GREEN
TORTOISE
QUEST HOUSE
ETHAN FOWLER The Wet Dorito."
I don't really know Ethan as well
as some but I do know he's my
favorite skater right now, and the
time I've spent with him warrant
the following adjectives: unique,
talented, wise, aggressive, pas-
sionate, powerful, eccentric, kind,
energetic and bad ass.
-Tommy Guerrero
What do you want them to know
about you, Ethan?
Well, I'll start with what I don't
want to talk about, that'll make it
easier. I don't want to talk about
set-ups, what size wheels I ride,
who I skate with, what tricks are
fun to do, or what the skateboard-
ing industry's all about.
Pop and circumstance, Ethan Fowler,
frontside 180 heelflip in Seattle.
What inspires you?
A good book and a cup of coffee.
How do you feel?
Old, man. I just went through a
mid-life crisis. But that's alright, I feel
young now. I think that's what mid-life
crisises do. Anybody can have one at
any time, it just depends on when it
happens or when your head gets that
full that it has to weed out what it
needs to know and what it just can't
store anymore, and it just so happens
that that happened to me now
Does music help you out?
Yeah, and Chris (Pastras) keeps me
together, fully. Because music's solid,
man, it's stable. Like music's ever
changing and everything, but if it's on
a record, then it's just constant. It
always makes me feel good.
Who are some of your favorites?
Coltrane, Miles, Max Roach.
Ethan's a drummer, by the way.
I play the drums.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Canoga Park in the San
Fernando Valley.
How was school for you?
2
NO PARKING
12-2
King of the hill, Ethan clears a horse.
School is bullshit because it's too
too much regimented work that
you've got to do like: "You've got to
turn in fifteen assignments this
semester." Well, what if I turn in
twelve and they're all really good? Kids turn in
fifteen assignments and they'll do all their work,
but it's half-assed. That's what people learn
how to do is just feed bullshit until they're per-
fectionists at feeding bullshit. But if people do
what they want to do with their whole heart,
then everything's going to come out better.
Did you graduate?
No, I left somewhere in between tenth and
eleventh because all my credits were fucked up.
I got kicked out of a lot of schools. I didn't go.
to one school after sixth grade for a whole year.
What did you get kicked out for?
All kinds of shit, like smoking weed, having a
knife, beating kids up.
So you were a bully!
No, I wasn't a bully, man.
You were a victim protecting yourself?
Sometimes. Sometimes kids just deserved it.
like kids with big mouths who just don't know
what they're talking about. Sometimes the only
way people can learn is through a little physical
contact, slap upside the head. I'm not saying
that's the best remedy, but sometimes that's
the only thing that'll work, like a last resort.
So now how's it going?
It's good. I watched Skate Rock last night.
Dude, how's Mark Gonzales in there?
He does a half Cab kickflip, just does all this
weird shit, like whoa.
Who inspired your skateboarding?
This guy that did this thing called "the wet
Dorito. It was a stalefish one-foot off a jump
ramp, but it looked like a Madonna because his
foot was hanging below. I thought it was the
raddest thing in the world. I forgot his name.
But I don't know, I looked up to a lot of people.
I can name millions of them.
What other things do you want to do?
Paint, play music, take photographs, just do
everything that comes into my head. I just want
to be able to express myself all the time and
not do it perfectly because the struggle is
what's fun, the struggle is what keeps people
going and myself, the day I stop expressing
myself is the day I die!
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