Shane O’Neill. He’s got a skill level and bag of tricks that practically defy logic, impeccable style and even some hefty contest chops. It goes without saying that, Shane is straight-up one of the best. Well, Shane O’Neill now rides for CCS and we couldn’t be more hyped about it.

Check the Shane “Welcome” clip and scroll down for an exclusive interview.

WELCOME to the CCS team, Shane. Thanks. I’m psyched. 

So when was the first time you heard of CCS? After coming over to the States a bunch of times and just through skating with friends in the states, I’d see the catalog around.

How did you get introduced to skating? There was just a kid who had like a little box down the street from my house. And I just saw it one day and I wanted to skate it. I couldn’t skate it yet but I just started rolling around. The kid went and quit skating like a year later and gave me the box. That’s pretty much how I started.

What’s the skate scene like in Melbourne were you grew up? It’s good. There’s a main city skatepark, and everybody goes down there, skates. Meets up there and then goes street skating. I was pretty much doing that for years. It’s great, a lot of kids skate there. It’s a real nice place.

Was it mainly skaters from the states that you looked up to? For the first two years, it was obviously like Koston and Paul and guys like that. But in Australia there were a bunch of people like Dustin Dollin and a guy named Tristan Walker, who doesn’t skate anymore I don’t think. There were just a bunch of Australia skaters who were killing it at the time.

So you’re skating in Australia, you’re on Nike SB flow….how did you end up getting hooked up in the States permanently? Well, I’ve pretty much been riding for Nike SB since I was 14 and the Nike team would do trips to Australia every January. And through those trips I just became good friends with Paul [Rodriguez]. He wanted me to come stay at his house over here [the states]. So I did, stayed here for two weeks, skated, met everybody and then just kept coming back. Eventually I got to know everybody and just kept skating. I guess that’s how it all worked out, just by skating. But obviously it was a big help to have a good friend like Paul to help me start off.

Before Skate Mental, who were you riding for? I was just flowed by Almost. In Australia, the Distribution Company called Hardcore hooked that up. And I’d been riding for Almost flow forever and nothing was really happening. And at the time I started getting more coverage in the states so I was like, I want to do something else.

How is it having Brad Staba for a boss? He’s amazing. That’s actually one of the best things I like about having a board sponsor like Skate Mental. I get to pick what boards I want and choose graphics and do whatever and he [Brad] doesn’t care. It’s just way more mellow than probably other companies would be.

Skate Mental graphics are always ridiculous in the most amazing way. Do you have input into those things? Yeah, I have input. I just come up with little ideas that I like. I wanted a Biggie and Tupac graphic and he came up with the ideas, which are pretty funny. One of them is Biggie doing a keg stand, getting held up by kangaroos and the other is Tupac doing the same thing [laughs]. All of the graphics are crazy which is good. Brad just doesn’t follow the normal graphic themes, which is cool.

I saw on your Twitter The Coffee Bean sent you a letter about getting sponsored by them. What was that about? I just Tweeted that it would be sick to be sponsored by Coffee Bean. I was just kidding, but The Coffee Bean started following my Twitter. The lady emailed me and was like, ‘What’s your address so we can send you some promo stuff?’ I was like, ‘Sick’.  They sent me some promo cards where I can get some free coffee. It wasn’t’ much but it was still pretty cool to have that happen.

That’s rad. That’s a dream sponsor right there. Are you really hyped on coffee? Nah, I’m not like a fiend for it or anything, I just like it.

What’s you favorite Coffee Bean Drink? This Hazelnut Ice Blended Coffee. It’s not even like a strong coffee drink but I like it a lot.

You’ve been filming for the new Transworld Video. How far along filming are you? I’m actually not far along at all. I’ve probably got like 10 tricks or something. I’ve still got a lot more things I want to do. I’m going to China this week and Thailand soon. So I’m just looking forward to that. I have some tricks I want to do…I don’t know where or anything but I’ve got some I’d like to try.

How important is it to find new spots when you’re filming? I don’t really care about that. I just want to skate. Usually if I want to try a new trick it’ll be on a ledge and it’s easy to find a new ledge that’s good these days. Well, that’s why I’m going to China…there’s ledges everywhere.

You ride an 8.125 board. Most tech dudes like P. Rod aren’t cracking an 8. Yeah, Paul was gonna try and ride an 8 the other day but he just got over it I guess. For me, I think bigger boards are more comfortable.

When did you move up to a bigger board? I’ve been riding 8’s forever pretty much. Then I saw this shape that Koston had one day, I skated it for a second and it was really good. So I asked Brad if I could use that for my shape. I never really new it was an 8.125, I thought it was just an 8.

Photos by Landi.

Get Shane’s newest Skate Mental Decks and the goods he backs from Nike & Thunder.