Creature is the horror deck brand from NHS, the Santa Cruz company that also runs Santa Cruz Skateboards. It started in 1994, disappeared after a few years and came back around 2005 with the idea of giving more room to its skaters’ personalities. Today it is one of the brands with the most recognizable identity: dark graphics, a team that skates pools, vert ramps and stairs with the same energy, and videos with punk and metal music.
Here you have its history, who founded it and who owns it, what videos it has put out, which skaters ride it and what its decks are like, including the VX construction.
How Creature started
Creature was created by Russ Pope, an artist who had been team manager of Santa Monica Airlines and was working at NHS. Pope has said he dropped out of fine arts studies to start it and that he wanted to start something “that was all me”. He handled the concept, the first sketches and picking the colors, and designer Johnny Munnerlyn drew and produced a good part of the art of that first era.
The starting idea was classic horror movies: Dracula, Frankenstein, the creature from the black lagoon. It was 1994, in the middle of skateboarding’s slump, when decks were narrow and wheels were small. Creature went against the grain: its first decks were 8 and 8.5 inches wide, big for the time, and came with 50 mm wheels. Pope has said it was a reaction against a specific trend of the time, bearing covers.
Among the brand’s first riders were Jason Adams, Barker Barrett and Darren Navarrette, who would end up being the name most tied to Creature. Adams left early to start Scarecrow, Pope’s brand.
The first fall: Pope leaves and Creature closes
Creature did well enough to open new doors for NHS, but Pope wanted more compensation for his work and NHS said no. His role inside the company depended on a handshake deal and the brand belonged to NHS, not to him. Pope left, took the team with him and founded Scarecrow Skateboards. He says that without him Creature lasted a couple more months.
That first Creature lasted only a few years. Navarrette has said that when the brand closed, he moved to the brand 151, and that he later came back to Creature when it was brought back.
The comeback: Lee Charron and Darren Navarrette
The second era began around 2005. Lee Charron, who ran the creative side of the decks and the marketing at NHS, and Darren Navarrette relaunched it. Navarrette had pushed NHS to bring the brand back. Pope said he heard about the plan from Bob Denike, the head of NHS at the time, and gave his blessing. Later on he drew a deck as a guest artist for the new Creature.
This second Creature doesn’t copy the first. Charron and Navarrette opened horror up into something broader and funnier and let the riders’ personalities set the brand’s tone. The result shows in the decks, which range from classic monsters to dragons, devils, skeletons and snakes, with a lot of eerie green, and in the videos.
Who owns Creature?
NHS, Inc., a private company based in Santa Cruz (California). It was founded in 1973 by three surfer friends, Richard Novak, Doug Haut and Jay Shuirman, and its name is the initials of their last names. You have its whole story on the Santa Cruz page.
NHS doesn’t only run Creature and Santa Cruz. It also distributes Independent, Ricta, OJ, Bronson, Krux and Mob Grip. In other words, a Creature deck with Independent trucks and Ricta wheels is, from end to end, a product of the same company.
Creature’s videos
Creature is one of the brands that has made the best use of video to build its identity. These are the ones that matter:
| Year | Video | What it has |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Heshers on the Run | A first promo, edited by Al Partanen |
| 2006 | Born Dead | The first full-length of the second era, with Partanen, Gravette, Hitz and Navarrette |
| 2007 | Black Metal | Another full-length, with heavier music |
| 2009 | Hesh Law | About 40 minutes, with a trip through South America, directed by Lee Charron |
| 2013 | CSFU | With parts from Willis Kimbel and Milton Martinez |
| 2018 | The Creature Video | One hour and seven minutes with the whole team, pools, rails, stairs and vert ramps, with a Skeleton Key section and a bonus from Sam Hitz |
| 2018 | The Creature Tour Video | Eight weeks of touring the United States |
Hesh Law also has a hidden Al Partanen part on the second disc. Before The Creature Video came out, the brand dropped batches of loose clips it called Coffin Cuts, and the full video was put online in early 2018. The single skater parts matter too: Chris Russell’s in American Psycho (2015) or Milton Martinez’s in Creature Fiend (2014).
