Heimana Reynolds is currently the hottest skateboarder out of Hawaii. After beginning with surfing and then skateboarding before turning ten, Heimana has been under the eyes of competitive skateboarding’s elite for years. Now, as the X-Games have come to a close (Heimana placed 6th), Heimana has his eyes on the Olympics and is currently in first place in the world in terms of qualifiers. With multiple rounds of qualifiers ahead, Heimana has moved stateside to prioritize his free-flowing skate style in LA’s best facilities.
We sat down with the skater before his participation in this summer’s X-Games to talk about growing up in Hawaii, starting a skate school, and Supreme.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Can you tell us a little bit about growing up and skating in Hawaii?
Growing up in Hawaii was awesome. I would just go back and forth from skating to surfing because the beach and the skatepark were right near each other. I originally got into skateboarding through my dad. He grew up in Hawaii, skating and surfing as a kid. He actually wanted me to be a surfer growing up, but it can be hard with the wind or if it’s cold. Then he introduced me to skateboarding, and I fell in love with it. I still love to surf but skating just turned into my passion, you know?
Do you think learning to surf before learning to skateboard has influenced the way you skate?
Definitely. A lot of people say that I have a little bit of surf style to my skateboarding. They go hand-in-hand, like reading the waves and reading the ramps is similar and what not.
Do you think you bring something different to the table—being from Hawaii and having your surf background—when competing with people from the mainland?
Yeah, my style is definitely unique. I like to flow around the bowl really fast, and having that little surf style on top of my skating helps a lot. I don’t wear a shirt when I skate because of comfortability. Growing up in Hawaii and never wearing a shirt, just running board shorts when I skate is my thing. Luckily I’m wearing my shoes in the contest.
Heimana Reynolds’ signature trick, the Handplant // Photo by Chaz Miley
What do you look for in a skate shoe?
I only ride the Vans Slip-On shoe. It’s just the lightest, easiest, simplest thing to wear. It’s just really comfortable to me. It almost feels like I’m barefoot, which is where I’m most comfortable.
Who were your major skate influences coming up—Hawaiian and otherwise?
Christian Hosoi. He grew up in Hawaii and had that skate-surf style as well. Grant Taylor has been a massive influence since I was young, just watching him being able to skate street and park at an insane level. I definitely grew up watching “The Search For Animal Chin” from the Bones Brigade, and all those guys.
Heimana Reynolds competing in Wendy’s Men’s Skateboard Park during X Games Minneapolis 2019 // Photo by Phil Ellsworth (ESPN Images)
Coming from Hawaii, do you think you have had less access to major sponsors and skate brands? Has the lack of accessibility been a hurdle?
Yeah, I feel like coming out of Hawaii, it’s been a lot harder of a journey for me. With sponsors and traveling and everything, everyone’s so much farther away from me. I had to put in that extra work to get where I am today.
Have you considered moving, like moving stateside?
I’ve been renting a room down in San Diego for the last few months. I’ve been going back and forth between Hawaii and California, but now I’m 15 minutes away from the training facility, so I’ve been in California more.
Heimana Reynolds at the 2017 summer’s X Games in Minneapolis // Photo by Trevor Brown Jr. (ESPN Images)
Do you skate in New York at all?
No. I’ve never been to New York. I really want to go.
Do you have your eyes on brands like Supreme? Has that been something that’s been an influence on you?
Absolutely. Dylan Rieder and The Gonz (Mark Gonzales), all those guys are huge influences in my life. I met Dylan Rieder a few times before he passed, and he was just great. The way he skated and his style and how he modeled and everything, it was super amazing to me.
We’ve recently seen a lot of skateboarders taking their careers outside of skating. Do you see yourself building a career outside of skating?
I’ve been doing a couple of modeling jobs here and there. I’m trying to get my name out there a little bit. I’ve done a couple of things for Express. I love modeling; it’s really fun.
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Ten years ago? So you started this skate school when you were 10 years old?
Yeah, we started when I was young, and my dad was the main instructor, and I was helping him teach these kids the fundamentals of falling and pushing, learning how to drop in, how to take rails and just kind of the basic steps. That just kept growing, and people started hearing about it. We never ran a single ad in Hawaii, no commercials, it was all word-of-mouth. Eventually, we started doing clothing, we started doing full-on day camps with like 50 kids a week and kept building and building. Now we have our skate shop and private indoor skatepark. We do membership programs and after-school clinics; we work with homeschool programs in Hawaii to get them their PE through skateboarding. We have something like 370 members right now.
Would you say skateboarding in Hawaii is something the community is rallying around?
Yeah, it’s grown a lot, and it’s still growing. People are definitely changing their view on skateboarding. I feel like because Hawaii is the surf capital of the world it’s always been all about surfing. Now it seems that skateboarding can be done in Hawaii and you have all these different skateparks and people teaching skateboarding. People are coming around and seeing that skateboarding is a sport. Like, “my kid wants to do skateboarding instead of soccer practice; my kid wants to do skateboarding instead of baseball.” It’s really cool to see.
Last Question: If you’re doing your first skate video, what’s the location and what’s the company that you’re skating for?
Oh man, I’ve never done that. I’d love to be a part of a Vans video. I’d definitely have a lot of Hawaii clips but also some California clips where there are big trannies and lots of big skateparks. I’d want some fun stuff too, like skating off a big cliff jump in Hawaii.
