Greyson Fletcher is Your Favorite Surfer’s Favorite Skater

From "the fires of hell" to carving out a unique approach in skateboarding, Greyson Fletcher...

August Howell
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surfer.com
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November 27, 2025

Christian Fletcher is your father. Nathan Fletcher is your uncle. Herbie and Dibi Fletcher are grandpa and grandma. When your family is composed of pioneers, innovators and figureheads of surf and skateboard culture, it’s not like you can sit on the couch and play video games all day.

Greyson Fletcher certainly didn’t. Instead, he’s channeled his family's intimitable background, drive and sheer talent to skate at a video-game level. As his father Christian put it, “He’s the product of a f–king gnarly environment.”

Thrasher Magazine recently published an excellent mini-doc that covers Greyson through several angles: His family, his struggles with alcohol, and his unflinching approach to hurling himself at speed over concrete.

It’s been anything but a smooth ride for Greyson. As a younger man, his lifestyle was extreme. The partying and the booze nearly killed him. It took a near-death experience and the possibility of never skating again to set him straight. “I drank so much liquor throughout the years that I burned a hole through my esophagus,” he explained in the video. “Drank so much liquor (that) I collapsed both lungs (by) throwing up so much. I almost died."

True skaters know how to take a bad blow and get back on their feet. Despite slamming harder than most, skating was and remains Greyson's life. He's never giving it up. Now sober, happier and wiser, he's doing the best work of his career. At age 34, he got his debut pro model with Tony Hawk’s Birdhouse earlier this year. His energy is palpable, his impact undeniable. There's a reason surfers voted him, the skater, as the MVP for the first Swatch Nines Surf in Waco, Texas, last year.

“Skateboarding is my one thing,” Greyson said. “I get sidetracked sometimes, and I feel weird. That’s why I’ve been skating so much this past year, because I have to get back to skating. It’s the only thing that feels somewhat normal.”

Even if you’re not a regular skater, you can see something different about the way Greyson pops off a ramp. There’s a raw power, a burst of smooth speed that sets him apart. He doesn’t go for the most technical fingerflips or dizzying spins. Whatever is big and impactful. Dare I say it, there are elements of surfing in his skating.

“Growing up as a Fletcher, people can say a lot of stuff,” an emotional Uncle Nathan said, not far from the Banzai Skate Park, which is basically a second home for Greyson, who landed a one-footed (barefoot) over the roasting concrete last year. “But it’s not easy when you have these people above you. Once you’re just doing it because you love it, you can really shine. I feel like Greyson is just getting to that point where it’s like, who cares, I’m Greyson Fletcher. It doesn’t matter what my dad, my uncle, my uncle. Just go out there and do it.”

“A lot of people get hung up by the pitfalls,” says Dibi, the Fletcher's matriarch. “I look at Greyson now and I’m like, ‘He’s been through the fires of hell.’ And it looks like he’s strolling right now. Battle weary but better for the journey.”