If you want to place these videos among the greats of history, we have a list of the best skate videos of all time.
The Creature team
Darren Navarrette is the quintessential Creature skater. He was on the team from the very beginning, moved to 151 when Creature closed, came back with the relaunch and has been with the brand for about 25 years. He is one of the most recognizable ramp and transition skaters of his generation, and the one who best represents what “hesh” means at the brand. If you don’t know the word, check out what hesh means.
Milton Martinez, born in 1991 in Mar del Plata (Argentina), is its most visible face today. Thrasher named him Skater of the Year in 2019. He has several parts with Creature: CSFU (2013), Creature Fiend (2014), The Creature Tour Video (2018), Gangreen (2021), Havoc (2024), Criaturas del Inferno (2024) and Sever (2025). He also has a pro model from the brand, like the Creach Us series.
Other names on the team in recent years: David Gravette, Al Partanen, Chris Russell, Willis Kimbel, Kevin Baekkel, Sam Hitz, Taylor Bingaman, Ryan Reyes, Peter Raffin, Jimmy Wilkins, Cory Juneau, John Gardner, Truman Hooker, Josh Rodriguez, Steven “Lefty” Breeding, Stu Graham, Allysha Le, Cody Lockwood and Jhanka Gonzalez. So far there has been no Spanish skater on the team.
Creature decks
The standard Creature deck is seven-ply maple, in shapes that go from classic widths to fairly big sizes. Many models are longer and wider than a typical street popsicle, a legacy of the first Creature. You can feel it in the wheelbase, which on many models goes past 14 inches.
The VX construction
The special option is the VX: five plies of hard North American maple, reinforced with two plies of Quad X, a composite that combines fiberglass and carbon fiber. It is a lighter, stronger deck than a regular seven-ply. If you want to understand what changes with the materials, we have a guide on deck technology and materials.
Sizes and shapes
| Model | Size | Wheelbase | Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Martinez Horseman VX | 8.25 x 32.04 | 14.35 | DL-1-VX shape |
| Gravette Scream VX | 8.5 | 14.375 | Medium concave |
| Gonzalez Crash and Burn VX | 8.375 x 32 | 14.5 | VET concave |
| Messenger VX | 9.25 x 31.95 | 14 | Wide, for bowls |
| Manor VX | 9.34 | 15.25 | Old school concave with a continuous tail |
The VET concave is a symmetrical concave that Creature created for wide shapes and long wheelbases. If you’re not sure what concave is, look up concave in the dictionary.
Besides decks, Creature sells apparel (shirts with the logo or horror graphics), bushings, tie-dye grip, wax and rails. With OJ it put out a collab wheel, the Bloodsuckers.
Creature compared to other brands
- Santa Cruz: same company, so they share some constructions, like the VX. Santa Cruz has the surf, rock and 80s graphics feel. Creature is darker and more bowl and vert. You have its page at Santa Cruz.
- Baker and Deathwish: another brand with a dark image and a very distinctive team, but more focused on street. Check out the Baker page.
- Anti Hero and Toy Machine: also aggressive graphics and dark humor, with a different kind of team. You have their pages at Anti Hero and Toy Machine.
To see more brands compared, we have a comparison of the best deck brands.
Who is Creature for?
- If you like bowls, pools and ramps: it’s its home turf. Wide shapes with trucks far apart give you stability when you’re going fast.
- If you skate street: it works for you too. The team skates rails and stairs on the same decks.
- If you want a deck that lasts: the VX is the option made for that.
- If aesthetics matter to you: horror, monsters and green are its trademark, and it’s one of the reasons people choose Creature.
A Creature works for any level. If you’re just starting, you don’t need to go for the widest shapes: an 8.25 or an 8.5 is a good starting point, and you have more tips in our beginner’s guide.