INtro
Amidst its never ending scan of the land, the ToeSpotlight’s shine has found its way onto Ryan Zepaltas, a living Santa Rosa relic of the skate scene. We talk about his three-decade legacy of skateboarding, his growth in the wine industry—from sifter to Winemaker—and his latest part in “ Chronicles of Arnica”, Santa Rosa’s elder 40↑ latest skate flick. Ryan tells us that this might be his last hurrah, but considering the way he’s looking in the streets… well, we aren’t so sure.
So, put your glass in the air and do that fancy twirly thing, watch the wine legs traverse down walls of crystal glass, take a gentle whiff, and sip, ever so daintily. Or just suck it down. Either way, this one’s for you, Zappy. Bottoms up!
Ever since he moved to California from rural Wisconsin, Ryan Zepaltas has been crushing it; both in the streets and in the vineyard. Today, around three decades later, Ryan is still a long-standing staple of Santa Rosa’s skate scene. He is a veteran toesman who was among the first to drop hammers in the motherland. Hell, he stomped a tre-flip down Bremerton’s crusty Crown Hill Double set (2007) when I was still shittin’ britches (in fact, all of his tricks in Don’t Act Famous were filmed on the Kitsap Peninsula). Just recently, he finished up a skate part that he’s been working on for the last 4 years or so.
The Chronicles of Arnica 2024
When Ryan isn’t skating or being a loving husband and father of two, he is making wine for Copain Winery. We knew it was due time to sit down with this Rosa relic, to talk about his early years skating, his climb up in the wine industry, his latest video project, his part in The Chronicles of Arnica, a Santa Rosa skate flick, featuring Sonoma legends, all 40+ in age. Lucky for us, we caught Ryan just at the tail end of the busy harvest season, so he had some time on his hands to sit down and share his story with us. Cheers, Zappy!
Crushing It in the Streets
It all started in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, when Ryan was in the sixth grade. His buddy had gotten a new Nash board, and after school, the two friends would take turns riding down his buddy’s driveway. From that point on, Ryan was hooked. But skating in rural Wisconsin was no sky filled with sunshine or ground slabbed in smooth.
“Yeah, Midwest in the late 80s, early 90s was pretty dire,” Ryan tells me, a hint of nostalgia in his sigh. “Mostly street, but really bad street. In the Midwest, the winters destroy the parking lots and concrete. So things are definitely a lot crustier. There are no perfect spots, but, you know. Occasionally there'd be a mini ramp that would last for a little while, but yeah, no parks at that time, no vert ramps, nothing like that.” It wouldn’t be long before Ryan’s sights found California, the place where skating was.
360 Flip from Toebock 2003 DVD | Video: Crew
This was the EMB era when early legends were paving the way for street skating. In late high school, Ryan and his cousin, Tito Contardi, embarked on a trip out west, to the Bay.
“We got off the bus and all of a sudden we're at EMB and it's like, all these people are right there in our face. Mike Carroll, Keith Hufnagel, Kenan Milton, Jamie Thomas. We're like skating with them for something like a week straight and we're like ‘Oh yeah we're moving here for sure.’” In 1998, not long after being star-struck in SF, Ryan would make the permanent move out West, where he’d crash on his aunt’s couch in West County Rosa.
“When I moved to Sonoma County, I just started going to Santa Rosa Park. So I started meeting everybody in that crew. I think my first friend was Jesse Palmer. And through him, I met Matt Kehoe and Tony Trujillo. They were kind of the same age. Shortly after, I met the Hendersons (Jeff and Brian) and everybody on the Brotherhood team. Within’ six months, I met Rusczyk and started skating with him a lot… which was right around the time we ran into you guys. I met Adam Crew through the Hendersons.”
Tailslide In the Motherland | Poulsbo, Wa (2007) | Video from “Dont Act Famous”
“Skateboarding works that way, right? You just show up and all of a sudden you meet some other skaters, and before you know it, they take you under their wing.”
Ryan knew he had found a home in Sonoma. But if he wanted to stay, he’d need to find work. So, what started as simply a means to ends meet would establish what is today a lucrative career. When Ryan wasn’t in the streets skating, he was in the vineyard, learning the ropes for what would become another life-long passion: crafting that perfect glass of vinho.
Crushing It in the Vineyard
Once Ryan decided that he would not be returning to WI, he started looking for a job. However, Ryan wouldn’t have to look far. One night at a wedding reception, Ryan met a man who owned a winery, and when he mentioned he was searching for work, the guy offered him an entry-level job for the harvest season (the busy season, where 80% of the entire workload is done in 2 months).
