34 THASHER MAGAZINE
MARK
Mofo caught up with Mark and Buster during a
brief respite from the skate action in Europe.
Rather than separate their tête-à-tête, we opted to
present it here as a dual interview.
Where were you born, et cetera?
MR: Lafayette, Louisiana. I lived there for ten years
then moved to Texas. I've been skating for six
years. Now I live in California, Carlsbad
BH: Stratford, New Jersey. We moved to Pennsyl-
vania three years later and I've lived there since. I
started skating five years ago. We used to build
ramps in our barn. There's no street stuff near
where I live. I'll probably move to San Diego.
What skaters do you admire?
go anywhere and skate. It could be the worst ramp.
but I want to be able to skate it good. Sessions... I
like skating with the people back home. Scott, a
guy named Ozzy, and all these guys from
Gettysburg. It's fun going to new places because
new people give you that drive. Whenever I come
to California and see friends at a contest, I'm hap-
py because I haven't skated with them since the
last one. New people are also good to skate with.
MR: My strongest point is vertical. Now that I live.
in San Diego, we street skate a lot and go places
like Blockhead and Christian's and Vision ramp and
Tony Hawk's and Carlsbad. We skate all over, with
different people. I see who's doing what and keep
BH: I've always admired Chris Miller. It's cool up with everything. A goal of mine is to be able to
because we're on the same
company now. Now that I've
met him it's only furthered my
liking of him. I've seen a lot
more people skate now and I
admire so many it's hard to
name them all. Of course,
everyone admires Tony Hawk.
MR: In the beginning, Neil.
Blender and Chris Miller. Later
on, Gator, Chris Miller, Tony
Hawk. They deserve respect.
Ben Schroeder and Jeff Grosso
influenced me a lot a couple
of years ago.
What is your favorite terrain.
skating style and session?
BH: I started skating vertical
ramps and mainly stuck with
that. I've skated mini-ramps a
HOT
SHOES
bit. There is no good street skating near were I live.
My friends and I were never into it. I like all kinds
of skating. I like when people have a really smooth
style. Chris Miller is all you need to say. I like when
someone skates really smooth and can skate
everything. I want to be able to do that someday,
If I ever start
in a contest
and I don't
use the
bathroom, I
can't use the
bathroom any
time during
the contest.
It'll bring me
bad luck.
skate everything. As far as
style, there are good points
about everyone's skating.
Christian has a totally different
style than Chris Miller, and so
does Tony Hawk. He's strong
in tricks, where Chris is strong
in fluidity. Christian is also
strong in those points. They
have some of the same qual-
ities but differences in style.
What was the best spot you
ever skated?
BH: The best ramp was when I
got to skate the original
Fallbrook ramp for about ten
days. Of course, my ramp
feels more like home, because
it is. But it's really skinny, so I
get bored pretty easily. I
mainly like ramps with good vert. It's hard to find
good ramps all over. There's this place in North
Carolina, Eastern Vert, it's an indoor skatepark
that's super killer. Everything is Masonite, it has a
32' wide vert ramp, it's 11' high with a 8' high
extension. It also has a 28" wide mini-ramp with a
spine that goes into a wooden bowl. That's also 6
1/2" deep. That place is unreal. They have air con-
ditioning for summer. It's heated in the winter. It's
the best place and they always keep it 100%..
MR: I think that Jeff Phillips' skatepark is the best
place. It has a 40' wide vertical ramp and 6 1/2'
deep bowl. The mini-ramp is fine. It has everything
that you could ever want in a street course. It's all
indoors and everything is kept up. You can learn in
skateparks really easily, start on something small
and move up to bigger things. The Blockhead
ramp is one of the most fun places because it has a
vertical wall and real tight transitions, like a pool. It
has pool coping, corners, hip, spines, extensions,
everything. That is probably my favorite place to
skate right now.
You're exclusively a vertical skater, Buster?
BH: Pretty much. Hopefully, since I'm moving out
to San Diego, I'll be able do some more street
skating. I want to learn. The opportunities haven't
been there for me to walk out my door and go
street skating. I live on a dirt road on a farm and I
wake up to the rooster. Everyone should know
that by now, because my ramp's in a barn. I live in
a town called Wellsville. Yeah, I am mainly vertical,
but I want to learn to skate everything. →
ROACH
F