Anthony Van Engelen Talks About Fucking Awesome and the Demise of Alien Workshop with Slam City Skates

Slam City Skates sat down with Anthony Van Engelen to talk about why he left Alien Workshop, and the process behind starting up his own company Fucking Awesome along with Jason Dill. He also reveals his view on the current state of skateboarding and what its like being part of the “older” generation of skaters. Check out an excerpt of the interview below and head over to Slam City for the full interview.

How is it going Anthony are you alright?
Yeah it’s going good. I just got back from a three week tour so I’m at home in Los Angeles getting ready to go back out there.

You were recently in London when the House Of Vans park opened. Was it a trip seeing how far Vans has progressed as a company?
Yeah, I mean it’s crazy. Being there in that whole space they’ve got going on over there. It’ s sick. I just feel that skateboarding as a whole and of course Vans just has that spot in skateboarding historically so to see where skateboarding is at in 2014 is a fucking trip man!

Do you like it in London?
Yeah I like London, unfortunately every time I come I don’t ever really spend that much time there. I feel like every time I come it’s just for three days. Definitely on this last trip I wanted to stay for a little longer because I have never gotten a good amount of time there.

I feel like there was a period of adjustment after everything happened with Alien Workshop. It was where everyone fitted really well at one certain point. Sometimes it’s weird when you see people appear on another company and it doesn’t sit right. With you and Jason starting Fucking Awesome it not only makes sense it feels like it has been like that for a long time. Is it a relief riding for something that is 100 per cent your input and all the decisions are yours?
Is it a relief to be in that position? Ha, yes and no. You know, obviously with doing something like that comes a whole lot of other responsibility behind the scenes. But it has been amazing and I know definitely for a fact even prior to moving into this idea that it was absolutely the right thing to be doing and what we needed to be doing. It has been a super good experience but like I said it comes with it’s challenges too but I’m fucking stoked, it was the obvious next move for us.