he seems to be at his best. I don't like it
sometimes.
How about teammate Mark "Gator
Rogowski?
I've only had to go up against him
once. He's good an' all but it seems like
when the pressure really gets on, he
cracks. Like, he'll find an excuse, like
he'll go get wasted or something or he'll
get hurt. It could be a coincidence, I
don't know. I think he's rad. I like
watching him practice. I like guys like
that, I like watching Lance Mountain
practice too. He just goes and tears.
People have always said skateboarding
can't go much further. Can it?
That's bunk. Skating's so much
harder than it used to be. You look at
skateboarding now and you think it
can't go further, but it will, it'll get into
harder stuff.
What about the style of skating today?
The halfpipe type of skating, full contorted
handplants, trick to trick, side to side.
Could it have gone another way?
That's the only way it could have
gone. It's getting away from the halfpipe
type skating, but the bio tricks and
stuff, that's the only way it could have
gone. You get guys that go all over the
pool with all sorts of lines and varia-
tions, but it's so hard to do it that way.
That's pretty tough to pull off consis-
tently in a contest. Skating today is
more exciting, it went the safe route, I
guess, that way people can still be
consistent in contests. So many people
have such an ugly style, like me, for
Instance. My style's not so cool. People
with ugly styles rip and people with
good styles rip. Having a nice style
looks good but just because you've got
an ugly style doesn't mean you don't
win a contest. It used to play an Impor-
tant part when tricks were less intricate
and there were fewer of 'em. But now
that tricks are harder, it doesn't really
matter as much.
A six-foot aerial is still a six-foot aerial,
right? As long as you pull it off?
Like if your face is all ugly and your
feet come off, or anything like that.
People aren't gonna think that's any
radder or less rad than somebody who
does one real smooth.
Do you think about things like that, facial
expression, arm placement?
i used to. Right when I was turning
pro, I realized that I had to make myself
look fast. Because I thought of it, it just
started to blend In. When I'm just
messing around I don't care what I do.
In a contest I concentrate on the
landing. Landing a trick is the most
Important thing to me. If you land good
on one trick, you'll be set up for the next
one usually. That's the most important
thing in a contest.
What else did you think about before you
went pro? Was there anybody coaching you
or telling you what you should do as a pro
skater?
Everyone had different words. The
other skaters would tell me how to do
better in contests. I tell other people
how to do certain things. Everyone
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Summit Ramplant
Tennis courts, Berkeley, early release.
coaches everyone else.
The main reason I turned pro was
cause Steve Cathey was kinda getting
out of skating, right, and he figured that
If Neil and I went pro, he wouldn't have
the responsibility of taking us to
contests. So it worked out really good
for him and it worked out good for us
too.
When you go pro you kind of turn to
yourself, it's not like a team anymore.
You're an individual more or less. You
have to do it on your own to get good.
When you're an amateur, the pro
teammates help the amateurs out. But
the pros just go in and do it themselves.
Everyone expects them to do really
good on their own.
I wouldn't mind people coaching me
but I wouldn't like it after a while. I really
don't like people telling me what to do.1
don't like to have authority over me. I
think a lot of people feel that way too.
They don't like to be controlled, more or
less be their own boss.
Is that a big factor in skating?
Oh, no kidding. They don't like to be
told what to do. Like say we're skating a
bank and someone tries to kick us out,
we'll cause havoc. If someone has a
blank pool sitting in their yard that's not
being used, what harm can it do to ride
their pool? As long as you use copers
or something, they can't get that mad.
You were brought up skating the parks
mostly, is there any memorable pool or
otherwise outlaw sessions that you can
remember, out of the parks?
I've ridden some backyard pools.
When I went up north it was fun. We
skated this pool called the "Jew Drop"
or something, that was hot. The only
reason we got popped is cause we were
making so much racket. There we were,
about 6 or 8 of us and there was a picnic
or something going on right there.
Do you have other interests outside of
skateboarding?
