BOD BOYLE
(From page 45) cool. I skated well. After
Dock lands was the European
Championships in Madrid. That was
fun, even though we had to build the
ramp. Tim Payne is amazing. He can
do anything, but he didn't even have
wood. So the ramp took ages to
build. He had a bunch of people who
couldn't speak English. The ramp
contest. I was there three weeks
before the contest and I met some
cool people, skated some cool
places, and just hung out.
Australia is weird. One minute I'd
feel like I was in England, then sud-
denly I'd be in America. It was a com
plete mixture of the two. You'd see
terraced houses just like you see in
England, then there'd be a 7-Eleven
or something with big American cars
messed up, if you ask me. Why pay
all that money for a big arena, then
give the skaters no practice so
they're not going to skate as well?
ended up massive. It was perfect-out front. That contest was a bit
48 feet wide with a 16-foot-wide ex-
tension. It's still there in the skate
park. Francisco, the guy who put on
the contest, paid for the ramp to be
built in the skate park, so the kids of
the city could have it. That was cool
How did you do in that contest?
I won. I was really stoked to be able
to go back and do well. I had missed
the '88 European Championships
because I'd been in the US.
That would be your first big win.
There were no Americans there. It
was the European Championships.
People in Europe, Nicky Guerrero, for
instance, are skating really well.
Now there are some up and com-
ing guys.
Pete Dossett, from London, he's
amazing. He gets a lot of shit from
people because he's a tricky little
fellow. He doesn't go out and try to
do a long stand-up grind. He'll drop
in and do a 180° thingy majiggy.
What came after Spain?
Czechoslovakia. Now, that was an
experience-going down there right
when all the shit was starting. The
day before I was in Prague, there i
were like twenty-two thousand East
Germans who defected, and they
were all sitting there in Prague.
That's going to make Europe a lot dif-
ferent now, with all of those Eastern
Bloc skaters coming down. Europe
is twice the size now
How did you do there?
Nicky beat me. I slammed every
run there. It was great to meet all
those people who can't even get
skate equipment. They're so into it,
it makes you think. We're sitting over
here making money off of skating
and having a warehouse to skate
whenever we want, and these people
have nowhere to skate. They can't
even get a skateboard, yet they're ful
ly into it. They make their boards last
forever, they make their own trucks
Sometimes I wish I didn't have any
sponsorship or anything like that, to
make me really want to skate.
To stay hungry?
Right. Do I really enjoy skating, or
is it a job now? It's not a job, I know
it isn't. After Prague was Australia.
Straight down under. It's a great
place to go, too. There's a lot going
on down there. I got third in that
90
After Australia, we came back to
America and did Dallas. I got second
place there. Jeff Phillips won, dis-
locating his shoulder in the middle
of the contest. That's rad. Then the
week after Dallas was Houston and
I got second behind Losi again. Losi
and I have this thing going-we're
always right next to each other. Then
Houston, the cold fifteen man jam
contest. That was kind of fun, though.
It's good to get away from organiza-
tion and just have rides, even though
you had fifteen men in a jam and it
was freezing. After Houston were the
finals in Florida.
Did you have a strategy going into
the St. Pete finals?
I had sequences, not a run. I had
groups of tricks that went together.
I just drop in and try to rip, because
then if I sketch, I can do something
and know exactly what I'm going to
do next. That way I don't get lost and
lose speed. If I lose my speed, I try
to do something that I don't need as
much speed for. Sometimes if I ride
and don't think about what I'm going
to do, I find that I get lost. It's a prob
lem if you get nervous. There's no
point in getting upset and stressed.
What's rad about contests is
there's no thought in my mind that
when I drop in, I'm going to bail. I can
fully push myself because I know that
I have to. If I fall off it's worthless even
trying, so I might as well just go
through it the whole way. I'm pre-
pared to hang up and die in a con-
test, and I did in St. Pete.
How did you do there?
Third, I'm stoked.
You have hung up and died several
times in your short career. I guess
you've paid your dues. Does it feel
like things are starting to pay off?
Yeah. I'm happy with the last year.
Everyone who skates, who's into it,
pays their dues. You have to, other-
wise you'll stagnate and be boring.
It's fun to come close to killing your
self and get away with it. You're com
pletely in control-it's the raddest.
