people coming over. It's cool just
watching the kids who couldn't
even drop in before, and then a
year after that they drop in and
start skating.
What goes through your mind
when you're in Amsterdam
and you're doing like eight
foot frontside airs?
I don't know, just try to drop in
and go, just because it's so fast.
Just hold on tight and hope
you don't hang?
Yeah. I guess it's all just the
ramp. If it's metal, then it's fast.
Everyone was going high there.
What was it like meeting Tom
Araya in Santa Cruz?
It was crazy. He lost the board I
gave him, but at least he remem
bered I gave him a board before.
But those guys are seriously crazy.
What went on in Amsterdam?
Those guys were just walking
down the street, and this dude
Clockwise from above: Doing
his Travis Tritt imitation in the
saddle of the root ripper. At
the recently re-done Benicia
skatepark, Wade flies the
friendly skies. Jumping cors
for a living is alright by
Wade. Tapping his tail on a
pole above the hip at the
Grind and nosepick to dis-
aster with the quickness at
the same Sacramento facility.
na
just spat in my face, and I'm like,
"What are you doing?" Everyone
was in front of me, and he was
like, "What?" Arid then he started
laughing at me, and I'm just like,
"What?" And so I walked up and
smacked him right in the face,
and he fell down on the ground.
And probably about ten minutes
later, the dude came back, and
Drake Jones was all, "Is that the
guy right there?" And I looked at
the guy, and this other guy pulled
out a knife, and the guy said like,
"There he is." And me and Drake
were the only ones who saw it at
first, and then the dude just starts
chasing me. He was probably five
or ten feet away behind me, and
I'm running around this car with
this dude chasing me with a knife,
and people in the car were like,
"Oh, my God!" freaking out, and
then we just ran 360's, and finally
I ended up ditching the dude. Me
and Drake ran straight to the train
station and took a taxi back to
the hotel. We wanted to go back,
but I was afraid that those guys"
would still be there, but then we
hooked up with everyone later.
How much longer do you see
yourself skating pro?
As long as I can keep doing it.
What do you like to skate?
Pretty much everything, but I
like to skate vert as much as I can,
just because it's the best.
It gives you a bigger rush?
It's just awesome dropping into
a vert ramp. It's all fun, but a vert
ramp is just first, especially if you
GAIN
Smelly tuna
Stryke
go to Max's or something, and you skate with,
Bob and Max. When those guys drop in, you're
just like, "Oh, my God."
You were first in Thrasher as an unnamed
skater at Justin Herman Plaza, jumping off
the wall, not the Gonz side, but...
Yeah, it said, "The unidentified flying ace."
When was the first time you read Thrasher?
I always read Thrasher with Dave Warne. We'd
cut out the logos and make stencils and spray-
paint them on our board like in the fourth grade.
What else do you remember?
When I was a little kid I'd go skate at this skate
shop in Dublin, and Joe Lopes used to go there,
and Tommy Guerrero before he was even pro
would go there and skate the vert ramp. And
Joe Lopes used to put a garbage can on it and
do inverts on the top of the garbage can. If any
street pros were around, they'd all just do street-
plants, and everyone would get in a huge cir-
cle, and then if you wanted to go, you'd just do
your streetplant, then go back. There were so
many people. Vince Rodriguez was the king.
I'm sure he could still do it if he just got a board.
Are your parents pretty proud of you?
Yeah, I guess they are. They can't believe it,
just because my mom hasn't been too far out
of California and I've already seen a lot.
What's your advice to kids that are just get-
ting into skateboarding?
Just ride whatever you like to ride and have
fun doing it, that's all you need to know. Just
learn how to ride your board. Don't try some-
thing that you're not going to be able to make
because that'll probably just get you bummed
out on the whole skateboarding scene. If you
just learn how to ride a skateboard first, then all
of the other things will come easier because you
already know how to cruise around on it.
50 THRASHER
51