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Animal House: How 7 pro skateboarders came to live under one roof

Seven skateboarders living in one house. What could go wrong? Apparently, very little.

Itā€™s like a teenage fever dream ā€” seven professional skateboarders living together in one enormous house, a home base while they travel the world for contests. Friends, from time to time, crash in the spare bedroom when they come to SoCal to skate.

It sounds like a sequel to Grind, but the scenario is very much real. Pro skateboarders Alex Perelson (27), Sam Beckett (26), Clay Kreiner (21), Mitchie Brusco (21) and CJ Titus (18) live together under one roof in Vista, California, coming and going as they compete in contests and film projects. Recently, Josh Stafford (27) and Norwayā€™s Mats Hatlem (18) joined the crew, maxing out available space in the house.

Sound like a landlordā€™s nightmare? Maybe, but not when the landlord is Perelson, himself, who bought the house back in 2012 and has since assembled a roommate dream team.

ā€œHeā€™s pretty much the most badass landlord ever,ā€ says Kreiner, who took a break from practicing his skateboard park line at X Games Minneapolis to tell me more about his unique living situation.

ā€œWhatā€™s mine is his and whatā€™s his is mine.ā€

Skateboarder Clay Kreiner takes a break from practicing at the 2018 X Games.
Skateboarder Clay Kreiner takes a break from practicing at the 2018 X Games.

After San Diego native Perelson bought the house, Beckett, who originally hails from Great Britain, moved in. Kreiner, who moved to California right out of high school in 2015, was next.

The transplant from South Carolina had his living situation fall through a month after he moved to the state, and he was faced with the prospect of living in his car as he scrambled to find a place. Beckett gave him Perelsonā€™s number, and the two exchanged texts about potentially shacking up.

ā€œI didnā€™t even know Alex [Perelson],ā€ says Kreiner, ā€œbut I had always looked up to him.ā€

Kreiner stopped by the house to meet Perelson, and the two sat on the porch to have a chat. Perelson stressed that this wasnā€™t a party pad; the guys who live there are, if anything, looking for some downtime when theyā€™re home, which isnā€™t often. About 10 minutes later, Kreiner was making a copy of his house key.

ā€œHeā€™s pretty much the most badass landlord ever.ā€

A little less than a year later, Brusco joined the assemblage and then, most recently, Titus and Stafford rounded out the group.

Their ages span a decade, and the skaters are all at different levels as they try to make their names in action sports.

Until Saturday, Beckett was the only one with a gold medal to his name, which he earned at the 2016 X Games Austin skateboard vert contest.

But Saturday night at X Games Minneapolis 2018, Brusco brought honor to the house when he took gold in the skateboarding Big Air contest with an eye-popping 1080. Kreiner took silver, and the housemates celebrated together on the podium.

https://twitter.com/XGames/status/1020873940602892288

Kreiner won his first piece of hardware, a bronze medal, in Minneapolis in 2017 in big air.

Brusco is the most decorated inhabitant of the house, with six medals (four bronze, two silver) across the vert and big air disciplines before adding two more this week to make it eight.

And the unofficial head of the household, Perelson, is still looking for his first medal to hang on the wall of his room. Twice heā€™s finished just off the podium in vert at fourth overall.

6 Augsut 2010: Alex Perelson competes in the Maloof Money Cup 2010 Carlā€™s Jr Pro Vert Contest at the Action Sports Arena inside the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA. (Photo by Paul Hebert/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)
6 Augsut 2010: Alex Perelson competes in the Maloof Money Cup 2010 Carlā€™s Jr Pro Vert Contest at the Action Sports Arena inside the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, CA. (Photo by Paul Hebert/Icon SMI/Icon Sport Media via Getty Images)

Though he has 10 X Games appearances to his name, Perelson is really just getting started; after all, he was the youngest athlete in the field in every skateboard vert contest between 2007 and 2011.

Then thereā€™s newcomer ā€” both to the house and to the skating world ā€” Titus, who is still looking for his first X Games invite.

The house has seven bedrooms, so everyone certainly has his own space. However, Beckett created a little more of it for himself when he renovated the old goat barn ā€” yes, goat barn ā€” in the back of the property.

Now, the tricked-out shack suits Beckettā€™s ā€œhippie dudeā€ personality, with solar panels on the roof and everything.

And what about the goats?

ā€œWe do not have the goats anymore,ā€ Kreiner laughed.

With seven professional athletes living in one house, one might assume there would be some disagreements. And, certainly, all the guys are ā€œso different,ā€ Kreiner says. But for the most part, itā€™s a harmonious arrangement. ā€œSomehow, we all mesh super well.ā€

They even train for contests together. Well, kind of.

ā€œItā€™s a really nurturing environment for all of us,ā€ Perelson told FanSided in Minneapolis. ā€œIā€™m really stoked on how itā€™s been going.ā€

Sometimes, even more personalities are thrown into the mix. ā€œWeā€™ve got a guest room that people come and stay in all the time,ā€ Kreiner explains. Most recently, it was Franceā€™s Eddie Damestoy and Rony Gomes of Brazil.

