Natas Kaupas
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Natas Kaupas autographs a shoe. |
Natas Kaupas (born 1969) is a semi-retired
professional skateboarder of
Lithuanian descent. He is often referred to as one of the first true professional
street skateboarders.
His career began in 1984 when he was discovered by Skip Engblom, who ran the skate company Santa Monica Airlines. SMA became his sponsor and soon thereafter, he appeared on the cover of Thrasher magazine doing a wall ride. In addition to creating the wall ride, Natas got a lot of attention for taking the flatground, street ollie to new heights; he was the first to ollie a standing trash can on flat ground.
[See Wheels of Fire video by Santa Cruz, circa 1987] In 1985 Natas turned professional and he became one of the more popular figures in skateboarding. Natas was among the first to encorporate handrails into street skating.
Such was Natas's popularity and impact on street skating that in 1990, he became the first skateboarder to have a professional model shoe with
Etnies. In 1991 Natas left SMA to start 101 skateboards. At the time it was a popular company but after a few years Natas moved on and the company died.
In 2004, Natas started a new own board company,
Designarium under the manufacturing and distribution of NHS. Natas' art background led him to focus Designarium on artists rather than pro skaters. He has commissioned artists to interpret his original Santa Monica Airlines Panther graphic (originally drawn by Kevin Ancell) into their own vision. Each board is produced in limited edition runs.
Natas Kaupas has also appeared on the video game
Tony Hawk's Underground 2 as an unlockable character.
