VINCENT ALVAREZ — The Nine Club Interview

Vincent Alvarez has always taken a low-key nonchalant approach to the skateboard industry. It took him three months to follow-up with Chocolate to start getting boards after winning The King of L.A. contest in 2007. And he’s still one of a handful of pros that does not have an Instagram account. 

It turns out that years before they would become teammates on Chocolate and Lakai, Alvarez had a chance meeting with Marc Johnson that completely changed his approach to skateboarding. He recalls the encounter at the 23:54 mark of the latest episode of The Nine Club. 

I remember MJ was one of the first pros I ever talked to. It was kind of weird. Remember On Video? On Video came out with an Emerica tour. It was when Marc Johnson was on Emerica. We were all stoked on that. So I asked him—this shit tripped me out about skating—I asked him, “How was that trip?”

He was like, ‘Dude it fucking sucked…’ He just didn’t have a good time. That definitely woke me up to how skating really is behind the cameras… I was probably like 14. So I was thinking about skating a lot… That opened my eyes to just skate. Fuck trying to be in the big videos, trying to be sponsored, or something like that—cause sometimes the shit might not work out… Seriously, I’m glad. I thank MJ a lot for [that] shit.

Watch the entire episode above.