While some skaters were sweating out their kits during practice and feeling the pressure of Olympic qualification weighing down at Dew Tour Long Beach 2019, Sean Malto couldn’t come off more calm when found strolling the venue draping a designer tote bag over his shoulder. The bag had a drawing of a dog scratching himself, and it was sketched by a skater.
“It is by Pete Parra, a skater from Holland,” answered Malto, once questioned about the beige satchel. “I’m a big fan of his clothing company by Parra, so I snagged this bag online.”
Despite the thick crowd of competitors and minimal time to practice at this year’s event, Malto managed to keep his mental game cool and his kit constantly fresh throughout the entire week. Catching up with him early one day, Malto stopped to chat about everything Olympics as well as what was in his bag.
“I’ve been skating contests for 14 years now,” said Malto, with an easygoing attitude. “Yeah, there is more at stake (with Olympic qualification), but it’s still the same thing. Try to do the best run you can do, in the time limit that they give you. It’s the same mentality—try to win the contest.”
Opening up the weekend at Dew Tour, Malto sat in and spoke as part of a panel of athletes and executives talking about the Olympic movement in skateboarding. The discussion covered detailed qualification requirements, as well as attitudes and outlooks from potential Olympic athletes such as Malto.
“I know there is a lot at stake for competition skating, but there is a lot more than that to skateboarding. I obviously want to do my best when competing, but I’m not going to let that alter my entire career and what I’m trying to do in skating.”
Malto had more than just a calm attitude, he had a whole bag of goodies on his side that was aiding in his overall appearance and performance. Supplies of all sorts were found inside, beginning with backups to a few key items to keep him covered in case of any unforeseen semi-emergency.
From extra contacts to a replica of the Nike t-shirt he was wearing to “keep it consistent,” a spare pair of Nike Stefan Janoski shoes ultimately proved his point. Malto mentioned he had been keeping his kicks consistent for about six years.
On the side of sun protection, a pair of Nike sunglasses, a Supreme hat and a bottle of electrolyte tablets were tucked into the mix. For the evening hours after the hot Long Beach sun had set, a lightweight black sweatshirt to keep warm while watching more skating after sweating all day.
“Try to do the best run you can do, in the time limit that they give you.” — Sean Malto
Also inside his bag was another bag, this one was full of skate tools and wheels. It was the ultimate first aid kit to repair any issue while on the job. And in case he felt like documenting his work, a white GoPro Hero 7 was on hand. He also stashed a Mophie to keep everything charged up throughout the long days.
Then we came to find the typical pocket lint; a wallet, set of keys and a cellphone. An iPhone X with a minor crack and lightweight case kept Malto in touch with the digital world, while a square black zippered leather wallet from Comme des Garcons kept his physical currencies close.
Closing out our conversations, Malto ran us through his not-so-ordinary set of keys. Starting with a fob to his Jaguar, Malto then showed us the key to his skatepark. He had two keys to his own home, and one key to famed photog, Atiba Jefferson’s house. The last key unlocked the Berrics. Nice.
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