Five Favorite Parts With Nicole Hause

📷 Photo by Bailey Schreiner
📝 Interview by Farran Golding

We wanted to get Nicole for the QS Cup earlier this month, but unfortunately, she was recovering from an injury. (Anyone that went to the 2022 Dime Glory Challenge will remember that Nicole’s skating was one of the highlights.) The next best thing was a Five Favorite Parts.

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Cara-Beth Burnside — Mack Dawg Productions: Board Wild (1996)

Mack Dogg, as far as I know, was a famous videographer from the 90s. [Ed. note: Mack Dawg, real name Mike McIntire, made the 1988 video Sick Boys featuring Natas Kaupas, Tommy Guerrero, Jim Theibaud, Julien Stranger amongst other pioneering street skaters in San Francisco during that era.]

I wanted to showcase Cara-Beth because she’s been a mentor in my life. She was who I first moved in with when I moved to California. I’d never seen concrete skateparks — growing up in Minnesota, it was all wood — and I met her at this girls skate clinic in Orange County. We connected and I guess she saw me going for it. She took me under her wing, got me into my first contest when I was 15 at the Combi [Bowl]. She taught me a lot about skateboarding and being a powerful woman. I’ve known her since I was 12. She’s like family. She’s a badass. She’s fucking done it.

She was a pro snowboarder and skateboarder and I love snowboarding. I’m from Minnesota, so I grew up with it. Finding footage of her is rare. She’s older than Tony Hawk, but was skating with him in that time period. To find footage of her is such a cool thing, and I love how there’s a lot of snowboarding and skating. Nowadays, there’s so much footage of everything and everyone. She’s so hard to come by, so I wanted to shine a light on it.

A lot of people don’t know she was a snowboarder and skater. She was the first person to get a X-Games gold medal in skateboarding and snowboarding before Shaun White even did that. She’s a fuckin’ legend. I feel like the whole video she’s doing big airs, which is really sick. She went to the first Olympics [with] snowboarding. She got into snowboarding because there wasn’t much for women in skateboarding — money or anything. She was at Mount Hood, started snowboarding, and became good at it. It happened randomly; she hadn’t snowboarded her whole life, she just picked it up and was good at it. She had a bunch of pro models for Burton.

During her time, I think she had to fight for her respect to skate. It was more frowned upon, like, “Why is a girl skating, she’s going to get hurt?” That was a lot of the stigma around it until pretty recently. I was always well-supported, my parents are cool and never told me I can’t do something. Now, it’s different. Definitely because of the Olympics and definitely because people are becoming more in touch with girls liking to do shit that’s badass. Why can’t they and why shouldn’t they? Because they’re going to get hurt? You understand the risks and if you want to take them, you should be allowed to do whatever you want and not be judged for it. I feel lucky to have grown up in this time [period] because I know that for Cara-Beth, there was a completely different viewpoint.

Marisa Dal Santo — Zero Skateboards: Strange World (2009)

I feel like this is timeless and a lot of peoples’ favorite part. Her kickflip melon down the six-block is insane and one of my favorite clips of all-time. How fast she goes, how much power she has — it’s so punk and authentic. If this came out now, it would be one of the sickest parts.

[Strange World] came out in 2009, when I was getting into skating. I was 1,1 so I didn’t come onto this until six or seven years ago when I moved to California and started focusing more on skating. I grew up in Minnesota, I didn’t really watch skate videos, so I’m kind of a late bloomer in this area. Everything I’ve watched isn’t from when I was a kid, more [from the age of] 18, 19. But I remember being mind-blown, like, “What? This came out when?” It was insane to watch her rip and know that it came out so long ago, but it was like it had just come out for me in whatever year that was — like 2016 or ’17.

It was on repeat a lot. The first place I lived in California, my homies and I would sit in my room and watch YouTube all day. Nora [Vasconcellos] probably showed it to me. Sometimes I’ll watch the whole part, love it, and I’m waiting for the kickflip melon. I can’t wait to see that again.

Her personal style solidifies the whole vibe of the part. The “go for it” energy it makes me feel like I can try gnarlier stuff. I finally met and hung out with Marisa this year. She’s a genuine person and such an inspiration. I fanned out: I was asking her about Wallenberg, I’m always asking her things.

I don’t have anything personal [from behind the scenes of Strange World] from her but Davey Sayles was a kid at the time and he and his homies watched her kickflip melon that stair block. He said it was insane. She snapped her board, hands were bleeding, and apparently was like, “I’m gonna fuckin’ do it, right here!” and did it next try. All these teenage boys were like, “Holy shit!” I thought that was a cute, funny story from a firsthand perspective. I was so jealous they saw that in real life. Legendary.

