L.A. ON WHEELS SCAVENGER HUNT
Skate, Create, Elevate
Salman Agah | Pizzanista!
NHM Online Presents L.A. on Wheels, an online series celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles and its people through the lens of creative modes of transportation.
Skateboarding Hall of Famer Salman Agah didn’t follow trends—he created them. Widely recognized as one of skateboarding’s most innovative and influential figures, Salman helped reshape the sport in the late 1980s and early ’90s. Salman remains an icon of the L.A. skate scene as a professional skateboarder and owner of Pizzanista!, where fans and fellow skaters can enjoy traditional hand-tossed pizza made with fresh local ingredients.
Watch the video below to learn how a skateboarding trailblazer evolved from the streets of L.A. and became a local legend that now brings the joy and art of skate culture to L.A. residents one pizza slice at a time.
Origin Story
In the late 1970s, five-year-old Salman Agah stood in awe before a wall of skateboards in a beachside shop in Ocean City, Maryland. The red plastic board he took home with him that day would spark a lifelong journey of independence, creativity, and forward momentum. One of his earliest skating memories was of his babysitter "bombing hills" with him and his brother. That memory, equal parts fearless and free, shaped his understanding of what skating could be: expressive, rebellious, and boundary-breaking.
I grew up from a very young age being really passionate about riding a skateboard, really rolling, just being, moving [on] anything that had wheels.
Salman Agah
Salman, right, and his older brother, Parham, grew up in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s.
Salman Agah
Stylish even as a young kid, Salman (right) and his brother pose outside their childhood home in Alexandria, Virginia.
Salman Agah
Salman's entrepreneurial spirit comes as no surprise. He and his older brother (right) grew up helping out at their father's office supply store, Modern Office Supply, in San Jose in the mid-1980s.
Salman Agah
Growing up, Salman's family was close. In this family photo (circa mid-1980s) Salman, left, stands next to his mom, his father and brother, to their left, and his two sisters, in front.
Salman Agah
Though his relatives are spread out across the U.S. and Iran, Salman maintains a close relationship with his extended family. Pictured here with his dad's side of the family, Salman (in the yellow shirt) is surrounded by his cousins and his paternal aunt (far left) in front of his parents' home in San Jose, California.
Born in Washington, D.C. to Persian and Azeri parents, Salman’s childhood was shaped by geopolitical upheaval. Salman was just seven years old when his life was abruptly upended by the fallout of the Iranian Revolution. His uncle, a high-ranking diplomat under the Shah's regime and later a political revolutionary, became a central figure in a rapidly shifting political landscape. After the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in 1979, President Jimmy Carter expelled all Iranian diplomats from the United States—including Salman’s uncle. Almost overnight, hostility toward Iranian Americans exploded, and the Agah family became targets of death threats.
The situation escalated so quickly that one day his father simply picked him and his brother up from school—and they never returned. The family fled the U.S. with nothing but the clothes on their backs. For the next year, they lived first in Iran, during the height of the revolution, and then in Germany. The experience of being abruptly uprooted, of navigating violent political unrest and separation from both parents left a lasting mark. While in Iran, one of his great aunts urged his father to return to the U.S., warning him that the country was no longer safe for children. However, there was a major obstacle, the U.S. government refused to grant his father a visa. Only Salman and his brother, as American-born citizens, were allowed back in.
We left the country with nothing [and] came back with virtually nothing.
Salman Agah
Salman's father, Ali, and mom, Annie, proudly stand in front of Our Daily Bread, their San Jose bakery and café in the mid-1980s.
Salman Agah
Salman learned the food service industry at an early age by working at his parents San Jose bakery and café, Our Daily Bread.
Salman Agah
Salman's family bakery held touches of Iranian décor in the tapestries and family photos lining the walls.
Salman Agah
Unaware of his future as a restaurateur, young Salman roasts coffee at his parents' San Jose bakery and café, Our Daily Bread.
Salman Agah
Baking runs deep on both side of Salman's family. In the Iranian city of Rasht, near the Caspian Sea, his maternal great-grandparents started a family-owned bakery in the building on the left that served delicious baked goods for three generations.
In 1981, the family was finally able to reunite and chose to resettle in San Jose, California. With just $200 to their name, his parents opened a French bakery and café, Our Daily Bread. It was there, behind the counter and in the parking lot of his parents’ bakery, that Salman found his footing. “I worked there to make money and so did lots of my friends. The parking lot of my parent’s café is where most of us learned to skate,” remembers Salman. The café doubled as a skatepark for Salman and his friends, who learned to ollie between deliveries and carve lines between cars. Skating became more than a pastime—it was a personal compass. It allowed him to move, to create, and to connect on his own terms. From these humble skate sessions came a small community of skaters and a future legend.
