photos by Luke ogden
Interview by Jim Theibaud
You're not originally from SF. What were
the steps that brought you here?
Well, my parents were in the military, so we
moved around a lot. After moving around for twelve
or so years, we ended up in Louisiana, where my par-
ents got divorced, and I met my step-dad John. John
was in the navy, stationed on the USS Enterprise. The
boat was stationed in Frisco, so here we moved.
What year was that?
I arrived to the greatest place on earth, San
Francisco, in 1983.
Didn't you take the bus from
Yerba Buena Island to SF every
day? When did you move from
there to SF? Where did you stay?
I lived on Treasure Island with my
brothers Jack and Jason. We just
rode our bikes around the neighbor-
hood and let all the punks know
the Kelchs have arrived. Yeah, every
day to school in Potrero Hill, before
I started taking it to EMB. I moved
back to Ohio in '88 before I moved
to SF. I left Ohio to SF to get spon-
Well, back in the great days of the dirt, I used to
worry a little bit more about how I was skating than
how clean I looked, or smelled for that matter. My
skin's so soft that the dirt in the air just sticks to it.
How did you get sponsored? For like trucks,
wheels, and then boards. Or did it all sort of hap-
pen at once?
Dogtown and Independent were going to have
a demo at Embarcadero, and we were there skat-
ing with JJ Rogers and the rest of the Dogtown
crew. I was skating the blocks by the big block,
and Greg Carroll said the guys watching me were
Red Dog and Fausto. So, I showed them the EMB
skills, and the rest is history.
need for me to whoop someone up. I'm always down
for a good brawl as long as my girl Leanne isn't around.
What are the three raddest skating things you've
seen go down at EMB?
Rick Howard's frontside noseslide, frontside shove-
it out; Henry Sanchez filming for the Blind video; and
Jovontae Turner's unparalleled smoothness.
How about the three raddest non-skating things?
I saw Woody Harrelson do a stand-up comedy act
there, I saw Sutton ollie up the block, and I saw gang-
sters come down and get run out by us real G's.
I've seen you sell a kid a set of wheels for 25
bucks, then minutes later sell a different kid
another set for 10 bucks, how do you qualify for a
Kelch discount?
Big
DIRTY
sored for skating, that's what I
wanted to do. I stayed at the Vogel
Manor, best accommodations this
side of the Rio Grande.
What were the EMB locals like
when you first arrived? Was it a
scene back then? Were you like
the new kid on the block who had
to prove that he was down, or was
everyone cool to you right away?
There weren't really no sick
skaters that hung out there con-
stantly, just the occasional visit
by the local illiacs. Then there
was Sean "the pod" and his boys,
but they tried to steal my brother's
radio, so I let 'em know there was
now a king presiding in these
areas. Yeah, they were all cool
after I chilled for a while and start-
ed learning how to skate.
Skating's tight, like no other
sport or whatever the fuck you
want to call it. What was it like
everyday after you got to know
everyone when you would round
the corner of Market Street, past
the Hyatt, and roll up, and all your
friends were there skating and hanging out?
JAMES
I really didn't trip back then. I would round the cor-
ner, hoping that there would be a lot of people so we
could have a crazy session, then drink hella beer and
punk people.
"Big Dirty," how did the name come about? I
mean, explain it for those out there who
haven't had the pleasure of smelling you even
on a good day.
There were always fights at EMB, and you
seemed to be involved in more than a few of them.
Many times, I know you would get into it if your
friends were involved. You would step in and help,
and they would do the same for you. Has your atti-
tude towards fighting changed over the years?
No, I didn't let my friends help me during my fights.
I need no help. Now that I'm older and have a few
felonies under my belt, I only fight when there's a true
To qualify for a Kelch discount,
you have to first and foremost not
be a dog. Then, pretty much it just
depends on how much money I
made that day, or if the kid was
ripping, I'll hook him up cheap.
I'm sorry, but it has to be asked,
have you done the Gonz?
I cleared it a few times. Nothing
fancy, just a plain ol' snap..
Back then, the thing I remem-
ber about EMB was that it
was like a family among you
guys. It's important that for a
lot of the skaters at the time,
EMB was like the family they.
may have been missing for
whatever reasons. Did you
realize that at the time? Talk a
little about how tight you guys
were and the unity of it.
No, I didn't realize it as much
as I should have at the time. I
knew most of my friends' family
lives were shitty, but I knew we
had each other to skate with to
keep the pressure off our backs
and help us grow up.
Once EMB, the place, itself,
became famous, how did it
change? What was it like
trying to just skate there
when there were some-
times hundreds of kids from
out of town who had come
to skate as well?
It's a dog-eat-dog world. It
used to make me so mad, so me
and the boys did what we had
to do to regulate. It worked for a
while, but we were too dope, we
couldn't stop the flow of onlookers.
Who could throw their board the farthest, you
or Sheffey?
It would be pretty close. Shef's bigger than me, but
I've got the technique. It would be a good contest, I'm
down for the challenge.
Did anyone ever have sex up on top of the C blocks?
That's a wild one, I really don't think it went that far.
Hubba Hideout's a different story, though.
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