Gecko king
A skateboard is better than any trusty steed for junior Jeffrey Preston.
The jokester needs laughter and the white girl needs Starbucks — but junior Jeffrey Preston needs a skateboard to function.
Preston has had 10 skateboards, broken six and that’s only counting the year and a half he has been skating. For Preston, skateboarding is not only an outlet and opportunity to be with friends, but also the source of inspiration for most of his videos. Preston’s signature black and white style started with his skateboard and the streets.
“Without skateboarding my life would be lame,” Preston said. “I’d probably be a stressed out, antisocial kid. Skating relieves stress, so if that were gone, I’d be done for. I’ve always ridden weird stuff with wheels.”
One of Preston’s first exposures to skating was through his favorite childhood TV show Rocket Power. From the TV screen to real life, Preston turned his skating fascination into an actual gig. He became the kid that would only cruise up and down the ramps at Beebe Skatepark.
“When I learned how to skate at like 6, I would go with my dad during the weekends,” Preston said. “I was super nervous and self-conscious so we would have to be super early when no one was ever there.”
In the summer of 2013, he took his childhood skating back up after a long gap of nothing. This time Preston didn’t just cruise but he started to learn tricks like the ollie. Skating became a daily activity for him and his friends. Even though it hasn’t been long, he and his friends definitely hold their own in skateboarding.
“We always go to Ladera and skate in the streets,” Preston said. “One of us started wearing plain white shirts and we always wore jeans or black pants. So our style morphed into black and white. Now, skating means plain white shirts and black Dickies.”
Since their style became black and white, Preston started making his Instagram posts black and white. He likes it because it looks clean.
“I feel like skateboarders have this image of like just skateboarding to be cool,” Preston said. “Whenever I talk about skating, people are like, ‘Oh you skate, you must be so cool.’ That’s not the reason we skate. That’s why skating is more of a private thing for me.”
Though Preston doesn’t like to post videos of himself skateboarding, it doesn’t stop him from making them. Most of his videos are about skating because they combine cinematography and skating, two of Preston’s favorite things. To sum up his videos, Preston would call them “random” and just for laughs.
“We change the genre all the time,” Preston said. “We have really weird music too. It’s all like an inside joke. The program we use for our edits is iMovie because we are low budget right now, but hopefully we are getting Final Cut Pro soon.”
Aside from video making, Preston gets some kicks out of the adventures the streets bring.
“People in cars get angry,” Preston said. “Shop owners get angry, and cops come sometimes. Usually they aren’t mean about it. They just tell you to leave unless you refuse. We have learned our limits with how sassy we can be with people.”
Cops or no cops, Preston’s biggest role model is a skateboarder who goes by Lizard King. Preston admires him because he has his own style and does not do the traditional tricks. Preston admires how loose Lizard King is with everything he does.
“His word in life is ‘passion’ and every Instagram caption he makes is in capital letters,” Preston said. “He is always happy, hyped and excited in life. If I can be as excited as him when I’m older I would be so grateful. I would want to be Gecko King.”
For now, skating lets Jeffrey Preston be Jeffrey Preston. With skateboarding, his life is good.
