When wheels dropped down to
the low 40s, you continued to
ride larger-sized wheels.
Yeah, because I have small legs,
so it's going to take me twice the
effort to push with small wheels
than with big wheels, so I looked
at that as less push time and more
time on your board. You can also
roll a lot faster and it absorbs
shock, because skaters go through
a large amount of shock to do
their tricks. Riser pads help keep
the board from breaking because
if it's just truck and wood, it has
more of a tendency to break.
48
What's your favorite type of
terrain to skate?
I like to just hit up blocks and
things. I like to skate downtown,
mostly street stuff. There were
never really many ramps where I
grew up, so I kind of just groove
on skating street a lot. I wish I
could skate ramps.
Have you ever skated vert?
I've tried. I can drop in, but I
can't really do any lip tricks or any-
thing on it because usually when I
try to do something, I'll land on
the flatbottom, so it's kind of hard.
Also, it's a total different way of
skating because you've got to
pump more and be able to feel
the flow with your board when
you're weightless in the air. And I
usually hit my tail when I ollie or
something, but when I do that on
vert, I'll land on the flatbottom.
What's your secret to different
fat ollies?
Basically, if it's something high
I'll tend to scoot my front foot
back a little bit so it'll grip easier,
but when I try to ollio far things,
I'll usually set my foot up a little
bit towards the bolts because it's
more of a distance ollie. It all
depends on if you're going either
for distance or height, you can
adjust it up and down.
What would you say is the most
satisfying feeling you get from
skateboarding?
I think it's the same with all
skaters, that basically that's the
only thing we have complete con-
trol of, because everything else is
totally out of control. Skating lets
you get away and do something.
completely on your own, and you
have complete control over
whether you want to challenge
yourself or not. And if you like to
Do you feel skateboard-
ing's an outlet for you?
Yeah, it's like Physical
Education. Everyone,
when they go to school,
they have PE, and usually,
whether they like it or not.
that'll break them in to
have a good day because
you need a little physical
exercise every day. And
when you get out of
school, you don't have
that, so skateboarding
allows you to keep physi
cally active. It's a good way
to keep your shape or just be
active instead of sitting around
at a desk or something.
The uncanny ability to ollie up and over any-
thing is all Donger's own. Here (left), he jumps
to a frontside wall jam. When we say we flew
Donger up to SF, in reality, he did most of the
flying, over the roil (top right) and onto the
sidewalk. Check this sequence (for right), is
this a fat 360 flip or what?
take big challenges on, you can go
down a big hill and try to stay on
all the way. Or if you want to get
technical and learn a bunch of
tricks, you can do that also. So,
just the satisfaction of starting
something and completing it.
What feels best to you?
I just like to allie. I like cruising.
around, just hopping over things.
It's more flowing.
The way you skate is so fluid.
I got that from Christian Hosol.
He's the main influence on the way
I skate. Also Mark Gonzales too.
They're still bad-ass, still skating.
You don't sit around too much?
It comes and goes. It depends.
If I skate really hard for one week,
then I'll probably chill the next
week. I'll still skate, but it'll be
more mellow. Skateboarding is a
job for me right now, so I have to
watch how much I skate.
Do you have any other interests?
I like to write poetry a lot. I've
been doing that since '89. That's
basically what I do in my spare
time. And I just like to hang out
with my friends.
I remember you talking
about the rope versus
the ladder theory.
That's like, people think
on two planes. There's a
horizontal plane and
there's a vertical one, and
if you combine them, it'll
be like a graph. Horizontal
thinking is more laid-back
with thoughts laid out,
whereas vertical thinking
would be overcoming
obstacles no matter
what's in the way. And a
lot of business people
think more vertically
because you have to
overcome obstacles no.
matter what's in your way.
right? So, if you combine
horizontal and vertical think-
ing, you'd have a positive
sign. Because when you
think vertically, you set
your challenges and
goals. When you think
horizontally, you have to
respect how you got up
there and keep it on a lev
eled mind-set, otherwise
you're going to be climb
ing a rope, and if you
climb a rope, there's not