On a mission of juvenile delinquency, old
enough to know better, but young enough not
to care, Jim Bagne has silently ruled the East
Coast as one of the most underrated, all-
around skateboarders. His small town atti-
tude has helped him to develop an untainted
perspective on life, yet, at the same time, his
sporadic trips out west and snap decisions
leave questions to all who know him. Asked
why he's still rolling after almost a decade,
he simply responds, "I ain't done yet." A
burning desire to succeed forces him to be
the ultimate embodiment of self-determina-
tion, while never being content with his
smashed beer cans and a brand new shirt
with a Lucky Strikes cigarette in the pocket.
so I started smoking the cigaretto, and he
gave me one board, a used hat, and a bunch
of stinky Taco Bell trash. And, as soon as I
looked at all the stuff, and, because of my
small town mentality, I thought about the
spirituality behind how much thought and
effort he put into giving me the actual box. I
thought, "These guys are cool. This is
where I belong." And, from then on, I've
skated for Black Label. Black Label rules.
Why skateboarding?
Fuck, why not? Skateboarding rules. It's the
everybody. It was a scene for a little while. It
was pretty cool, though, because it was all
positive. Everyone just wanted to skate.
Is being a pro skater what you thought it
would be?
Oh, yeah.
Where do you usually skate?
Usually in the wintertime, that's like about
40% of the year in Massachusetts, I'll cruise
up to the bowl in Bennington, VT, skate
there, and there's this parking garage, and
I'll skate street. There's cool curbs and stuff.
Then, in the summertime, usually I'll book
and go someplace like Lucero's house or just
ramps and street at the same time. Usually
on average about two weeks.
What pisses you off?
Women.
What music's doing it for you right now?
Heavy metal. I love heavy metal. It's just
lots of noise and conflict and aggression, and
that's how I feel. Judas Priest is kind of cool.
That Halford guy can really scream. I like
Metallica too. They're cool, but only the old
stuff, though. The new stuff is too mellow. I
like Van Halen, their older stuff.
What's with the vest?
What do you mean what's with the vest?
JIM GAGNE
DRUNK AS FUCK
because I twisted my ankle before the con-
test, and he was all making fun of me like,
"You fuckin' pansy! We flew you all the way
out here! Blah, blah, blah!" He gets so upset
with shit like that, like if he pays for us to go
somewhere. I can remember another time
when he rented us a car and sent us all to
Santa Rosa and gave us about fifteen boards
and all this money. We went down there, and
we spent all the money, and we didn't have
any receipts, and we sold all the boards, and
we bought a bunch of beer and rented hotels
and just totally partied. Skip backed the
rental car into like some dumpster or some-
PHOTOS
SEAN
CRONAN
thing, there's a big dent in the rental
car, and we went back there, and he's
like, "How'd the contest go?" And we're
like, "Oh, fuckin' great!" He's like,
"Hey, I heard you didn't enter." I was
like, "No, I didn't. I drank a little bit of
beer. Sorry, dude." Then, another time,
we went to this other contest at
Newburgh, it was my first pro contest,
and I had the flu wicked bad, and he
always thinks it's like a situation, like
I'm wussing out, but it just never works
out properly for me. So, this is what
happened. We go to Newburgh, and
contest?" I was all, "Oh, dude, I don't know.
You need to talk to Skip. I seen him pay the
guy, dude. The guy's just tripping." But,
that's how that one worked out. So, now, he
doesn't like to give me any money to go any
where, because I'm not motivated enough to
do anything properly. That's why he went
down to Tampa, to show us all up and show
us that he still had it in him, the motivation
to go for it. But he's just a fat, old man. He
doesn't know what he's talking about. He
thinks we're cool. I know he does, deep down.
What got you into skateboarding?
I saw people riding around on these fat
skateboards. It was in the eighties. I was
younger, and I saw everyone doing bonelesses
and stuff, and I was like, "Oh, let me try your
board, man." It was like the coolest thing.
Then, when I got on the skateboard, I was
compelled. I had some sort of inner drive to
roll. All of the sudden, it was so much fun.
When I started skating. I had way more fun
than I do now. When I totally could not do
anything is what gave me my drive. When I
totally sucked was the best time, because I
just wanted to skate so bad, and I had so
many goals that I needed to accomplish. I
wanted to do this, and I wanted to do that.
accomplishments drives him to go the dis-
tance-and then some. If one day you end up
running into Jim, and he happens to flip you
aff, don't get offended, that just means ho
likes you.
What are you doing?
We're on this road trip right now. First we
started off in Massachusetts at my house,
and then we booked it to Connecticut and
went to Sean Cronan's house, and then we
went from Cronan's house and drove like fif-
teen hours to Kentucky and hung out in
Kentucky for a day. Kentucky was pretty
cool. We skated some neat spots.
How'd you hook up with Black Label?
Going out to the bar, got totally hammered,
came home, I was sleeping in bed with my
girlfriend, and I woke up in the middle of the
night with the phone ringing. I was like, "Who
the fuck is that calling my house at four
o'clock in the morning?" I pick up the phone,
it's Tim Upson going. "Gagne, what's up?"
