Pro skater Dylan Jaeb has finally spoken about leaving Primitive Skateboarding and joining Quasi Skateboards, where he turned pro immediately after joining the team.
As we previously reported, Jaeb left Primitive after almost four years with the team. Unlike many skaters who leave major brands and spend months without a board sponsor, Jaeb quickly found himself with a new opportunity.
Not only did Quasi bring him onto the team, they turned him pro right away.
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A lot of people in skateboarding were wondering why Jaeb never officially turned pro for Primitive, especially since it sounded like something was already in the works behind the scenes. Others questioned whether there were hard feelings involving Paul Rodriguez after Jaeb’s recent appearance on Thrasher’s “Bust or Bail.”
During a new interview with Thrasher Magazine editor-in-chief Michael Burnett, Jaeb addressed the rumors directly.
When a fan named @ohiohomegrowngemz asked, “Was the switch three flip at Santa Monica out of spite towards P-Rod and Primitive?” Jaeb immediately denied it.
“Not even a little bit. That’s just one of the tricks that I do,” Jaeb said.
“I saw a lot of comments saying that, especially the way that they edited the Bust or Bail video. They cut to P-Rod right after, so it looked out of spite. But I don’t think there’s any hard feelings there. I had a nice long call with Paul when I left, and it seemed like he didn’t care that much about me leaving.”
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Burnett later asked if making that phone call was difficult.
“I honestly hadn’t spoken to Paul a ton the whole time I was at Primitive,” Jaeb explained. “It wasn’t like he was the point of contact.”
Instead, Jaeb said the person he was most nervous about calling was Alan Hannon because they were in the middle of filming for what was supposed to become his Primitive pro project.
“Alan Hannon was the guy that makes all the Primitive videos, and he was the one that I was most nervous to call, because I knew that we were working on a video at that point,” Jaeb said.
“I just felt like I’d led him on a little bit because we were working on my pro thing for Primitive, and I had to call him halfway through that, right after they paid for this whole trip. I felt shitty about it.”
Jaeb said Hannon ended up being supportive about the situation, while the conversation with Rodriguez was “super chill.”
Burnett also brought up how unexpected the move to Quasi looked from the outside, something Jaeb understood.
“Yeah, I could definitely see how people would think that,” Jaeb said.
According to Jaeb, the connection to Quasi happened largely through his close friend Jacob Palumbo, who is friends with Jason Nam and has been around the Quasi crew for years.
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Jaeb explained that footage filmed for his Primitive project eventually made its way to Chad Bowers and Tubby Nugent.
“They ended up calling me so random one morning,” Jaeb said. “I answered and it was Tubbs.”
Jaeb said the conversation lasted around two hours, with Chad and Tubbs explaining how Quasi operates and how involved Chad is with every part of the company.
“After I heard how involved Chad is with everything, I realized that this is exactly what I was looking for,” Jaeb said.
“Growing up with Jamie Thomas, he was so hands-on with everything, and I think I grew to expect that type of care from an owner.”
Jaeb also compared Quasi’s structure to what he experienced at Primitive.
“I was just at Primitive. It was kind of a bigger operation. There’s a lot of people involved, and not all of them are skaters,” Jaeb said.
“But Chad skates. He’s the owner, and he does 100-percent of the graphics.”
“To me, what makes a brand good is when it’s ran by a small group of people that really know what they’re into.”
Jaeb also mentioned that maybe the move could introduce younger skate fans to “a different type of skating as well.”
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The interview later shifted to Gilbert Crockett, who once posted “Jaeb and Toby run this shit” on social media.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” Jaeb said. “I think that could have been part of it as well.”
Jaeb admitted he was shocked seeing the post because Crockett has always been one of his favorite skaters.
“I was tripping,” Jaeb said.
After later speaking with Chad about Quasi, Jaeb reached out to Crockett again to let him know he wanted to join the company.
“I was like, Dude, I’m down. I want to do this,” Jaeb recalled.
Still, Jaeb said Crockett’s response briefly confused him and made him wonder if he fully supported the idea at first.
“But I think he just didn’t want me to get my hopes up,” Jaeb said.