"I've got to get first in another contest
so I can tell people how meaningless
and worthless they are."
OLLIE-INDY
FASTPLANT
of my brother's friends asked him if I still skated. My brother said,
'Nah, he hardly rides at all. He used to be really good but now he
just rides his stupid bike all the time. I heard that and I got so bum-
med. I haven't ridden my bike since (laughs). That was about six
years ago. I skated so much after that. I skated for a year or two
straight and started to get good. I learned all these tricks and then
got the worst shop sponsor in the world.
Who was that?
Fine Line. It was a surf shop that made a profit off the boards they
sold me. Then I met Wes Humpston. He was like an uncle to me.
Stacy Peralta would give him wheels and stuff and he'd give them
to me (laughs). Wes also made handmade boards for me. It really
helped me a lot. Then I met Skip (Engblom) and he started up the
Santa Monica Airlines team again. That was good because I got
to shape my own boards. Since then I've been learning new tricks
every week, every day.
What was your first skateboard?
The one that I really remember learning tricks on was a Bert Lamar.
I remember I never bought pro models, I don't know why. I never
read magazines when I was little. I had two issues of Skateboarder
Magazine. I think grew up one of the best ways. The older guys always
watched over me and made sure nothing bad happened. There was
no way I could go wrong. I've seen a couple of people, close friends,
go down because of drugs. It fucked up their whole lives. If I ever
started doing drugs one of the older guys would have beat me up.
But if I wanted a skateboard or surfboard they'd have given it to me.
There is no way I could've gone wrong as long as I tried my hardest
at everything I did.
Who were the older 'guys?
They were a bunch of guys who were sponsored by Dogtown. The
McClure brothers taught me a lot. Dan taught me how to ollie. He
threatened to beat me up if I couldn't ollie to the first stair by the
next day he saw me. He could make it up to the second stair then.
What was your first competition and how did you do?
That Huntington Beach World Open thing in 1984. I got third. I thought
it was funny. A lot of the obstacles didn't make any sense, like that
tire or the ramp going up to a table. It was fun but it wasn't what
I expected. I expected more of what you find when you're skating
down the street-maybe a bank. No ramp up to the table. And the
horseshoe curb (laughs), that was the worst, the biggest waste of
metal I've ever seen.
Where did you go from there and how did you develop
competitively?
I
did really well at first. For awhile I never got under third place. Then
I became anti-contest because too much emphasis was being put
on jump-ramping. Then streetplants were in. So I entered contests
and tried not to hit any jump ramps or do any streetplants. Sometimes
I did well, sometimes I just choked. That's about it.
How did street ramps affect competitive street skating?
It gave the crowd something to look at, something to compare with.
It's harder to judge when somebody does a 180° ollie over something
and somebody else does a boneless over it. But if they both go off
the jump ramp you can say, "Oh, that guy did a much better thing."
What do you think would be the ideal judging situation?
Probably none. But if there had to be I'd have to say the difficulty
of the trick. Having the judges be actual skaters who have tried the
tricks. And the street contests shouldn't even be street contests at
all. They should be named obstacle contests. I mean, how many
streets really have jump ramps on them? You don't see a three-foot
transition on the street. Instead, you see a kinked, two-foot driveway
that shoots you up and is really hard to ride, not one that launches
you over cars. That's not a street situation.
How would you set up the ideal street contest?
Probably with different obstacles, just random shapes. That would
show what people could think up. I'd have shapes you could do more
than one thing off of. Jump ramp is pretty limited. Either go up and
off, or up and down the other side. Something like a dome would
be good, so you could use it as a bank. If you wanted to you could
jump off of it. But have maybe more of a transition on one side than
the other. Maybe have a slant on one side, different levels, different
planes on it. Having the dome in the middle of other things could
allow you to do an infinite amount of tricks. I'd have a bank, prob-
ably a hill, a cement curb, because there's a lot of stuff you can do
on that, painted so it's nice and slippery.
There's the problem that one guy's going to have the advantage
because it's his home town unless you find a good spot that's brand
new. It would make it more fair as a contest if you had it unannounced
and people got there and practiced for a whole day and competed
the following day. That way everyone has a chance to make up
tricks and think about them that night and the next day have a contest.
If you really wanted to judge, if you really wanted to put a label on
everybody, you should do it that way.
Would you want spectators at your ideal
street contest?
Probably not. They influence a lot just by cheer-
ing. Right now I feel contests are put on for
spectators, nothing else. They're shows. It's a
jump ramp. That's all I can say. People go and
get big air off of it and everyone cheers. They're
not having contests to see who's better, they're
having contests to make money and show peo-
ple skateboarding. They don't want to see
who's better. It's a money-making show.
What do you get out of a contest?
Fun. Maybe seeing somebody else skate good.
The end result is really nothing to me. It proves
who's a better crowd pleaser, who had the most
enjoyable run to watch. It's who can do the
most spectacular stuff, not the hardest. It's not
really progressing skateboarding. It doesn't.
push you to go out there and learn new stuff.
It pushes you to learn stuff that looks better,
to skate for other people. This is more for street
than vertical. I think half-pipe skating is more
competive, even though a lot of harder stuff.
goes unnoticed over the spectatular stuff,
I which is the mainstay of all contests. The
results are least important to most pros and
most important to the kids. Kids want to put a
label on skaters, like a baseball card.
As far as contests go, what has been your
most favorite experience?
Probably the first contest in Eugene that didn't
really happen, when we all just skated in the
rain. The best part of any contest, though, is the warm-up. During
the last Eugene contest warm-up everyone skated together. It was
more of a session. It seemed like most people weren't
choreographing enjoyable runs to try and get first place. Everyone
was just sessioning. The contest part was over really fast, which
was good.
Why do you skate in contests?
Before, I wouldn't try, I'd just goof off without a run in mind. This
year's gonna be different. I'm going to plan out my runs I'm going
to go and practice before the contest and do well. Right now I'm
just some asshole who does terrible in contests and then talks shit
about them. No one is going to listen to that guy. I've got to do well.
I've got to get first in another contest so I can tell people how mean-
ingless and worthless contests are.
What is the worst place you've been to in your demo tours?
The worst demo I did was out in the Valley (San Fernando). They
had about a twelve-foot half-pipe there that was four feet wide. Right
next to the half-pipe there were two runways about ten feet wide
going toward two jump ramps.
That was it. It was fenced off
with chicken wire and they
played the Beastie Boys really
loud. The entire time a person
was yelling into a microphone
raffling off various things they
should have just given away. It
gave me a headache, made me
all woosey and I could not skate
for that demo. I left and skated
the curb out front.
Do you go to college?
Yeah, Santa Monica City Col-
lege. I take classes in adver-
tising, pre-calculus class and
water polo.
What are some of your goals
in life?
To set myself up for a career.
Some kind of job that I just go
to every day (laughs).
Do you have anything in
mind?
Not at the moment. It's hard to
say at 18 what you're going to
do with the rest of your life.
Yeah, well, a lot of people
know.
Not me. Some people don't
know and they just do it
anyway.
Do you feel that school is an important part of your life? Some
kids are dropping out of school just to skateboard....
Yes, education is important. After you're done skateboarding you've
got to do something else. Anyone who is dropping out of school for
skateboarding should get back in there while they can.
What role does surfing play in your life?
It used to be the main thing. I got sponsored surfing before I got
sponsored skating. Every day I'd go out surfing, the waves would
get bad and we'd go skating, then go surfing again at night.
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