And I was like, "Nothing. What are you call-
ing me for, you little prick?" And he's like, "I
think it's time you skate for the Label. Talk
to John." John gets on the phone, he's like,
"Hey, Jim! What's going on? Heard you want
to skate!" I was like, "Yeah, I want to skate.
I always want to skate." He's like, "We'll, I'll
tell you what. We can't give you any money,
because we ain't got none of that, and we
don't have a lot of boards, but I'll send you
one in the mail if you want." I was like,
"Killer! Why don't you send me some boards
in the mail?" He's like, "Alright, you'll get a
package next week." And he mails me this
box, and I'm all stoked, I'm super happy, and
I get the box, I'm all excited, and I opened
the box, and he sent me a box of fuckin'
trash. There were women's underwear and
56 THRASHER
only thing that mattered. I went through all
of my developmental years skateboarding.
It's the funnest thing I've ever done.
Where have you travelled to skate?
I've been pretty much everywhere in the
continental United States.
Do you skate Boston a lot?
Occasionally. I don't go there everyday.I
just show up there sometimes and skate. I
don't know anybody from there or anything. I
know a few guys, but I don't really skate with
them, like don't call them my buddies. But
Boston's pretty fun.
Who did you skate with at The Playground?
I skated with tons of dudes there. That
place ruled. This lady Bruna owned it, and
she'd let us go there and just skate whenever
we wanted. I skated with Tim Upson, Mat
O'Brien, Brian Gaberman, this guy Damian,
Cronan, Matt, just like a thousand people. I
can't even say them all, because they'll get
mad at me if I forget names, and there's just
so many of them, and they just all ruled,
go on road trips like I'm on right now. Right
now we're in Portland, and we just got back
from Seattle. Seattle was cool. I skated a
giant cowboy hat in Seattle. It was pretty
fun, but it was just the whole idea of actually
skating a cowboy hat that I'm stoked on.
What's the vibe like when you travel?
There is no vibe. Everyone's stoked and
super hospitable. Everywhere you go, people
are like, "Oh, you're from there?" You just go
to their house, and they'll just take you in
and feed you, and everyone's super nice. If
anyone ever wanted to come to my house... I
don't know why they would. But Tim comes to
my house, and he just doesn't leave for long
periods of time, and I want to make him pay
rent, because he just doesn't leave, but I just
couldn't do it, because he's a good friend.
How long does it take you to go through a
set-up?
I don't know. It depends. If I skate every-
day, and I'm skating street, I could blow a
board out in three days. But I've been skating
That shit's my style. It keeps my chest warm,
but my arms need to be free, you know what
I'm saying?
What's your response to the rumor that you
have a dangerous personality?
I'm not dangerous. I don't have a dangerous
personality. Sometimes I just drink too much,
that's all. People get intimidated.
What's your definition of "power"?
Physical and mental superiority.
What was up with Lucero entering the Tampa
contest?
I don't even know what was up with that.
That fat, old, beer-guzzling son of a bitch
thinks he's going to make some kind of
fuckin' comeback. But he was kind of ripping
It scared the shit out of me to see some old
man actually give everything he has and just
totally go for it. And he's pretty fuckin' good.
I think he's still got it. He's got the touch.
Okay, he was wearing this Budweiser shirt.
and his fat ol' beer belly was hanging out,
and he fully landed every maneuver. I felt bad
GHT
we're supposed to meet Tim Upson there, and
Tim Upson is there with a couple of his
friends like Froggy and Jim Trinkley, he's like
a roofer, and he's got the back of his car
open, and I look in the back of this guy's car,
and he's got a freakin' keg, so we totally
started pounding beers and skating. Oh, it
was ripping. Then, the next day, we go to the
contest, and we entered, and Skip never paid
the guy, so we totally booked out of there,
because he was looking for us, and we all
kept the contest money that John gave us to
enter. We got like 150 bucks each or some-
thing. Skip went out and bought like 100
bucks worth of lottery tickets, and I bought a
bunch of beer, and I don't even know what
the hell Tim did with his money. We just
fuckin' blew it. And then he asked us if we
entered, and I was like, "Yeah, I was sick. I
got like 18th or 19th. I don't even know what
the hell I got." Then, three months later, he
calls me up, and he's like, "Jim, what's going
an? How come we're getting a bill for the
and I didn't know what I could do. I was like a
little boy. I went through all of my develop-
mental years skateboarding, growing up with
it. It was just like maturing into manhood. I
was becoming physically and mentally more
powerful. And it just kept going and going.
like progression. I kept going further and fur-
ther with it like, "How far can I go?" That
was the whole fun of it, going through every
single little phase of maneuvers of what was
and wasn't cool. It used to be really trendy.
but then, after a while, it just got so
monotonous to be cool. I just couldn't even
do it anymore. But I was stuck with it. It's
like an addiction. It didn't matter what I did
as long as I was rolling, because it's cool.
What do you do when you're not skating?
Oh, I've got plenty of stuff to do. I rent a
big apartment, and I have three other room-
mates, and I try and keep all those guys in
line. But, it's hard to do, because I'm worse
than they are, and I work a full-time job, and
I go to college. It's a nightmare, but it's cool
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