Salman Agah
Encyclopedia
Salman Agah is an American professional skateboarder and entrepreneur
.
to Persian
and Azeri parents. He started skateboarding
at the age of 5. After returning to the United States from living in Iran
and Europe, he settled with his family in San Jose, CA.
spotted Agah, who began riding as a sponsored amateur for Powell Peralta
. He joined the Powell team in 1989 along with Steve Caballero
, Tony Hawk
, Tommy Guerrero
, Ray Barbee
and Lance Mountain
. He then went on to skateboard professionally for Real Skateboards (owned by Deluxe Distribution
) from 1990–1994 and The Firm Skateboards (now defunct) from 1995-2000. He has been sponsored by Black Label Skateboards
since 2000.
During his career as a professional skateboarder, Agah has made significant contributions to the progression of the sport, specifically pioneering switch stance, which is riding opposite of your regular stance – the skateboarding equivalent of ambidexterity
. He has been recognized as an innovator and legend, having been voted Thrasher Magazine
’s Skater of the Year in 1993, Transworld Skateboarding
’s Most Influential Skater of the Decade in the 1990s and Big Brother Magazine’s Most Beautiful Skater.
From 1993-2001, Vans
produced the Salman Agah Signature Shoe. Over the years, Agah has endorsed signature products by leading brands such as Spitfire Wheels, RVCA
and Independent Trucks, and traveled the world extensively skateboarding, touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Central and South America. He participated in the Vans Warped Tour from 1994–2000, was an X Games
Competitor in 1997 and a World Cup of Skateboarding Judge from 1995-1998.
Embracing his entrepreneurial spirit, Agah co-founded The Academy of Skateboarding with Dave Metty in 2002. Specializing in staff development, training, team building and video production for the skateboard industry, they consulted and developed programs for city and private skateparks. Their clients included Vans, Element, YMCA Skate Camps, Woodward Skate Camps and various cities in Central and Southern California.
In 2003, Agah established The Skaterade
Beverage Co., an internationally-distributed functional refreshment specially formulated for skateboarders. Collaborating with artist Shepard Fairey
on the package design, Agah acted as President and Managing Director, overseeing sales and promotional marketing, creative direction, production, and warehouse and inventory management. Soon after, he developed Icelounge.com, the very first action sports driven social network and Skatecoverage.com, a skateboarding media monitoring service
.
In 2007, Agah teamed up with skateboard photographer, Mike Ballard, to form SkateBook, a quarterly, hard-bound 350+ page coffee table book featuring skateboarding’s iconic moments, individuals, events, eras and brands. They produced and published four acclaimed, limited-edition books before Agah left the company in January 2009. From 2009-2011, Agah worked as director of business development at The Berrics
, alongside Steve Berra
and Eric Koston
.
Agah currently co-owns and operates a pizzeria called Pizzanista! in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles.
Elwood - 1st & Hope (2006)
ON Video - Winter 2004 (2004)
Thrasher - S.O.T.Y. Video (2003)
Black Label - Blackout (2003)
411VM - First Step Skateboarding: Getting Started (2002)
411VM - Issue 46 (2001)
411VM - Stand Strong (2001)
Black Label - Label Kills (2001)
Vans - Learn To Ride (2000)
ON Video - Summer 2000 (2000)
Deluxe - World Wide Distribution (1999)
Real - Kicked Out Of Everywhere (1999)
Thrasher - The Truth Hurts (1993)
Real - The Real Video (1993)
Powell Peralta - Propaganda (1990)
Powell Peralta - Ban This (1989)
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
.
Early life
Salman Agah was born in Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
to Persian
Persian people
The Persian people are part of the Iranian peoples who speak the modern Persian language and closely akin Iranian dialects and languages. The origin of the ethnic Iranian/Persian peoples are traced to the Ancient Iranian peoples, who were part of the ancient Indo-Iranians and themselves part of...
and Azeri parents. He started skateboarding
Skateboarding
Skateboarding is an action sport which involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard.Skateboarding can be a recreational activity, an art form, a job, or a method of transportation. Skateboarding has been shaped and influenced by many skateboarders throughout the years. A 2002 report...
at the age of 5. After returning to the United States from living in Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
and Europe, he settled with his family in San Jose, CA.
