GTXX: Down South In Hell

Volcom is celebrating 20 years of skateboarding with Grant Taylor!

GT has been on Volcom for 20 years and we thought it would be fitting to showcase his progress and growth throughout the years as part of the Volcom Stone. As told by his friends and family.

Grant Taylor’s beginnings start in Atlanta, Georgia, son of Thomas Taylor, a local ATL Skate Pro and skateshop owner of “Stratosphere”, Grant was born into skateboarding. Legend has it that Volcom’s now Vice President of Skateboarding, Remy Stratton, held Grant as a newborn baby while passing through the south on a skate tour visiting Thomas at his home. Grant and Volcom’s story starts a few years later at the young age of six. In the beginning, Thomas kept Remy up to speed with Grant’s progress on the skateboard by sending the occasional VHS tape package over to the Volcom offices. Remy says; “ Grant was a natural from day one and the VolcomXG.T. relationship occurred naturally as well”.  A few VHS tapes later, while Thomas and Grant were attending the Surf Expo trade show in Florida, the whole Volcom crew got to see Grant’s talent in person on the vert ramp which was located directly in front of Volcom’s booth. Volcom immediately embraced the Taylor’s into the family. Grant has been riding for Volcom ever since.

Fully rev’d with no signs of stopping

Grant’s dad Thomas even admitted that he thought Grant was just going through a childhood phase with skateboarding, but somewhere in his pre-teens he felt his “talent needed to be addressed.” In addition to Volcom he later found a spot on the coveted Alien Workshop board company. It was all about this time when Grant started taking the opportunity to start traveling and skating the rest of the world. As Volcom teammate Collin Provost explains “it was during the first filming trips of (Volcom’s) Chichagof where we started going on our first real (not just trade shows and contests) trips together.” Since then Grant has been all over the world multiple times, skating some of the best spots and skateparks around the globe.

Grant Taylor and Jason Dill during the Alien Workshop days

This is just the first 20 years

Grant shows no signs of stopping. He plans on skating and traveling as long as he can. This look back on the first 20 years of his career with Volcom is a testament to his unwavering passion for skateboarding and Volcom is equally excited to continue the journeys where ever the energy pulls us. We look forward to many more years of skateboarding with Grant Taylor, Thrasher Magazine’s Jake Phelps put it best “Skate Rats forever!”

A lookback on some of Grant’s Volcom ad’s