I've been playing soccer for the last
four or five months. I used to play
soccer and then I started skating and
there went soccer. Now that I've got
more time away from skating I can play
soccer now. I've put in the practice to
get where I am in skating now so it
doesn't take as long to get back there.
What else were you into as a kid?
I was a baseball Jock for awhile too.
Then skating came along and there
went Senior League. I was skating and
playing baseball at pretty much the
same time. Right when I got on Gullwing
I quit baseball. Skateboarding's some-
thing that you have to spend all your
time doing if you want to get good-In
the early stages.
Did you want to get really good back
then?
A lot of times I would skate with
friends and start off about as good and
I'd get a little better than them and
they'd kinda fade out. That happened
three or four times. Close friends that
quit skating and then were no longer
friends cause skating took so much of
my time. I always pushed myself. No
pros really pushed me. They didn't like
me cause I was getting good. When I
got good they accepted it.
What do you think of all the little kids
now, ripping handplants and other varia-
tions?
Some guys try and get into it too
soon, like they can't even do a frontside
grind or a wheeler or something and
they're working on Miller flips and
Inverts or something.
That's kinda stupid. You should try to
learn the basics first like how to ride a
bank and pump, and how to feel
comfortable on your board instead of
just going like, "Wow, Lance Mountain
just did an eggplant, I wanna learn
that." Start on the banks first to get
used to going up and down and how to
correct and stay on the board.
What kind of music are you listening to?
Are you hectic about music and get the
latest stuff or do you just take it as it comes,
radio, whatever?
Well, I don't buy albums or nothing
like that, I let everyone else buy 'em and
Below, Billy on his way to 2nd place at Del Mar and best overall in The Rusty Harris series.
Photo: Glen E. Friedman.
LICKER
then I just tape 'em.
What have you been taping?
I like Robert Gordon, The Clash, Alan
bought a Stiff Little Fingers album, I
didn't like it at first, but now I think
they're good. I could never get next to
funk and stuff like that, technopop, I
don't like.
How about New Romantic?
Some of the bands that are doing
videos are pretty hot.
Do you watch MTV?
Yeah!
What do you think of it?
It's pretty hot. Billy Idol rips up pretty
hard, he's good. I don't know, the New
Romantic stuff, it's not bad, but I
wouldn't go buy an album. It's just a
takeoff on everything else.
How about traveling?
Kona. That was so fun. Everyone was
down there, like, you know, familles
sent their kids, teams sent their kids,
from everywhere they all came together
In one spot. Everyone stayed at this one
motel down there. There were no
adults. The only adult there was Jeff
Newton, and he likes to have fun, he's a
skater! It was so hot. There's like 40
skaters right, tearing up the place from
morning 'til night.
Do you have any general comments
about things you don't like or why you're
not skating as much?
A lot of the reason I don't skate quite
as much as I used to is that I don't have
as much time as I used to. I could make
time but I don't. I quit for about two
months just to let my body heal'cause I
started waking up in the morning sore.
Like I'd have to psych myself up to get
out of bed. Like warm up to wake up. So
I figured it was about time to relax.
That's just battle fatigue, just being in it
so long you have to rest for awhile.
Things I don't like and do like. I don't
like guys that think they're all bad and
try to rip people apart. Like they'll snake
little kids but then someone good gets
there they'll back down bad. They go sit
and watch. I don't like people that don't
really try. They should keep trying and
not just get stuck on one setback. If
something gets in your way or you get
stuck on one thing you should leave it
and come back to it.
Basically, do you think skaters are pretty
responsible to be able to handle them-
selves on their own like that? Did you
completely trash the room?
We tore it up pretty bad. We didn't
break things, but we threw things all
over the place, but when we left we
cleaned it back up. We did live in a
hell-hole there for awhile, like spaghetti
on the walls and stuff. We have fun but
we always look at the consequences.
Whenever you get a group of skate-
boarders together, they're gonna do
something and have fun at it no matter
what it is. You put 'em in a bare room
and they'll find something to do. I don't
know if it's skaters or just kids in
general, but they like to amuse them-
selves, don't like to sit around and get
bored.
THRASHER
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