I met Jonathan on a trip probably 10 years ago. We both rode for Diverge at the time and Jacob set up this random trip with Me, Jonathan, himself, and Adam Burkholder. The trip was a disaster, nothing went right, but it was still an amazing time. That trip makes me think of 2 things, making fun of Jonathan for wearing bright green Dickies on St. Patricks day, and him trying to ollie off a 6 foot drop to flat. Jonathan is a great dude, and has an awesome shop. If you're ever in Bloomington, IN stop by Rhett Skateboarding, but whatever you do, don't ask him for some of his "spots". You never will want to skate a Prather Spot.
Name: Jonathan James Prather. 32. DOB: August, 5 1982 Born and Raised in Deputy, Indiana
How long have you been skateboarding?
When i was a little kid my mom gave piano lessons to this girl Tracy. She had a skateboard...I was probably 5 or 6. Her driveway was down hill, so I'd ride down that and before i got to the rode I'd roll into the grass. Dude it was so fun!!!! I always had a crappy Nash board, and would push around, but nothing cool...Then when I was 13 or 14, my cousins got good pro skateboards...One of them got an Alien Workshop. The other one got an Invisible. They were learning to Ollie, so i got my old crappy one and tried to learn to Ollie too. I think it took me a couple of weeks, but I finally made it. After about a month of messing around with them, my cousin Dusty decided he was over it. So I bought his Alien board for $40. I was stoked! My dad was so pissed I'd spend so much on a toy. His mom was pissed because she had spent $100 on it...A side note-my cousin is in jail for selling meth, so I'm glad I never quit skating! Not a whole lot of opportunities in Deputy
When and why did you move into Life?
Oh that was when I quit college. So I met my friends Sam and Adam at this music festival called Cornerstone. Maybe in 2002 or 2003...Sam had just started a skate shop in Upland, IN called Life. Anyway I was going to school an hour away from there in Ft. Wayne. So we ended up becoming friends. After a year and a half of college I was so over it. Seriously hated college. So I was just kinda couch surfing around Ft. Wayne. Well Sam had just moved Life to Muncie, so he could have an indoor park. He offered to let me crash on the couch in the park. So i moved to Muncie and lived in the skate shop for almost a year. It was pretty rad. I could skate anytime I wanted. And there were no houses close, so we'd just blast jams and skate till like 4 am. Oh, and I had lots of homies in Muncie. So that's who I'd skate with. And my friend Adam ended up moving into the shop too. So it was super fun just skate ALL the time!
Did you move to Bloomington right after Life closed?
No, I actually moved back to Deputy, and Madison. Deputy is about 20 miles outside of Madison. It's like farm land. Madison was where I went to school. So I lived with my parents for a few, then got a place in Madison. That way I didn't have to drive 30 minutes every time I had to work or skate. I chilled in Madison for a couple of years. Lots of friends there. But not where I wanted to be. So I ended up quitting my job and moving to Bloomington. I think that was 2008. Also living in Madison, we traveled a lot. Louisville, Indy, Cincinatti, and Bloomington, We're all within an hour and a half so we left town a lot.
How long were you in Bloomington before you started working at RISE?
I have known Ryan (smith, the owner of the bloomington rise) for a long time. He's been a HUGE influence on my life and my skating! I was coming to Bloomington a lot to skate, so we were chillin a bunch. He actually told me they were looking for an extra dude to help at the shop. So that kinda motivated me to get up here! But by the time I got here, there were already a couple homies working there. So i just worked at the Laughing Planet. I think for a year. Then RISE needed some help. So I started working there. I honestly think it was a good thing for me to kinda get involved in the scene before I started there.
Once the Bloomington RISE closed did you know immediately that you wanted to start your own thing?
Hahaha. No, quite the opposite. RISE closed in January. I was kinda hoping someone would start something. I was always asking myself "who could start a shop and not blow it?" I even had a little money saved up, and I kinda offered to help out whoever I thought might be able to do it. But by the end of March, nothing was happening, and I kinda realized, there aren't that many people who are used to being broke all of the time, and who can live off of $500 a month, but I could! So I realized, that maybe I was a good candidate to start a shop. But I didn't have enough money to start one. I also knew I'd have to give up other things I was doing a lot. Like, playing in bands, and leaving town on whims. But I love skating, and there was a huge hole in our scene. So to make a long story short. I borrowed some cash from family, and started the shop. I was probably one of the most reluctant business owners ever. I'm not a salesman. I hate talking business with people. It's seriously so wack! But I felt like the skate shop is the cornerstone of a skate scene. And with no shop, there's not much of a scene! So I worked everyday for the first year 7 days a week, and from May-Sept I worked a job baking at night, a few days a week. I lived on that. Didn't pay myself from the shop. I put every penny back into it! So the shop grew double by the time the first year was up. It's something i'm pretty proud of! I worked really hard, and it payed off. It was harsh some days, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
I also gotta mention I got a HUGE amount of encouragement and support from Buddy at RISE, Ryan Smith, Joe at Blacklist, Sam at Life, and Nick Weaver at RISE Ft. Wayne. All of those dudes were huge helps!