Just call it the International House of Skateboarding.

ā€œWhether theyā€™re just coming out for a trip or to skate, theyā€™ll just hit us up,ā€ says Kreiner. ā€œBefore an event, like this [the X Games], a lot of the dudes like to come out to California.ā€

ā€œAlex has definitely been super open to all of this,ā€ Kreiner says.

An interesting note about the houseā€™s backstory; Perelson says it actually used to house a golf academy for aspiring golf pros. ā€œI honestly thought it was, like, a halfway house when I bought it,ā€ he said. But he said itā€™s cool to know the house has been home to other athletes in the past. Itā€™s almost like he was meant to assemble this group to live there.

SoCal is the skateboarding epicenter of the country, and even though the house is at capacity, the guys live near plenty of other pro skaters, such as Elliott Sloan, whoā€™s about two miles away. In nearby Cardiff reside some of Perelsonā€™s closest friends, Jimmy Wilkins and Tom Schaar. ā€œJimmy lives in a way nicer area,ā€ Perelson laughs.

https://twitter.com/Elliotsloan/status/935328158131240960

A majority of the house traveled to Minnesota to compete in this yearā€™s X Games ā€” Perelson, Kreiner, Brusco and Beckett in vert; Brusco and Kreiner in Big Air.

International houseguests of honor Damestoy and Gomes were there, too.

Brusco kicked the week off by representing the Vista House on the podium, earning bronze in the vert final before his gold in Big Air. Needless to say, the boys are bringing home some shiny new decor.

***

The guys donā€™t spend every waking moment together ā€” theyā€™re busy traveling and honing their craft at the nearby skateparks when theyā€™re back in SoCal.

But they do hang quite a bit, and itā€™s not only for ā€œwork.ā€ Sometimes they just enjoy ā€œkickinā€™ it with each other,ā€ watching movies and enjoying their limited downtime.

ā€œThey spend most of their time in the living room, watching skate videos and playing video games,ā€ says Perelson. ā€œIf I lived by myself, I would never be this immersed in skateboarding all the time, so itā€™s good for me in that aspect.ā€

To wit, I asked if theyā€™ve built any features on their property ā€” most of the guys skate vert, so perhaps a halfpipe?

ā€œWeā€™ve definitely thought about putting something at the house,ā€ Kreiner says, though he explains that it would require a lot of work with the way the land sits.

ā€œWeā€™re all super busy, and when we are at home, we like to be lazy.ā€

Then thereā€™s the aspect of not wanting to turn the house into a skatepark 24/7. ā€œWhen you build something to skateā€¦I mean, people are always coming in and out now,ā€ Perelson says. Build a pipe? Theyā€™d never leave. But Perelson likes the idea of a small concrete bowl or mini ramp, and those improvements may be in the houseā€™s future.

As for the specifics of the dudesā€™ domestic bliss, when I asked who cooks the most, Kreiner only laughed. ā€œOh goodness. None of us cook.ā€ A beat. ā€œProbably Sam, when heā€™s in town,ā€ Kreiner says. ā€œBut heā€™s hardly ever in town.ā€

Take-out it is!

And who is the messiest? ā€œMitchie?ā€ Kreiner says. ā€œIā€™m gonna catch some hell for saying that, but yeah, Iā€™m gonna go with Mitchie.ā€

ā€œMitchie lives in another reality than all of us,ā€ Perelson adds. ā€œBut heā€™s a genius, so we tolerate it and we just watch him do his thing.ā€

https://twitter.com/XGames/status/1020872376613945345

Maybe itā€™s just hard for Brusco to keep his eight X Games medals tidy.

Perelson admits that he has a new appreciation for staying in hotels, when thereā€™s only a mess if youā€™ve made one yourself and you donā€™t have to nag people to clean up.

ā€œBut honestly,ā€ he says, ā€œI think Iā€™m making up for years of never doing anything around the house when I was young and my parents probably did everything.ā€ And he stresses that everyone is ā€œvery respectful,ā€ only leaving an odd mess here or there or a dish in the sink when theyā€™re, say, rushing out the door.

As for how long Perelson wants to keep his house open, he says as long as the other guys want to it, heā€™s down. ā€œIā€™m not in any hurry to be isolated,ā€ he says.

ā€œI hope when Iā€™m forty that I donā€™t live with seven dudes, but other than that I donā€™t want it to end anytime soon,ā€ Perelson says. Who knows ā€” maybe heā€™ll raise his kids in a skater house?

ā€œSometimes I feel like I have kids already,ā€ Perelson laughs.

Somehow, this unique living arrangement has, mostly, flown under the radar in the media. At contests, reporters will ask one of the guys what they think about another. The bemused response will be something like, ā€œWellā€¦we live together, so.ā€

Thatā€™s pretty much all you need to know.

Next: From Hawaii to X Games: Pro skaters, close friends

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