Salman Agah
When he was in junior high, Salman's father banned him from skateboarding due to its "unsavory reputation" at the time. Undeterred, Salman pieced together the skateboard pictured here from salvaged parts he pulled out of a local skate shop's trash bin. He would hide the board in the bushes and take it out at night to skate without his dad knowing.
Salman Agah
Those clandestine practice sessions paid off, even on his "trash board" pictured here.
Salman Agah
In a park down the street from his dad's bakery in San Jose, Salman and his friends would practice landing tricks they saw pro skaters do. Salman was excited to finally dial in the crossbone method air mastered by skateboarding legend Jesse Martinez.
Salman Agah
Salman's childhood friends, Tom and Mike Miller, built a ramp in their San Jose backyard that only a chosen few—in true playground rules fashion—were allowed to skate on. Salman, of course, was one of those granted access as he shows off his backside air trick here.
Salman Agah
A young Salman Agah floats a backside 180 ollie north at dusk, captured at the height of his rise in street skating. With Powell Peralta on his chest and innovation in his stance, this moment reflects the raw energy and style that helped him define his style of skateboarding.
Flipkicking the Script
By the late 1980s, skateboarding was exploding. Millions of kids across the globe were drawn to its anti-establishment flair, its style, its music—with new wave, punk rock and DIY energy coursing through their veins. And then, almost overnight, the industry collapsed. The economic recession cleared the stage for a new era: skater-owned companies and the birth of street skating. Salman Agah didn’t just survive the transition—he thrived in it.
I would say I have a pretty long, deep connection to L.A. and my perception of what L.A. is about: movement and rolling, and being outside, the sunshine and palm trees, and just having fun.
At age 16, Salman caught the eye of skateboarding pioneer Stacy Peralta and became a sponsored amateur for Powell Peralta. For Salman, skating was more than sport; it was self-determination. It was survival. It was art and the streets of Los Angeles were his canvas. Salman was drawn to L.A. early on, seeing the city through the lens of skate films in the 80s. From those videos, Salman’s perception of L.A. became “about movement and rolling, and being outside in the sunshine and palm trees, and just having fun.” Once he was sponsored, he began traveling to L.A. to meet local pros and film his own videos. It was exciting for Salman to actually be at skate spots he recognized from those early films. He felt like he had landed in the rolling capital of the world.
As the skate world began to recognize his talent, Salman remained guided by the same instincts that got him on a board in the first place. What mattered to him was the feeling: the rush of rolling downhill, the freedom of jumping curbs, the joy of doing something entirely his own. Salman was driven not by trends or peers, but by a visceral need to be outside and to be in motion. According to Salman, “skating was the next best thing to flying.”
Powell Peralta
Salman's first sponsor, Powell Peralta, invited him to Santa Barbara for the 1989 Powell Peralta Skatezone Am Jam, where amateur team riders could show off their talent. Salmon lands a Smith grind in front of the late great L.A.-based skater Gabriel Rodriguez.
Andrew Huberman
At the Powell Peralta skate zone in Santa Barbara (circa late 1980s), Salman participated in the Quartermaster Cup with a fakie rock and roll trick.
Salman Agah
Outside, in the parking lot of the Kennedy Warehouse in San Jose, Salman nails a backside 180 kickflip. This storied indoor skatepark was a major hub in the early skate scene where pros and amateur skaters from all over the world would come to trade lines—learning by watching, trying, slamming, and landing.
Sean Dolinsky
Throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, Salman repeatedly dealt with a scaphoid (navicular) fracture in his left wrist. Not one to be deterred, he continued to skate despite the injury to the point where his cast became a recognizable, and somewhat iconic, symbol that even legends take hits and keep rolling.
Jacob Rosenberg
Built in 1990, Palo Alto's Greer Skatepark was one of the first public skateparks in the Bay Area. Sponsored by Real Skateboards, Salman drops into the new skate bowl and makes a Japan air trick.
Salman didn’t just ride the wave—he helped define it. His most revolutionary contribution to the sport is switch stance skating—performing tricks with the opposite foot forward, the skateboarding equivalent of ambidexterity. It wasn’t just a gimmick; it was a reinvention born of necessity. Having sprained his forward-leading ankle, Salman was determined to keep skating, so he taught himself to do every trick backwards. Injuries only fueled his drive to master switch tricks and, in doing so, Salman didn’t just adapt, he evolved and became known as the “Sultan of Switch”.
That was the era that I grew up in as a street skater. I was at the forefront of that whole street skating movement and that's why I loved L.A. and…just skating anywhere.
