Driven by art: The festival's creative vision
JACKALOPE is all about local roots. This year, for our Virginia Beach stop, we teamed up with a true pioneer of the culture: Andy Howell.
Andy blended the city’s pirate legends with its gritty skate history to create a flyer that’s more than just a poster, it’s a treasure map of VB references. We caught up with the mastermind himself to talk about his creative flow, his history in the game, and the inspiration behind this year’s branding.
Interview with Andy Howell: The vision behind JACKALOPE VB 2026:
How would you define the relationship between your art, skate culture, and the "Ghost Ship" aesthetic?
Skateboarding and Art have been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember, and have largely informed my creative practice, which has included many years on a skateboard as an amateur and professional skateboarder, along with graffiti, skate graphics, streetwear design, music production, film direction, branding and marketing, fine art, and founding or co-founding a number of my own companies including New Deal Skateboards, Element Skateboards, 411 Video Magazine, Imagewerks, Artsprojekt, MATCHCo, and most recently a full circle return to my roots with skate/surf/fish/art company GHOST/SHIP Supply Company on the Outer Banks and Virginia Beach.
The JACKALOPE Virginia Beach theme is inspired by a pirate ship. Can you explain how this theme resonates with Virginia Beach’s history and identity?
The JACKALOPE Pirate Ship truly reflects the roots and deep heritage of Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks. Before skateboarding, surfing, skimboarding and wake skating, pirates traversed these volatile waters, dodging Nor'easter storms and authorities to hide stolen ships and treasures in the Chesapeake and Back Bays, along the Albemarle and Currituck Sounds and, of course, one very famous pirate, Blackbeard, behind Portsmouth Island in Ocracoke in the late 1800s. After placing an old horse with a large lantern around its neck on Jockeys Ridge in Nags Head, NC, pirates would lure ships to run aground at night and then ransack and steal everything in the morning. In some cases mustangs were released that became the wild horses of the Outer Banks and Eastern Shore.
The descendants of these pirates settled along this area of the East Coast and blended into the population, in some cases eventually becoming the skaters, surfers, musicians and graffiti artists inhabiting the area today. The pirate ships and cottages along the East Coast were made of wood, similar to the Halfpipes, pyramids, stairs and kickers used for skateboarding at Jackalope. The big vert ramp at Jackalope is also a direct descendant of Mount Trashmore, the country's first municipally funded ramp, built right here in Virginia Beach in the mid-1980s.
The skateboarder, street artist, and DIY enthusiasts are makers and instigators who could be seen as a modern day pirates, reading the sea and landscape, finding the right lines, barging at will, and destroying all terrain. The GHOST/SHIP Crew is a motley configuration of iconic pros, local legends, and new jacks travelling up and down the East Coast in our "Ship" that is rumored to be moored at Jackalope this weekend. We create chaos, skate, surf, and fish everywhere we go, build our community and analog network through shared experiences, and enjoy the ride.
Would you like to walk us through the design, the character you created, and his backstory?
The character I've used in the Jackalope 2026 design embodies the noir skate aesthetic of GHOST/SHIP and the irreverent DIY attitude of skaters on the Outer Banks, in Virginia Beach and Tidewater area. Skateboarding was completely illegal in this area in the 80's, and the skaters and surfers were largely unknown except for surfing standouts like Wes Laine. Skating broke through when Mount Trashmore was built and hosted the early NSA contests and Bones Brigade video.
VB skateboarding then exploded onto the local and international scene, producing the highest per capita number of professional skaters from the area including Henry Guiterrez, Allen Midgette, Mike Crescini, Sergie Ventura, Mike Conroy, and myself, among many others. That set the stage for VB to influence East Coast and global skating with a slew of skaters and skateparks built by powerhouses like Artisan Skateparks and others. Now there is a thriving pro scene with local and international pros including the GHOST/SHIP Crew's Collin Graham, Mike Fava, Chase Norman, Ronnie and Dylan O'Neal, and many others.
Who are your biggest artistic influences?
Jim Phillips, VCJ, Victor Moscoso, Keith Haring, Rick Griffin, R. Crumb, and all the Beautiful Losers and friends like Shepard Fairey, Barry McGee, Tristan Eaton, and many others.
Outside of art and skateboarding, are there any other subcultures or "secret skills" that feed into your creative process?
Art takes on many forms, Skateboarding is just paintbrush in the box...
When you're in Virginia Beach for the event, what is your go-to spot to eat or hang out?
Atlantic On Pacific, Aloha Snacks, and Bay Local Eatery, all relatively within walking distance of the contest
Where can our readers find the latest Ghost Ship drops and follow your journey?
Follow on Instagram @ghostship.supply for everything from the GHOST/SHIP Crew and @andyhowell43 for my personal art and life journey and find us online.
Thank you to everyone at JACKALOPE, all our homies in the GHOST/SHIP Crew, and our greater East Coast community for keeping it real.
More projects :
http://futureskate.com (coming soon)
