We don’t often have the chance to see into pro skaters’ family lives. Besides the familiar story of pros leaving home in their teens or growing up in rough situations, disconnected from their families, a lot of pros just don’t want to publicly share their families. (Trust us, we’ve tried.)
So we were excited when Eli offered to let us tag along with him and his mom for a day and ask them questions about their mother-son dynamic (including her reaction to Eli skating the Playboy mansion).
Eli’s mom, Joan Ryan, is an accomplished artist and teacher at the Art Institute of Boston. She’s made graphics for Eli’s former clothing brand and his current board brand Becky, and they’ve collaborated on legit paintings and artwork as well.
We stopped by Eli’s place in Manhattan and then to see some of Joan’s artwork at the Townley Gallery in Tribeca. It’s one thing to see a pro produce boards with scantily clad women on them, but finding out that his mom paints some of those pin-up graphics is way more interesting.
Related Posts
-
PREMIERE: “MANIMAL” A SHORT FILM ON COREY DUFFEL
Revisiting skating's premier big-gap-slammer.
-
JENKEM LABS: WE TRIED TO MAKE OUR OWN SKATE WHEELS
It turns out any idiot can buy liquid urethane online and try to pour their own skateboard wheel.
-
OUR GUY LARRY LANZA FILMED A COUPLE OF TRICKS FOR A NEW INDIE VID
Larry was able to escape from behind his desk to squeeze out almost a minute of footage in this Long Island homie video.
-
IS SKATEBOARDING “SOFT” NOWADAYS?
If you're yearning for wilder, less role model-able pros, we put together a list of the skate crews keeping that reckless spirit alive today.
-
THE EARTHERS EP. 4 – SKATING ROOFS IN MICHIGAN
Jake has a knack for always finding something enormous to roll off of.
-
WATCH MINI BAM MARGERA & FRIENDS SKATE PULASKI IN 1992
"Wow. Bam looks like a thumb." - Bobby Puleo
-
LEARNING 540S WITH ZION WRIGHT AND JAKE KEENAN
Watch our friend Jake try to learn his dream trick from a master.
-
VICE’S TAJI AMEEN REVISITS HIS SKATE PAST
We met up with Taji and his old friend Billy to skate, catch up, and reminisce on Taji's skate past.
Comments
Popular
-
MY EXPERIENCES IN SKATEBOARDING
"I've been terrified of garnering the reputation of 'ramp-tramp' or 'pro-ho' just from spending time with skaters."
-
WHAT WOULD MAKE SKATERS DITCH THE BIG SHOE BRANDS?
We asked younger skaters how small shoe brands could win back their business from the big budget behemoths.
-
WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON WITH ILLEGAL CIV?
The Illegal Civ stuff feels like an ongoing soap opera, so to air out any confusion we talked to a few key characters.
-
8 ARTISTS REIMAGINE THE INDEPENDENT LOGO
What would an Independent rebrand even look like?
-
BRIAN SUMNER ON LEAVING THE SKATE INDUSTRY AND FINDING CHRISTIANITY
"People are going to hate you for different stupid reasons, but people shouldn’t be divided over the faith."
October 24, 2019 3:42 am
Flush
October 24, 2019 10:29 am
he walks around the city in pajamas? New York is weird.
October 24, 2019 8:31 pm
You know, I found that very enjoyable, and even grounding somehow. It’s rad that Eli has such a healthy means of communication and collaboration with his mom. Cool dude, and cool mom.
October 25, 2019 7:53 am
Nice