Grant Taylor — Anti-Hero: “Grant Taylor Rides for Anti-Hero” (2014)

It was hard to pick a [single] Grant part, but this is the one that I’ve watched the most. I love the music [“Icon” by Siouxsie and The Banshees] and the energy. It’s nonstop and straight to the point. I don’t have much patience for a build-up and I feel like this video embodies going for it and whatever happens, happens. Skating fast, going big; I love when he does the long-ass line on the mini-ramp that has vert walls and someone goes, “Fuck you, man!”

A lot of the time, fisheye can take away from how big the transition is and what’s happening. How it’s filmed feels like chaos and I love it. All of Grant’s parts are so good.

His airs, his style, how big and fast he goes, the way his body moves; he can manipulate the board in such a [specific] way. I draw inspiration for my own frontside ollies, when I want to try to do a good one I feel like I try to embody him and how he does it.

He’s my favorite skater. I’ve spent time with him in the past couple of years since he moved to L.A. and I moved up too. At first, I was nervous, but now any time I’m skating with him, it hypes me up.

Raven Tershy — Lakai: “Extra Flare” (2017)

I prefer raw footage more than [edited] footage sometimes. Raven has so much power and smoothness. He’s also one of my favorite skaters, right behind Grant. It’s special to watch them skate at the same time. He’s a daredevil and that’s cool to witness. He’s underrated.

The way he can like hold smith grinds and nosegrinds is insane; it’s crazy how he’s able to grind through corners and I haven’t really seen anyone else able to do that still to this day. It’s something special how he’s able to hold it like that. Also, he can make a huge frontside stinkbug air and look really sick.

I miss his skating. He’s been off the grid. I’m sure a comeback would be mind-blowing and I hope it happens.

Peter Hewitt — Anti-Hero Skateboards: “This is Peter Hewitt” (2024)

It’s Peter Hewitt’s best footage compiled into one thing. Nothing to complain about there. I love bangers, so to have a part where it’s just straight, intense footage is the dream. I guess it’s a montage “part” of all of his parts, but the video embodies Peter Hewitt and his spirit. It’s got funny clips in there, gnarly clips, slams. It’s almost like you can see his goofiness in the skating which is fun and very unique. He goes for things. He does the frontside 540 on a ramp, lands on the very edge of it and keeps going. He’s wild and and O.G.

Hewitt has a lot of vert footage where he’s padded up and has a helmet on. I feel like he makes vert skating look cool, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do in this day. Compared to the ‘80s and into the early 2000s, I feel like [vert] was rawer then than it is now, where it feels bit more jock-ish. Which is fine, it’s a natural transition, but you can’t get back the feel and nostalgia of those 80s skaters, those ramps, and the newness of it. Now, it’s more about spinning and complexity than it was back then. I really like simplistic skating — good hand plants, nice airs — some spinning, but I don’t really care to see a 720. Anything more than a 540 is too much; you’re just going for numbers there.

He’s fifty years old and still ripping pools. I hope I can do that on some level, but it feels pretty rare. He can skate padless in pools — shout out to his longevity.

Previously: Matt Militano, Evan Wasser, Ryuhei Kitazumi, Sarah Meurle, Vitória Mendonça, Andrew Wilson, Ben Kadow, Chandler Burton, Pedro Delfino, Johnny Wilson, Nick Michel, Wes Kremer, Jordan Trahan, Ariana Spencer, Elijah Odom, Greg Hunt, Zered Bassett, Neil Herrick, Trung Nguyen, Nick Boserio, Elissa Steamer, Casper Brooker, John Gardner, Bobshirt, Brandon Turner, Shari White, Nick Jensen, Tony Hawk, Naquan Rollings, Jack O’Grady, Josh Wilson, Maité Steenhoudt, Jahmir Brown, Una Farrar, Chris Jones, Mason Silva, Beatrice Domond, Mark Suciu, Justin Henry, Breana Geering, Sage Elsesser, Bobby Worrest, Nik Stain, Anthony Van Engelen, Dom Henry, Bing Liu, Andrew Reynolds, Cyrus Bennett, Jacob Harris, Jamal Smith, Paul Rodriguez, Gilbert Crockett, Ben Chadourne, Tom Knox, Louie Lopez, The Chrome Ball Incident, The Bunt, Lacey Baker, Andrew Allen, GX1000, Brian Anderson, Gino Iannucci, Josh Kalis, Sean Pablo, Wade Desarmo, Chris Milic, Chad Muska, Hjalte Halberg, Danny Brady, Bill Strobeck, Aaron Herrington, Jerry Hsu, Brad Cromer, Brandon Westgate, Jim Greco, Jake Johnson, Scott Johnston, Josh Stewart, Eric Koston, Karl Watson, Josh Friedberg, John Cardiel, Pontus Alv, Alex Olson, Jahmal Williams