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like to bail. If I don't make a trick it's
because it was impossible.
What tricks are we talking about?
High airs. If you try a high air, just hold
onto it, pull it in and barely make it. Now
that's a rush. That's what skateboarding
is all about.
What Impresses you?
A lot of things impress me. Big waves.
lots of fluffy snow, killer places to skate,
or a good fistfight on the corner.
What makes you the way you are?
My parents brought me up in a certain
way. They told me you have to be cool
to your fellow human. If someone's a dick
to me, I'll let it pass. But if he keeps be-
ing a dick, then I'll be a dick back to him.
-1-8 ՀՈՐ
What is your heritage?
Peruvian. Inca.
How did you end up in the U.S.?
There was nothing going on in Peru.
I only lived there until I was three. Then
my family moved to California and I've
lived here all my life.
How was your adolescence?
I pretty much raged my whole life. I
started skating when I was twelve, and
ever since then I've been involved in the
sport. I'm 22 now and my biggest
BRUSTY HARRYS
problem is trying to find a place to skate
and worrying about what I'm going to eat
for breakfast.
How has skateboarding treated you?
Skateboarding has taken me all
around the world. I've been to Japan
twice, Australia twice, Europe, all over the
United States. I've been to Hawaii seven
times. I've surfed the biggest waves in
Indonesia. I've met a lot of cool people.
I can't even remember how many ramps
I've been to in my life. Over a thousand.
I've skated about a hundred and fifty-
three pools. I think. That's just a guess.
I skated Whittier a lot. That's where I
learned a lot of my tricks.
Have there been any absolute
highlights in your life?
Before skating I really didn't do
anything. I hung out with a bad group
of people. Then I was skating home one
day and I saw Steve Olson skating on my
corner, doing grinders on a curb. It just
so happened that I had stolen a Skate-
boarder magazine from the library at
school. Anyway, I see Steve Olson on the
corner, I flick open the mag, and he's on
the back cover blasting a two-foot front-
side air. I was stoked. That really turned
me on to skating. From there, I just
skated everywhere. I love the feeling of
vertical and transitions. It fascinates me.
What was your first achievement that
you just knew you had arrived?
I learned how to do frontside airs at
Lakewood. First I learned 'frontside airs
out, then I tried to learn a trick a day
Sometimes I would learn four tricks a
day. The next thing I knew, I had all of
these tricks. I'd drop in, do one trick, then
I'd have a choice of about five other
tricks. I'd do whatever came to my mind.
Wall-to-wall stuff. After I'd do that, I'd
come out and people would say, 'Wow,
that was a rad trick you did, and I
couldn't remember which one, because
I had done so many. It's bitchin' when
you can drop in and have the choice of
five tricks. Tricks just pop into your head
and the next thing you know you've done
a whole run.
Why do you enjoy skateboarding?
It makes me happy...because I love
it. It's an art to me, and I'm an artist. It's
my expression. It's start-
ing to change now. When
evolving. I've been through it all. I've
seen it all and I've done it all. But now
I see kids who rip in the street but you
take them to a big vertical ramp and they
can't do anything. Then you have the
kids who rip on vertical, but they can't
skate a pool, they can't ollie up a curb,
they can't skate in the street.
Is that important?
I think it is. You have to skate every-
thing, anything and anywhere. I grew up
skating everything. That's why I like
streetstyle contests, because they have
weird, challenging obstacles. Even that
is changing in the last six months. Now.
streetstyle is getting to be a lot more like
freestyle. Skateboarding is starting to get
lame. There are so many kids skating
now. Before when you'd show up to ses-
sion, everybody would be having a
blast-not trying to compete but cheer-
ing for each other. Now when I skate a
ramp with these young kids, they're
doing all of these rad maneuvers, but
they're not united like they used to be.
They're all trying to compete against
each other. A trick will be rad in some
guy's eye, but he'll pretend he didn't see
it. Or a guy will deliberately try to bust
all his rad tricks right where I'm standing.
It's not as much fun. Say I do a rad trick,
where I come out and say, 'Oh my God,
I almost died. The little kids will pretend
they didn't see me almost lock up and
slam. But an older guy with respect
would pat you on the back going 'Bro,
you're alive. Right on.' Things just aren't
the way they used to be.
When did you first get sponsored?
In 1984. Powell Peralta was my first
sponsor. I was stoked to be on Powell.
I got into skateboarding, "When I skate
ramps weren't even
around. It was just
skateparks. My main
parks were Lakewood
and Whittier. After Whit-
tier closed, Del Mar was
too far and there was no
place to skate, so we
started skating ramps,
like Eagle Rock. But you
couldn't carve on a ramp
so skateboarding started
back and forth tricks,
a ramp with
these young
kids, they're
doing all these
rad maneuvers,
but they're not
When I got my Powell
shirt, with the bombs on
it. I wore it to school
every day for a week.
Then this girl goes, 'Hey
man, your shirt's dirty.
Plus, you've been wear-
ing it for a week." I still
have that shirt. Then I
won a couple of amateur
contests and it was time
to turn pro. Alva asked
me if I wanted to skate for
them. Christian and I
were skating together a
at the
united like they and time, 50 I said
used to be."
Then the street hand-
plant came in. Every-
body started doing
streetplants. That was fun for awhile.
Then jump ramps came in and that was
fun for awhile. Every six months
something new came out. After jump
ramps came the wall rides. It just keeps
yeah. A week after I got
on, Christian quit and
started his own com-
their scene, and when they come here
we rage. When we go out on demos or
go to Europe together, we rage.
Do you like Europe?
Europe's cool. I like Australia better.
I've only been to Europe once. It was an
okay experience. I hooked up with Craig,
Murph and Freddy in New York. We
stayed up the whole flight over, dancing
around the plane. The guys who picked
us up at the airport didn't speak English.
I was so tired I wanted to sleep. We got
in the car and started driving. After an
hour and we go, 'Hey, where are we go-
ing?" They couldn't answer us because
they couldn't speak English. Two hours
go by. Three hours, four hours riding in
a car. We don't know where the hell we're
going, but we're stoked we're there. They
wouldn't stop for food either. We were
starving and they would just pass places
by. Finally we got to this ramp. I can't
remember the name of it, but they had
this huge contest and there were
thousands of people there. Then they tell
us it's time to skate. We hadn't slept in
a couple of days. Luckily it started rain-
ing. It saved our lives. We spent the night
there and drove back the next day. Back
in Paris we did a demo with a lot of jump
ramps. Then we jump into the car and
tell the guy, 'Let's go to the hotel. He
drives another three-and-a-half hours to
another city. We met all of these locals
and go out and rage till all hours of the
night. Next morning we wake up, do a
demo, then we have to drive three hours
to another spot. This lasted for about a
week. It was a hell trip. We did about ten
demos. After all of those, we got on a
train to get out of there and then I got
kicked off the train, so I went to Paris.
I had a thousand bucks in my pocket,
and I said to myself, 'I'm going to see
the Mona Lisa. So I was skating down
pany, so I was the only the street with a little bottle of wine, a little
one on Alva for a year or so. Then we bread, and I saw this cat on a skate-
started getting the boys in. What's board. I introduced myself and we skated
bitchin' about Alva is that all of the bros together. He took me to see her. Checked
stick together. We go out, skate, and we her out, she was cool. He took me to a
push each other. It's cool to go check out
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