TOM KNOX
Born and raised in Visalia, CA,
19-year-old Tom Knox is a certified
streetstyle junkie. Concerned
primarily with the pursuit of fun,
Tom has also managed to parlay
years of daily sessioning on his
hometown cement suburban
sprawl into top-ten pro street
status and a victory in Chicago.
The best is yet to come.
Why do you skate?
I skate for fun, and that's about all.
How was your first year as a pro?
It's been pretty good. I didn't ex
pect to do as well as I did in contests
because I figured the first year as a
pro you've got to go through the top
twenty for a little while. But I tried to
skate as good as I could and it went
pretty well.
What was your favorite contest?
Well, obviously Chicago, because
I won it. I wasn't even expecting to
win, I was just trying to skate like I
do every day on the street. I tried to
make everything and it turned out to
be a really good contest.
Any hints for amateur skaters?
Keep skating like you do in the am
contests, because a lot of the time
the am contests turn out to be harder
than the pro ones.
should judge people by their skating,
not their name. Also, I think a lot of
the companies are just out for money
and that's not good. A lot of them
aren't into it for skateboarding. You
see a lot of new companies popping
up and you go, wait, what are these?
What person has influenced you
the most in your life?
All the friends I grew up with. Not
just one person. I had friends that
screwed up and friends that did well,
but most of my friends did well and
influenced me to skate.
What's your daily routine?
I wake up, eat, take a shower, listen
to some music, then usually by 11:00
I'm out skating. I skate all day-
ramps, pools, street, everything. I
skate whatever is there to skate. Then
I come back around 11:00 or mid-
night, eat, listen to some music and
go to sleep.
What kind of music to you like?
All types of good old punk and
hardcore: Fugazi, Minor Threat.
Misfits, Social Distortion. I've been
collecting old punk stuff lately. I've
got the first pressing of "Out of Step,"
Discharge's first 7" and a bunch of
other stuff.
When you skate, do you think
If you could do one thing to change about competitions and learning
the world what would it be?
Uh, I don't know. I wouldn't really
do anything because I'd probably
screw it up even worse.
If you could do one thing to change
yourself what would it be?
I'm not going to change myself. I'm
going to stay the way I am.
If you could do one thing to change
your hairdo what would it be?
I'm not going to change that either,
I'm going to keep cutting it short.
shaving my head.
What'll you be doing in ten years?
Still skating. I'm going to skate as
long as I can. I don't know what I'd
be doing for a job if I wasn't pro.
know I'd still be skating.
What'll you be doing in ten
minutes?
I don't know. I'm going to brush my
teeth right now, then I'll head out the
door, go to my friend Steve's house
and we're going skating.
certain tricks?
I try to learn new tricks every day.
not necessarily thinking about con
tests. I just like learning new tricks.
That's the way I am. I don't really
train, I just skate
Is skate history important to you?
Totally. I respect the older guys.
People should know what went on
before. Kids don't try to learn basic
stuff now. It just doesn't work that
way. They do no-comply variations
and they can't even do a slide on a
curb. Knowing basic tricks and who's
been around for awhile and what they
did is important. I respect all the older
skaters a lot.
What tricks are you working on
right now?
Well, nothing in particular, mostly
combination stuff on curbs-putting
tricks together, like lipslide-to-
backside Smith grinds. I'm also work
ing on flatland tricks, and curb-type
tricks on higher stuff, like benches.
What bugs you most about the What's the hardest trick you've
skate industry?
All the politics. Too many people
start rumors and say stuff. It's just a
bunch of bullshit.
What do you mean by politics?
Well, at contests some people get
better scores because they have a
name. That's the worst thing. They
ever learned?
Well, the technical stuff because
you have to be so precise. Kickflip
wallrides are pretty tough to land.
What's your favorite trick?
Hurricanes on anything. I like
grinding a lot, going fast and doing
tricks. As fast as (Continued on page 118)
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