and started skating half-pipes, and all of my
old tricks came back to me. It was so much
fun, I started skating everyday.
What was the transition to streetskating?
Going down to the beach (Venice) and hang-
ing out with everyone. Aaron, Scott and I
would go to Venice banks and I kept getting
more into it. Then we started entering street
contests. I entered the second Sacramento
contest as an amateur. I got second in that
one somehow. That's when I started taking
it seriously.
Too young to drive, old enough to edge. Eric under early Alva influence at the old Brentwood half in S.M.
won that. I won all my contests except once
in the Marina days I got second in a pool con-
test. The first contests were freestyle. Then
I started entering vert, too. The first vert con-
test was at Skateboard World in the half-pipe.
When I was ten, I won the state champion-
ships in a half-pipe at Skatopia, skating
against Kele Rosecrans. We were little kids.
I won everything except I got second in the
first Dogbowl contest. Then I entered
amateur in the Dogbowl pro and got twenty-
fourth out of about sixty dudes.
Twenty-fourth out of sixty pros?
Yeah, but the cut was twenty-one.
What was your favorite contest back then?
The Dogbowl pro was a rad contest. It was
fun practicing with all the pros. Then I quit
because guys like Steve Caballero bummed
me out. They were smaller than me and do-
ing inverts and stuff. I wasn't learning all the
new tricks, and I thought I was already get-
ting old. I was twelve. Then I got kicked out
of Marina. That's when I got out of skateboar-
ding. I was twelve or thirteen.
Were you vert oriented back then?
Yeah, all I ever skated was vert. When I got
back into skateboarding, all I would skate
again was vert.
What made you get back into skating?
I would go to this friend's house; we'd skate
his quarter pipe. He was the only guy with
a board. I had a job, so I bought a new board
of a pro ramp contest vertical skater. Those
ramps are usually too big for me to go off on,
especially around those pros. I'm kind of in-
timidated by their skating, but it also pushes
you more.
What place did you end up with?
I got 22nd out of 40.
You've got close to eighty pro skaters at
a streetstyle contest now. What do you
think about that?
Every time I go to a contest I'm really amaz-
ed at how well I do and how well everyone
else is skating.
In a contest situation who do you root for?
I find myself rooting for everyone when I go
to contests. I get stoked when Tommy does
I well or if Christian wins and I think he
deserves it. I get stoked because he's my
friend. Seeing Scott and other guys who
have just turned pro do well makes me
happy.
Don't you think most skaters are like that?
Yeah, it surprised me. When I entered
Oceanside, the only pro I knew was Natas
and I met a few other guys. I didn't know
anyone well, and I thought they were going
to be really critical of my skating. I found that
they're all my bros. I'm kind of scared for my
next contest because I don't feel as com-
petitive against those guys anymore.
What's your favorite type of skating now?
Everything. Just skating everything I can. I'd
like to skate some pipes soon. I haven't
skated any killer underground pipes in a
while.
Any tricks you've been working on lately?
Tricks to fakie, like method airs to fakie and
little tweek airs to fakie. Revert tricks-lien
to tail to revert and those kinds of tricks. I've
been trying to learn new flat-ground tricks,
but I've been kind of having a hard time with
that. One thing I really don't like doing is jump
ramping. Almost everytime I skate a demo
it's got jump ramps. I can do about three
tricks off a jump ramp. I used to like it about
three years ago, but if I jump ramp now I
usually end up all stiff at night. I'd rather hit
a banked hip, catch air, tweak it and land in
a nice move.
So is it variety that you look for in your
skating?
Yeah, although some people are good jump
What about the contest situation rampers and it's cool to watch them.
nowadays?
It's cool. I like going to contests because I
get to see all of my friends. And you get to
see a lot of killer skating.
Because it's boring at home. It's more ex-
citing to go and watch Caballero or Chris-
tian just go off.
What do you think about skateboarding
right now?
It's cool right now; there are a lot of oppor-
tunities to do fun stuff like travel. Now that
So why would you go to a contest rather skateboarding is getting popular, people are
than go skate at the beach?
asking me to do commercials and TV. shows.
Is that fun?
Pretty much. Sometimes I get bummed when
I do a video or something and people want
me to act all phony. They portray skateboard-
ing as something silly, trying to show the
"California Image." On Saturday morning TV,
every other commercial has skateboarding
in it. Skateboarding is the happening thing
with kids right now. It's not going to die this
time, I think it's going to level off. Maybe the
industry will die, but skateboarding will still
have a big following-even if they don't have
these big skateboard (Continued on page 107)
Is the competition part a draw for you?
It's exciting to watch, but weird to be a part of.
You entered in the Irvine contest. It was
a big ramp and you were skating against
vertical skaters. Was that fun or was it just
something you wanted to challenge
yourself with?
Jim (Muir) sort of made the do it. Since I
qualified for it, I figured I might as well just
try it. I'm a vertical skater, but not in the sense
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