If U Kno — An Interview With Jasper Stieve

📝 Interview by Adam Abada
📷 Photography by Sam McKenna, Duncan Taylor & Neema Joorabchi

Jasper Stieve dropped one of our favorite video parts of 2025 — one full of some of the most impressive two-wheeled maneuvers that have been done in this city, including an ender that was truly shocking to watch, all the more for the fact that it didn’t involve fifty stairs or him kickflipping off a cliff. We did not give the part its proper due because we were OOO at the time, but after linking what feels like a dozen Jasper parts over just a few short years, it felt worthwhile to hit him up and see how he does all that.

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Some quick basics for the uninitiated: what’s your age, where are you from, and how did you start skating?

I’m 24 and I grew up in this town in New Jersey called Lambertville. It’s an artsy little riverside town with a very small skate community. I never really paid too much attention to it until a friend of mine gave me a board and I would just mess around. It was more like, I had my curb covered in wax I made out of crayons, and this flatbar that my friend got welded. My friend was super into it. He’s probably like five or six years older than me and he took me under [his wing] because I was using these rollerblades. He was like, “No, dude.” He gave me a board, took me to his parents’ house, and put on Ride the Sky. I was like, “Holy shit, this is insane.”

That was the first video I had seen and I was tripping. I was hooked after that video. And following that, I got an iTunes gift card for Christmas, bought Stay Gold and I watched that shit damn near every day. I’d be on the [school] bus in the morning listening to the soundtrack from that video. It had a huge influence on me.

How did Ride the Sky and Stay Gold compare for you?

Ride the Sky felt like pure shock value; everyone’s jumping down 15 stairs to some crazy classic rock. With Stay Gold, the art direction of everything blew me away — that a skate video could have so much work go into it and be so visually appealing. Everyone’s songs for their part went so well. The John Cale song for Marquise Preston’s part was awesome.

Outside of your curb and rail, what kind of skating was going down in Lambertville, New Jersey?

The extent of people taking it seriously was like – the trick list on the loading dock in the back of the Staples. It wasn’t significant, like people filming a part in the town. If someone was putting a couple of days in a week skating, that was like, “Oh, this person’s really about it.”

📷 by Neema Jorabchi

How did you end up getting a passion for it?

I was probably like three years into skating, and there was a local indoor skate park: Shields Skatepark in Flemington, New Jersey. It was one of the only indoor parks in the area. I would go there every Friday night and that’s when I started to meet other skaters. It sparked a lot of my friendships that I still have now. But I’d say the big switch that got me super hooked was actually that park closing, because everyone from that park was super dedicated to keeping a scene going.

It eventually shifted towards what was once this skatepark that had these shitty wooden ramps that were all rotted out. Everyone took it into their hands to start building stuff at it. It’s called Ann Van Park in Hillsborough, New Jersey.

And around the time I graduated high school in 2017, I was coming out to New York a bunch with my best friend who I moved out here with, Eric Swick. We were crashing at friends’ and I saw that there was so much more out there.

Who were some of your other Jersey influences?

Shout out Brendan Wilkie – rest in peace. He was one of the realest skateboarders I’ve ever met. He would talk his shit and it was all very valid, you know? He had such a good opinion on style and trick selection. He shaped the way I view skating. I would like to say that for everyone at Ann Van. They all influenced the way I view skating, a hundred percent.

You have a strong New Jersey/New York pedigree and a really good bag of tricks, but one of my favorite things about your skating is how varied your ledge skating is. Where does that come from?

Well, at the skatepark – it was very ledge focused. The ledges there were the centerpiece of everything. That’s where I learned that fakie backside nosegrinds and switch crooks are respectable tricks. All these different skaters had their certain ledge tricks that they had down. And then being able to go to the [Scudder] Plaza Fountain in Princeton, New Jersey — only maybe 30, 40 minutes from the skatepark — was definitely the perfect street spot to have after learning at the skatepark.

