FB: Good afternoon guys. Thanks for taking the time to visit with us. So let’s jump right in, how did this team get started.
Richard: Team NoBull really was born out of Carve Skateshop in Houston and the whole culture that is HGR about 2 years ago. There was, we felt, something missing as far as an organized team that could compete and throw races as a group. We had outlaw races all the time but as the scene grew we wanted to do more to expand the stoke.
FB: What is HGR?
Richard: HGR stands for Houston Garage Riders. Houston is, shall we say vertically challenged…we don’t have hills. So we have to make the best of what we have which are garages…and we got lots of them. Since garages don’t welcome a pack of longboarders shredding we had to improvise and mob them late at night. It’s a scene unique to Houston and the scene is huge. HGR started around 2008 as an outlaw gnarly subculture movement with its own set of rules. It’s very local, very protective of its “spots” and it’s really a well-orchestrated movement. So the “OG” HGR members are all the founding members of Team NoBull. Really the team is a family, just like HGR. You can say that Greg and I co-founded it but we don’t really look at it beyond that, we all collectively, the entire team, co-founded it. Greg and I just help push it forward.
FB: Greg we can’t help but notice that the team name bears an uncanny resemblance to your last name and the logo bears an uncanny resemblance to a certain energy drink. Tell us the origins of the name and what it represents?
Greg: Well the phrase “NoBull” kind of represents what we are about, No Bullshit…just skate, just race and win. Our mantra is to be longboarding ambassadors; we may become at any given moment the first impression someone may have of longboarding so it needs to be a good one. We have no ulterior motives or aspirations besides, skating, winning and spreading stoke. When we started the Team we came up with the design with the help of a small graphic design T-Shirt shop in Houston called Caught In Customs owned by Shaun Davis. Shaun took our idea and ran with it and came up with our original shirt. Since then we have been playing with new logo & shirt designs with the help of Wes Coleman at Bombsquad Longboarding and Jay Cronin who designs all of our race fliers and shirts. Both Wes and Jay are key parts of the team. That’s whats great about Team NoBull, everyone contributes in some way.