When J.J. Rogers is
kicking around the
house, his daily routine reads like a
page out of TV Guide. "Wake up at
8:00, put on channel 20 and watch the
Flintstones. 8:30- Leave it to Beaver.
9:00- Geraldo. 9:30- Beverly Hillbillies.
Get up and eat breakfast by 11:30, go
out and street skate and then go to the
warehouse in San Jose at 4:00 and
skate until 8:00. Come home and watch
TV until I go to sleep." Born on 9-12-69
and originally from Hayward, CA, J.J.
claims that when he was about thirteen
years old, all of his friends started skat-
ing, so he did too. Like many of the
East Bay crew in the mid-80s, J.J. made
his second home at the Joe Lopes' fam-
ily ramp in San Leandro. His best friend
is Jay West, and he looked up to Joey
Lopes, Tommy Guerrero and all the
guys who used to skate at Lopes'.
Any sessions stick out in your mind?
I remember watching Tommy (Guerrero)
drop in from an axle stall at Joe's and
shitting my pants. I couldn't believe he
did it because the ramp seemed so big.
I was about fourteen, and I get there, sit
on the ramp, watch for about half an
hour and finally get the guts up to roll-
in. Then I started snaking all day so they
liked me. I couldn't drop in, I was afraid,
it was too high. I could do it on other
ramps, but Joe's had eight-foot
transitions and about a foot-and-
a-half of vert.
Favorite type of terrain?
Everything. I'll skate anything. Street,
mini-ramp, pools.
Favorite spot?
I guess the San Jose Warehouse. I like
Studio 43, but I've only skated it twice. I
think I would like the Blockhead ramp in
my backyard. Maybe Palo Alto if it was
steeper, and had real transitions instead
of a flat bank wall. I think the mini-ramp
contest ramp in San Jose was good. I'd
like that in my backyard.
Any new stuff you're working on?
There's a lot of stuff I'd like to learn. I
learned stalefish-to-tail the other day. I
can't do inverts-to-fakie anymore, but !
want to do those again. I've been doing
a lot more air-to-fakie stuff. Half-Cabs-
to-rock-n-roll-to-fakie was fun at the San
Jose contest. I learned Indy gay twists.
What's the gnarliest thing you've ever
done in your opinion?
Chewed a half a can of Copenhagen in
one dip from molar to molar. The
gnarliest thing I've ever done at my
ramp would have to be a
gay twist on the vert wall
with three feet of transition and five
feet of vert. It's four feet wide and sits
back in this little cove. If you slam, you
hit your knees on the pool coping or
your head on the wall.
What are some of the hard-
est tricks you've seen?
Varials-to-nose grind, some-
thing like that. People are
doing tail grab McTwists and
stuff-that seems difficult. I'd
never do it, but I'd try. Nose
blunt slides are rad.
"I chewed a
half a can
of Copen-
hagen in
one dip
from molar
to molar."
What will skateboarding be
like in the nineties?
Tricky. A lot of little tricks,
flipping your board around i
and stuff, I think. Mini-ramp
evolution, all that stuff. I like
the speed lines, but I think that what it's
going to go to is a lot of one-footed
flipping stuff.
Is anything different now that you
are a pro?
People get head trips toward you and
think you've changed even if you
haven't. You get to travel more. We did
a coast-to-coast tour that was rad.
There are a lot of good spots on the
East Coast, a lot of vert, I like that. I'd
like to go back to Eastern Vert without
food poisoning and I'd love it. I just got
back from a tour through the Midwest,
and it was cool, even though the kids
who are stuck there and don't travel
around a lot are a few years behind.
They're still trying ollie kickflips at a lot
of the parks. When I skated their vert
ramps they gassed because a lot of
pros who demo just skate street or
street areas.
What have you been listening to?
Music? G.G. Allin.
Anything else besides skating?
Jumping bikes. I used to ride BMX a lot
when I was little, about eight to thir-
teen, but I liked skateboarding better. I
traded a bad bike worth about seven
hundred bucks for a broken skateboard.
What would you do if you couldn't
skateboard?
Be a rap star, I guess.
Any more messages for the skaters
out there?
Go fast and slam hard and don't give
up. I want to say hi to my brother Elliot
and my mom. I want Elliot to cut my
hair one day when it grows out. And hi
to my uncle Gregg.