Colton Killoran Interview: Redheader Shredder

Nowadays, every grom can do switch standups and crazier stuff than I would ever think of trying (Shout out to Chance Gaul and his 360 early grabs in SD), its hard to find people who really stand out, but guess what? We found him, and it’s not just because he has red hair.

This summer I had the chance to meet a young up-and-comer by the name of Colton Killoran, as well as hook him up with a sponsorship from Switchback Longboards because we think this kid rips. Growing up in beautiful British Columbia he had all the landscape to excel but happened to live in Vancouver’s version of Laguna Beach with bylaws making it illegal to skate in certain (incredible) areas.

Colton and his friends, who make up the “BC Collective”, (Colton Killoran, Kyle Smith, Spencer Dolphin, and Tyson Elenko) have been making some incredible videos showcasing their progression and have been skating like serious champs; they have some of the most boss standup slide skills in the business—and these kids don’t even use pucks on their gloves!

Anyway, it’s time to let this down to earth redhead answer some questions.

First off, what got you into skateboarding? You live in White Rock, a community which is about 90% against skateboarding.

I just liked all boardsports, I snowboarded and wakeboarded, then I saw some kid on a longboard so when I got a bunch of money for my birthday I got one, just to get from point A to point B pretty much.

Being one of three good red headed longboarders, do you feel like you have to make a name for yourself?

Not really, because I’m not really a redhead.

Should Shaun White start longboarding? Or is that too many redheads?

Yeah he should, it’s definitely a good amount of redheads.

Obviously, you like to make videos. When did you start to make videos?

Well, right when I started, before I knew you could even do tricks on longboards, we saw all of the Loaded Challenges and we started making those, that was the first video I made. I also just liked watching other longboard videos, so the second Loaded Challenge video I made, I tried to actually make it a full video, and that’s pretty much how it started.

Run me through a day in your life, with details.

Summer? Ok, I wake up around 9 o clock, sometimes i’ll go skimboarding in the morning, If I don’t then I’ll usually go out to Everall because its close, and I’ll ride with Kyle, Spencer, and Tyson. Then we’ll usually come back to my house, have some friends over and maybe go swimming or have a campfire.

That sounds entirely more exciting than my summer. Now that you’re exploring more, where are your top three places you want to go to skate, or already love to skate?

Giants Head is awesome! We went there last week and it is the best place I have ever ridden. That’s my favorite place since I love stand up slides, I also checked out Cadenwood in Whistler, that was really fun too, but I really want to try Britannia Beach and Lions Bay.

Any big plans for next year?

Probably going to California again to make another video. I want to enter races, I want to get as good as I can at gloves down slides and going fast so I can try to enter some races. Oh, and Maryhill. I want to go to Maryhill.

So, what’s with learning stand up slides before learning to put your gloves down?

Well, I learned from Loaded Challenges so it’s not really freeriding, more just tricks, so I started doing some standups and little reverts, and I never started doing big slides until I saw that trick tip with Kyle Chin on how to do big standup slides. I never needed gloves because I never tried to learn Coleman slides.

Which skaters do you look up to?

Adam Colton for sure, I met him in California, he’s awesome. I like Louis Pilloni too.

Cool. I’m sure you want to go skate so let’s wrap this up. Let’s end this with a shout out to the people that hook you up?

I get support from Orangatang/Loaded, and Switchback Longboards. Thanks guys.

Look out for these kids on the race circuit next year and make sure to check out their video series on the BC Collective youtube channel.

Here are the first two videos from the July Series:

July Series Episode 1: Canada Day

July Series Episode 2: Victoria

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Mr. Chubbs’ Whistler Recap Rafael Fazano Interview: Visions From Brazil Fernando Yuppie Interview: Pure Soon! The Max Dubler Interview