Robert Brink - Writer

Zered Basset

July 1, 2005 | Skip To The Comments (1)

Zered Bassett
By Rob Brink
Strength April 2003

If you watch an older 411 or flip through some magazines that are more than five years old, you're bound to see dozens of ams who were once prominent for a short period of time, but have disappeared into the abyss of skate mysteriousness—never to be seen by the masses again. “I remember him!” or “What ever happened to that guy?” Will most likely spew from your mouth as you ponder what “Bermuda Triangle” absorbed these beings. With the amateur skateboarder being such a hot commodity nowadays, there seems to be more ams surfacing than ever before, which means five or so years from now, many of them will also be missing in action.

Zered Bassett is an 18-year-old amateur who is super talented on his skateboard. With a patient and modest demeanor, he probably won't disintegrate from the scene anytime soon. He replies to many questions with “I haven't really thought about that.” Which is a sure sign (and a good sign) that he isn't growing up too fast. Because 18 year old skateboarders roster hopping, talking about their salaries, their contracts, what they are going to film next, and the industry, is undoubtedly a turn off. Especially when they should really be keeping busy with being 18, energized, having a good time, killing it on a skateboard, and not caring about all that grown up, “real-world” nonsense.

Where are you originally from?
Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Where do you live now?
Downtown Manhattan.

How long have you been on Zoo?
I think is coming up on a year. Hold on and let me ask someone.
Yo Brian, how long have I been on Zoo? [Muttering to Brian Brown in the background.]
Hey, probably like a year and a half.

How did you get on?
I had a lot of footage that Brian Brown's brother, Doug had. He films a lot around Boston. He sent it to R.B. Umali for the EST video. And then R.B. told Jeff Pang about it and then I got a call from Jeff.

So was that your first “real” sponsor?
I got flow a lot from different companies. Sixteen skateboards was probably the first one. Then I started getting flow from Sole Tech. And then I got on Zoo and things have been good ever since.

Where do you usually skate when not on tour or something?
I live like two blocks from the Brooklyn Banks so there's spots everywhere, for miles.

With so many ams blowing up nowadays and such a focus on ams, is it harder to get recognition in skating?
I'm sure it is. I haven't really thought of it. The last Tampa Am I was at in 2002, everyone was super hungry—just charging at shit. I wasn't really used to that. I think a lot of good skaters get shuffled and lost in the mix.

Also seems like ams “work” more nowadays too. Like more is at stake and it's more of a job. Do you feel that?
The only time I feel that is when I want to chill with my friends and I have to go somewhere. And I can't be with my family because I have to go on tour or whatever. But as soon as it settles down it's chill. That's the only part I get stressed about. But now that I live in New York it's a lot easier because I can fly out of here instead of driving five hours from Massachusetts to get here and then fly out.

Manuals or rails?
Oh shit. I think I don't do as many manuals as I do rails, but that's because I don't really try a lot of manuals. But I couldn't really pick between either one. I like every aspect of this shit.

Have you skated outside in the last two or three weeks—it's been freezing.
Yeah. I've been skating in snow. We start at our house, we just get dressed up and pump the heat and get all hot. Then go out and skate from spot to spot and get all sweaty and eventually you're skating in a T-shirt in the snow.

Yeah, sit in the car at a spot with the heat cranked, until you can't take it and then get out and skate.
Yeah, exactly.

Do you think the winters negatively affect your skating?
I'd say it does, but your body does get a lot more rested, so every time you go skate you have more energy to go learn tricks a lot quicker. Instead of skating every day and being all worn out and beat up.

Do you think skate parks to a certain extent, make skating easier, with perfect obstacles and conditions?
Definitely. East Coast is kind of different because you'll skate a park like that and get used to perfect stuff, and then you'll go try to skate street and you have cracks and whatever. So it kind of throws your skating off a bit because you're used to perfect stuff. So when summer comes around, you go skate the spots and they aren't perfect, then it's kind of hard to get used to parks again.

A smith grind or feeble on a marble or concrete bench is so different than in a park on angle iron.
Exactly.