Gabe Morford
Boosting a massive ollie with his "trademark" cast on his wrist, Salman proves that 1990s street skating in Downtown L.A. was all about grit, guts, and no excuses. Injured or not, if the spot called, you answered—raw and relentless.
Chris Ortiz
Salman Agah wasn’t driven by medals or titles—his influence came from changing the way people skate. Though competition brought moments like his 1991 Venice Beach Pro Street contest win (pictured here), his lasting impact comes from innovation, style, and influence that transcends any trophy.
Lance Mountain
During his sponsorship with Independent Trucks, Salman often skated iconic spots in Downtown Los Angeles, including this frontside tail slide at the corner of 1st Street and Hill Street.
Lance Mountain
In the early 1990s, as skateboarding was transitioning from vert to street-style skating, L.A.-based skater, Lance Mountain, started The Firm skateboard company out of his house in Alhambra, California. Salman makes a switch ollie to fakie on his pro model board. This kind of switch trick is exactly what earned Salman the moniker “Sultan of Switch.”
Black Label
In the early 2000s, Salman performed a frontside boardslide for a Black Label skate video in Hollywood, California.
By the time he turned pro in 1991 with Real Skateboards, Salman was already a standout, not just for his technical prowess but for his style, creativity, and refusal to conform. His unique approach earned him skateboarding’s highest accolades, including Thrasher Magazine’s Skater of the Year in 1993, Transworld Skateboarding’s Most Influential Skater of the Decade, and even Big Brother Magazine’s Most Beautiful Skater. That same year, Vans launched the first of five signature shoes bearing his name—his inaugural model remaining a cult classic still reissued in limited runs today.
Over the course of his professional career, Salman rode for some of the most influential brands in skateboarding, including Powell Peralta, Black Label, The Firm, and RVCA. His impact wasn’t limited to U.S. borders; he traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and the Americas, skating in the Vans Warped Tour, competing in the X Games, and judging international contests like the World Cup of Skateboarding. In 2022, Salman Agah was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame—an honor that not only recognizes a career of innovation, but a legacy of cultural impact.
Ali Agah
Salman's father, Ali, proudly snapped this photo of Salman with his first pro skateboard deck. This design was the first ever silk screened around the curves of a board, covering the deck from nose to tail. It was also the skinniest board on market at the time (9"wide).
Salman Agah
In recognition of his impact on the sport and his talents as a skateboarder, Salman was named Thrasher Magazine's skater of the year in 1993.
Salman Agah
Released by Powell Peralta in 2018, Salman collaborated with legendary skate graphic designer Vernon Courtlandt Johnson (a.k.a. VCJ) for his newest pro model skateboard. This latest design incorporates Islamic iconography and the Persian lion to represent skating's one and only "Sultan of Switch".
Mike Ballard
From 1993-2001, Vans produced the Salman Agah Signature Shoe. In 2023, Pop Trading Company and Vans collaborated on a 30th anniversary shoe. To mark the occasion and commemorate Salman's accomplishments beyond the skate park, Pop/Vans provided limited addition shoes for all Pizzanista! staff with the pizza shop logo embroidered over the heel.
Salman Agah
Salman and his wife, Joan, walked the red carpet together after he was inducted into the Skateboarding Hall of Fame in 2022.
From Grip Tape to Pizza Dough
Salman Agah’s next chapter unfolded not on a ramp but in a pizza shop. When Salman launched Pizzanista! in downtown Los Angeles in 2010, it was an entrepreneurial move driven by instinct, community, and a hunger to do more. Just like in skating, he didn’t overthink the drop-in—he just went for it.
I didn’t want to make boards or shoes—I wanted a skate brand that feeds people.
After decades of shaping skate culture, Salman was ready to feed the community that raised him—literally. Inspired by New York’s classic slice shops and named after The Clash’s Sandinista! album, Pizzanista! was born from a countercultural spirit and hands-on tenacity. With punk rock flair, community loyalty, and support from the skateboarding, art, and music worlds, Pizzanista! Has grown into a cultural crossroads. What started as a small, handcrafted pizza shop in L.A.’s Arts District has grown into an international brand with locations in San Marino (that doubles as a skate shop), Tokyo, and Seoul, with Phoenix on the horizon and Pizzanista! Live, a music and event venue concept, in development.
Mike Ballard
Salman Agah launched Pizzanista! the same way he approached skateboarding—by trusting his gut and going for it. Like landing a trick, building a business meant falling, learning, and getting back up until it clicked. For pizza lovers and skaters alike, as evidenced by the lines of customers outside his shops, this approach has been quite successful.
