Jason Jessee (born December 29th is an American

professional skateboarder Skateboarding is an action sport originating in the United States that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. ...

and automotive designer best known for his stint with

Santa Cruz Skateboards NHS, Inc. is a United States sports equipment distribution company based in Santa Cruz, California.(May 21–27, 1998."Extreme Success - A hedonist work ethic leads to big bucks for SC entrepreneurial slacker"fro''Metro Santa Cruz'' published by ...

in the late 1980s. He was identified as the 24th most influential skateboarder of all time by ''TransWorld SKATEboarding'' magazine in 2011. The feature documentary ''Pray for Me: The Jason Jessee Film'' was released in 2007.

Skateboarding

Jessee's first sponsor was

Powell Peralta Powell Peralta is an American skateboard company founded by George Powell and Stacy Peralta in 1978. The company rose to prominence in the 1980s as skateboarding began maturing as a sport. The company featured the Bones Brigade, a team featurin ...

and later Vision Street Wear, but made the move to a professional sponsorship deal with

in December 1987. He notably featured in the company's 1988 highlight video ''Streets on Fire,'' in which he played a fictional version of himself who is arrested and jailed for illegal skateboarding. After an extended period of absence from the skateboarding industry, Jessee was once again sponsored by Santa Cruz and he helped the company during its 40th-anniversary celebration in 2013. In June 2012, Converse Skateboarding posted a short video on its YouTube channel welcoming Jessee as a company ambassador, which was shot at Jessee's rural California home and featured footage of his motorcycle riding and skateboarding. Jessee appeared in the 2018 film ''Converse PURPLE'', but was then "indefinitely suspended" by Converse in May 2018 — during which he also made his first ''

Thrasher Thrashers are a New World group of passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genera. These do not form a clade but are a ph ...

'' magazine cover appearance — after details of his controversial past surfaced. Alongside other professional skateboarders such as

Tony Hawk Anthony Frank Hawk (born May 12, 1968), nicknamed Birdman, is an American professional skateboarder, entrepreneur, and the owner of the skateboard company Birdhouse. A pioneer of modern vertical skateboarding, Hawk completed the first documen ...

and Kevin Staab, Jessee was interviewed for the 2002 feature documentary '' Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator'', about the tragedy of former professional skateboarder Mark "Gator" Rogowski. Jessee later described Rogowski in a June 2014 interview as a "creep".

Other ventures

Jessee has additionally worked as a custom-car and motorcycle builder, and was briefly a member of Los Angeles-based lowrider car club Dukes.

Controversy

Jessee came under controversy in May 2018 when a thread on an online forum hosted by '' Slap'' magazine alleged his past usage of racial slurs, hate speech, and Nazi imagery. The thread was later deleted but ''

Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character tra ...

'' published an article that month about the allegations, including details of a brawl at a skateboarding contest in 1986 between Jessee and African-American skateboarder Ned "Peanut" Brown, during which Jessee had reportedly called Brown "nigger". Jessee consequently lost all of his endorsements, including that with NHS, the parental company of Santa Cruz Skateboards.

Legal issues

On January 4, 2006, Jessee was removed from a flight and arrested at

San Jose International Airport Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport , commonly known simply as San Jose International Airport, is a city-owned public airport in San Jose, California, United States. It is named after San Jose native Norman Mineta, former United Sta ...

after passengers aboard the flight reported him writing in a journal that had the words " suicide bomber" written on the cover, in addition to his "acting bizarrely" and "clutching his backpack". He was arrested in April 2019 in

Watsonville Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, located in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 according to the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self- ...

, California for possession of a stolen vehicle and an unregistered and illegally-configured assault rifle.

References

External links

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Jason Jessee "Pray for Me"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jessee, Jason American skateboarders Living people People from Watsonville, California Place of birth missing (living people) 1969 births