oher like the way that they skate. People who
push the limits. I see Mike Carroll and Chris Senn
and those guys doing the craziest shit everyday in
heir own way and just doing everything solid. I
really and truly like their energy. It seems like
they're really in-tuned with what they want to do
on a skateboard more so than other people see.
What do you think you'd be doing at
this point in your life if you
hadn't discovered skat-
ing?
think I'd be doing a sport.
I know I'd be doing something active, though. I don't
think I could be a scholor, because I'm not like a super
genius. I never use my brains as much as I use my
physical expression.
Did you graduate from high school?
Yeah. Well, my last year of high school I started, I
wanted to get out early and come out here, so I
did a work-study program, and I
worked and went to school for
half a year and then got out a
year early. I worked at at
I don't day care center.
What was that like?
It was cool
getting to
see a little kid's point of view of the
world, being around those kids everyday. It's like
you're a litle kid agoin with them, playing around. All
you do is just watch them and make sure you don't
talk to them in any certain way that's going to star-
tle them or anything. It's cool to be around little kids,
definitely. Everyone knows that.
How has moving to San Francisco
changed your life?
It's changed my life in a lot
of ways, because if I hadn't come
here, I probably would never
have gotten into Yoga or
Tai Chi or any of
those types of
arts. Back
east, that i
type of stut
is looked
upon as
strange
since the
religions are Catholic and Protestont Where I was from,
that stuff was pretty underground Coming out here def
initely exposed me to so many different things that I had
never seen before, so i think it's changed my life. It's
made my eating habits a little bit different just because
you're exposed to different things. I still feel like when-
ever go home. I'm still the some person to my parents,
my sisters and brothers. But there's a lot of things
around me that have changed, so I've adapted to things
cround me.
What was it like when you first moved out here?
was kind of weird. It was intimidating.
because I'd seen
fullpipe one day
How have you seen yourself grow as a person in
skateboarding?
I've seen myself grow in ways that like Drehobl hos
influenced me so much skating wise. Living with some
one who just goes off so hard and knows how to just
go for and not think about it, I think I've changed a lot
in that way I think also mentally I've changed a lot over
the last like three years from just being around people
who care about me like my girlfriend and all my friends
So, living with Dan, O'Brien, Greg and whoever comes
over to stay for a week at a time, that's definitely
pushed you in your skating?
Yeah, because you see new people coming in and
out of the City and the way they see the City, and they're
coming in, and they're like, "Oh, this is cool, let's go
skafe this thing," and they get stoked on things that
you're used to, and then seeing everybody's different
point of views have pushed me mentally, skating-wise
and physically. A lot of people who've come
lo slay have brought their own positive ener
predomi-
nant
Above Moments before
descending down a steep backside hipslide the last
thing on his mind was this Interview.
Right Walls, Wallie oxenfree. Backside grab over
a trashcan at China Banks SF
pictures in magazines of
all the kids that I was meeting, so it was kind
of weird, but basically once I got used to living in the
city, was rod. I love this city, man. When there's a
sunny day in San Francisco, It's like no other day. It's
just like you know you're stoked, becouse there's end-
less terrain to skate
What's your favorite type of terrain to skate?
I'd probably say street even though I like to skate
anything One of my favorite things is just cruising
around the streets. Not just hills, but just charging from
this spol to the next, just cruising, hitting spots, find-
ing new shit, going on little missions to find new shit
ond adapting to each terrain you hit; that's my favorite.
Not driving for fifteen minutes to one skate spot?
Yeah, exactly, and just sitting and skating and then
doing all the tricks and leaving. It seems a lot funner
and more creative just to cruise through the streets
and do anything But I've never skated a fullpipe. L
could skote a pool and I've skated everything, vert
ramps, this, that, mini ramps, but i just went to skate a
I've lived with for the last three years. I feel like
I've grown. I feel like I've realized a lot of things about
my personality that weren't really beneficial to anybody
who was around me, so I kind of had to change in cer-
tain ways to adapt to the way I want to be as well as not
like infringing on other people. It's good to have your
opinions but not to be overbearing on people. Just keep
your center and always stay true to yourself, and in
that way you can interact with people a lot better.
That's how I feel that I've changed, by trying to under-1
stand people as much as possible.
Do you feel that you're pretty open-minded?
Yeah, I try to be as open-minded as possible.
Whenever I see myself not being open-minded.
I definitely try to realize it so that I don't get stuck in a rut
of close-mindedness, ike just seeing something and
discrediting it just because you don't think it's so.
Somebody else may just think it's the greatest thing on
earth Sa. I guess I'm open-minded, I don't know.
Different people say different things.
gy that passes through the house.
Do you see yourself getting upset with
skating like you used to?
When I get hurt mostly is the only time I'll get
ongry now It seems like skating is much more pure
when you're not fueled by anger, when you're fueled by
the pure fun of it, but I know that there are days when I
still look past all my views, and I can get stressed, but
not quite as much as I used to, because I feel like I've
grown up, too, since then. I was a young kid still smok
ing cigaretes all the time, everything affected my moods
so differently, and now I feel like I'm kind of on a path
where I'm getting to know myself more, so I don't get os
angry with everything, so I know why I'm feeling a cer-i
tain way. But everybody has bad days.
How do you apply your knowledge in Yoga and Tai Chi
to your skateboarding?
A lot of times, once I find my focus inside, if I'm just
skating down the street and I know if I'm thinking about
something else, I know it's much easier now to focus on
just what I'm doing and that's skateboarding. So,
that's one thing that Yoga and Tai Chi have taught me is
THER
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