April

April came out of the head of one of the most respected technical skaters of his generation. Shane O’Neill built it from day one as a premium, minimalist, technical street project, with a clean graphic look that stays out of its own way.

History

Shane O’Neill, an Australian from Werribee (Melbourne), announced in June 2018 that he was leaving Primitive to start his own company, and on May 5, 2019 he revealed the name: April Skateboards. It’s a US-based brand (Los Angeles / Chatsworth area of California, per retailer descriptions), positioned as a premium street label from the very first release.

The brand’s rise was tied to the contest era. The fact that a Japanese skater won the first-ever Olympic street gold while riding for April pushed it onto the global map. Video output did a lot to fix the tone too, with parts produced in-house by O’Neill himself and later hosted on Thrasher.

December 2021 brought the move nobody saw coming: Guy Mariano, a ’90s icon from Blind and Girl, joined as a pro once his Numbers Edition run ended. Pairing a legend of that caliber with a much younger contest roster tells you exactly how April sees itself.

A roster built on contest talent

What sets April apart is the weight of its team. Yuto Horigome, Olympic street gold medalist at Tokyo 2020, rides for the brand, as does Rayssa Leal, one of the most-watched skaters on the planet. Around them sit Dashawn Jordan, Kai Kishi, Ronnie Kessner, Chloe Covell, Noah Nayef, Matheus Mendes and Yosef Ratleff, a young, contest-driven core. O’Neill still skates for his own company, which gives the whole thing credibility: the person setting the direction is someone who’s still filming parts.

The boards, and who they’re for

The graphics follow the same restrained logic. Yuto Horigome’s signature models (the “Fuji” and the script-logo fade versions) are the most sought-after, while Mariano’s decks — like the symmetrical “Cheetah” and the “Mirror Mirror” series — carry the weight of a historic name and landed well with skaters and collectors alike. This is a premium street brand for people who care about construction, clean design and a team playing at a different level. If that’s the kind of deck you’re after, line it up against the rest in the deck catalog and decide with the prices in front of you.