Career
At the age of 16, Stacy PeraltaStacy Peralta
Stacy Peralta is an American director and entrepreneur. Peralta was previously a professional skateboarder and surfer with the professional skateboarding group, the Z-Boys.-Early life:...
spotted Agah, who began riding as a sponsored amateur for Powell Peralta
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 of the era's top competitors...
. He joined the Powell team in 1989 along with Steve Caballero
Steve Caballero
Steve Caballero is a professional skateboarder and musician. Steve was born in the year of the dragon, and has had several board graphics that feature dragons. He was born with scoliosis.-Life and career:...
, Tony Hawk
Tony Hawk
Anthony Frank "Tony" Hawk , nicknamed "The Birdman" is an American retired professional skateboarder and actor. Hawk gained significant fame for completing the first 900 as well as his licensed video game titles distributed by Activision...
, Tommy Guerrero
Tommy Guerrero
Tommy Guerrero is an American skateboarder and musician. As a teen, he was one of the prominent members of the Bones Brigade, Powell Peralta's professional skateboarding team that was successful during the 1980s...
, Ray Barbee
Ray Barbee
Ray Barbee is an American skateboarder from San Jose, California. He was one of the first skateboarders to bring freestyle/flatland tricks to street, technical ollie combinations and numerous no comply variations....
and Lance Mountain
Lance Mountain
Robert Lance Mountain was one of the more popular skateboarders throughout much of the 1980s, and one of the five most legendary members of the Bones Brigade, as featured in the 1987 classic The Search For Animal Chin .Mountain was born in Pasadena, California...
. He then went on to skateboard professionally for Real Skateboards (owned by Deluxe Distribution
Deluxe Distribution
Deluxe Distribution is an ERMICO owned subsidiary founded in 1986 with limited partner Brian Ware in San Francisco. The original intent of Deluxe was for the distribution of the Beware Record label and various small record labels popular with skateboarders along with Thunder Trucks and Supercush...
) from 1990–1994 and The Firm Skateboards (now defunct) from 1995-2000. He has been sponsored by Black Label Skateboards
Black Label Skateboards
Black Label is a skateboarding company founded and owned by longtime professional skateboarder and skateboard graphic artist John Lucero in 1990. It is based in Costa Mesa, California.-External links:* *...
since 2000.
During his career as a professional skateboarder, Agah has made significant contributions to the progression of the sport, specifically pioneering switch stance, which is riding opposite of your regular stance – the skateboarding equivalent of ambidexterity
Ambidexterity
Ambidexterity is the state of being equally adept in the use of both left and right appendages . It is one of the most famous varieties of cross-dominance. People that are naturally ambidextrous are rare, with only one out of one hundred people being naturally ambidextrous...
. He has been recognized as an innovator and legend, having been voted Thrasher Magazine
Thrasher magazine
Thrasher is a monthly skateboarding magazine founded in 1981 by Kevin Thatcher, Eric Swenson, and Fausto Vitello. It regularly publishes articles , skateboard photography, interviews with professional skateboarders, interviews with and reviews of musical groups, skatepark reviews, and miscellaneous...
’s Skater of the Year in 1993, Transworld Skateboarding
Transworld Skateboarding
Transworld SKATEboarding is a skateboarding magazine, website, and production company.Founded in 1983, TWS was a response to Thrasher Magazine and specifically to the December 1982 article ‘Skate and Destroy’ written by C.R...
’s Most Influential Skater of the Decade in the 1990s and Big Brother Magazine’s Most Beautiful Skater.
