m
Actually, it was never gone, but the street skating
cool guys decided it wasn't cool, so the industry
decided it wasn't cool. But hopefully you'll be able
to see a big difference between pros that are actu
ally progressing and the pros that are just following
along. I think it will be more defined because every-
body should kind of kick back a little bit and just
want to do easy tricks and cruise around. Which is
totally fine with me, but, I mean, you're a profes
sional skateboarder. Come on, try harder.
What other interests do you have?
Other than skateboarding, I like to ride my bike,
experiment with music, start new projects, whether
it be refinishing something or being a separate art
piece, anything that takes stops to complete. I
have many interests.
Do you ever incorporate or correlate these
interests into skateboarding?
Well music, I made this four-track recording, it
has different tracks-it has a bass track, a guitar
track and a weird drum track-just as this whole
gimmick board series, Foundation thing. Everybody
else didn't have anything to do with it, what their
boards were, but I kind of saw it as a project to do,
so I thought I'd try it.
What types of music do you like?
Usually it has to be from the heart, and it has
to have lots of thought involved and definitely a
touch of personal creativity. I don't go for that
mass-produced sound. When somebody comes up
with an original sound, then everybody duplicates
it. I don't like that kind of music. I like old music.
classical music, jazz, I like inbred Appalachian
music, any sounds really. Music like birds singing,
frogs in a pond, I like it all.
Do you make your own music this way?
Yeah. I use different sounds. Music to me is like
each sound represents a certain feeling, and if you
are able to incorporate all these feelings into a
collaboration, then you have music, and it doesn't
have to have the same power chord guitar riff
that's really big, like everything today.
What kind of instruments do you like to play?
I like to play guitar and any stringed instrument,
but I've only invested in a few of them, so I don't
have that wide of a spectrum of stringed instru-
ments. I have a violin, electric (continued on page 90
Frontside nosepick to fakie (top) on the Rock Bank in
San Jose. Frank's kids (above, left to right): Oliver,
Tsunami and Shila, and Sonoka. Healflip Indy 180°
(opposite) over a suburban driveway jumper.