Interview: Pro Skater Sean Malto on Skating on a Helipad 1,000ft in the Air Above Dubai

He talks Nike SB, Girl Skateboards and having a direct line to the Prince of Dubai.

Sep 09, 2015

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Sean Malto is only 25 years old, but he’s already done everything that a skater might dream of: he’s won the Street League, turned pro with Girl Skateboards, signed up with Nike SB, done a host of dope video spots and is even now starring in Mountain Dew commercials.

Next up for Malto is his appearance in We Are Blood—a feature length combination of documentary and skate video, focusing on skateboarding icon Paul Rodriguez. Shot in beautiful HD (seriously, it looks more like a Michael Bay film than a regular skate video), it follows a group of skaters traveling across the globe, from China to Brazil. Malto appears in the final section, where they head to Dubai, a brand new untouched urban metropolis where no one has really ever really been allowed to skate before. And in the most jaw dropping scene, they get to skate on the helipad atop the Burj Al Arab skyscraper, 1,000 ft in the air.

We caught up with Shaun in Amsterdam, where he was over for the film’s premiere, as well as the final of the Dew Tour AM Series. He told us about having the Prince of Dubai personally letting them skate, not falling of that helipad, and why his heart will always be in Kansas.

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So what was it like skating in Dubai? It seems like no one’s ever really got to skate there before…

It would be hard to skate in Dubai if it wasn’t for Mountatin Dew and Brian Farm setting it up for us. We had private security from the Prince, and we could skate wherever we wanted, whenever we wanted. No one hassled us, no security. It was amazing and I’ve never had that anywhere in my life. It was a great time.

So you had a direct line to the Prince of Dubai then?

Yeah, so our group had the Prince’s blessing to skate wherever we wanted. So it opened it up and we took advantage!

Isn’t dodging security part of the fun though? Did it feel like you were cheating a bit, no?

You know what, it did a bit! But once you don’t have to deal with security, you have the smoothest, best spots. It did feel a bit like we got a hook up, but with any hook up you gotta take advantage of it. In my head I thought: “You have three weeks in Dubai, this is probably the last time I going to be able to skate any city like this. I gotta do everything I can.”

What was it like skating on that helipad, a thousand feet in the air?

Oh my god, it was one of the top five coolest things I’ve ever done in my life. Only a select number of people have been up there, people like Tiger Woods. It was scary. There were a lot of precautionary meetings beforehand, about what would happen if a board flew off the edge and going 30 stories into a car. How do we prevent that? How do we prevent a person falling off of it? It was really scary and cool.

Even though you were just grinding on a bench in the middle, it must have been terrifying—were you not just really worried about slipping and going flying off?

That’s what we though about, that was the main concern. If someone fell off that would be devastating, these are some of my closest friends. But if you watch the video, that’s why we all stand in a circle around it, and have one person skate. Whoever they were skating towards, they just had to be ready to stop them. If they’re start to stumble, tackle them to the ground! Rather that then them fall off the edge. But everyone else had to be ready as well, because who knows where the skateboard would fly off to.

We Are Blood is directed by Ty Evans, who’s a legendary figure in skate videos, and you worked with at Girl. What’s he like to work with?

Ty is a lot of things. He’s an incredible filmmaker, he’s incredibly motivated. It’s hard at times to see the end result, because when you go on his trips, you work! You're out there skating from 9am to 2am. Sometimes that gets draining, but when you look at what the end result is, you understand. Ty is more motivating than anyone I’ve ever worked with in skating.

You still live in Kansas, where you’re from, right?

Yeah.

Are you not tempted to move to California, or somewhere like that?

I’ve actually been splitting my time between LA and Kansas. I have a small studio there, basically a glorified closet. And I have a room in Kansas City, and I just bounce back and forth. I just love being home, I can’t really give that up. My friends are there, the shop, we have a little skate park. It’s just such a fun vibe. I don’t see myself ever permanently moving.

What’s the Kansas skate scene like? Does it not seem small?

It’s definitely a small scene, but it’s strong. The people that do skate really get behind events. There’s a few different shops, and they all get along. We come together to do things. In LA it’s hard for people to come together. I have friends there that live an hour and a half away, you can’t meet up with them everyday. In Kansas City, far away is 10 minutes away. It unifies the scene a little a bit. But LA is the mecca.

What was it like to be signed to a company as important as Girl, especially when you were still a teenager?

Girl Skateboards has a lot of history in skating, they’ve always done things with class, but they’re also a company that’s all about having fun too. So when they started taking me on trips, and putting me on the team, it was just a really huge confidence boost. I couldn’t be happier with those guys, and how things worked out. I just excited to keep that legacy going.

What do you think your finest moment in skating so far has been?

The most defining moment of my career would be the Pretty Sweet video. We got to travel all around the world with Guy Miriano, and Matt Costa, and Mike Carroll. It was just so fun, and it produced my best work so far.

You’ve also had success in competitions, winning the Street League in 2011. Do you prefer doing tournaments or videos?

Tournaments versus video parts is always a hard balance. With videos you try for hours and hours and hours for a trick that goes by in four second. That four minute part in Pretty Sweet was three years of my life. It’s awesome to see at the end—when you finally put it all together it is the best feeling in the world. But a contest is over in two hours! It’s instant gratification or disappointment. Which is cool too. They’re both important to skating, but video parts definitely linger, that’s what your legacy is built on.

It’s kind of like whether you see skating as a sport or an art…

It’s both. It’s hard because Street League is trying to make themselves skate. You want to appeal to all the audiences, skate and non-skate. But video parts are what makes real skaters happy, it’s what we watch to get pumped before we go skating. But there’s a place for Street League and they’ve proven that.

What do you see yourself doing when you can’t skate any more?

Eventually my body will break down and I can’t skate forever, but for me I want to be in skateboarding forever, whatever that is. If that’s owning a company, starting a brand, being really invested in it, then great. I just want to be the person that younger kids can look up to, and that had a great career. I want to be a role model and do it the right way.

I can’t finish with out asking you about the teenage girl who starts screaming madly when she gets to meet you in Pretty Sweet. What’s it like you inspire that reaction in strangers?

It’s super strange . I don’t really get it. Who would have though a teenage girl would be in love with a skateboarder? But it’s extremely flattering. She was cool about it. She still writes letters every so often She’s cool. It’s just funny. It’s crazy to see how far skateboarding has gone.

Is there anyone you’d fanboy over like that if you got to meet them?

Yeah! Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan... I don’t know if I’d go to the extreme that she went to, but I’d love to shake their hands, and tell my kids some day that I met some greats. 

We Are Blood is available on iTunes now.

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