Thrasher Magazine

by Josh Smith

Let’s start this thing off with the regular stats question.
Alright, my name is Collin Provost, I’m from Huntington Beach, CA, I’m 18, and my sponsors are Volcom, Element, Emerica, Thunder, Spitfire, and Oakley.

How does it feel to be born and raised in Surf City, USA?
It’s not too bad, I guess. There’s no spots anymore and I only hang out with about three people from HB. Besides that I’m never really home, but I’ve basically lived in the same half-mile radius since I was born. We’ve moved around four times, but always really close by. Right now we live in my grandma’s house that she had to sell.

So your parents bought your grandma’s house when she put it on the market?
Yeah, it’s the house that my mom actually grew up in, so when my grandma had to give the house up, we had to get in there. We’ve been living in this house for about six years now. The room my mom grew up in is my room now.

What’s the mandatory morning stop before you go skate?
Starbucks, for sure. I already got there this morning. It’s basically the meet-up spot. Everyone meets there and chills for a bit, and then we go skate.


Pole wallie. Photo courtesy of Element

What gets you hyped to go skate these days?
All the homies, basically. Just going out and skating with the crew. Music also, for sure. Gotta listen to some good shit to get you pumped. Sabbath, Led Zeppelin—whatever’s killin’ it.

You recently got your first tattoo. What’s it all about?
I got KO on my wrist. It’s just our little crew to go skate with and have some good times: Chris, Figgy, Dickson, John Demar, Joey, Spencer, and Stoogles. A couple of us got the tattoo to represent.

Favorite places you’ve traveled to through skateboarding?
Puerto Rico has definitely got to be one of ’em. We had a good trip there. Just super sick places that we stayed at, and good skating. We got to stay at a pretty sick little beach house for a couple days.

What happened to you at the beach house?
Oh my god. I don’t even know. I just woke up one morning and my face kinda felt fat, but I didn’t even think about it. Then I went outside and started talking to Suski, and he said, “Man, what happened to your face Collin?” The whole side of my face was just completely swollen. I guess a spider or something bit me while I was sleeping. When I got home from the trip I had to get a sewing needle and poke a hole in my cheek and squeeze puss out for three days.

A lengthy boardslide. Photo courtesy of Element

Where else have you been recently?
I went to China with Element. China was rad! It was Darrell, Tony, Levi, Tim Tim, and me. Just a good posse and so much skating everyday, and the spots are the best. It’s better than a skatepark. You basically skate brand new marble ledges every time you go skate. The smog is insane, though; it looked like it was constantly foggy. I was coughing up the gnarliest shit out there. Karaoke at the hotel bar was always fun.

What was your go-to Karaoke song?
I think I was just trying to sing it all. Nobody else was in the hotel bar besides our crew, so we would just take over the karaoke every night and hit on the bartenders because they were two girls. If I had to pick a song it would be The Doors’ “Love Me Two Times.”

Any other good stories from your trips?
Here’s a funny one from when I went to Australia. We were in Bondi, and me and Darrell were hangin’ out with this chick who we’d hollered at earlier on the street. I was like 15 at the time. We told her that I was the lead singer of Slayer and Darrell was the drummer, and she fully believed it for a long time. She was super hyped. It was hilarious.

fs blunt. Photo: Camarillo

You used to surf a lot, right? I saw you shredding in Puerto Rico.
Yeah, I barely even surf anymore, though. My school was like a block from the beach, so you could take Surf PE as your PE credits. You could basically walk back to school from the beach if you wanted to. I would way rather surf in the morning during school than take a regular gym class. Now I just want to go skate. Plus, I used to wake up really early and surf before I would skate. Now I can’t wake up before noon. Puerto Rico was the last time I surfed, and I hadn’t surfed in forever before that.