Tactics is proud to welcome Austin Thongvivong to our skate team. Austin is a Portland, OR local that has been making waves of over the last year. Whether he’s crushing the street plaza at his local park, stacking instagram clips, or winning a best trick contest, Austin always seems to have a smile on his face. His talent, youthful energy, and positive attitude elevate the vibes of everyone around him. After spending some time with Austin, welcoming him to the Tactics family was a no brainer. We see a very bright future for Austin and we’re stoked for the opportunity help him bring his skating to the next level.
We sat down with Austin for a quick Q&A to get a closer look into his roots and his plans for the future. Take a minute and get to know Austin Thongvivong:
What’s up Austin?! We’re stoked to welcome you to the team. How is life in PDX?
It sucks right now, haha, so much rain and everything but when summer comes around, it’s the best! Downtown is super sick especially at night.
I bet, what do you do to escape the rain and skate during the winter?
During the rain there is literally nothing fun out here to skate. There’s two spots to get away from the rain that are red curbs and holiday. I try and skate any dry day I get but skating in the winter is super hard.
It’s been a wet year for sure. What’s your favorite park to skate when it’s dry? What feature you find yourself always skating?
When it’s dry I usually just go to Ed Benedict and find myself spending the whole day on either the small three rail or the three marble benches.
That park is pretty tight. It’s nice to see more plaza style parks popping up.
So, why skateboarding? and not soccer or yo-yo’s? Wait, or are you into yo-yo’s as well?
Haha, no I’m actually not. Yo-yo’s are so hard, haha. But, before I started skating I was playing a couple sports actually. I was playing basketball and doing field events for track and field. It just ended up getting really boring competing non stop. I mean, getting better is sick but when I started skating, it felt like a whole different experience that I had to try. My sister’s boyfriend actually got me into skating when I was ten. As I progressed I didn’t even know because I was having so much fun with homies and cruising around just felt right.
You have a really technical street style. Do you have any favorite skaters or parts that influenced the way you skate?
Haha, I’m not sure if you can say I’m technical but, I watch a lot of Trevor Colden, Shane O’Neill, and Tom Asta. I guess since they are all beast at ledges and stuff that I kinda skate that way, but I’ve always wanted to get better at skating transition and fly 100 feet in the air, haha.
You’ve got frontside airs though! I’ve seen some of your Glenhaven footy. You’ve competed in a lot of Wild in the Parks competitions over the years and won best trick at NW Jam 2015 and Best Foot Forward. What do you like about competition?
I like competitions because it helps me out a lot with learning new tricks. I don’t think I would have 50% of my tricks if it weren’t for contests. It’s just the hype and how everyone just feeds off each other to do the gnarliest things possible. That’s what I like to do and watch.
What did you spend the $1000 you won at NW Jam on?
Honestly, I spent a bunch of it on food, haha, but I helped out some homies, got them some boards and other things. Bought some groceries for the fam, nothing too crazy.
Sharing the wealth, eh? What were some of your best highlights in 2015?
Umm, 2015 was actually a pretty crazy year. When I won Best Foot Forward they flew me out to LA to hang out and skate some street with some pros and what not. It was probably one of the best weekends in my life for sure. It got me out to Cali for my first time ever and LA is perfect, but I wasn’t too used to how hot it was down there. Also, everyone just killing it and wild in the parks. I would say those are my best highlights for sure. Oh and also winning the $1000 from NW Jam.
That’s a hell of year! Plans for 2016?
Yeah, haha, for sure it was pretty crazy. Hopefully in 2016 I can do the same with skateboarding and just keep having fun. I am graduating high school in June and will hopefully will be at Portland State University in the fall, but I really just want to keep skating to see what it has to offer and maybe make more trips out to California.
Yeah man, California is a special place for skateboarding. What do you like to do when you’re not skating?
I’m probably at home relaxing and hanging out with my family or just hanging out with some friends from school getting some food. But, I’m mostly skating everyday, haha.
Ha, so pretty much just thinking about skating? What’s your set up right now?
Yeah, haha, pretty much. Just been working on this video part that I can’t wait to get some clips for. Right now I’m skating an 8.125 Skate Mental deck, 147 Thunder Hi’s, Spitfire Formula 4’s, and some Nike SB Zoom All Court CK’s.
What brands are hooking you up right now?
Right now I’m getting hooked up with Ashbrook Clothing, Nike SB, Lacorda Threads, and Tactics!
Any last shout outs you want to give?
I just want to say, shout out all my homies! They’ve been with me all 7 years of skating and it’s been a crazy ride! Also shout out to Kyle and the Tactics squad who put me on! Thanks dudes!