Are you going to do anything dif-
ferent for next year?
I feel like resting right now, not do
ing much, because I had such a busy
summer I went home-I haven't
been home for two and a half years-
and I didn't even really stay home.
I didn't get to see my parents or my
friends much. It was a shame. I didn't
think it would seem strange to me,
but
the day I got off the plane, it was
a shock to my system. England was
twice as weird as America ever
seemed to be. It seemed so different
going back. And the skating is so dif-
ferent. There are skaters down at the
end of my street now. No one in my
area skated before. I'd get laughed
at by all of these drunks outside this
pub I would skate by. Now it's almost
accepted. I want to go back this sum
mer and skate all of the spots. But
I also want to be here now, so I can
skate with everyone and keep up.
Would going back to England
affect your skating career?
If you want to do well in American
competitions, big competitions, you
have to be here skating with big
American pros, just to keep up with
the new tricks. But I'd rather be in
Europe right now, skating all of the
different places, because I never
appreciated them before I left. They
were just there, and I accepted them
for being there. I never went and rode
them before, but this year I went and
rode them, and it was so much fun
I want to be able to go back and forth
as I please. It's a bit of a problem
sometimes, but if pro golfers can do
it, why can't skateboarders?
How are your sponsors?
Great. I skate for Santa Cruz, Ven-
ture, OJ, Vans, Sessions, and Paul
from Slam City Skates in London. If
a company's not going to sponsor a
contest, I'll fly myself out there. If I
want to go to the East Coast, I'm not
going to moan and bitch because
someone won't send me. I'll pay my
own way out there. I don't see why
people should sit on their butts and
expect everything to be paid for. It
wasn't paid for four years ago, so why
should they pay for it now?
What are some of the best scenes
in America?
Texas has a good scene now
You said that you were thinking
about moving down there?
Only if the warehouse here died,
I'd go to Dallas. You've got Houston,
great skatepark, Dallas, great indoor
skatepark, and a hell of a lot of cool
people. I've even got friends from
England who live there now. The East
Coast has a great vert scene
because of all of the public ramps.
How about Europe?
Glasgow has the Church, which
has seven different ramps to skate,
indoors. You've got Livingston skate
park, which has concrete coping.
People don't realize that the skate
scene in Europe is completely dif
ferent than America. It's a lot more
laid back and less competitive than
over here. America is really com-
petitive in everything, not just skating.
In Europe, skaters don't really care
who I am. They just see me as
another skater. It's nice to get away
from the whole skateboard trip.
When you stepped off the plane in
San Jose, did you imagine it would
be your home for over two years?
I never decided that San Jose
would be my home, it just kind of
became that way because we stayed
with the Lopeses when we first got
there. I owe a lot to the Lopes family,
they're great people. I came over to
America to hang out with Steve
(Douglas). Steve was here in 1985
and I came over in 1986 to see
America. I had finished school, so I
thought I would come over here to
skate for six months. We used North-
ern California as a base. We traveled
back East or to Texas or wherever we
could, but we'd always come back to
Northern California. Steve's girlfriend
was here, the Lopeses were here and
Keenan lived up here then. I made
the move to San Jose because Steve
moved here. I ended up staying
because there's a good scene and
good people here. Everything's
close, you don't need a car. I could
skate to the store, I could skate to my
friend's house. It's not like LA,
where it's a forty-five-minute drive.
What's a night on the town in San
Jose like these days?
I've been hanging out at home a
lot because I just got an apartment
I've been traveling so long and stay-
ing at other people's houses. Now
I've got a place and I just want to sit
in it and do nothing. Just sit there with
my girlfriend Sherry and hang out
Sometimes I go to the Cactus Club
or the Oasis.
Have you guys have had some in-
cidents with the San Jose police?
I wish Americans would realize...
America, land of the free is op-
pressed by policemen. It's ridiculous
In England, police are your friends.
Before they judge you, they'll talk to
you. They don't come charging in to
close everything down and smash
everything up. It's terrible. The police
are supposed to be here to serve you,
but the police force over here are
trained to harass. They approach you
with a manner that makes you
scared. They tower over you. You
don't know how to react to them.
One night last year eight of us were
sitting there watching Steve Douglas
knee operation on the VCR. The
police walked in (Continued on page 94)
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