How is skating and residing in the East different than other places?
I think it brings the skaters together a lot more. Skating spot to spot and such. So it is kind of like a group thing—always skating and chilling with the same people.

What is you favorite spot?
Flushing Meadows for sure.

What's your favorite trick to do?
I don't know. I'll just say like, ollies.

What about a trick you can't do but really want to learn?
Shit. I don't know. I never really think about this type of shit. A lot of tricks really. Kickflip frontside krooks. A lot of tricks that I haven't tried fucking with yet I guess.

What's your favorite video part?
I just saw the Underworld Element video for the first time a few days ago. And Jeff Pang's part, for the time it came out, was pretty amazing.

Good answer. I don't think many people would whip that one out if I asked them. Did skating in NY change for you since Sept 11?
I've only lived here for four months, before that I'd only been here every once in a while, when I went on Zoo trips and stuff I would just chill here for a bit and not really skate as much. It seems about the same, maybe a little more security around the Federal Building. Like you can't skate that as much, but everything else has settled down.

Why do you think no East Coast companies have ever been as successful as Zoo York has?
It's the right people behind the right idea.

There seems to be a lot of loyalty to Zoo that you don't see with other companies. It's not the type of thing where people are getting on or quitting all the time. Why?
Exactly. It's a good thing. As soon as I met everyone, I knew I was super down to get on, and everyone was down for me to get on. Now I can't even see leaving. It's like chilling with your friends instead of going on tour with someone you don't like.

Also, Zoo doesn't seem to rush into turning kids pro. A lot slower than other companies I think. Any talk of you going pro yet?
They gave me the go ahead about four months ago. Whenever I want to, I can turn pro. But I just want to wait it out for a while and see what happens.

What makes you want to wait?
Like you said before, so many kids are going pro now. It's like, “Oh great, he's pro now?” There's nothing really to look forward to. If I stay am I can blow up as big as I can until people want to see my boards out there. Instead of me putting them out there and people being like “Who's this kid?” If you blow up too quick, people are like “Great, he's already pro…so what?”

I mean, look at PJ Ladd. I don't know if he is officially pro yet or not. But he's huge as an am right now.
I don't know about that kid. I'm not really feeling him. He said some stupid shit to me when I was younger. I don't really get along with that kid.

When I was younger, Ricky Oyola yelled at me for getting in his way at a skate park. I was a little kid. You remember that stuff forever.
Yeah, exactly.

Is there a Zoo video in the works?
We have a tour video coming out soon. We have a few years worth of tour footage. I got a 411 and Digital part I'm working on, so I am trying to get as much footage as I can.

Seems like you enter a lot of contests. Do you do this because you are stoked on them, or is it part of the job?
I'm not really stoked on it. But it's good to get to travel and meet a lot of people. But I don't really enjoy skating in a contest as much as if I could be out skating somewhere else. But in the winter especially, you're just down to go to contests to start trying new tricks everywhere. I think it's more fun than a pain. I'm into it.

In skating, there's people get tons of coverage, like Jaime Thomas or Reynolds. And others like Gino Iannucci or Guy Mariano are more low key. I know you aren't pro or anything, but where do you think you fall in all of that?
I am just taking it slow. I am not rushing to get photos out. I want to keep steady, good photos—stuff I really like—coming out. I don't want to have a lot of photos come out and not be psyched on all of them. I want to take it slow—not be that low key, but not blow up and be huge either.

Who do you admire in skateboarding?
A lot of people—my friends. I really look up to them. I skate with them all the time and they motivate me to skate and have fun. Also other dudes from the East like Donny Barley, Ricky Oyola, Jeff Pang, and Danny Supa.

It's a lot easier to relate to people who are from your area and actually see skating.
Yeah.

What do you do besides skate?
Hang out with my friends. Go out to any club I can manage to get into.

Even though you are just getting started, do you ever think about “life after skateboarding?"
Just see how things go, maybe start a company. I haven't really thought about it that much.

Do you ever think about how skating can potentially make you a millionaire?
A little. After buying a pool table that's coming here tomorrow, a G4 laptop, an iPod, a car, and my apartment. Everything I own right now is from skating.

Did you ever thing that would happen?
Nah, never.