Jacob West is rad. He’s a stylish skater, talented filmer, dedicated animal-lover and great to geek out with on niche Japanese skate videos. He’s been skating for 17 years and supporting UK skaters through his hardware brand Melrose since 2017. He’s an all-round good egg, and his passion runs deep. Yet I wish I hadn’t felt the need to run this interview, and that Jacob hadn’t felt the need to start his new project, Angles. Although it’s a fantastic initiative, and I’m stoked to share a little of Jacob’s story here, both were born from a distressing state of affairs – the saddening realisation that so much is to yet to be done in skating to eradicate homophobia and make it a place where all feel welcome. I sat down with Jacob to chat through his experiences, his love of independent brands and his plans for Angles.
Interview by Claire Alleaume
You started Angles a few weeks ago. What’s your aim with launching the platform?
I’m hoping to give more of a face to queer skating, not limited to but particularly in the UK. I have a lot of ideas and will see how it all develops. I want it to be different but also play to my strengths – since I’m a filmmaker I’m planning to do video magazine articles, day in the life edits, industry focuses on companies like Doyenne… Obviously, I need to build a following to hope to have an impact, but I’m going to start throwing things at the wall and see what sticks!
You came out as queer on Instagram last year. Were you already out to your friends and family? How did announcing it on Insta feel and how was it received?
Only two people knew before then – my partner and my best friend who helps me run Melrose. One of my biggest concerns about coming out was actually the impact it might have on Melrose. When I first started the company I swore to myself that I would never come out, as I didn’t want people to think of Melrose as just “that brand run by the gay guy” – I was terrified about that. But a year in, I decided that I needed to do it because I felt like I was misleading people and it was just such a big weight on my shoulders.
Once I came out it felt amazing. The fact that I didn’t ever have to pretend again. Everyone that mattered to me was supportive, but quite a lot of people I’d known for 10 or 15 years suddenly unfollowed me on social media, which felt weird.
Were the reactions noticeably different within the skating community and outside of it?
To be honest most of the people I know are skaters, but I did notice a difference. My friends who skate were a lot more accepting without questions – not that they didn’t care, but they just acknowledged it and moved on, which felt great. People outside of skating were not necessarily negative, but did tend to ask a lot more questions, and since I’m not straight-up gay – I actually identify as asexual pan romantic – it was stressful to have to explain a lot. Essentially I experience very little sexual attraction, and the things I find attractive in people aren’t based on gender. But if anything I’m more attracted to men.
The worst for me however was what occurred after coming out, mostly from people on Instagram.
What happened? It’s weird because as a straight cisgender skater following a load of cool LGBTQIA accounts on Insta and having always skated with many openly gay womxn, it could feel like the skating community is, at least now, very accepting of queer skaters. But I know your personal experience would tell me otherwise…
Yeah, I received so much abuse, so many homophobic messages. It was crazy. Not long after I came out, my Insta account got deleted for unrelated reasons, and when I set up my new account I initially had it public so that people could follow me again easily. But although I hadn’t changed what I posted, I started getting all these messages like “stop skating curbs you fag”, “no one wants to see you skate, fag”, etc. Half of them were from strangers, and half of them from people I know… I can’t even tell you which felt worse. Now I can take a step back and think “what idiots”, but when I was getting those messages, that was easier said than done. It was a really difficult time, and I essentially stopped skating.
When I was younger the whole inclusivity and camaraderie side of skating is what made me fall in love with it, so it was really strange to feel alienated and excluded from it. That’s why I’ve started Angles – if there’s anything I can do to counter that, I’ll give it a go.
I’ve thought for example of setting up an outreach line someday. When I was going through the worst of it, people like you and Jim Thiebaud really helped me by lending an ear and being supportive. I’d love to return that favour and help other people.
What you experienced saddens me so much… It’s amazing you have the resolve to rise above it and try to make a difference. I know both you and I live in relatively small towns, and I imagine that can have an impact too.
Yeah, there’s definitely a ‘small town mentality’ where I live. Since I came out, I stopped worrying so much about what I looked like – if I want pink hair and painted nails, I can. But it does attract more attention. I’ve had old people mutter “fag” at me as I’m walking my dog down the street…
In terms of skating, there are a few skaters in my town but they’re mostly into transition, drinking and BBQing down the park. I’m vegetarian, I don’t drink and I can’t skate transition. [laughs]
And the city itself is a complete “no skate zone” – everything is a bust and they give out big fines for skating. So I mostly travel to London to skate or film, or skate on my own.
Recently, we’ve seen a proliferation of platforms promoting increased diversity in skating and showcasing queer skaters. Do you think skaters have felt more able to express themselves and their identities? And is showcasing more queer skating actually having an impact on increasing participation?
Yes, I think things are changing for the better. When Brian Anderson came out for example, things like that make a big difference. I started thinking about coming out after that happened. But I also knew it was BA, and no one’s gonna mess with BA! So when Dom Henry came out in the UK, that felt a lot more tangible. Not that anyone would want to mess with Dom, but it was the UK scene dealing with it, and that showed me that it could be done.
It’s similar with platforms run by or for queer folks. Things like Skateism or Unity are so rad, but it can feel like it’s far from home, which is why I wanted Angles to partly have a UK focus. Overall though, the more visible we are, the more visible people will feel they can be.
So what’s next for Angles? And Melrose?
Melrose was born as a creative outlet for me and my friends. We wanted to film, make videos and share our vision of skating. When I stopped skating following the abuse I received, I tried handing Melrose over to the team but they didn’t want to do it without me. I invested a lot of time and money into it over the last few years and it’s been great, but now I’m going to focus on just doing it for fun. We might occasionally knock out product but it’ll mostly be videos and good times!
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With Angles, I’d love to build up a following over on @anglesmag, put out video content and promote queer skaters. And diversity in general, actually – I don’t think you can promote being “one” if you cut people out, so I don’t want it to be exclusively queer. But if it can help anyone going through what I went through, that’d be a win.
For sure! To wrap up… What are you stoked on in skating today?
I love small companies. There are so many independent skater-owned brands I feel great about supporting. I look forward to putting out some videos with Angles to showcase that side of the industry.
And ultimately, what I’m stoked on is skating the curb at 2am with friends… That’s the skating I’m down with for life.
