lot and she started acting just like me, you know.
She was even saying the same words as me.
She was like my carbon copy. So I told her how
I felt, and you know what she told me, Mark?"
What?
I'm Mark.
Oh, what did she tell you?
"When I first met you, Chavo, I was my last
boyfriend and a few other admirers of his." And
you know, she was so smart I used to wonder
just exactly who her old boyfriend knew. She was
only seven.
What else did Chavo tell you?
He used to tell me about this one kid. "Real
stupid guy," Chavo used to say he was. He us-
ed to come to Chavo and tell Chavo about how
he did these paintings that had so much mean-
ing in them. So much meaning to him. He liked
to talk about heavy stuff. I told Chavo that kid
wasn't stupid he just hung around with the wrong
crowd. The next day Chavo killed himself. Then
me and this stupid kid started analyzing Chavo's
death. And now, I am Chavo.
What about the recent Sacto contest? Do you
have any thoughts on that?
Man, all I'm saying is, Natas got third place. You
want to know one trick he did? He was doing
tricks that no one was even thinking about do-
ing. They just jump off the ramp and think they're
on top of the world. Damn, I like to see some
good tricks. Like Natas. He did a fakie ollie to
tail on a thing about a foot and a half high. That
right there was the best trick of the day. That
was the best trick that I saw done there that day.
So what you're saying, is that no one ap-
preciated it because he wasn't flying off the
ramp.
Exactly.
OK, then obviously you think Natas is a real-
52
ly good skater. What makes him that good?
What do you see in him that really impresses
you?
Umm, I'd like to say myself, but I guess that
would be big-headed, right?
Not for you. Go ahead.
I don't know. He doesn't worry about his style.
Some people would rather have style than make
a trick. If you bail a trick you can always get up
real nice and cool-looking
Do you have a high opinion of Natas?
He just does tricks that no one else does.
He's the only one in the world who can do
them?
No, I do a lot of tricks he does. He does a lot
of tricks I do. We exchange tricks.
Can you exchange tricks and compete against
each other and still be friends?
Yeah, we compete against each each other, but
it's not competing, You see, it's better than a
contest, because deep down inside if he's
skating better than me, I'll know he's skating bet-
ter than me. And I don't need a fucking judge
there to tell me that I wasn't skating better than
him or he was skating better than me. That's why
I don't understand why these people win and
they think, "Oh God, I really beat the son of a
bitch. I beat him this time."
Don't you think all of the stuff you're saying
is going to get people pissed-off?
Well, it's like this. If I say something good, peo-
ple can make it bad, you know, they can just
make it bad. If I say something bad, people can
make it beautiful. They could say, "Oh, it's so
good." It's like fortune cookies, whatever they
say you can somehow make them fit in with
what's going on around you. I think about what
I want to say and I wonder how some people
might take it. It's hard to say what I feel. I'd like
to talk about how I think it's kind of lame the way
skaters put down other skaters because they
don't have as good a board or stuff like that. I
think that's really weird for kids to be like that.
What skaters are you talking about that are
putting down other skaters, or is everybody
putting down everybody?
Well, let's say three kids are skating and they
see another skater and they'll just go, "Oh, look
at him." I've had some kids make fun of me.
Why don't you like that?
Well, it's weird. About two years ago Primo and
Diane gave me a ride home from Venice Beach
and they were saying something about the 666
interview being "all devil."
What 666 Interview?
I had an interview that Gary Davis did. There
were 666 words in the interview, Gary had to
count them up. I don't know for what reason, but
he counted them up and that's how many words
there were. So they thought that had something
to do with the devil and they asked me about
it and I go, "Yeah, I'm with the devil." I told them
I was only kidding, and then they just went on
telling someone about it. They told one of my
friends' friends that I was into the devil. I just
think that's kind of lame. People like to talk about
bad stuff just to talk about it, just to have
something to say.
Whether it's true or not?
Yeah, whether it's true or not. They just like to
talk about it. I used to go to catechism every Fri-
day and we'd read the Bible and then have talk
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