Oliver's Dad

Sandler has an innate ability to recognize extraordinary people. It was no surprise when he met Jeff Grosso, he gravitated to him immediately. It was not because Sandler was aware of Jeff’s legendary skateboarding accomplishments, but the fact he [Jeff] was an amazing father to his friend Oliver. Grosso was a household name, we did not refer to him as “Grosso”—as the rest of the skateboard community called him—we knew him as Oliver’s Dad.

We would run into the Grosso boys everywhere. Of course we would see them at the skatepark on a regular basis, bump into them at the beach, out to dinner, and always at Trader Joe’s doing a little grocery shopping. No matter where we would see them, the father and son duo was always together and without a doubt wearing a smile from ear to ear.

When Sandler realized Oliver’s dad was good buddies with his Curb Cowboy teammates, Jeff climbed the ladder of approval even higher. When Jeff was there the day he showed up to land his roll in on the 11 foot vert ramp (unbeknownst to Sandler that ramp is named after Grosso), Sandler could not have been more pleased. Jeff was full of encouragement and cheered on Sandler’s every attempt for hours.

As they chatted between Sandler’s slams, Jeff noticed Sandler had David Bowie on his grip tape and asked if he knew who Bowie was. Sandler had absolutely no idea so Jeff played it on the speaker as perfect background music for Sadler’s next few runs. I burst out laughing and Jeff came down off the vert and told me Oliver had Morrissey on his grip tape and, like Sandler, had no clue who it was. Between that, and some other similarities the boys shared, we had a really good laugh at our kids’ expense.

A couple weeks later, just before the quarantine went into effect, we were at the skatepark where Sandler and Oliver had a little post-skate chat with the boys. I excused myself for a minute and returned to find Sandler gloating with a giant chocolate ice cream bar in one hand and a dollar in the other, both given to him by Oliver’s dad. He felt rich, not just because he had his chocolate treat and a whole dollar, but he was made part of the ‘Grosso group'.

This past Monday, March 30th, Jeff Grosso (Oliver’s Dad) passed away. Our hearts are broken. In Sandler’s words, “Oliver’s dad was one of the ‘gweatest’ dads in the whole wide ‘wowld’ and I’m going to miss him soooooo bad.” Oliver’s Dad… we will all miss you soooooo bad.

- Nikki