Tastemakers

By the time the X Games were created in 1995, pro skateboarders Steve Berra and Eric Koston felt their beloved boarding had become more about merchandising and corporations than camaraderie and spontaneity. To help bring the sport back to its roots, in 2007 they founded the Berrics (a combination of “Berra” and “Eric”), a private skate park at a downtown L.A. warehouse, to give pro skaters a place to practice and film videos without the interruption of police. They also added a suite of edit bays and a crew of filmmakers who worked around the clock to generate exclusive content and give fans online access at theberrics.com to the most exclusive skate park in the city. At events like the semiannual Battle of the Berrics, the freewheeling spirit of the early ’90s is clearly alive and well.