Mike Ballard
In the early days of Pizzanista!, Salman Agah did it all—milling tomatoes, prepping dough, and slinging pies. Today, with multiple locations and a growing team, he leaves the kitchen hustle to his crew while steering the brand from behind the scenes.
Catherine Fox
At the Downtown L.A. location, Pizzanista! General Manager, Egles Reis (right) pulls fresh pies out of the oven, next to Chef Lomaho Kretzmann, who prepares a pepperoni pizza with local ingredients, while Cashier, Jess Contreras (left) rings up hungry customers.
Mike Ballard
Salman Agah and Steve Van Doren (Vice President Events and Promotions at Vans—founded by his father and uncle) celebrated the 2024 re-issue of Steve Caballero's iconic 1980s Powell Peralta pro model skateboard at the San Marino Pizzanista! shop. In honor of his friend, Salman created a limited release pizza box featuring the Caballero design.
Mike Ballard
Salman's professional relationship with Vans extends beyond custom shoes to include Pizzanista! catering at events held at Vans Headquarters in Costa Mesa, California.
Spending his formative years working at his parents’ bakery in San Jose, Salman wasn’t new to the kitchen hustle. Watching his father start over with almost nothing deeply shaped his sense of resilience, independence, and entrepreneurial spirit. “He was an entrepreneur. He always worked for himself,” Salman says. “That left an impression on me.”
Though the trauma of exile and cultural rejection ran deep, Salman finds pride in his Iranian heritage. In fact, Persian culture—its warmth, creativity, and communal values—would later influence the way he ran his own business. “People haven’t truly had the chance to experience the richness of Persian culture,” he says. “From art and music to science and human rights, it’s all there. And it continues to shape how I see the world and what I create.”
Salman Agah
From fleeing political unrest to rebuilding a life in California, Salman Agah and his father shared a journey defined by resilience and reinvention. Now, years later sharing a moment at El Porto in Manhattan Beach, California their embrace says it all—what they built together was more than survival, it was legacy.
Salman Agah
Gathered with aunts, uncles, and cousins from his father's side, family truly means everything to Salman. Once estranged but now reunited, Salman's father (older man kneeling next to the credenza) joins his brother (kneeling in the far left), demonstrating that no matter where life takes them, his extended Iranian family always finds their way back to each other.
Salman Agah
Standing with his maternal grandmother, Bemani Iran Khadir, family is everything to Salman—his Persian roots run deep, and he's never lost sight of where he came from.
Salman Agah
Salman’s mother Lucille Ritz, née Zarifeh Khadir, seated at right, was his first connection to California and has remained a steady, loving presence in his life and a doting grandmother to his kids.
Salman Agah
Skating with his young son Zephyr at the Vans Off the Wall Skatepark in Huntington Beach, California, for Salman, family has always been at the heart of everything and continues to be a what makes the journey so worthwhile.
Pizza, like skateboarding, became a medium of expression for Salman. Pizzanista! prides itself on culinary craftsmanship that fuels the L.A. skate scene. Pizzanista!’s hand-tossed dough, California-grown tomatoes, and slew of creative toppings give the food an unmistakable signature that has created a loyal following. Even as its renown and its footprint grows, the brand has never lost its soul. The Pizzanista! team is a tight-knit family and many longtime staff have grown into leadership. Salman views Pizzanista! as an incubator for his crew's dreams. Whether they’re filmmakers, photographers, or skateboarders, working in the heart of L.A. and serving the local community is a means to connect and to grow.
Catherine Fox
Before the shop opens, Chef Lomaho Kretzmann (right), who has worked at Pizzanista! for five years, preps ingredients alongside Andrew Cruz, who has been responsible for dough production at the restaurant for three years.
Catherine Fox
Chef Lomaho Kretzmann (left) and General Manager, Egles Reis (center) prep the first batch of pizzas for the day that Javier Sy Chio (right) will dish out at the slide counter for hungry guests.
Salman Agah
At Pizzanista!, the team isn’t just staff—they’re family. As part of their commitment to growth and connection, team building often begin with a group meditation, like this session held at Vans headquarters.
Salman Agah
As Pizzanista! staff come and go, they pass through the shop not just as employees, but as part of a creative community—leaving their mark and taking a piece of the culture with them.
Salman Agah
Pizzanista! isn’t just serving slices—it’s sharing skills. Their community pizza-making classes bring people together to learn the craft and get inventive with their own ideas.
I've said to our staff from day one, we hope that your time here is a very meaningful stepping stone. We want Pizzanista! to be the place where you find your next opportunity.
