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Now Rodney, I'm going to start out with
some basic questions then we'll ease
Into this interview. How old are you?
Seventeen years old.
O.K., when is your birthday?
August 17th.
How much do you weigh?
130 lbs.
What nationality are you?
American.
Where do you live?
Gainesville, Florida. In the country.
What's it like?
Boring. There's nothing around.
What do you do?
Skate.
What grade are you in?
I'm a senior and am going to college next
year.
What school are you attending now?
P.K. Young. It's a laboratory school.
What does that mean (a laboratory
school)?
It means we take a lot of weird tests. They
try new stuff on us. We're guinea pigs.
They arrange our classes so, physics, for
example, comes first. It's weird, we take
more math classes and take tests before
the other kids in Florida take them.
What sort of classes are you taking
now?
Calculus, molecular biology, English,
Spanish 4, trig...
That's all of the classes you are taking
right now?
Yeah.
That's more than ten skaters put
together. Is it hard for you?
It's okay. Calculus, when they explain
something new, I don't get it for the first few
nights.
What college are you going to go to?
University of Florida. My dad wants me to
go there.
What do you want to do?
Some of the other schools are good, but I
want to be an engineer. So University of
Florida is supposed to be a really good
engineering school.
You want to be an engineer?
Yup. Industry.
When did you start skating?
January 1st, 1977.
What time?
12:30 p.m.
What prompted you to start skating?
At first my dad wouldn't let me have a
board but late New Year's Eve, when he
was feeling happy, I convinced him. So he
promised to get me one the next day.
What kind of board was it?
It was a Bonzai with ACS 500's and big
wheels,
What was the first terrain you started
riding?
Freestyle was pretty much all there was.
Really? You didn't ride pools, ever?
Oh, I did a lot, once the parks came.
What coud you do in a pool?
I could do handplants, Rock 'n' Rolls.
When was this?
I think around '79.
How long did it take you to learn to ride
vertical?
It's hard to say because everyone was
learning themselves. Then the tricks
began to come along.
When did you heavily get into freestyle
or were you pretty much into it all
along?
Yeah. I rode the park about three or four
days a week and I still did freestyle. I
started getting good around 79."
Good at freestyle?
Yeah.
When was your first contest?
I guess my very first contest was late '78,
that was a little small one. I got first,
heh-heh. Then I entered the Kona contest
when Henry Hester and those guys came
out. I got fifth I think. Then the next Kona.
contest, I got picked up by Walker and I got
third, I think.
This is all freestyle, you never entered a
vertical contest?
Yeah. My dad wouldn't let me enter pool.
When did you stop riding vertical?
Around '80, '81.
So you went to freestyle full time?
Yup.
Last night you mentioned something
about track & running. When did you
start that?
About, not quite a year ago.
What prompted you to start running.
Was somebody chasing you and you
said, "Hey, this is pretty good, I want
to do it all the time"?
All of my family runs.
Do you run for your school?
I ran a race for the school and did pretty
well.
What distance?
Two miles.
Do you do any other school sports?
No. I don't run for the school, I just run.
Do you have any problems with girls?
No.
But you wish you did. Do you wish they
were a big problem?
I don't know.
Don't worry, they will. Wasn't it you that
sort of got April Hoffman skating?
She's gotten to be real good.
Yes.
Say "hi" to April.
Hi April.
What are your future plans other than
being an engineer, and how long are
you gonna skate, forever?,,
TANNER
GRAN
Probably. It's real fun.
You like skating.
Yeah.
Why?
You can do it by yourself.
You like doing things by yourself,
solitary stuff?
Yeah.
Ever think of going to prison?
I could practice skating a lot there.
Tell me a little about yourself. What do
you like, other than skateboarding?
Skating, running...um. I like math. I like to
tackle all of the problems,...reading.
What are you reading now?
"Lord of the Flies."
What's it about?
These kids on an island and they try to set
up their own society and it goes all bad,
then they end up killing each other.
The kids all kill each other?
Yup. It's a good book. It got the Nobel
Peace Prize.
Who's your favorite author?
I like Sherlock Holmes novels. They're
written by Conan Doyle.
So what else do you like to do? Do you
skate in your free time and think about
skating, imagining new tricks all the
time?
mencpo
No, I run and I started working out with
weights and school work. That's about it.
So, once you are an engineer, where do
you want to live, do you wish to remain
in Florida?
I haven't given much thought to it. I've a lot
of time to spend in school yet. I guess
wherever the best job is.
Wherever it takes you, huh? That's
pretty neat. Do you like to go to movies?
Oh yeah. Especially scary movies.
What are your favorite movies?
Well, I don't get to go to many movies, but
"Poltergeist" was a good one.
Do you like music?
Yeah. I really don't have any preferences. I
don't like much of the stuff that's on the
radio.
You don't like 'Top-40'?
NO.
New wave disco?
NO.
What are your favorite bands and/or
songs?
I like "Oingo Boingo" a lot. "Killing Joke."
Could you give me a rundown of your
contest career.
After 79, I think, I got on Walker, so after
that last Kona contest, I entered 20, 25 or
something like 30 contests. I got first in a
couple of slalom contests. Then I entered
the Clearwater Pro and got third, but I was
still an Amateur. Actually I got third at two
Clearwater Pros.
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