Did you hang out at the Venice walls?
At the pavilion? Yeah, Julien had built the
quarter pipe. There'd be quarter-pipes down
there, and I'd skate there. And jump ramps.
When did you start skating with Julien?
The mid-eighties sometime. We both went
to high school together, so we would skate to
school together, then go skateboarding after.
It seems like a lot of tricks that people are
doing today in the street came from stuff
that you and Mark were doing back then.
It seemed like everything was breaking new
ground. Everything seemed really new at the
time. No one was really doing allies either, so
anything we did was different, and there was a
lot of dorky stuff that we did too like, "This
one looks pretty good. It's pretty fun." And
when we were little, we never read magazines.
We never knew anything, but we knew Tony
Alva from the area, we knew he was the best,
and we knew he rode pools and ramps, so
we knew, "If he could get on the vert part of a
pool, he could probably ride a wall..." We
were convinced he could do it. And then years
later, we were just messing around, "It looks
like a slight bank to the wall," we were learn-
ing how to ride it, and then it just made so
much more stuff skateable. Walls were fun,
just go and try and ride them and go over
things, whatever.
People think of you as like taking the allie
so far. Did that just come natural for you?
It just seemed like one of the best things to
learn and progress on, because it got you
mainly from Point A to Point B better. like.
you would go up curbs, and then that also.
opened up more things you could skate like
stairs and stages and whatever, it seemed to
open up more and more ground, and then.
everyone was doing bonelesses, and that was
such a choppy, un-smooth thing, it didn't real-
ly go too good, so that was one of the main
things. And plus it was one of the better feel-
In front of a Neil Blender spray can face, Natas Kaupas
(sequence) busts off backside under the hot Arizona
sun in 1988. The quick tranny could not slow the Natas
(opposite right) in 1986 as he lipslid the edge of China
Banks in SF. The writing is on the the deck-at a lazy
demo in upstate New York, Natas (opposite bottom)
turned up the heat when he powered this improv wall-
ride. Natas (left) was an early handrail pioneer.
30 TRA
ings, just flying through the air. It
was awesome. It became one of my
favorite things.
When you first learned handrails
did you railslide or grind it first?
We'd just railslide on the smallest
handrail. It was like three stairs or
something. Me and Mark tapped it
like. "Did you hit?" "Yeah, I hit it!"
"Did it slide?" It just seemed weird.
"Did your board break?" Then I did.
one tiny one. It was after Mark and
I were hanging out, and we were
doing different railslides on high.
things, and then I came back to
him, "Did you try it on a handrail
yet?" He's all, "What? No, not yet."
So, whatever, I guess that was the
first time. And then the Oceanside
contest down the stage, I guess
that was the first real one. That was
where it all came together.
And then from railslides, you
started trying to grind?
Well, Mark was the first one that i
grinded this one in New York. He
called me up, "I did a 50/50." Then
I ended up in New York, and we
went to the same one. It was real
low, and he was trying to go up it.
NO DOGS
ALL.07
And I'm like, "What?" He didn't
even really get on it.
I know you've been skating in
Europe, and you just did a big
tour on the East Coast. How
was skating out there?
It's was pretty rad, some of the
places. I still like transitions more
than just ledges. It was a lot of
fun sometimes, some places we
went to, and it felt good, like lit
tle kids who didn't even know
who I was, they're all, "You're
real good." I'm all, "Thanks." It
was a lot of fun, going high and
floating around. It was no pres
sure. It's not my job at all now,
really. I have 101, but it's not like
my life. If I don't feel like skating.
then I won't. There's so much
more that I do now, like I'm
totally immersed in, besides just
skating. Not that that's bad or
anything, just being in skating. I
just really got involved in a lot
of other things, and I realized
that I could do whatever I want,
it's just a matter of doing it.
Do you think kids nowadays
should know the roots?
If they're into it, they'll find out
it in the old mags. There's just a
weird stigma attached to people
knowing who you are every-
where. Now it's like, "Oh, it's just
some big guy skateboarding." I
haven't been in a mag for years,
a couple shots maybe, but there
is no way they could know who I
am, unless they make some kind
of an outside effort. It's funny. I
pretty much disappeared.
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