When most people think of wine, they think of the result: an elegant beverage associated with elegant occasions. There is a softness that surrounds wine. Most people think of a sommelier before they think of a sweaty laborer covered in grape juice and mud. Making wine is dirty hard labor. Especially when you start at the bottom and it's harvest time.
“I just thought, oh, that sounds cool, work in a winery. Like, maybe I'll get to taste the wine. You know, drink the wine while I'm working or something. It just sounded stupidly appealing.”
If Zepaltas wasn’t sifting through grapes or engaged in what seemed like endless hours of punch-downs, there was always something to clean. It wouldn’t be long before Ryan would fall in love with the fast-paced, labor-intensive, and high-pressure work. For Zepaltas, the harvest of Fall 98’ would be the first of many more to come.
Ryan was a super fast learner, and after two more harvests, he realized that he could take his knowledge and bring it overseas. Having a business major, Zepaltas was also super good at networking, which led him to a friend who linked him up with a winemaker in Auckland, New Zealand. “When I went over there to New Zealand,” Ryan says, “I really fell in love with the whole deal.”
Siduri Harvest 2013 | Santa Rosa, Ca
In New Zealand, Zepaltas quickly found a crew of skaters. “Life-long friends” as he now refers to them. “Skateboarding works that way, right?” Ryan tells me. “You just show up and all of a sudden you meet some other skaters, and before you know it, they take you under their wing.” At this point, Ryan was ripping at life. He was either working a good-paying job that he loved or he was shredding the streets and parks of Auckland.
“I never went to school for winemaking or viticulture. I just kind of… yeah, snuck in the side door.”
“I actually skated in contests while I was there,” Zepaltas says with a chuckle. “I actually made it to their nationals (laughs). I qualified in this contest by accidentally doing a good run. Usually in contests I just eat shit the whole time. But I actually did good for one minute of my life, and it got me into the national competition, which was hilarious because I'm not even from there. Then I instantly air-biscuited my whole run and didn't even place in any way (laughs).”
After returning home from New Zealand, Ryan started working for a winery called Siduri, where he would continue working his way up in the ranks for the next couple of years. In 2004, he launched his own brand, Zepaltas Wines, a passion project that quickly grew into a successful brand. From 2004 to 2015, Ryan was working full-time at Siduri, hustling his own wine on the side, and consulting. Pair that with being a full-time husband and a father of two, and you end up with no time to skate.
Meet Ryan Zepaltas, the Winemaker Behind Your Favorite Copain Wines | video courtesy Copain Wines
However, that would change in 2016. Ryan would be offered the prestigious title of Winemaker (a huge deal in this industry) at Copain Wines. Ryan’s story is purely American. A Mid-west kid from the middle of nowhere, who moves out west, builds a name for himself in the skate community, and thrives in one of the toughest industries to make it in. From sifter to winemaker, it's safe to say that Zepaltas is an American success story.
The Chronicles of Arnica
Since Zepaltas started working primarily at Copain, and now that his kids have gotten older, he finds more time to skate these days. Ryan is super active, skating anywhere from 3-4 times a week. Shit, I skate 3-4 times a year (once for every season, with luck). With all that skating getting done, Ryan has been able to film a part for a Rosa DIY, 40+ skate flick called The Chronicles of Arnica; a play off the Chronicles of Narnia and the hippy remedy for arthritis known as “arnica.” This video isn’t traditional, in the sense that everyone who had parts was responsible for filming and editing their own footage.
“It's been kind of fun working on an old man video part.”
“Everyone just wanted to, like, give it one last hurrah,” Ryan explains, “where everyone kind of tried, you know, instead of like, doing a bunch of slappies. People are actually going for it in the best way possible… for our age. (laughs).”
The video premiered November 9th, 2024, starring some true Rose-Gs, including Isaac Chalker Canyon, Willie Tobler, and Uriah Green (just to mention a few). When it comes to rattling those old man bones back to life, The Chronicles of Arnica is just what the doctor ordered. And just because the video is done doesn’t mean that Santa Rosa’s 40+ club is going to stop holding it down strong for Sonoma County. There’s no need to pass the torch to the next generation in these parts. These dudes are still carrying it.
“There's like a lot of people in our age group that are super stoked on skating right now. So, yeah, we kind of got a good thing going. I go out with Isaac or whoever meets up at one of the skate parks: Trujillo, Minor, Kehoe. Everybody's going out. So, yeah, it's been fun.”
Ryan’s part in Sloppy Seconds (2002) | Video by Jeff Henderson
About Travis Knight - Travis is an American author who has spent most of his life immersed in reading and writing stories. As a teenager, he started writing poetry and skateboard blogs while traveling across the US. Later in his adulthood, he began publishing stories through toebock.com and through his own literary collection, knight-writes.com. He has written two books of poetry: "PorchSide Poems" and "character."