What does Rhett mean? And why did you decide to use that as the name for your shop?
Dude. I tried so hard to think of a name for the shop! Seriously, I have a piece of paper with 100 different names. I wanted something different from RISE. RISE is such an amazing name for a shop and it means so much. But I think the Bloomington scene is a little more goofball than the Indy and Ft. Wayne scenes. So after weeks of trying to figure out a name, I just decided to name the shop after my friends!
Rhett was all started from and inside joke between a couple of homies when we were like 14 or 15. A couple of dudes started writing it on their skateboards, then a couple more. Then suddenly there was this whole crew of friends all writing Rhett on their boards, t-shirts, tagging it in stuff, getting it tattooed on them. When i moved to Muncie, those were my dudes! So I became part of the crew. And honestly, the best part about Rhett was it's not a pretentious group of dudes. Basically, if you skate and are down with the homies and you aren't an idiot, you're part of Rhett. There's dudes in Portland who have Rhett tattoos who i've never met. But we're all homies. It's just how skateboarding is. If you're down, and not a jerk, then let's skate. Thats why I named the shop Rhett. It's named after my homies! And the idea of Rhett is that we're all homies. We're all a family! Skateboarding is a family...It may be a little dysfunctional sometimes, but we're so much more rad that anything else!
Rhett has grown quite a bit over the years. Is the support from the local community pretty strong?
Yeah. The shop has definitely grown a lot! Everyone here and out of town is SUPER supportive. I mean, we were broken into 2 weeks ago. Within the first week, we got everything that had been stolen back, except for 1 longboard. That's pretty rad! I think Bloomington does have a pretty tight scene. It's small, so we all know each other. And I think for most skaters here, it's more of supporting their friends than supporting the skate shop. I also think another reason folks here are so supportive is because we have seen the worst. We saw RISE Bloomington close. That was a very heavy blow to the scene.
Rise and Ryan did so much. It was such a monumental bummer when it was done. I think that gave a lot of people here perspective. That if you want a rad shop, and a rad scene, you have to support it! and in the same vein, the shop has to support the scene. It's gotta be a co-operative effort on both ends. I definitely feel very blessed to be a part of the Bloomington/Indiana/Midwest skateboard science!
Whats the plan for the next year? Do you have a video in the works?
Quit skating, make a million dollars, buy a hummer! HAHAHAHA! Well we've been talking about a video. So far I think there are like 5 clips. So my plan for the next year is to get my butt in gear, pull out my camera, and get these fools (and myself) motivated! The video is called RHETT DREAMS. It's gonna be like a Midwest Street Dreams. I'm trying to talk Dyrdek into a cameo! We'll see what happens!!!
Wow, can I be the TK of the video?
Yeah but you gotta rap!
Done and done! What brands are you stoked to carry at your shop?
I'm stoked to carry pretty much any skateboard brand that's giving back to skateboarding in a positive way. I'm really proud of all the local guys who are making it happen. So always super stoked to sell those. I do feel like we carry a lot of smaller brands though.
What inspires you?
Wow! Inspiration. Now that's a heavy question! I definitely get inspired by so many different things and people. Just the fact that we are friends and have created this worldwide community, based on riding a wooden toy, is pretty damn amazing!
So I guess on the daily music is a huge inspiration to me. Early on, when I first started skating, punk and hardcore were huge. Minor Threat and Operation Ivy, are definitely two bands that I can honestly say changed my life! Now a days I'm listening to a lot of jazz, hip hop, reggae, and of course all of the punk i can get my hands on. Been jamming to a lot of Mingus, Rassan Rolland Kirk, Ornette Coleman a lot lately...I feel like there is a lot of similarities between punk and jazz. Maybe not in the music but in the attitude!
As far as skating goes, I'm pretty hyped on all the smaller brands doing new and cool stuff. I get really inspired to skate by riding around and just looking at architecture. I think skating gives us a very different lens to see the world through. I think we appreciate architecture in a way that most people will never get. I get excited about not only skating it, but thinking about building it. What I would do if I owned a place. My friend Bart is making some killer skate parks right now. He's a huge inspiration...I could literally go on for hours!
One final question. What do you hope to see in the future as far as Indiana skateboarding goes.
I think Indiana skateboarding is amazing! I think being so far removed from the "industry" people here generally have way better attitudes, and skate more for the enjoyment. I think it's more pure here than a lot of places.
I guess one think I'd like to see is the Indiana skate community grow, and become more connected. I would love for dudes from Ft. Wayne, NWI, and Evansville to support events in Lawrenceburg. It's easy for kids from Indy to come to Bloomington, and vice versa, but it would be cool if everyone in Indiana wanted to support every scene. And insted of bitch about our differences, be excited about them, and embrace them. I believe that skateboarding has the potential to bring so much positivity. I think once folks realize that we are a big family, that it's not about competition, that we need each other to better ourselves, then we can really do some amazing things. That's what I would like to see the most. Just lots of support and respect for one another.
It would be cool for the "industry" to recognize Indiana as a viable place to skate and live. But we don't need an industry to make things here rad. We can do it ourselves!
Interview by Nick Holub
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