Alex Olson

Son of professional skateboarder Steve Olson, Alex's first memory of skateboarding was of Christian Hosoi doing airs on a Half-pipe while talking on a wireless phone, Olson was six years old at the time. Olson grew up in Santa Monica with his mother until the age of ten, when he moved to Malibu to live with his father, former-professional skateboarder Steve Olson. In Malibu he started skating. According to his father, he came home one day and made an announcement: “Yo, I’m a skateboarder.” His interest in skating reignited his fathers' interest.

A friendship with Guy Mariano is how Olson started skating for Girl. At this time in his life, Olson would skate often with Mike Carroll and skate at the Berrics skate complex. The Girl team was filming for the Lakai video Fully Flared. On Olson’s first trip with Girl, he toured the US, in a “brutal but super fun” trip where he landed some good tricks. Before he got on Girl, he got a box of antihero skateboards and was torn between the two companies.

Olson has also modeled for the fashion label Eckhaus Latta, walking the runway for their Spring 2018 show. Olson included a clip of the runway walk in his skate part for The 917 Video, explaining the situation to The Bunt podcast:

Olson was on the cover of the May 2015 issue of Transworld Skateboarding doing a backside 50 50.

In 2007, Olson got 2nd place at the Vans Downtown Showdown Real Sacto Rebate.

Olson first visited New York in 2005 when Jason Dill, at the height of his career, bought Olson a ticket to NYC in response to a MySpace message: “Hey, I would love to come to New York.” Olson flew there and saw the New York skate and cultural scene first hand for the first time. The scene that Jason Dill was in 2005 was thriving, including the popular skateboarding-influenced artists like Dan Colen and Dash Snow. Olson decided to move to NYC from California. He would live with Jason Dill for a bit. Olson also lived with Mark Gonzales for two months. While living with the Gonz, Olson would feed the cats.

Olson saw his first skate video, Toy Machine: Welcome to Hell, at a sleepover. His two favorite parts were Donny Barley and the fall section. At a young age, Olson found the artistic nature of Jason Dill's part in the Alien Workshop Photosynthesis video (2000) influential. As a young skater, he looked up to: Andrew Reynolds, Jim Greco, Erik Ellington.

Alex Olson (born 1986) is a goofy-footed American professional skateboarder, company owner, and entrepreneur. Olson runs the companies Call Me 917 and Bianca Chandon.