I don’t know how to say it without sounding corny, but it was almost like graduating in a sense, to a legit skate spot. I think that was probably one of the first places I ever filmed at when I was younger — like 13, 14 years old with my friend’s Handycam and X-Grip on it. People have been killing that place for so long – Jordan Gesko, James Pitonyak, Tom Asta has a two-minute Spitfire video there.

Then you started translating that type of skating to New York.

When I was living in Jersey and I would start to come to New York, I didn’t like the visuals of being surrounded by all the buildings and everything. Now I have the complete opposite vision of it. I’m so inspired by and see the beauty in all of it.

But, back to Jersey. A good friend of mine, Rob – we called him Nob – he was a really sick filmer and filmed all VX. I would say he’s the first person I really started filming with. He went to school in Boston and he would be heavily involved in the Eggs scene, so he had a very ledge-focused way of filming. He’d give me ideas.

In high school, I was working at this health food store in Flemington and I saved up like three grand. Three months after graduating high school, my friend Eric Swick asked if I was down to make this move to New York. At the same time, my sister was like, “Yo, I’m done,” and moved to New York, too. So my older sister Clover, Eric and I all moved out to Crown Heights within a week of me saying I was down. I had no concept of different neighborhoods or anything.

What happened when that three grand was up?

Dude, that shit didn’t even last a week. Are you kidding me?

I was on my computer trying to apply to all these different grocery stores. At the time, my friend Eric and I were getting clothes from Only NY, and one night after skating Borough Hall with one of the guys there, I was telling him I was looking for jobs, and he was like, “Oh, come through to The Bronx. We got a warehouse position and we’ll see if you’re a good fit.” And it’s so funny, man. It was like the film Step Brothers. I pulled up with my friend Eric at my interview. He was just sitting to the side of the room and I’m getting interviewed. But they got me the job and I started commuting from Crown Heights to The Bronx every morning at 8 A.M. It was pretty gnarly, but I was down for it.

You’ve made a lot of parts and done a lot with skating at a young age, what are your goals with skating at this point?

From a young age, I was surrounded by a lot of filmers. It was very important to the skaters in my area to be out filming and working on stuff. I think that kind of mindset was definitely pushed on me. It was always super important to me to balance being at the skatepark with going out filming. The filmers were always driven to make videos and they genuinely liked doing it.

It’s a challenge to come up with an idea of something you want to do, and then actually bring yourself to go there, maybe it doesn’t work out, and you have to go back again. I fell in love with that process and the reward you get out of that is – I can’t even explain it. It’s so satisfying to work on something with a friend of yours and then have a final product.

That’s awesome. And you also have some other timeless elements in your skating. For instance, a seriously banging kickflip. Who out there’s got your favorite kickflip?

Oh shit dude. That’s so hard, man. And thanks. I’d have to say my buddy Connor Klaus. He put me on the kickflips for sure.

📷 by Sam McKenna

You kickflipped that sculpture in Battery Park that Jason Dill ollied in Photosynthesis. Was that accidental or homage?

All of it’s homage. That was with my friend Brandon Stepanow. He’s from Jersey also. I think he had a really big influence on skating in New York with me for sure. He made Sportsmanshit and Open Container. He definitely opened the window to show me how much there was in New York, and how much skate history gets overlooked all the time. That clip was one of the first times I saw that in action. I remember I was ollieing it, and he’s like, “Oh, just throw a kickflip.” And we got it that day.

I guess let’s talk about that 180 switch manual switch 360 ender.

We were at that black manual pad three or four years ago with Brandon and I was just trying to 180 manual it just passing by. I think we might’ve filmed it. At the time, I was learning switch back threes and I threw it out of the manual by accident, and Brandon was like “Dude! You gotta do that. Please, try that again.” And I could not even get close to doing it again. Onto the next spot.

Fast forward three years, I started filming this project with Neema [Joorabchi] — the last one that he just came out with — and I was sitting in my living room with my friend and roommate Tyler. I was trying to figure out what to do for a last trick. I brought up that I tried this trick like three years ago, and Tyler was like, “Dude, you got to do that. That’s your last trick.”

Is he realizing the Dill connection at this point?

Yeah, for sure. The first time when I was there with Brandon we acknowledged it. We had the epiphany.

