Hometown Kingpins : Steven Maune

Introducing the top Street-Kingpin of Missouri, Steven Maune!

Steven Maune holds the #1 Missouri Kingpin title. Steven has been has been throwing down on the app, and has built up a reputation in his hometown. Known for going absolutely massive and having his technical tricks on lock. Steven has an interesting story about growing up skateboarding in Missouri as an aspiring professional skateboarder. Street Kingpins checks in with Steven Maune to get a vibe of what skateboarding in Missouri is all about.

What is up Steven? How are you?

I’m feeling good dude! Got the day off work and I’m going out to skate the local.

What is the skate scene like in Missouri?

Well, I grew up in Sullivan Missouri 60 miles from St.Louis. It is a little bit out in the country. It is actually pretty close to where Steve Berra came from.

The legend and all inspiring Kingpin of the Berrics, Steve Berra?!?

Yeah, It’s a tough scene in MO though.

We have seen the Sullivan Skatepark on the app. Is that skatepark your stomping grounds?

Yeah that is my local park. I skated that and the little backyard DIY skatepark my Grandpa built me almost every day growing up. My Grandparents raised me and kept me skating through life. He bought me my first skateboard when I was 9 years old and use to take me to the skatepark every weekend and would watch me skate all day. I am forever grateful for that.

It looks like you have skated that park about every way possible!

Yeah, haha. We have fun there.

Favorite trick?

That changes about every other week. I think right now, I have been doing a lot of crook nollie flips and I’ve been doing a lot of crook to back boards. I’ve been working on crook nollie-flip board. That was one of my goals for the year.   

Favorite skaters?

Favorite skaters at the moment would have to be Nyjah after his Nike part. Then, of course, Chris Cole.

Is there any momentum or movements towards building more skateparks in Missouri?

So, there are a bunch of DIY projects going on towards St. Louis. There is a group that just started this project called Queens Highway. They built a skatepark under a bridge a couple years back, at a place called Kings Highway. It’s all DIY out by Bedwell. Then the city finally tore down that old bridge, so they had to re-build the DIY. Out of that, this group started up and they have been building these awesome DIY parks around St.Louis.

Bedwell has got its own scene going on. That park was in Viceland. Chet Childress chilled there quite a bit. It’s called Skate Liborius. They have been building skateparks and DIY’s all around St.Louis.

Other than that, most of the skate scene in Missouri is out of St. Louis. So I have to travel 60 miles out to really skate and film street. I work 40 hours a week and then on my 2 days off I go out to skate and film. It can be a grind, but it’s the best grind!

Most recent fun skate story?

Even just last night, the lights went out at the Sullivan skatepark. Kwade Nash’s friend had a  flashlight and we made some spotlight SnapChat videos. Ya know, just skating at the park after hours having a couple beers. I really like skating with my friends, John Henkel and Kwade Nash. Then up in St. Louis I skate with Shawn Nolan quite a bit.

Favorite contest memory?

When I was a bit younger I use to go up to this church in Washington Missouri called, “The Crux.”  They would have contests every other week. My grandpa would always drive me up there because I was only 14 - 15. I got 1st or 2nd in almost every single contest. It was really fun. I also got to spend a lot of quality time with my grandpa. We went to a bunch of skate events. My sister also took me out to skateboard before I could drive. We went all the way out to Ohio. Up to the Kettering Park to skate the DC Plaza.

The DC Plaza looks amazing. We saw a post come in on the app from there recently of Minnow kickflipping the 10 set.

Yeah it’s a great park!

Any Contests coming up?

Yes the Boarder Wars is going on! I was at Boarder Wars last year. I’m actually going to it again here on April 13th. It’s a contest that started up last year. It gets you in the DamnAm if you win the whole thing. So you have to qualify at Boarder Wars for a spot in DamnAm.

Last year at Boarder Wars I posted this clip doing a 540, that I didn’t even know was recorded, but it was in the contest. That got me into the finals out in Chicago. I ended up coming up short in Chicago but it was a good time. Looking forward to getting it this year!