Pizzanista! has become a cultural hub as much as a pizzeria, with over 100 collaborations under its belt, from Thrasher Magazine and Powell Peralta to photographers like Glen E. Friedman and musicians, artists, and streetwear brands. Its iconic pizza boxes double as collectible art pieces—a reflection of skateboard decks as a canvas for creativity. Salman’s goal was to build a brand that honors skateboarding's rebellious roots, creative expression, and sense of community.
Pizzanista! isn’t just pizza—it’s a living, breathing extension of Salman’s career-long mission: to challenge norms, to create space, and to connect people through energy, art, and risk-taking.
Sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of until you try it.
Mike Ballard
Salman Agah supports artists and skate culture by inviting guest illustrators to design limited-edition Pizzanista! pizza boxes. Each box becomes a fresh canvas—celebrating creativity, community, and skateboarding culture.
Mike Ballard
To celebrate his friend Steve Caballero's 50th birthday (named Thrasher Magazine's skater of the century in 1999), Salman collaborated on a limited edition birthday pizza box capturing his skill in vertical skating.
Salman Agah
English pro skater, Geoff Rowley, left, visits Salman for a slice at Pizzanista!'s Downtown L.A. location.
Salman Agah
In 2013, Salman received a call from Johnny Schillereff (right), CEO of USA Skateboarding, to swing by their friend Mister Cartoon's (left) tattoo shop with some pizza. As often happens in the City of Angels, a random pizza delivery turned into an impromptu celebrity hang.
Salman Agah
Attendees of this Patagonia Film Festival, hosted annually at the company's flagship store in Santa Monica, enjoyed great pizza and a custom pizza box graphic inspired by The Clash's "Give 'Em Enough Rope" album cover.
Rolling It All Together
Salman Agah’s story is etched into the concrete and culture of Los Angeles. From pioneering a style that redefined skateboarding, to building a community hub through pizza, his life is a lesson in resilience, reinvention, and adapting to every trick life throws your way.
Salman describes skaters as urban transcendentalists—people who repurpose cities, defy physical and social architecture, and turn the urban environment into a playground. Regardless of the different ways architects and designers have tried to make it impossible for young people to skate in urban areas, skaters continue to turn the whole urban landscape into a skate park by adapting and skating it anyway. He sees skateboarding as a space where resilience meets rebellion, where creativity thrives on constraint.
Mike Ballard
Hanging out at Steve Caballero's backyard, Salman takes a run on his friend's ramp, making a frontside ollie look easy. With the success of Pizzanista!, Salman Agah’s influence goes far beyond skateboarding—shaping culture, building community, and helping define what makes Los Angeles feel like home.
Salman Agah
In 2018, a work trip turned into vacation when Salman's family traveled with him to Japan to scout locations for the first Pizzanista! outside the U.S. In 2020, Pizzanista! Tokyo opened its doors to the vibrant, bustling Harajuku, Shibuya neighborhood. Known for its colorful street art and youth fashion culture, it was a perfect spot for Pizzanista! to bring its brand and Southern California skate culture to pizza-loving Tokyoites.
Salman Agah
In recent years, Salman and his wife, Joan, have prioritized traveling internationally with their children—not just for adventure, but to help them grow up with a global perspective. On a recent trip to South Africa, the family spent time volunteering at a township daycare and connecting with local children.
Salman Agah
Salman and Joan prioritize family trips abroad as an opportunity to connect with different people, experience new cultures firsthand, and teach their kids to value the richness of the world beyond their own backyard. In some cases, simply sharing your giant sunglasses during playtime can lead to extremely memorable moments.
Mike Ballard
Decades into a life shaped by skateboarding—in this case at Houghton Skatepark in Long Beach—Salman is still pushing, still carving. It’s a reminder that no matter how far he’s come, the board is still what keeps him grounded and moving forward.
Skateboarding was about celebrating individuality, our differences. It was about having a voice for justice. There was a political element to it too, in the sense that we as a community were like a microcosm of what the world wished it could be.
Having grown up amid a mosaic of cultures, geographies, and turmoil, Salman continues to find grounding in the skateboarding community. Beyond tricks and accolades, Salman is proudest of skateboarding’s radical inclusivity. It didn’t matter your race, gender, or language. If you skated, you were in. This community and Salman's ethos of passion, not profit, defined his career and continue to influence the way he lives. He reminds us that culture is living. It evolves. And sometimes, it serves pizza by the slice.
KEEP ON ROLLIN'
Learn more about Salman Agah's skating career and pick up a specialty slice at Pizzanista!. Do you know another Angeleno who connects with their community on wheels? We want to hear from you! Join the conversation on social media and tag us @NHMLA with #LAonWheels.
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