Danny Ramirez, who was born in Queens, travels all over the world to skateboard. His love for the sport began more than 20 years ago. Now, at 30, he’s focused on expanding his brand, Estilo Skateboards, which he launched 11 years ago. When he’s not skating, you can usually find him working as a counselor at a drug rehab clinic for teens. This is what he has to say about skateboarding, his brand and the overall skate scene in New York.
1. How and why did you first get started in the sport of skateboarding?
I started skating at the age of nine. At that time, my role models and influencers in life were Bart Simpson and the Ninja Turtles. They all skated. So I thought it was badass. Also, I’m kind of an antisocial person. I used to play soccer and basketball as a kid but everyone on my teams sucked. So skateboarding and the individualism of it made me quit everything and just focus on skating by myself or with the occasional homies.
2. I know one of your interests is to travel and skateboard in different places. How does the New York City skateboard scene compare to others around the world? Do you have a favorite place to skate?
The NYC skate scene has a mix of everything — local cornballs that switch their styles up from fad to fad, and the real street skaters that are always out and about skating and filming, working on their projects at all hours of the day and night. I’d say, for the most part, the skaters in NYC are pretty friendly. I just like going to the Lower East Side or Brooklyn with a few friends and the camera. Skating in NYC is always an adventure and always a mission. Sometimes you find amazing spots on the way to other amazing spots. You just have to go out and explore. My backpack always consists of my camera, lenses, skate wax and hand sanitizer.
3. Tell me about your brand, Estilo Skateboards.
So I started Estilo Skateboards about 11 years ago. I used to work at two different skate parks and kids there were always breaking their boards. There were no skate shops around at the time. So I took advantage of the opportunity and started ordering blank boards off eBay. Then when I had them, I thought it would be cool to make a little stencil art on the bottoms. When I brought the boards to the park, everyone showed love. So I kept it going and it just grew from there.
4. Related or unrelated to skateboarding, what are your hopes and dreams for the future?
It was really cool to me in the beginning. I could have my own sponsored skaters of my choice and they’d be repping my brand. It’s a really good feeling to start something and watch it grow. To be honest, I was always more attracted to underground skateboarding, and to have my own underground brand is really a dream come true. It really didn’t take much. Just got to keep being creative and, at the same time, keep being yourself. That’s pretty much it. Also I always like to give back to skateboarding. Hooking up kids that deserve it but can’t afford it. We get what we give.
Estilo means style in a few different languages by the way, and to me style is everything in skateboarding. You can do the hardest trick, but if you did it with wacko style then it doesn’t matter.
My hopes and dreams for the future are to keep doing exactly what I’ve been doing: traveling around the world, skating, taking photos, meeting beautiful women with accents, giving back to skateboarding. Oh, and to just keep growing with my brand. That’s the skate life right there in a nutshell.
Follow Danny on:
Instagram: EstiloSkateboards | RamirezSkates
Youtube : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEf4zUubEsVsJ8NnzvT4knA
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/estiloskateboards