From 1993-2001, Vans
Vans
Vans is an American based manufacturer of sneakers, skateboarding shoes, BMX shoes, snowboarding boots and other shoe types.- History :On March 16, 1966, at 704 E. Broadway, in Anaheim, California, brothers Paul Van Doren, James Van Doren, and three other partners opened up their first store...
produced the Salman Agah Signature Shoe. Over the years, Agah has endorsed signature products by leading brands such as Spitfire Wheels, RVCA
RVCA
RVCA is a clothing company based in Costa Mesa, California. The logotype for RVCA portrays the letter A without a crossbar. This leaves it looking like an arrow pointing up while the letter V is an arrow pointing down. The R and the C stand for Recession Collection...
and Independent Trucks, and traveled the world extensively skateboarding, touring throughout the U.S., Canada, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Central and South America. He participated in the Vans Warped Tour from 1994–2000, was an X Games
X Games
The X Games is a commercial annual sports event, controlled and arranged by US sports broadcaster ESPN, which focuses on action sports. The inaugural X Games was held in the summer of 1995 in Rhode Island....
Competitor in 1997 and a World Cup of Skateboarding Judge from 1995-1998.
Embracing his entrepreneurial spirit, Agah co-founded The Academy of Skateboarding with Dave Metty in 2002. Specializing in staff development, training, team building and video production for the skateboard industry, they consulted and developed programs for city and private skateparks. Their clients included Vans, Element, YMCA Skate Camps, Woodward Skate Camps and various cities in Central and Southern California.
In 2003, Agah established The Skaterade
Skaterade
Skaterade was first introduced by The Skaterade Beverage Company; an independently owned beverage company specializing in innovative beverages for skateboarders and the action sports industry. Founded by skater Salman Agah and his attorney and former amateur skater, Scott Weber, Skaterade offered a...
Beverage Co., an internationally-distributed functional refreshment specially formulated for skateboarders. Collaborating with artist Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey is an American contemporary graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. He first became known for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, in which he appropriated images from the comedic supermarket tabloid Weekly World News. His...
on the package design, Agah acted as President and Managing Director, overseeing sales and promotional marketing, creative direction, production, and warehouse and inventory management. Soon after, he developed Icelounge.com, the very first action sports driven social network and Skatecoverage.com, a skateboarding media monitoring service
Media monitoring service
A media monitoring service, a press clipping service or a clipping service as known in earlier times, provides clients with copies of media content, which is of specific interest to them and subject to changing demand; what they provide may include documentation, content, analysis, or editorial...
.
In 2007, Agah teamed up with skateboard photographer, Mike Ballard, to form SkateBook, a quarterly, hard-bound 350+ page coffee table book featuring skateboarding’s iconic moments, individuals, events, eras and brands. They produced and published four acclaimed, limited-edition books before Agah left the company in January 2009. From 2009-2011, Agah worked as director of business development at The Berrics
The Berrics
The Berrics is a privately owned, indoor skatepark owned by pro skateboarders Steve Berra and Eric Koston. It is also a website providing content filmed in the skatepark, as well other skateboard-related media...
, alongside Steve Berra
Steve Berra
-Career:Steve Berra began his skateboarding career in Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 14. In 1989, Steve Berra met skating legend Tony Hawk in Nebraska. The two forged a friendship over their love for all things skateboarding. At the age of 18,Berra quit his affiliation with Blockhead to turn pro for...
and Eric Koston
Eric Koston
Eric Koston is a Thai American professional skater who grew up in San Bernardino, California.He began skating in 1986 and remains active. He was first sponsored in 1991 and turned pro in 1993. He has been featured in the "Tony Hawk" video game series and "EA" Skate 2 and Skate 3...
.
Agah currently co-owns and operates a pizzeria called Pizzanista! in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles.
Filmography
Rising Son: The Legend of Skateboarder Christian Hosoi (2006)Elwood - 1st & Hope (2006)
ON Video - Winter 2004 (2004)
Thrasher - S.O.T.Y. Video (2003)
Black Label - Blackout (2003)
411VM - First Step Skateboarding: Getting Started (2002)
411VM - Issue 46 (2001)
411VM - Stand Strong (2001)
Black Label - Label Kills (2001)
Vans - Learn To Ride (2000)
ON Video - Summer 2000 (2000)
Deluxe - World Wide Distribution (1999)
Real - Kicked Out Of Everywhere (1999)
Thrasher - The Truth Hurts (1993)
Real - The Real Video (1993)
Powell Peralta - Propaganda (1990)
Powell Peralta - Ban This (1989)