Poe Pinson Profile

March 21, 2022
3 mins read

How long have you been skating for?

About 13 years.

That’s like you learn to walk and push at the same time. Have you been competing the whole time, too?

Oh, not really the whole time. My first bigger contest was in 2014/2015 at Exposure in Encinitas, California. That was pretty sick. I was nine or 10. And I got first place in the under 14. It was an all girls contest so it had a super cool vibe.

How did you get involved with X-Games stuff?

The first Olympic qualifier was a Dew Tour event in 2019. And that was like my first ever, “Okay, I’m super nervous contest.” I just got hit up over DM by Lisa Whitaker asking if I was available to do a phone call. She ended up asking if I’d be interested in going to Dew Tour and that could be a wild card. And then from there it just kept going.

Having a huge name like Lisa call when you’re 14 to talk about that kind of stuff must’ve been pretty intimidating.

Yeah, I was kind of tweaking out. It was stressful. That was like the first one. I had to get a passport and stuff. Even though it was in Long Beach, for the Olympics you have to have a passport, so it was kind of hectic.

How’d you end up riding for Meow?

Honestly, I ended up riding for Meow Skateboard after the phone call about Dew Tour.  She asked me if I had a deck sponsor and that’s how I kind of started getting hooked up. I’ve been hit up by a few other bigger companies, but riding for Meow is the best. We just went on a trip to Phoenix and the vibe and everything is just so cool. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to get that vibe with many other companies.

Meow is all chicks. What’s it like being on a team with all women?

Skating with all girls is just so cool and different. I really enjoy skating with guys. I enjoy skating with everyone, but it’s just different, especially when it comes down to street skating. With girls, we can kind of all like cumulatively agree that we don’t want to go to a 12 stair with a fat handrail. And sometimes when I’m out street skating with the guys I’ll get taken to these spots. And I’m like, Man, I don’t know about this. But I guess that’s just like, skill level and stuff, not really even having to do with gender. But typically when I am like skating with the girls it’s definitely a different vibe.

I wanna to talk about Red Bull Solus. Can you talk a little bit about what the premise of that is and your experience with it?

So, basically, Red Bull Solus is a contest at Ryan Sheckler’s personal skatepark. There’s hella people in there with cameras. And no one’s talking, you’re not allowed to talk to anyone. No one’s allowed to talk to you. There’s no music. I usually skate by myself, so I didn’t really feel any extra pressure. You have an hour, there’s a stopwatch in there,  and they film you a 60 second contest line. I got one line pretty quick. It wasn’t super good, but I just kind of added on to it. I watched some of the other people and they didn’t really handle it super well. I know a lot of people get super pissed and in their head frustrated. It was honestly just a test of how well you can handle yourself. And you have to talk to give audio. I was just kind of narrating everything I was doing.

So I feel like it’s definitely a lot more inspiring. Now when you go to a park and actually see girls skating.

At the Olympics, there were three 14-year-olds on the podium. So that’s kind of saying something right there. I feel, especially for younger girls, they can look and think wow, they’re my age. You know, if they can do that, I can go and do this too. When I started skating, I didn’t really have that. They’re like two girls who skated at Fernandina. It’s definitely a lot more inspiring now when you go to a park and actually see girls skating.

What’s it like trying to balance High School and doing all this stuff?

Well, I do online school. So balancing it is definitely easier with online school. But last year, I got super behind. And that was not very fun. I had to catch up this year, I had like two English classes. It was just not good. I feel like, this year, I’ve kind of gotten the hang of it. I’ve been trying to kind of blow through it all and just get it done. But yeah, if I went to public school, that would be so much harder because I work like four or five days a week too. So that would just be way too much.

So what are your kind of your long term goals and like you said, you want to skate for as long as you can. But like specific goals.

I get asked this a lot and every time I think to myself, I obviously just want to keep skating. The next couple years I want to just do contests but I don’t want to do contests forever. I’m not really too concerned about publicity or social media. I’ve never really been the type of person to want a pro deck or want an ad. I just kind of want to skate and keep putting myself out there and see where it goes.

Frontside or Backside

Frontside in the streets, backside on transition

 One skatepark for the rest of your life?

Poods park in Encininatas

Favorite Trick

Kickflip

Favorite obstacle

Any hip

 

Vincent Dalessio is Folio Weekly’s Head Photographer and Writer. Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, he takes pride in resetting his roots in Duval County. Active in the skateboarding, surfing, rock climbing and outdoor recreation communities, he takes what he’s learned in his personal life and applies it to current issues facing these groups. His writing focuses on the environment, socio-demographic issues, biopics on community figureheads and stories on the communities he spends the most time in.

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