Jeffrey Blain Grosso (April 28, 1968 – March 31, 2020) was an American professional

skateboarder Skateboarding is an action sport that involves riding and performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry job, and a method of transportation. Originating in the United Stat ...

, skate

documentarian A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill N ...

, and

web series A web series (also known as webseries, short-form series, and web show) is a series of short scripted or non-scripted online videos, generally in episodic form, released on the Internet (i.e. World Wide Web), which first emerged in the late 1 ...

host from

Arcadia, California Arcadia is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, located about northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. It contains a series of adjacent parks consisting of t ...

Skateboarding

Grosso started skateboarding at the age of 5. He broke onto the skateboarding scene at a young age, entering his first contest at age 12. Following his death in 2020, the ''Los Angeles Times'' erroneously reported that Grosso ''turned pro'' at age 12. In 1982, when Grosso was 14, the shoe and apparel company

Vans Vans (originally called the Van Doren Rubber Company) is an American apparel, accessories, and skateboarding shoes brand, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and ...

sponsored Grosso, leading to a personal and professional relationship that continued into 2020 with Vans' sponsoring Grosso's popular

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

show "Love Letters to Skateboarding". By age 16, Grosso left his first board sponsor, Variflex, to join Santa Cruz skateboards. He grew up skateboarding with prominent figures such as

Neil Blender Neil Blender (born 1963) is an American former professional skateboarder, skate company owner, and artist. His pro career began during his senior year of high school in 1981. He is regular-footed. By 1986, Blender invented at least two tricks, the ...

and

Lance Mountain Robert Lance Mountain (born June 13, 1964) is an American professional skateboarder and artist who was one of the prominent skateboarders throughout the 1980s, primarily due to his involvement with the Bones Brigade. As of August 2017, Mounta ...

. Grosso was one of the most recognizable skateboarders in the United States in the 1980s, known for his

vert skating Vert skating or vertical skating is a discipline using skates like inline skates or roller skates on a vert ramp, a style of half-pipe. In vert skating, the skater is able to achieve more air-time as compared to other styles of skating, meaning ...

. He appeared in multiple classic

skate video A skate video is a movie of or about skateboarding typically showing new Skate tricks, tricks and a series of skateboarders in a Montage (filmmaking), montage set to music. History Released in 1965, the short film ''Skaterdater'' is credited a ...

s including the

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 featurin ...

video ''Future Primitive'' and the

Santa Cruz Skateboards NHS, Inc. is an American sports equipment distribution company based in Santa Cruz, California.(May 21–27, 1998."Extreme Success - A hedonist work ethic leads to big bucks for SC entrepreneurial slacker"fro''Metro Santa Cruz'' published by Me ...

video ''Streets on Fire.'' Additionally, Jeff graced the cover of the October 1994 issue of

Transworld Skateboarding ''Transworld Skateboarding'' (''TWS'') is an international magazine on skateboarding that was based in Carlsbad, California, United States. The publication also ran an accompanying website and video production company. In February 2019, the pub ...

. Grosso had his career derailed due to

substance abuse Substance misuse, also known as drug misuse or, in older vernacular, substance abuse, is the use of a drug in amounts or by methods that are harmful to the individual or others. It is a form of substance-related disorder, differing definition ...

and found it over by the early-mid 1990s. Grosso got sober in 2005 and resumed skateboarding professionally.

Skateboard historian

Grosso was an unofficial historian of

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

, always there to share a story and insight into skateboarding with the younger generation of skaters. This love of skateboard history morphed in Grosso's popular

show “Love Letters to Skateboarding.” Jeff described the history of skateboarding as "so f--king muddy and grey. There is no black and white."

Anti-hero skateboards

Grosso joined Anti Hero Skateboards in early 2011, explaining the process in an August 2013 interview: "I'll ask, I'll shoot at the mountaintop, and maybe I'll land at base camp. Once I got the courage to call them up, or whatever, and then they were like, 'Well, we have to vote.', or whatever, 'cause they run it like a gang ... So once I found out that they all, like, voted yes ... it was a proud moment." Grosso made one appearance in the

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

, finishing fourth in the Skateboard Park Legends event at

X Games 16 X Games XVI was an action sporting event which took place from July 29 – August 1, 2010 in Los Angeles, California at the Staples Center, L.A. Live and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The games featured the sports of Motocross, skateboarding ...

in 2010.

On skate shops

Grosso referred to skate shops as " Jedi temples for skateboarding".

Skateboarding Hall of Fame

Grosso was inducted into the

Skateboarding Hall of Fame Skateboarding Hall of Fame (or SHoF), founded in 1997, is a museum and hall of fame located in Simi Valley, California, United States. The museum documents the history of skateboarding and the skateboarders, photographers, and other notable figu ...

in 2023.

Personal life

Throughout the 1990s, Grosso struggled with

heroin addiction Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a substance use disorder characterized by cravings for opioids, continued use despite physical and/or psychological deterioration, increased tolerance with use, and withdrawal symptoms after discontinuing opioids. ...

. Grosso has a son Oliver, who was born in 2012. Grosso died at the age of 51, on March 31, 2020, at Hoag Hospital in

Newport Beach, California Newport Beach is a coastal city of about 85,000 in southern Orange County, California, United States. Located about southeast of downtown Los Angeles, Newport Beach is known for its sandy beaches. The city's harbor once supported maritime indu ...

. In December 2020, Grosso's autopsy report stated his cause of death as "severe

cardiomegaly Cardiomegaly (sometimes megacardia or megalocardia) is a medical condition in which the heart becomes enlarged. It is more commonly referred to simply as "having an enlarged heart". It is usually the result of underlying conditions that make the h ...

with dilatation", with toxicology data indicating Grosso had

fentanyl Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic piperidine opioid primarily used as an analgesic (pain medication). It is 30 to 50 times more Potency (pharmacology), potent than heroin and 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Its primary Medici ...

in his system at the time of death.

External links

Love Letters to SkateboardingJeff Grosso: ‘I just ride skateboards, that’s what I do’
- Interview in

Huck (magazine) ''Huck'' is a bi-monthly magazine, website and video platform. It has been recognised for its style of exploring subcultures as "entry points for articles about music, politics and places all over the world". It is published by the London-based ...

Jeff Grosso - The Nine Club With Chris Roberts - Episode 85

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grosso, Jeff 1968 births 2020 deaths American skateboarders Skateboarding mass media 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American male writers