They’re both Alien Workship Dill too. That speaks to that east coast pedigree I was mentioning. Anyway, that trick must have been hard. In the footage, it’s at least two sessions.

I think we went back 15 times to do that trick. And each time was either super close or I couldn’t even get onto the pad.

Talk me through landing it.

The time that I’m wearing the white shirt – it’s the last clip after the make – that was my first rollaway. I was trying it for probably two hours that day. One of my best friends, Max, who has since passed – rest in peace – was there on that session. Some months went by after having that clip, and we went back to try the trick over and over and couldn’t get it. And it got to a point where we were like, “Should we just run this one? It’s got the homie at the end of it,” and I thought, “Let’s run it. I don’t want to go back anymore. And it would be so sweet to have the homie in it.” It’s an homage thing, too.

But then I was like, “I just can’t stop imagining rolling away from that trick smoothly.” And it got to the point where I was like, fuck it, we’re gonna use that clip anyways, but we’re gonna keep going back and trying to get it right.

You got it perfect.

That was over the winter. It was probably 30 degrees out, and I hadn’t skated for a week or two because it’s so cold out here. That Saturday, I randomly hit up Neema and was like, “Let’s go try it.” That spot was the first time I popped my board that day. We went to Chinatown, got a little coffee, and went straight to the pad. I remember my bushings were frozen. I couldn’t carve or anything. All these little things were not lining up for me to do it. I tried maybe one or two and got super close, like the closest I’ve ever gotten. And I think maybe 10 tries later, I landed it and rolled into the wall. It was such a blackout. It was the most satisfying feeling I’ve ever had on a skateboard. I was frozen, man.

Can you tell me a little bit more about working with Neema?

Neema has been one of my best friends out here. Filming with him was one of my first times really filming HD, which was kind of a big deal for me because I would always film VX. We met through my friend Noah. Neema and his friends all moved out here from Orange County or S.F. We’d go out for the day and if he had enough footage, he would put out a quick one or two minute video. And then if he had enough footage of someone, he’d make a full-length. Neema’s presence on the session is just awesome and gets everyone super hyped.

📷 by Duncan Taylor

Can you tell me about your art?

Everyone says its like Hey, Arnold! I never watched Arnold too much. I’ve been looking at the cityscapes and skies; I would always draw on stuff when I was younger and was always into drawing, but never really painted until about two years ago. Both of my parents were talented artists and went to art school, though. That’s how they met. I always had the influence.

A few years ago, I wanted to make my first painting, so I got a canvas, a set of acrylics, sat down and started. I fell in love with it. It gave me the same feeling as skating. So whenever I’m burnt out from skating, I’ll paint. And when I paint too much, I’ll skate. It’s super important to have some other interests.

You seem to be taking art a little bit more seriously, too.

Dude, I just officially got represented as an artist with Court Tree Collective.

Congrats on that. What’s that like?

I’m so new to all this stuff, it’s such a trip. Like I said, I started painting recently. I’m so grateful for the support. A while back, I designed a sticker for a friend, and he was close with the owner of the gallery. He saw it, and then I did a logo for him of the gallery’s name in a handstyle. A year went by, he saw some of my paintings and wanted to show them. Since then, he’s been helping out in ways I could never have imagined.

Who are your top favorite three people from New Jersey? They don’t have to be skaters.

Well, skaters would be a lot of people I’ve referenced already. At the top of the list – Brendan Wilkie. Sergio Rojas. He put me on to skating ledges really fast. He destroyed Princeton fountain like no other. And then, of course, Eric Swick.

Non-skaters would be – Redman. Dare Iz a Darkside, man. There are like so many legends out of Jersey. Let’s throw Kevin Smith and Kerri Chandler on the list.

It was great talking with you.

I had a funny story. I thought I had to throw it in here. My first time coming to New York, my mom went on Quartersnacks and printed out all the lower Manhattan spots. She, my best friend Connor and I — we took the bus out and she took us to every fucking spot from Blubba to Battery Park. And she was on foot the whole time. She had like a 10-page print-out stapled together of the spots.