First Sponsor?

I was 13 and I really didn’t even know how to go about it. It was a lot harder back then to get footage and we didn’t have immediate access to posting clips. Social media was a whole other thing. This is right when YouTube was coming out, or even before. I started filming with the a hand held camera. A couple of my friends like Clay, Markus, Chris, French and I would go around town and film. We had some home videos but I never even submitted many videos online at that time really.

This skateboard company called Oblivious picked me up. They are out of Florida. They actually found me through MySpace! -SHOUT OUT TO MYSPACE- That was my first sponsor. It kind of fell through over time. At 13 though it really motivated me to push my skateboarding. I knew I could take it places whether it was professionally or as a pass time. It got me started on making more videos and having fun with it.

Was there any one thing or major event that got you noticed for skateboarding?

Some of the biggest things that have got my skateboarding noticed has been by getting involved with social media. I did a podcast with Skate.Motivation a long time ago. That really got me noticed. They run a channel, I’m sure you’re familiar with. They post skateboarding of up and coming skateboarders and they shared some of my skateboarding.  It helped me get my Instagram to start taking off. That kinda boosted me when I first started getting into Instagram. Skate.Motivation is amazing, they also do this mentoring thing for skateboarders. It’s a good crew.

Show Me Skateboarding is another cool channel that helped publish some of my skateboarding. My friend Shawn, out of St. Louis started it up. It’s a really cool channel that features the best skating out of Missouri and action in the midwest.

I have worked with a bunch of cool companies that have supported me to skateboard over the years. I skated for my friend Nathan with Sure Skateboards for a while. Recently, I have been skateboarding Fineen Skateboards. They are out of Texas. The guy that started Fineen Skateboards up is a really cool guy and I like what they are all about. It is a skater owned, sort of old school style brand.

At Boarder Wars, I ended up meeting up with one of my friends Deano Tull, that was riding for this company Dead Eye Wheels, and he set me up with them. Then, I also ride for Superfly Speedball bearings. I got set up with them through the skate shop SB Skate Shop.

Is SB your local shop?

Yeah, well they are up in Union Missouri. The owner of the shop Eric, has actually helped me out a lot. They have sponsored me with shop decks and have supported me since they started. Eric set me up with Superfly Speedball Bearings. He said they skated like Bronson’s, and I had just been skating a set of Bronson’s, so I tried them out. I ended up really liking the bearings even more than my last ones. So, I reached out to Superfly Speedball about a sponsorship. They thought I was suitable to represent the brand and they hooked me up to represent their bearings.

What is in store this year and what are you looking forward to?

I plan on doing a lot of contests and I am excited to put out another video part. I have been stacking a lot of instagram clips and have been saving up the best clips for a solid video part. I want to make an all street video part this year. It is a lot of work. It takes a lot of dedication and patience. Plus with me, since Sullivan is such a small town I have to travel everywhere I go. I just drove 200 miles to skate some ledges. Drove 2 hours the other day and skated for an hour around and kept getting kicked out. Then ya got to get back and get ready for work, ya know?

Words of wisdom?

Do it for fun. If you don’t enjoy doing it than there is no point. If something happens with it and you’re still having fun than keep doing it. It’s kind of like what Phelper was saying before he passed away. Ya know? You got to go out and have fun with your friends. Film clips. I mean you’re only going to be young for so long. For me it is something I enjoy and it’s something I want to do so that I have something to look back on. Every time I go out, I go out with a purpose. I want to get clips, I want to have fun, I want to skate. However, at the same time I don’t let it eat at my responsibilities. I still work full time. I have a house, I have to clean constantly. I have family to take care of. I still have responsibilities. It has to be a work to play thing.

Steven it was awesome getting to hear your skate story! Thank you for checking in with us. Make sure to subscribe to Steven Maune on the Street-Kingpins app and follow him on Instagram @SkateMaune.

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