won’t be able to not write about skateboarding.

Merge the two and start emailing it out.

Any advice for aspiring skate journalists?

Focus on what you love. Forget about Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever else. Forget about “Likes”. That means nothing and will distract you.

Write from the heart and look for stories that might be worth telling. Tell a story about your local scene.

Make skateboarding look as cool to others as it looks to you. And above all, never ever stop riding one.

A non-skater writing about skateboarding is like an atheist trying to write the bible.

Read more of Mackenzie’s work at www.deadhippieportfolio.com